The Commission adopted in March 2023 a list of recommendations to ensure greater deployment of energy storage, accompanied by a staff working document, providing an outlook of the EU's current regulatory, market, and financing framework for storage and identifies barriers, opportunities and best practices for its development and deployment.
What are EU energy storage initiatives?
EU energy storage initiatives are a key part of advancing energy security and the transition toward a carbon-neutral economy, improving energy efficiency, and integrating renewable energy sources into electricity systems, and can play an integral role in balancing power grids and saving surplus energy.
How does the EU regulate energy storage?
The EU regulation of energy storage is generally spread across a number of regulatory acts, many of which require implementation at the level of the EU member states.
Across Europe, countries have implemented a patchwork of policies and mandates to drive the adoption of energy storage technologies. For example, the EU's Energy Storage Directive sets targets for member states to deploy a minimum amount of energy storage capacity by 2030.
The European Commission in 2020 published a study on energy storage, which summarized some previous studies and reports, explored current and potential energy storage markets in Europe, and set out policy and regulatory recommendations for energy storage.
Does energy storage need a regulatory framework?
However, for storage to realize its full potential, a robust regulatory framework is needed. In the European Union (EU), the role energy storage plays in EU power markets will be formally recognized in the Electricity Market Design Directive (recast), which is expected to be adopted in Q1/Q2 2019.
Why is European energy storage important?
This is particularly important in the context of EU energy security and the transition away from fossil fuels for both environmental and geopolitical reasons. To help track this growing industry, the European Union has created a comprehensive database of the European energy storage technologies and facilities.