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This report by Ember and IKND argues that Germany has a significant opportunity to enhance its energy security and reduce gas dependency by scaling up battery storage. While Germany leads Europe in battery capacity and has a strong project pipeline, the authors warn that current legislative drafts and a lack of a clean flexibility strategy may unfairly favor fossil gas in upcoming capacity auctions, potentially locking the country into costly gas imports.

China is strategically transitioning its coal power fleet from a baseload generation role to providing system flexibility to support the rapid expansion of wind and solar energy. The country is on track to fully retrofit its existing coal fleet for flexibility by 2027, though the report emphasizes that clean flexibility solutions, particularly battery energy storage, must scale up to avoid locking in emissions beyond 2030.

In 2025, India curtailed 2.3 TWh of solar energy to manage grid flexibility, resulting in an estimated USD 63-76 million in compensation payments and 2.11 million tonnes of missed CO2 emission reductions. While India reached 50% non-fossil fuel capacity in 2025 with 135.8 GW of installed solar, the report warns that curtailment could become routine unless grid flexibility improves to keep pace with solar growth, which is currently outpacing demand.

The report analyzes the evolving role of India's coal-fired power fleet as variable renewable energy (VRE) expands. It projects a structural shift from steady baseload generation to flexible balancing resources by FY 2031–32, characterized by deeper midday turndowns and steeper ramping requirements to accommodate solar peaks. This transition is expected to lower overall plant load factors (PLF) and disproportionately impact higher-cost, less efficient units.

This report by Ember argues that India should avoid overbuilding coal capacity and instead focus on improving the flexibility of existing coal plants and expanding energy storage to integrate renewable energy.

This report by Ember analyzes the challenge of solar and wind energy curtailment in Chile, where renewable generation has grown rapidly but is hindered by limited transmission and storage capacity. It proposes a phased package of policy and technical measures—including battery storage, dynamic line rating, and demand response markets—to reduce waste and maximize the potential of Chile's clean energy resources over the next five years.

This report by Ember analyzes the rapid growth of solar electricity generation in Central Europe (Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia) from 2019 to 2024. It highlights how the region has outpaced the EU average in solar growth despite low political ambition and a historical reliance on coal, while also examining the region's role as a battery manufacturing hub and the current gaps in grid flexibility and storage deployment.

Ember provides a response to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission's (CERC) draft guidelines for Virtual Power Purchase Agreements (VPPAs) in India. While acknowledging the framework as a welcome step for market-based renewables, Ember argues that VPPAs may incentivize 'plain vanilla' solar generation over dispatchable clean power and allow corporations to claim 100% renewable energy usage through accounting workarounds rather than physical decarbonization.

This policy brief by Ember analyses the implementation of the Ministry of Power's Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Amendment Rules, 2023, which introduces solar-hour time of day (ToD) tariffs for domestic consumers in India starting April 1, 2025. The paper examines how these tariffs, designed to align electricity demand with solar generation, affect different consumer profiles and highlights the critical need for smart meter infrastructure to enable successful deployment.

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.

This report by Ember examines Malaysia's electricity transition, arguing that leveraging the country's vast solar resources and improving grid flexibility through battery storage and regional interconnections can enhance energy security and affordability. It highlights the potential for solar to meet daytime demand peaks and suggests that aligning with more ambitious pathways, such as those from IRENA, could significantly reduce reliance on volatile fossil fuel imports.

This report by Ember analyzes India's transition toward solar energy, focusing on the targets set by the 14th National Electricity Plan (NEP14). It details the shift from coal-dominated growth to a phase of "accelerating growth" for solar and wind, while emphasizing the critical need for grid flexibility and storage to manage peak demand during non-solar hours.

This document is a feedback submission from the NGO Ember to the European Commission regarding the revision of guidelines for Trans-European energy infrastructure. Ember argues for a rapid shift away from fossil gas infrastructure, an increase in renewable energy sources (RES) and grid flexibility, and more transparent governance of infrastructure planning.

This executive summary from Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) outlines a roadmap for increasing electricity system flexibility in India to support the deployment of renewable energy and reduce overall system costs. The report argues that flexibility needs are growing faster than energy demand and that a balanced portfolio of demand-side flexibility, powerplant upgrades, and energy storage can reduce system costs by 5% to 8% and carbon emissions by 8% to 12% by 2030.

This report by Energy Innovation examines the need to modernize wholesale electricity market designs to accommodate the transition from large, fuel-burning power plants to decarbonized resources like wind, solar, and energy storage. It identifies the limitations of the current 'marginal cost dispatch' paradigm and proposes ten principles for future markets, while outlining two primary pathways for evolution: a 'Robust Spot Market' approach and a 'Long-Term Plus Short-Term Markets' approach.

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative and Indian School of Business examines the challenges of integrating high levels of renewable energy into India's power grid, specifically focusing on the need for system flexibility and the risk of coal-based assets becoming stranded. The authors propose that converting existing baseload coal plants into flexible plants is a cost-effective short-term solution to provide necessary operational reserves and mitigate financial risks for investors.

This briefing by RMI argues that current commercial electricity rate designs, specifically noncoincident demand charges, encourage inefficient battery storage use that can conflict with the needs of renewable-heavy power grids. The document advocates for a transition to time-varying rates and compensation for grid services to better align customer incentives with system-wide operational requirements.

This report by Energy Innovation examines the necessity of grid flexibility to integrate increasing shares of variable renewable energy. It details short-term operational improvements, long-term planning strategies, and various physical and market-based resources—such as demand response and energy storage—that can balance supply and demand dynamically.

The report introduces the 'electricity system value chain' framework, designed to help technology providers and system designers identify and capture value within the complex, non-linear network of the modern electricity grid. It moves beyond linear value chains to a system-based approach that integrates electrical, communications, and organizational layers to align compensation with the actual value provided by emerging technologies, such as distributed energy resources.