SolarPower Europe reports record 36 GWh of European storage installs

SolarPower Europe said utility-scale batteries delivered more than half of Europe’s annual installations for the first time in 2025, the market’s twelfth straight year of record-breaking annual additions.

“We are radical optimists when it comes to the growth of batteries in Europe,” said Antonio Arruebo, senior market analyst at SolarPower Europe, at the launch of the report this week at Intersolar Europe 2026.

The report shows that utility-scale deployment reached 19 GWh in 2025, up from 9.7 GWh in 2024, while residential and commercial and industrial installations grew 16% combined. SolarPower Europe attributed the utility-scale expansion to rising system flexibility needs, stronger revenue stacking opportunities, falling technology costs, expanding hybrid solar-plus-battery projects, and increasing investor confidence.

Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy remained Europe’s three largest markets in 2025, though their combined share of new installations fell to 47% from nearly 80% in 2023 and 2024, the report said. Ukraine and Bulgaria entered the top five for the first time, each adding nearly 3 GWh of new capacity.

For the first time, the report’s geographic scope includes Turkey and Ukraine, SolarPower Europe said.

“Europe’s battery market is moving in the right direction, but we are not yet where we need to be,” said Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe. “The EU has rightly recognised this with its 200 GW storage target for 2030, but delivering on that ambition will require much faster progress.”

Sonja Risteska, head of the Battery Storage Europe Platform at SolarPower Europe, pointed to Ukraine’s rapid rise as a top-five market, saying battery storage has evolved from an investment opportunity into a critical energy security asset following extensive damage to the country’s power infrastructure.

SolarPower Europe said annual installations are expected to exceed 50 GWh in 2026 and reach 138 GWh by 2030 under its medium scenario, with total installed capacity projected to grow more than sixfold to around 580 GWh by the end of the decade. The report recommends removing barriers to permitting and grid access, ensuring market access and revenue stacking for battery storage, providing stable and bankable investment conditions, and scaling deployment through targeted EU instruments.