EU energy storage expansion faces policy gaps despite rapid growth forecasts

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has concluded that implementation of its recommendation on energy storage across the European Union is uneven, underscoring a gap between ambitious capacity projections and the policy frameworks needed to realise them. According to the JRC report, Member States exhibit a patchwork of progress on legal definitions, planning and regulatory arrangements even as studies indicate Europe will require hundreds of gigawatts of storage this decade and beyond.

“In this context, energy storage solutions are pivotal to ensuring a resilient and sustainable energy future for the EU,” the report’s authors wrote, noting a range of modelling that points to potential needs in excess of 200 GW by 2030 and as much as 600 GW by 2050. Industry trackers report that the continent reached roughly 100 GW of cumulative installed storage late in 2025 when non‑EU countries and multiple technologies, including pumped hydro, lithium‑ion batteries and others, are counted. Energy Storage Europe and research partner LCP Delta forecast capacity to top about 215 GW by 2030. According to LCP Delta’s press materials, pumped hydro remains the largest single technology today, while battery deployment is the fastest growing segment.

Despite that momentum, the JRC found only a handful of Member States have produced the comprehensive strategic roadmaps the Commission recommended. Germany, Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands are the only countries with national storage strategies in place; Austria, Latvia and Lithuania had not established legal definitions at the time the JRC compiled its data, though Austria reportedly plans to do so. Only Spain, Ireland and Portugal had declared what the report characterises as comprehensive regulatory frameworks for storage by April 2025, with most other states at various stages of partial implementation, consultation or planning.

The report highlights uneven treatment of storage in National Energy and Climate Plans. Just four Member States, Greece, Spain, Hungary and Latvia, set quantified storage targets for 2030 in their NECPs, while six countries provided indicative technology‑specific goals and a further seven outlined project pipelines or pilot activity. Ten Member States referenced the role of storage without setting explicit targets. The JRC’s assessment dovetails with industry analysis suggesting national system planning has frequently underestimated actual deployment, a shortfall observers warn could leave system operators, developers and investors unprepared for faster build‑out.

Policy experts and industry groups have framed the EU’s Electricity Market Design reform as a corrective measure. According to Energy Storage Europe’s head of policy, Jacopo Tosoni, a single EU methodology to assess system flexibility across short, medium and long horizons should create clearer expectations and enable the Commission to steer support where markets alone do not deliver. “There are very few countries that have understood where the energy system is going and what it needs,” Tosoni said in remarks to industry media. Member States are legally required to complete flexibility assessments by July 2026 and to use those assessments as the basis for setting storage deployment targets in early 2027.

Commercial forecasts underpin the urgency. Market monitors and consultancy releases cited by industry outlets show Europe adding storage at rates of roughly 20–25 GW per year, with several analyses predicting growth of more than 115% to 215 GW by 2030 depending on technology mixes and policy settings. Reports also note that pumped hydro dominates existing energy volume, accounting for most of current megawatt‑hours, while battery storage is rapidly gaining in installed power as wind and solar penetration pushes demand for firming and short‑to‑medium duration flexibility.

For firms engaged in industrial decarbonisation, the policy landscape carries practical implications. In jurisdictions with clear strategies and regulatory regimes, developers can better align project sizing, duration and grid services with market signals or support schemes. Where targets and frameworks are absent, financing risk rises and project lead times lengthen. Industry analysts have also pointed to emerging opportunities in front‑of‑meter, commercial and industrial storage, with some national markets, Italy among them, showing notable recent additions driven by capacity mechanisms and four‑hour battery projects.

The JRC’s appraisal and the converging industry forecasts suggest 2026–27 will be a pivotal period. The EU’s mandated flexibility assessments, plus the potential introduction of targeted support mechanisms where market drivers fall short, could determine whether Europe realises the more ambitious capacity trajectories modelled by researchers and market monitors. For policymakers and private‑sector actors focused on decarbonising industry, the report underlines that scaling storage is not solely a matter of manufacturing and grid connection; it also depends on timely, coherent national planning and regulatory clarity to mobilise investment at the scale and pace required.