Spain has awarded €165 million to seven pumped hydro storage projects totalling around 2.1GW/21GWh, while Portugal has set a target of 1.4GW of new pumped hydro capacity by 2040.

The European Commission has released its final Electrification Action Plan, reaffirming its belief that the bloc needs 200GW of energy storage by 2030.

The European Union (EU) has announced a tripartite agreement to accelerate energy storage deployments in the next two years.

Private equity firm KKR’s investment vehicle ContourGlobal has acquired BESS projects in Italy totalling 1.6GW of power and up to 9.5GWh of capacity, with an eye on the MACSE auctions in September.

The grid-scale energy storage market in Italy holds much promise with very ambitious deployment targets for 2030, but it may be difficult for the industry to deliver on those targets.

The EU could save €9 billion a year in gas costs by deploying BESS to capture excess wind and solar, according to think tank Ember.

G7 nations have agreed a new global energy storage target of 1500GW by 2030, a six-fold increase from today’s levels.

EU body EIT InnoEnergy has launched a new platform for owning and operating energy storage assets across Europe, called Repono, targeting a 10% market share of an expected 1TWh market by 2030.

UK-based utility and IPP Octopus Energy has entered the energy storage market in Italy, forming a joint venture (JV) with developer Nexta Capital to deploy up to 1.5GW of BESS.

While 12 projects won awards in the first tranche of Greece’s recent grid-scale energy storage auctions, what of the c.500 totalling nearly 27GW that didn’t? Jon Ferris, LCP Delta’s Head of Flexibility and Storage, looks at the dynamics which could play out in rounds two and three in Europe’s fourth largest market by 2030 pipeline.