Energy storage in EU power companies

In Europe, there is a growing consensus amongst policymakers that energy storage is crucial to securing affordable and low carbon energy. In May 2022, European Union launched their REPowerEU plan, a part of the European Green Deal, which mandates that 45% of Europe's energy generation needs to come from renewable sources by 2030.

Pumped hydro is the most widely used technology for energy storage in Europe and worldwide, but batteries and hydrogen have come into the spotlight over the last decade as a recent trend in the energy storage market.

Because of water resources availability and tailored energy policies, Germany, Italy, and Spain accounted for the largest pumped hydro storage capacity in the region, ranging between over nine gigawatts in Germany and 5.6 gigawatts in Spain in 2023. Discover all statistics and data on Energy storage in Europe now on statista.com!

In March 2025, the Commission launched the European Energy Storage Inventory, a real-time dashboard that displays energy storage levels across different European countries. It is the first European-level tool of its kind and offers energy storage data across a full range of technologies.

However, despite an exponential growth in Europe's battery energy storage capacity, which reached 36 gigawatt-hours in 2023, pumped hydro still accounted for 90 percent of the electricity storage capacity in the European Union that year.

It addresses the most important issues contributing to the broader deployment of energy storage. EU countries should consider the double 'consumer-producer' role of storage by applying the EU electricity regulatory framework and by removing barriers, including avoiding double taxation and facilitating smooth permitting procedures.