EASE Energy Storage Global Conference 2022 gathers momentum for energy storage
The European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE) recently held Energy Storage Global Conference 2022 (ESGC) in Brussels between 11-13 October. The hybrid event brought together industry stakeholders, researchers, and policymakers to discourse on various policies, markets and technologies relating to energy storage.
This fifth edition of the yearly conference, organized by EASE, in collaboration with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. The 2022 edition recorded participation of 9 exhibitors and over 350 on-site and online attendees, including 85-plus speakers, marking a new phase for the energy storage sector that is quickly gaining momentum across the globe.
Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission, in charge of Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight, launched the first day with a keynote speech, stating the "deployment of energy storage solutions in Europe must accelerate." He acknowledged that energy storage will help facilitate the integration of renewables and the electrification of the economy, while increasing the flexibility and security of the energy system.
Šefčovič also highlighted energy storage as key to decarbonizing the economy, reinforcing the EU's resilience and achieving strategic autonomy.
In the second keynote speech, Mike Gravely, Team Lead Energy Technology System Integration at the California Energy Commission, presented the role of energy storage in California's clean energy future. "Without energy storage, we would not have been able to tackle the extreme weather events that have hit California in the past weeks", he asserted.
"The current power market design is dead and a new design that offers security through long-term revenues for storage is needed," said Patrick Clerens, the Secretary of EASE - The European Association for Storage of Energy at the inauguration of the conference.
Catharina Sikow-Magny, Director at the European Commission, declared "the so-called energy-only market has had its time. We need to fully agree that we need long-term markets… we need a review on how the capacity remuneration mechanism works".
The first day also included presentations delivered by sector experts and panel discussions, focused on topics, such as the political support required for energy storage uptake, energy market design, energy storage policy implementation and the decarbonization of the energy system.
On the second day, a representative from the European Investment Bank, Manuel Baritaud, described the economic viability of energy storage technologies and the types of funding available, followed by sessions on minimizing curtailment, moving away from fossil fuels, the challenges and opportunities for investments in both mature and maturing markets around the world, as well as the role of TSOs and DSOs in ensuring a functioning market for energy storage.
Speakers from the European Commission, including Piotr Szymański, Director at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), provided insight on the JRC's vision for energy storage on the third day of the conference.
The event also saw presentations on a variety of energy storage technologies in breakout sessions. The discussions focused on optimizing infrastructure, combining energy storage technologies, long duration energy storage, raw materials, modelling frameworks, minimizing environmental footprint, interoperability and digitalization. The third day concluded that energy storage technologies will enable and accelerate the decarbonization of the economy.
