According to the analysis published by the European Commission on Monday, energy storage solutions will play an important role in ensuring the integration of renewable energy sources into the EU grid. This is to help the Union achieve its decarbonisation goals by 2050.
The EC financed the research project “Energy storage research – Contribution to security of electricity supply in Europe”. As part of this project, various energy storage options have been analyzed that will be needed to fully exploit the high potential of variable energy sources in the power system. The study report presents, inter alia, the situation regarding energy storage in Europe in terms of existing facilities and regulatory framework, best practices and barriers.
As the authors of the study admitted, energy storage based on pumped storage power plants dominates in Europe today. However, as assessed in the report, as prices fall, energy storage projects based on new technologies appear, such as lithium-ion batteries and storage behind the meter.
At the same time, it should be noted that the development of the latter technology, in which most electrochemical storage projects are currently carried out, requires a solution to the problem of recycling such systems, as well as to ensure their effective life.
In addition, the project assessed the implementation potential and real needs for energy storage in the 2030 and 2050 perspectives. The analyzed scenarios show that in 2030, ensuring the required level of flexibility of power systems will still require the use of conventional power plant services and cross-border network connections. At the same time, according to the estimates presented in the study report, ensuring the daily flexibility of power systems in the EU will require up to 108 GW of power in electricity storage (batteries and pumped storage power plants).
As assessed during the project, by 2030, electrolyser technology will not yet reach the appropriate level of competitiveness, but if it could be applied, it could provide flexibility at all times.
At the same time, the considered scenarios in the perspective of 2050 provide for deep decarbonisation and high importance of green hydrogen. Hydrogen is to be produced from electricity from large wind and solar power plants using electrolysers. As estimated in the study, to meet demand, investments in approximately 550 GW of cells will be necessary.
The study also identified a number of barriers to the development of energy storage that exist at national and EU level. The report sets out several recommendations to overcome these obstacles and accelerate implementation. Among others, the need for standardization in the field of safety and interoperability of electric vehicles, as well as issues of permits, tariffs and taxes, price signals and access to markets for additional services was pointed out. The authors of the study report assessed that solving the identified problems requires a comprehensive update of the regulatory framework.