Europe eyes 600% surge in battery storage by 2030 to boost grid reliability and embrace renewable energy transition.
An impending boom in battery storage projects is set to fortify Europe's power grids, overcoming years of uncertain strategy. As reported by Bloomberg, energy experts at Aurora Energy Research Ltd. signal over a 7x capacity increase anticipated by 2030, which will see storage rise to exceed 50 gigawatts. The significant growth will enhance the strength and reliability of transmission networks across the continent.
The United Kingdom, Italy, and Ireland have emerged as the forerunners for energy storage investment. The UK, for example, is planning for a 4x increase in its battery capacity by 2030. Trailing closely are Spain and Greece, positioning themselves as key players in the race towards energy sustainability and innovation within the European storage market.
According to Bloomberg's interview with Ryan Alexander who was the lead researcher at Aurora, the accumulation of grid-scale batteries was increasing in 2023, and the speed is rapidly growing even more. This hasn't been the case for years, because Europe has long faced the same problems that the U.S. faces. Right now, both regions face long waits to connect batteries and renewables to the grid. The UK is solving that problem by fast-tracking battery connections and even cutting the VAT to zero for installing batteries in your home.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has the Inflation Reduction Act to incentive building batteries with tax credits for battery suppliers and battery buyers, but it will still take years for the U.S. to catch up. Look at how Bloomberg reported that the E.U. allocated $341 billion to clean tech, of which $8.4 billion is for energy storage. That still feels like a small amount compared to the overall spend for something that's incredibly important, but as the original article wrote, it was actually a 64% increase over previous spending efforts.
Like the U.S., the E.U. will have to quickly rewrite the rules of their legislation to better fold battery storage into the overall clean-tech picture. Unlike the U.S., they have a successful example in how Britain handled things and saw great results. The UK is so far ahead on batteries, they're now considering a $700 million dollar "water battery" for a test to prevent outages in Scotland's grid. Perhaps they'll be one of the first to adopt other kinds of new battery technology, too.
Vital for Europe’s shift to renewable sources, this expansion in battery storage acts as a lynchpin for managing the intermittent nature of wind and solar power. The spiking interest within the marketplace for energy storage solutions is a clear indication of the continent's commitment to reducing reliance on traditional fossil fuels, aligning with global decarbonization efforts.
With policymakers and energy companies pivoting towards novel strategies to integrate storage systems, a new vista of opportunities opens up for technological advancements and investments in the sector. Existing projects already exemplify the potential for harmonizing energy supplies and demands, and this trend is only predicted to accelerate as the decade progresses.
The main question to be resolved is how these batteries will be owned and operated. Will they follow a distributed, decentralized grid model, or will they be mainly maintained and operated by the major utilities? To resolve that matter, it really depends on how policy and private markets work together to incentivize adoption of battery storage. Do we want policy to dictate that utilities continue to run and control everything? Or do we let the market decide how much consumers (be them residents, corporations, or utilities) want to control their own power?
Source: Bloomberg
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