German industry group BVES’ guiding energy storage to be ‘fourth pillar of energy transition’

January 30, 2020
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Grid-scale ESS in Bordesholm, Germany, which this year is going to use the system – and related assets – to go 100% renewable. Image: SMA.

There could be energy storage should be the vital fourth “pillar” of the energy transition, a private members’ and stakeholders’ meeting by Bundersverband Energiespeicher (BVES), an energy storage trade association representing companies across Germany, heard.

Valeska Gottke, communications and markets representative for BVES, told Energy-Storage.news that the overall strategy and concept are still going through further development, refinement and discussion and will likely not be published in full until after the Energy Storage Europe trade event taking place in Dusseldorf, Germany, in mid-march.

Nonetheless, Gottke said, it was clear to attendees at the BVES ‘conclave’ event that the energy storage industry should have a “natural interest in applying energy storage systems to receive energy [reliably] from climate-friendly sources”.

It should also be recognised that as a set of technologies that can aid with and enable system-wide integration of resources, energy storage systems (ESS) are “‘connectors that bring flexibility to every system,” Gottke said.

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BVES said that at the moment there are 10 guiding principles it and its members consider that could or should help integrate energy storage as the “fourth pillar” of the energy transition (known in Germany as ‘Energiewende’). The other three pillars are the production, consumption and transport of energy.

Germany’s energy system in 2030 should be “decarbonised, safe and secure”, BVES said in its statement on those 10 principles, which the group said it will publish in due course as work continues to strategise their implementation.

This article has been amended from its original form: Energy-Storage.news published the list in error and would like readers to consider that they were a reference of a work in progress rather than meant for publication. We would like to apologise for any misunderstanding. The headline has also been amended to dispell any ambiguity: BVES is not a state-owned enterprise as may have been misinterpreted by readers from the prior wording.

15 September 2026
Berlin, Germany
Launching September 2026 in Berlin, Energy Storage Summit Germany is a new standalone event dedicated to Germany’s energy storage market. Bringing together investors, developers, policymakers, TSOs, manufacturers and optimisation specialists, the Summit explores the regulatory shifts, revenue models, financing strategies and technology innovations shaping large-scale deployment. With Germany targeting 80% renewables by 2030, it offers a focused platform to connect with the decision-makers driving the Energiewende and the future of utility-scale storage.

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