EU Sets 200 GW Storage Target for 2030 in First Bloc-Wide Mandate

The energy storage market is expanding at a speed that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago. Yet, government targets have not kept pace with the market's growth. Storage is no longer a peripheral technology whose deployment can be left until renewable generation is built. It is becoming a central part of how electricity systems will operate, how much value they can extract from renewable power and how reliably they can meet growing demand. With COP31 focused on accelerating electrification, the gap between storage deployment and government ambition raises questions about whether power systems can deliver on those commitments.

Ember’s analysis of national 2030 storage targets shows how far countries have come and how far they still have to go. The combined ambition of countries and the EU has reached 822 gigawatts, nearly three times the 284 GW assessed when governments agreed the Global Energy Storage and Grids Pledge at COP29 in 2024. But that total remains 45% below the pledge’s 1,500 GW goal.

More revealing still is where the increase has come from. China and the EU account for most of the increase in national storage targets worldwide. The global headline suggests a broad shift in ambition. The underlying picture is much more concentrated.

Global Storage Ambition Rests on 2 Markets

China has raised its 2030 storage ambition from 130 GW to 460 GW under its 15th Five-Year Plan. The target combines 300 GW of new-type energy storage, mostly lithium-ion batteries, with 160 GW of pumped hydro. The EU, meanwhile, established its first bloc-wide storage target at 200 GW in June 2026.

These decisions are significant. China’s target reflects the need to integrate its rapidly expanding renewable capacity, while the EU’s agreement explicitly links storage to reducing gas demand and making better use of renewable electricity.

But the concentration of ambition matters. Since COP29, only eight countries and the EU have increased or introduced 2030 storage targets. Many other major markets have made little change to their plans.

The result is a global total that looks much stronger than the underlying policy shift. Two major economies have moved decisively, while much of the rest of the world has yet to follow.

That matters because the energy transition is not being built in two markets alone. Countries are pursuing different combinations of solar, wind, electrification and grid investment. They will not all need identical storage technologies or deployment pathways. But they do need to understand what their own power systems require and plan accordingly.

A global pledge is only as strong as the national plans on how to deliver it.

The Market Is Already Moving Faster Than the Plans

Annual storage additions reached a record 118 GW in 2025, 108 GW of them batteries, and installed capacity reached 430 GW by the end of the year.

The pace of change is remarkable. It took four years for annual battery additions to rise from around 10 GW to 100 GW. Solar took nine years to cross the same threshold, while wind took 15 years.

Falling costs have helped drive this expansion. Battery storage costs have declined by roughly 20% per year on average over the past decade, improving the economics of projects and opening up new opportunities for power systems.

Current deployment also puts the shortfall in national targets into perspective. If annual additions remained at the 2025 level through to 2030, global installed storage capacity would reach around 1,020 GW. That would exceed the combined national targets by almost one-quarter.

Reaching the 1,500 GW global pledge will require further growth. But our analysis suggests that the necessary acceleration is well within reach of recent market performance. Battery additions have grown at almost 80% a year since 2020. To reach the 1,200 GW of battery storage envisaged in the International Energy Agency’s net-zero scenario update, annual additions would need to grow at only about one-fifth of that rate.

The market has already demonstrated that it can grow at extraordinary speed. The question is whether governments are planning for the power systems that this growth makes possible.

Solar Policy Without Storage Planning Is Incomplete

The consequences and benefits are clearest in solar markets. Solar power is generated mostly during the day, but electricity demand continues into the evening and overnight. Batteries can shift some of that daytime generation to periods when it is needed, reducing curtailment, easing pressure on grids and allowing existing renewable capacity to deliver more useful electricity.

Storage and solar are therefore not separate policy choices. They are complementary parts of a power system. Building more solar without planning for flexibility risks leaving some of its potential untapped.

Of the 20 largest solar markets by capacity in 2025, 12 have a 2030 storage target and eight do not.

Some of these markets are already deploying storage at scale. The US has installed roughly 52 GW of utility-scale battery power capacity, while Germany has around 30 GWh of battery storage.

Market signals can drive projects where the economics are attractive. But they do not necessarily ensure that the right amount and type of storage will be built in the right locations and on the right timelines. Nor do they guarantee that storage deployment will be coordinated with new generation, transmission infrastructure and changing patterns of demand. Credible targets can provide a direction around which these decisions are made.

Storage Belongs at the Center of Energy Planning

The stakes will grow as electricity takes on a larger role across transport, buildings and industry. The Global Electrification Pledge proposed by the COP31 presidency aims to raise electricity’s share of final energy demand from around 20% to 35% by 2035.

That ambition will only deliver its full climate and energy-security benefits if power systems can meet rising demand reliably and increasingly with clean electricity. That requires grids and flexibility, including storage, to develop alongside electrification.

Storage targets work best as part of renewable energy plans, alongside decisions on generation, networks, demand and reliability. This does not mean every economy should adopt the same target or technology mix. Battery storage can respond quickly and is expanding rapidly, while pumped hydro and other forms of longer-duration storage can serve different system needs. National plans should reflect local resources, the structure of demand and the flexibility required as renewable generation grows.

But every government planning a major expansion of clean electricity will need a view on how its system will balance supply and demand as that expansion proceeds.

The Next Step Is Turning Pledges Into Plans

The increase in global storage ambition since COP29 is welcome. China’s new target and the EU’s first bloc-wide target show that governments can raise their sights. But they also expose how much more work remains to align national plans with the direction of the market.

The 1,500 GW pledge is not an arbitrary number detached from deployment. Storage additions are already substantial, costs have fallen sharply and market forecasts point to further rapid expansion. Ember’s analysis indicates that reaching the goal is achievable with annual growth well below the rates the sector has already delivered this decade.

Governments now have an opportunity to turn that momentum into more coherent power-system planning. They should review national targets against the pace of deployment, set out how storage will support renewable generation and electrification, and establish the policies and investment conditions needed to deliver capacity where it is most useful.

The risk is that governments build energy strategies around assumptions that the market has already outgrown, leaving power systems less prepared to integrate renewables and meet new electricity demand.

The storage industry is moving quickly. Policy needs to keep pace with that transformation. The next phase of the energy transition will depend not only on how much clean generation the world builds, but on whether governments plan for the systems needed to use it well.

Dr. Katye Altieri is a global program consultant for think tank Ember, leading its research on tracking global clean power commitments to 2030. The views expressed in this article are those of the author.