Energy Storage Coalition launches in Europe

The Energy Storage Coalition has been launched to accelerate the decarbonisation of Europe’s energy system with increased deployment of sustainable and clean energy storage solutions.

The Coalition is constituted of three of Europe’s key clean energy associations, SolarPower Europe, the European Association for the Storage of Energy (EASE) and WindEurope, along with the Bill Gates supported Breakthrough Energy.

The three stated objectives are to:
● Raise awareness about the services provided by energy storage.
● Identify barriers to the efficient deployment of renewables coupled with energy storage.
● Advocate for a financial, legal and political framework able to support the deployment of energy storage.

In terms of areas of expertise the Coalition references electricity market design and security of supply.

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With obstacles such as the lack of long-term market signals and long-term contracts and barriers to permitting and accessing support measures, energy storage projects are not yet as attractive to investors as needed to keep up with the pace of renewable energy deployment.

However the double challenge of ensuring energy security while delivering the climate neutrality target requires accelerating energy storage together and in parallel to renewable electricity generation with energy storage.

Speaking at the launch event, Patrick Clerens, Secretary General of EASE, emphasised the role of energy storage in contributing to alleviating grid constraints and grid extension costs.

“It is paramount to accelerate the process of electrification – and here is where energy storage can help lowering costs and contribute to further renewables’ deployment”.

Giles Dickson, CEO of WindEurope, pointed to the need for more storage to help ramp up the capacity of wind farms that can connect to the grids, especially at their weakest points, while Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, highlighted the need for strong energy infrastructure to make year-round renewables the norm, which means taking energy storage seriously.

Philipp Offenberg, Senior Manager Europe of Breakthrough Energy, also reiterated the critical need to have the right policy and investment frameworks in place to drive deployment and scale of long duration energy storage technologies.

Currently, the Coalition counts a team of just two, Aurélien Ballagny, a public affairs consultant as head of policy, and Doriana Forleo as head of communications.

Its first awareness campaign, ‘Energy security needs energy storage’, is focussed on stressing the importance of energy storage, not only for the achievement of energy security, but also for the fulfilment of the energy targets and a reduction of citizens’ energy bills.