19 August 2026
1 mn

Flexibility requirements and the role of storage in future European power

Joint Research Council of the European Commission

Key findings

The growing shares of wind and solar in the EU power system imply a need for dramatic increases in the scale of decarbonised flexibility (including both storage and demand response). By 2030, the EU would need to grow today’s flexibility requirements, which were around 11% of total EU electricity demand in 2021, to 24% by 2030 and 30% in 2050 (as a share of total annual final power demand).  This implies a dramatic increase in the total volume of flexible energy, from a baseline of around 300 TWh/yr in 2021, to 800 TWh/yr in 2030 to 2000TWh/yr in 2050. 

Source : https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC130519 (2023)

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