Welcome and Introduction

Recording of Wednesday, June 19, 2024 | The smarter E Europe 2024 | Conference Program | Language: English | Duration: 5:60 .

Europe's Energy Storage Boom: Wind and Solar to Dominate Capacity by 2030, Fueling Need for Advanced Solutions

The speaker begins by thanking the audience for attending an early morning session focused on gigawatt-scale energy storage projects in Europe. They emphasize the rapid pace of developments and present a chart that showcases current and projected generation assets from now until 2030, highlighting significant growth in wind and solar installations. By 2030, these renewable sources are expected to comprise 60% of Europe's installed capacity. The discussion underscores the urgency of transitioning to this new energy landscape within just four-and-a-half years, noting implications for system stability and intermittency. Currently, flexibility is primarily provided by fossil fuel assets; however, their competitiveness is declining as cleaner alternatives emerge. Consequently, there's a rising need for clean energy storage solutions. Projects across Europe are rapidly increasing in size; notable examples include installations scaling up from 500 megawatts last year to projections as high as 2,000 megawatts soon. The session features presentations from various companies innovating in this space: Julia from Bren Miller discussing thermal energy storage followed by ESS’s iron flow battery technology and two developers focusing on lithium-ion solutions—Giga Storage and EcoStore—targeting European markets.

_{Automatisierte Zusammenfassung durch AI Conver}

Speaker

Dr. George Hilton
Research Manager
S&P Global

Talk of session: A Gigawatt-scale Revolution - Outstanding Energy Storage Projects in Europe

The era of "mega" and "giga" batteries has finally arrived in continental Europe, with hundreds of MW or even GW range-projects being announced on a regular basis. At the same time, durations are also increasing as revenue stacking becomes increasingly important with ancillary services saturating in key markets. Energy storage projects that enable "virtual transmission" are also growing in importance to address grid congestion as more and more renewables come online. Solutions are being sought across the continent for cost control, energy security and increased sustainability. In this session, we will take a closer look at some of the most interesting energy storage projects that reflect key industry trends in Europe, examining their set-up, drivers, economics, challenges and significance for the energy storage sector.