Four organisations have written an open letter to the European Commission urging it to recognise energy storage as crucial in securing Europe’s energy supply without relying on Russia.
The letter was written by Breakthrough Energy, the European Association for Storage of Energy – EASE, Solar Power Europe, and Wind Europe in answer to the Commission’s REPowerEU plan presented in March.
The organisations want energy storage to become a political priority alongside renewables and suggested the Commission REPowerEU Action Plan in May included: setting energy storage targets for 2030; promoting the uptake of energy storage technologies through funding instruments.
The plan to decrease Europe’s dependence on Russian oil, gas, and coal recognised renewables— especially wind and solar— as key technologies.
The letter stated the EU urgently needed a massive and rapid roll-out of energy storage solutions— especially to balance renewable generation, which mostly uses dispatchable fossil fuel generated power such as gas-fired power plants.
Ann Mettler, vice president Europe at Breakthrough Energy, said: “With the US and China strongly supporting energy storage uptake, the EU risks coming late to yet another technology trend. Europe has invested a lot in R&D, especially in long duration energy storage.
“We now need to reap the benefits of these efforts by deploying storage technologies at large scale.”
Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, said: “To match the EU ambition to become independent from Russian fossil fuel imports, energy storage deployment must be accelerated.
“In particular, we ask the European Commission to tap into the flexibility potential of solar and storage solutions, which are already cost-competitive today if supported by the right policy frameworks”.
