In recent years there has been a lot of encouraging policy and regulatory change, especially around market design reforms, to help improve the landscape for energy storage deployment. However, as Julien and Lars cover in this article, the actual implementation can be the bottleneck.

Whether that comes to commercialising locally-produced technology, building industrial partner ecosystems, or barriers like double taxation on battery storage grid fees, there have been issues in maturing the sector across Europe. 

Thankfully there are signs that tangible action is being taken with the European Commission regularly producing new recommendations and enforcing rules more firmly. We're already starting to see a wider range of countries adapt and introduce new clear, detailed strategies on Energy Storage and Flexibility, as mentioned. Additionally, key EU states like Belgium, Poland, Italy etc. are evolving their market landscape with new national capacity market offerings enabling an increase in energy storage deployments (23GW in capacity mechanisms across Europe!) with Germany and Spain coming on soon.

This dynamic approach of adopting market reforms in line with technology maturity is key and I'm glad to see Europe is improving here. Ensuring public funding and market legislation is aligned will enable a more fertile ground for Energy Storage rollout to soar. 

I agree with the authors that Europe needs to play to its strengths! Yes, product / system cost will always be a key factor but other fundamentals like safety, sustainability, security, and customer service cannot be ignored. European manufacturers have the chance to take a seat at the table if they focus on where they can offer excellence to the customer and the legislative and investment landscape enables competitive market entry. 

Hyperion Executive Search helps Energy Storage and Grid clients to recruit top leadership talent to help them navigate through an everchanging sector landscape. If you're looking for top senior talent to strengthen your business in Europe, then get in touch at david.beeston@hyperionsearch.com