A roundup of energy storage news from across the EU, involving Polar Night Energy’s ‘Sand Battery’ in Finland, GazelEnergie and Q Energy in France, and Spain’s MITECO awarding financial support to 45 projects.

The deadline has now passed for Bulgaria’s EU-backed support scheme for standalone energy storage, and the bids submitted amount to four times the available capital available.

The government of Cyprus has confirmed financial support will be made available for renewable energy projects paired with energy storage.

The energy ministries of Bulgaria and Romania have both revealed the results of EU-backed tenders for renewables and energy storage, with gigawatts of energy storage being supported.

Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto has signed a decree allowing Italy to proceed with its energy storage capacity market auction, known as MACSE, in the first half of 2025.

The European Union’s transition to a renewable-energy-powered electricity grid will fail unless it does more to support and promote energy storage, according to the Energy Storage Coalition.

Lithuania can move ahead with a scheme to provide €180 million (US$200 million) in grants to energy storage projects after it was approved by the EU.

The European Commission has approved a €1.2 billion (US$1.32 billion) state aid package for Poland to support the deployment of electricity storage facilities.

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.

Hungary’s subsidy scheme for energy storage will drive huge growth in BESS deployments over the next few years.