22 April 2026:

FBE welcomes AccelerateEU but calls for stronger focus on long-duration energy storage

Flow Batteries Europe (FBE) welcomes the European Commission’s AccelerateEU communication and its recognition that storage is essential for an affordable, secure and flexible energy system. The Commission rightfully highlights the role of energy storage, flexibility and grids and states that the EU must expand storage capacity from 55 GW today to 200 GW by 2030.

But if Europe stops here, it would be doing the same mistake all over again.

Commissioner Jørgensen once said at his confirmation hearing in front the European Parliament that Europe needs “all the tools in the toolbox” to deploy renewable energy, yet overlooking long duration energy storage (LDES) would be missing a crucial tool here.

While the geopolitical context has stressed once again the need to provide long-term resilience in our energy system, AccelerateEU mentions only two energy storage solutions as “key technologies”: (short duration) batteries and pumped hydro storage.

Supporting LDES is not only important for our energy security, it is essential to our energy independence. Several LDES still retain manufacturing capacity in Europe and a diversified supply chain. They must be supported if policy makers do not want them to meet the same fate as solar PV and lithium-ion batteries before them, whose production is now overly reliant on a single third country.

Flow batteries, for instance, can still be manufactured on our continent and their materials sourced in several countries, including in Europe. They also provide reduced fire risks, no degradation over time, and can be used for utility-scale long-duration storage or even a perfect fit for backup in data centres. So why are they still overlooked in official communications?

Accordingly, FBE calls on the EU institutions to:

  • Explicitly include LDES in follow-up initiatives;
  • Treat LDES like flow batteries as strategic net-zero technologies in investment, procurement, grid and flexibility files.

Aurélien Ballagny, Head of Policy at FBE commented that“The EU is right to acknowledge the role of storage for energy security. But unless Europe explicitly supports LDES, it could be yet another missed strategic opportunity.”

Download the press release

To learn more about AccelerateEU, see here.

FBE Contact:
Aurélien Ballagny, Head of Policy
a.ballagny@flowbatterieseurope.eu; +32 2 743 29 86

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