Energy Storage Gains Momentum

The Energy Storage Global Conference 2022 (ESGC), held in Brussels on 11-13 October, and organised by the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE), as a hybrid event, gathered over 350 key stakeholders, and addressed energy storage policies, markets and technologies.

Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission, in charge of Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight, launched the first day with a keynote speech, stating the “deployment of energy storage solutions in Europe must accelerate.” Mr. Šefčovič acknowledged that energy storage “…will help facilitate the integration of renewables and the electrification of the economy, while increasing the flexibility and security of the energy system.” Commissioner Šefčovič highlighted energy storage as key to decarbonising the economy, reinforcing the EU’s resilience and achieving strategic autonomy. In the second keynote speech, Mike Gravely, Team Lead Energy Technology System Integration at the California Energy Commission, presented the role of energy storage in California’s clean energy future, asserting that “without energy storage, we would not have been able to tackle the extreme weather events that have hit California in the past weeks.” Catharina Sikow-Magny, Director at the European Commission, declared "[...] the so-called energy-only market has had its time. We need to fully agree that we need long-term markets [...] we need a review on how the capacity remuneration mechanism works." 

The first day also included presentations delivered by sector experts and panel discussions, focused on topics, such as the political support required for energy storage uptake, energy market design, energy storage policy implementation and the decarbonisation of the energy system. 

On the second day, a representative from the European Investment Bank, Manuel Baritaud, described the economic viability of energy storage technologies and the types of funding available, followed by sessions on minimising curtailment, moving away from fossil fuels, the challenges and opportunities for investments in both mature and maturing markets around the world, as well as the role of TSOs and DSOs in ensuring a functioning market for energy storage. 

Speakers from the European Commission, including Piotr Szymański, Director at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), provided insight on the JRC’s vision for energy storage on the third day of the conference. A variety of specific topics related to energy storage technologies were addressed in breakout sessions: optimising infrastructure, combined energy storage technologies, long duration energy storage, raw materials, modelling frameworks, minimising the environmental footprint, interoperability and digitalisation. The third day concluded that energy storage technologies will enable and accelerate the decarbonisation of the economy.  

This fifth edition of the Energy Storage Global Conference united 11 exhibitors and over 85 speakers and moderators, and marked a new phase for the energy storage sector, which is quickly gaining momentum. 

To learn more about the ESGC, visit https://ease-storage.eu/category/esgc/ 

For more information about EASE: https://ease-storage.eu/about-ease/who-we-are/