Beyond the immediate impact of the blackout, the debate is part of a broader scenario: that of a Europe seeking to consolidate its own industrial base in a technology that is gaining relevance both for the stability of the electricity grid and for the advancement of the energy transition.
This context is supported by an expanding market. According to SolarPower Europe, the European Union installed 27.1 GWh of new battery storage capacity in 2025, 45% more than the previous year, reaching a cumulative total of 77.3 GWh. This growth was led by large-scale projects, which accounted for more than half of the new installations, reflecting the increasing importance of storage in grids, renewables, and energy infrastructure.
As this market grows, so does the focus on industrial autonomy. In this case, the issue is not just installing more batteries, but deciding to what extent Europe wants to manufacture a significant portion of the technologies, materials, and equipment it will need over the next decade within its own borders. In other words, energy storage has also become a matter of production capacity, security of supply, and industrial standing.
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it had a nominal cell manufacturing capacity of 252 GWh, although most of that capacity was geared towards electric vehicles rather than stationary storage. At the same time, the sector remains heavily dependent on external sources for various materials, components, and stages of the supply chain, which has led the European Union to strengthen its strategy in this area.
That is precisely the objective of regulations such as the Net-Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act. The former seeks to boost European manufacturing of strategic clean technologies, including batteries and energy storage. The latter sets targets for 2030 for the extraction, processing, and recycling of strategic raw materials within the EU, with the intention of reducing excessive dependence on third countries and strengthening security of supply.
Public funding is also part of this movement. In 2024, the European Commission launched a specific call for proposals for €1 billion within the Innovation Fund to support battery cell manufacturing in Europe. Although this funding is primarily aimed at the battery sector, it is part of a broader effort to consolidate a European value chain encompassing production, innovation, recycling, and industrial scaling.
The European market for conventional batteries, primarily focused on the mobility sector, is currently heavily influenced by Asian scale, which concentrates a significant portion of production and the supply chain. Meanwhile, in Europe, there is greater potential for industrial growth in other technologies and applications that are still in a more nascent stage.
In this context, solutions such as thermal storage, flow batteries, and other alternatives geared towards stationary, industrial, or long-life applications are gaining visibility, as the market in these areas remains less mature and offers more room for new developments. This situation demonstrates that the industrial evolution of energy storage in Europe depends not only on the manufacture of conventional batteries but also on the ability to position itself in technological segments that are still expanding.
In this sense, energy storage is increasingly situated at the intersection of energy and industrial policy. The growth of the European market is progressing alongside efforts to expand production capacity, strengthen access to materials, and reduce vulnerabilities in the supply chain. Autonomy does not mean abandoning international trade, but rather increasing Europe's capacity to participate more significantly in an industry that will be central to the next phase of the energy transition.
This framework will also be one of the topics addressed at Battery & Energy Storage Tech Europe, to be held in Barcelona in September 2026, which will bring together companies, technology centers, and researchers from the sector. The event comes at a time marked by the growth of the European energy storage market and the development of new tools to strengthen its industrial dimension. This context combines sustained demand expansion, significant progress in large-scale projects, and a political and industrial effort to reinforce the European value chain.
