EU battery storage is ready for its moment in the sun

The report by Ember argues that the European Union must rapidly scale up 'clean flexibility' solutions, particularly battery storage, to complement the fast growth of wind and solar power. It highlights that without such flexibility, the EU will fail to capture abundant renewable energy, leading to higher reliance on fossil fuels and increased costs. The document provides evidence of current solar dominance in several Member States and simulates the potential for batteries to reduce fossil fuel imports and costs by 2030.

• By 2030, wind and solar power across all EU countries could exceed domestic demand by 183 TWh. If flexibility solutions like batteries and interconnectors are deployed to shift this excess power to replace fossil gas generation, the EU could avoid annual gas purchase costs of €9 billion.
• The EU is seeing a significant increase in hours where renewables dominate power output. In the twelve months ending July 2024, wind and solar produced more than half of EU power in 7% of hours, compared to 2% in the previous twelve-month period. In some countries, such as Germany, wind and solar provided the majority of power in 36% of hours during this period.
• Solar generation is reaching extreme peaks in several EU countries. Between August 2023 and July 2024, nine EU countries experienced solar shares peaking at or above 80% of hourly power demand, with Greece and the Netherlands seeing generation surpass 100% of demand at times.
• A lack of system flexibility is causing a disparity in fossil fuel reliance between day and night. In Germany, the average share of fossil power at 1pm in July dropped from 36% to 20% between 2021 and 2024, but the share at 8pm only decreased from 47% to 44%. Battery storage could remedy this by shifting midday solar peaks to evenings.
• The business case for battery storage is strengthened by widening price spreads between midday (low/negative prices due to solar) and evenings (price spikes due to fossil reliance). In Greece and Hungary, these spreads increased from €71/MWh to €262/MWh and €102/MWh to €397/MWh, respectively.
• Germany is the EU leader in battery capacity, holding 46% of the total EU capacity by the end of 2023, with 9.5 GW installed by June 2024. A simulation shows that if Germany had an additional 2 GW of battery capacity in June 2024, it could have displaced 36 GWh of fossil power, saving either €1.3 million in hard coal costs or €2.5 million in fossil gas costs.
• The report recommends several policy actions to accelerate clean flexibility, including removing regulatory barriers to the co-location of batteries with renewables, implementing national flexibility strategies within National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), and allowing 'revenue stacking' for batteries to enable multiple revenue streams.

APA

Ember (2024). EU battery storage is ready for its moment in the sun. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/eu-battery-storage-is-ready-for-its-moment-in-the-sun

Chicago

Ember. EU battery storage is ready for its moment in the sun. 2024. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/eu-battery-storage-is-ready-for-its-moment-in-the-sun.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Ember |title=EU battery storage is ready for its moment in the sun |date=26 September 2024 |url=https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/eu-battery-storage-is-ready-for-its-moment-in-the-sun |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ember2024battery, author = {{Ember}}, title = {{EU battery storage is ready for its moment in the sun}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2024}, month = sep, url = {https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/eu-battery-storage-is-ready-for-its-moment-in-the-sun}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }