This is an extract from a recent report “European Battery Market Outlook 2026-2030” published by SolarPower Europe.
In 2025, Europe installed 36 GWh of batteries, representing a substantial acceleration compared to the previous year. This corresponds to an increase of 11.7 GWh (+48%) compared to 2024 and marks the largest year on year capacity increase to date, surpassing the previous record set in 2023 (9.2 GWh). Since 2022, the annual market has more than tripled, and despite the slowdown observed in 2024 (+24%), battery storage has regained strong momentum. Batteries are the fastest growing power technology globally, and Europe is no exception. Looking at the EU, 27 GWh of BESS capacity was deployed in 2025, accounting for 75% of all installations across the wider European market. Despite continued policy uncertainty in Europe, batteries continue to outperform even the most ambitious growth scenarios. This has translated into a sustained increase in battery storage investments in 2020-2024, at an average annual increase rate of around 90%. In 2025, European investments in BESS reached 17 billion EUR, with a 20% increase relative to 2024.
In 2025, utility-scale batteries led the market with 19 GWh installed, up from the 9.7 GWh in 2024. This marks the second consecutive year of doubling in annual installations. The segment now accounts for over half of yearly capacity additions. This exponential growth trajectory is remarkable. Europe is now connecting ten times more utility scale batteries to the grid than in 2021. Several factors are driving the rapid growth of utility scale batteries. With the expansion in renewables deployment experienced in recent years, the lack of system flexibility has become more apparent in the EU. This has increased price volatility, grid congestion, and curtailment, particularly during periods of high solar output and low demand. Batteries are the fastest-to-deploy solution to address this challenge. Revenue stacking has become increasingly attractive as batteries can capture value across multiple market streams, while EU support schemes backed nearly 70 GWh of large-scale battery projects last year. Falling technology costs now particularly favour large projects, due to lower unit capital costs, higher utilisation rates, and increasingly sophisticated optimisation engines.
In addition, hybrid solar-plus-storage projects are scaling rapidly. Hybrid projects are gaining significant traction in the EU, with around 20% of new BESS capacity paired with solar PV, up from 6% in 2024. Positive developments also continued in distributed storage, with both households and businesses deploying 16% more battery storage capacity in 2025 than in 2024. This marks a watershed moment, as distributed BESS had marginally declined in 2024 (-2%), following more than a doubling in 2023. Within the distributed storage segment, the residential battery segment rebounded back to growth in 2025 (+3% relative to 2024), after the significant decrease experienced in 2024 (-8%). Last year, Europe added 12.3 GWh of residential capacity, representing more than 1.5 million battery storage units. In total, since 2020, nearly 5.4 million European households have installed solar-powered battery systems.
One notable caveat tempers this rebound: when narrowing the scope to the EU 27, household installations continued to decline, with capacity falling by 11% in 2024 and a further 7% in 2025. The persistent lack of support schemes, pushback from grid operators in many Member States, and lower retail electricity prices continue to hinder the roll out of solar-plus-storage solutions in the residential segment. Despite the absolute overall year-on-year growth in 2025, and delivering roughly the same volume as in its peak year in 2023 (13 GWh), it means a 22 percentage point drop in market shares. Residential storage now represents 34% of annual battery storage installations, down from 49% in 2024, and about two-thirds of installed capacity in 2023. This shift illustrates the rapid expansion of the battery storage market predominantly through utility-scale battery systems.
Also within distributed storage, C&I installations surged in 2025, with 4.7 GWh deployed, representing an 77% annual increase. Despite limited support for corporate adoption of storage and persistent administrative hurdles, European businesses are increasingly leveraging on site solar generation combined with battery storage. While the potential is huge, the C&I BESS use cases remain rather narrow. Deployments are still largely concentrated on boosting PV self-consumption and reducing peak demand charges. Additional applications are largely limited to specific use cases, such as the electrification of industrial processes or vehicle fleets, the management of grid connection constraints, or niche agricultural applications.
Although some countries, including Hungary and Greece, have introduced dedicated funding programmes for businesses, support schemes across Europe are fragmented and, in many cases, insufficient. Moreover, the provision of flexibility services by C&I batteries is still not feasible in most EU Member States, limiting opportunities for revenue stacking. In spite of these limitations, the segment continues to move in the right direction. In 2025, C&I batteries increased their share of annual deployments to 13%, marking a historic high for the segment, which had hovered at around 10% since the onset of battery installations in Europe.
The European battery storage fleet crosses the 100 GWh mark; share of residential storage falls just under 50%
In 2025, the European battery storage fleet surpassed the 100 GWh mark, expanding by 55% year on year. Over the past decade, Europe’s BESS fleet has grown rapidly, achieving a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 70%, rising to 77% over the 2021-2025 period. This sustained acceleration has led to a tenfold increase in operational capacity in just four years, from around 10 GWh at the end of 2021. By comparison, back in 2016, Europe had installed 1 GWh of battery storage, meaning today’s fleet is 100 times larger. Even at over 100 GWh of installed capacity, the cumulative market is still experiencing a strong acceleration phase.
While residential storage still accounts for the largest share of cumulative installed capacity, its share has now fallen just below 50% after two consecutive years of decline. This trend is expected to continue, as utility scale batteries have become the second largest segment in 2025, and are set to overtake the residential segment in 2026. Europe now displays a cumulative capacity breakdown similar to that of 2022, when the 2022 energy crisis led to a flurry of home battery installations. This time, however, residential installations are expected to grow only marginally, while utility scale installations are projected to accelerate faster than ever. The C&I segment, meanwhile, remains broadly in line with its position five years ago, accounting for 11% of cumulative capacity.
Importantly, and despite the substantial growth in BESS capacity in recent years, the EU continues to face a flexibility challenge. By the end of 2025, the EU had an overall solar PV-to-battery storage ratio of 8:1, reflecting the large size of the solar PV fleet relative to the installed battery storage capacity. Although this represents a significant improvement from 10:1 in 2024, this ratio needs to decrease faster so as to alleviate pressing flexibility issues. At segment level, the residential ratio stands at 3:1, unchanged year-on-year. In the C&I segment, solar capacity exceeds storage by 30:1, down from 40:1 in 2024. At the utility scale, the ratio has fallen to 12:1, improving from 17:1 the previous year.
Top 5 European BESS markets 2025
In 2025, Germany retained its leading position as Europe’s largest BESS market, adding 6.6 GWh representing a 2% increase compared to 2024. The United Kingdom reclaimed second place, boosting its annual additions by 64% to 5.2 GWh. As expected, Italy slipped to third position due to an 18% decline in annual deployment, following the exceptional installation volumes of 2024. Nevertheless, the country still rolled out 5 GWh of battery storage, only narrowly losing its second place. Finally, two newcomers – Ukraine and Bulgaria – have emerged as key markets in 2025 – respectively replacing Austria and Sweden as the fourth and the fifth largest markets.
Europe’s 2025 top 5 BESS markets illustrate three important dynamics. First, reaching the gigawatt-hour scale is no longer sufficient to secure a top 5 position. Second, the battery revolution is spreading across an increasing number of European countries: while only three installed 1 GWh or more in 2023, this rose to 10 in 2025. Third, countries without a strong utility-scale battery market can no longer rank among the top 5. While earlier rankings were largely driven by residential installations, today, amid stagnant household demand and sluggish C&I growth, top tier positions increasingly depend on deploying large volumes of utility-scale storage.
Germany set a new deployment record last year, installing 6.6 GWh and exceeding 6 GWh of annual additions for the third consecutive year. The pace of expansion has stabilised, with growth rates of 2% in 2025 and 6% in 2024, reflecting a 17% downturn in household installations last year and the somewhat limited contribution from the C&I segment. The fall in new battery installations would have been even steeper if it was not because of plug-in battery systems, which grew in capacity by 21% in 2025. Importantly, the long anticipated expansion of Germany’s utility scale battery market has begun to materialise. Despite lingering political uncertainty, the segment delivered two times more capacity in 2025 compared to the previous year, reaching 25% of annual additions.
The United Kingdom remains one of Europe’s most dynamic BESS markets, underpinned by strong policy support and favourable market conditions. After a temporary slowdown in 2024, when annual installations fell 14% to 3.2 GWh, deployment rebounded sharply in 2025, reaching a new record of 5.2 GWh. As a result, the UK ranks as Europe’s second largest market in 2025 and continues to operate the continent’s largest utility scale battery fleet. At the distributed level, VAT exemptions for small scale BESS, streamlined permitting procedures, and targeted financial support for low income households are driving the expansion of residential and C&I storage. Together, these rooftop segments contributed nearly 20% in 2025.
After almost overtaking Germany in 2024, Italy recorded its first market contraction in 2025, connecting 18% less capacity year-on-year. The utility scale segment registered its first decline in annual installations (-11%), driven by the exhaustion of the project pipeline contracted under previous national auctions and the delayed launch of the first MACSE round. Despite this, the segment still performed solidly in 2025, deploying 3.1 GWh. Overall installations declined, however, due to the sharp downturn in the residential market, which shrank by 33% year-on-year. Meanwhile, the C&I segment remained subdued, with annual installations contributing 8% following its peak and 17% share in 2023.
Ukraine has catapulted to fourth place in the European ranking. Four years into Russia’s invasion, the country has quickly recognised the strategic role that solar plus storage systems can play. In an extraordinary effort to reduce dependence on large thermal power plants and enhance power system resilience, Ukraine installed 2.9 GWh of BESS in 2025. More than 60% of this capacity comes from the distributed segment, as Ukrainian households, businesses, schools, hospitals, water treatment plants, and other critical facilities increasingly rely on solar plus storage systems to secure a stable and reliable power supply. The utility segment contributed nearly one-third of capacity to address the acute need for flexibility and reserve services in the power system.
Closing the top 5, Bulgaria also emerged as a key market in 2025, with 2.7 GWh of connected capacity and the highest growth rate in Europe (+1,061% year-on-year). EU funding rounds have triggered substantial capital mobilisation for utility scale battery deployment, marking the country’s first breakthrough year for grid scale storage. By contrast, the distributed segment remains largely underdeveloped, constrained by a highly regulated electricity market.
Taken together, Europe’s top 5 BESS markets accounted for 62% of new battery installations across the continent in 2025. Despite their still substantial share in annual additions, market concentration has declined noticeably in recent years. In 2023 and 2024, the top 5 countries accounted for nearly 80% of total added battery capacity.
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