Europe’s residential energy storage market to expand nearly tenfold this decade

The global energy storage market is booming. Globally, total deployments will nearly triple year-on-year. By 2030, they’ll be close to the 1 TWh mark.

While China and the US dominate the market, Europe leads in residential energy storage – and this is set to expand on the continent by nearly tenfold this decade. However, by 2023 Europe will give up its leadership position to the Americas, where there will be further investment in the residential segment.

Currently, Germany, Italy, Austria and the UK are the residential energy storage market leaders, while its development in the rest of Europe has been slow and marginal. We expect the pace to pick up in the coming year, with the European market overall passing 27 GWh by 2030.

The rise of the 'prosumer' (consumers who also produce energy) alongside policy support for net zero objectives and the need for power market flexibility will all play a role in this upward trajectory.

Our Europe behind-the-meter energy storage outlook 2021 takes a detailed look at the path ahead for this burgeoning market, alongside the non-residential segment. Read on for a few key highlights from the report.

Net zero policies provide a boost

The Covid-19 pandemic has done little to slow the demand for energy storage. And as politicians focus on economic recovery, renewable energy integration is taking centre stage.

At the same time, net zero objectives are top of mind – objectives that cannot be achieved without a dramatic increase in storage deployment.

Significant changes in the European energy storage market are expected this year as policies provide greater support amid the ‘Fit for 55' package. The European Commission has set a 55% emission reduction target by 2030 and is targeting 65% renewable power supply by 2030, which will boost demand for energy storage assets.

More power to the consumer

The Clean European Energy Package has highlighted the critical role of distributed energy storage technologies and consumers. The package places European citizens at the centre of the energy transition, recognising “active customers”, “prosumers” and “energy communities”.

Skyrocketing electric vehicle sales and solar-plus-storage support market growth

The rapid uptake of residential solar systems and electric vehicles will be a catalyst for behind-the-meter installations.

By 2030, EV sales will have increased by 94%. Ambitions for self-consumption and higher prices at public charging stations will encourage consumers to invest in behind-the-meter storage.

Pairing solar PV with storage also provides a huge opportunity. The distributed solar generation market will install up to 16 GW annually, reaching 128 GW by 2026.

Spain, already one of the largest solar PV markets in Europe, is a potential residential storage growth market to keep on the radar. While the country reached Europe’s top spot through large-scale solar systems, several positive developments for rooftop PV are likely to drive a boom in residential solar and storage systems too.

Across Europe, solar-plus-storage will achieve widespread grid parity from 2025-2030.

Read the full report for a detailed look at behind-the-meter energy storage, including:

• country-by-country analysis of the residential segment
• non-residential energy storage market opportunity screening and outlook
• a look at the vendor landscape.

Interested in distributed solar and storage? 

Join our experts for a webinar at 10:00 GMT on Thursday 25 November where we'll use financial modelling to illuminate attractive business cases for residential solar-plus-storage systems, identify key European markets and map future development trajectories.

Find out more here, or register using the form at the top of the page.