Proactive government needed to accelerate energy storage

At Energy Storage NL, we have been working for years to convince everyone of the importance of energy storage, and with success. Anno 2023, there is broad consensus on the added value that storage can offer us. For example, the Expert Team Energy System 2050 recently concluded that speed is needed in the rollout of energy storage and conversion in the Netherlands, Ben Voorhorst argued late last year for new regulations around energy storage, and TenneT showed in its monitoring that energy storage is necessary to prevent power outages in the future. The question is no longer "if" energy storage will be developed in the Netherlands, but "how much" and "when. This is a great compliment to our sector.

Chicken requirement situation

Despite these positive movements, I want to guard against too much opportunism. We are indeed seeing increasing interest in energy storage, but the business case has not structurally improved. For example, batteries still suffer from high transmission tariffs. Instead of lowering these tariffs, they were raised further up to 90 percent this year. In addition, thermal storage is still struggling to get off the ground in the Netherlands. In this regard, lack of financing is a major obstacle. And molecular storage suffers from a chicken-and-egg situation; sufficient demand for hydrogen, ammonia and green gas must first be created before storage can be further developed.

Blind Stare

I am therefore concerned about the position of the Dutch energy storage market. These concerns are fueled by an uneven playing field with surrounding countries that have set great ambitions for energy storage and have also developed an incentive program for it. As a result, the first Dutch energy storage parties are beginning to shift their focus abroad, and are now establishing themselves there. Abroad, in addition to stimulating storage, more urgency and speed is given to the actual realization of storage. Whereas in the Netherlands we are blinded by the 30 gigawatts of battery applications currently submitted, we seem to forget that only about 150 megawatts of battery power has been realized in the Netherlands at this time.

National Action Plan

So the honest story is that we in the Netherlands are currently lagging behind around energy storage. Surrounding countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Italy are way ahead of us. To catch up, Energy Storage NL has written a National Energy Storage Action Plan with concrete policy recommendations in the areas of electricity storage, heat storage and molecule storage. We presented this to Minister Jetten and the Lower House Committee on Economic Affairs and Climate. In doing so, we called for a proactive approach by the government; this is necessary for the acceleration of energy storage in the Netherlands.

Cards in hands

The idea that the market will provide that acceleration is outdated as far as I am concerned. The government will have to set up an ambitious program, together with our sector, the grid operators and the Authority Consumer & Market (ACM). Fortunately, a start is now being made on this with an Energy Storage Roadmap, which we are currently developing with the ministry. There will have to be a realization that it is '2 for 12'. The Netherlands holds all the cards to become the European leader in energy storage. However, it is important to stop just talking, and actually make energy storage a reality in the Netherlands!

Jeroen Neefs
Branch Manager Energy Storage NL

This column was published in Storage Magazine March 2023