SolarPower Europe calls for ‘at least 10 times more battery storage by 2030’

At a European Union Energy Council meeting on Monday in Brussels, energy ministers discussed the bloc’s energy security and affordability challenge and accepted locally-sourced renewables offer energy security.

While accepting the need to secure winter gas supplies, reducing Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels emerged as a priority as ministers discussed the bloc’s Affordable Energy Action Plan and reviewed its energy security framework.

“The Energy Council has rightly focused on affordability and security but we need to stop considering gas as part of the solution,” said Dries Acke, deputy CEO of SolarPower Europe. “The real way forward is to accelerate renewables, [grid] flexibility, and electrification, ensuring clean energy is available when and where we need it.”

The solar industry membership body said an energy system based on those principles, and including energy storage, could save European Union bill payers €30 billion per year in system costs by 2030, and €160 billion annually by 2040.

“To achieve this, we call on the European Commission and EU member states to commit to an EU flexibility package with a dedicated action plan on [energy] storage, to complement the grid package,” said Acke, citing the need to double grid interconnection capacity by 2030 and to deploy “10 times more battery storage by 2030, at least.” He added, “Investing in storage and flexibility is the way to structurally decouple our economy from imported fossil fuels, making energy more affordable, less volatile, and more secure.”

From pv magazine España.