Energy storage is ready to deliver

Energy Storage Ireland’s 2025 pipeline survey shows the potential of the energy storage sector in Ireland and Northern Ireland with nearly 10GW of storage in development.

ESI surveyed its members using a standard template to gather information on the energy storage pipeline in Ireland and Northern Ireland. The results were collated and cross-checked against sources such as the ECP batch lists, EirGrid and ESBN contracted projects, SONI connections register, capacity market publications etc.

In total there are 155 projects in the pipeline results making up 9,970MW in development with the majority made up of lithium-ion batteries ranging from two to eight hours in duration and some new storage technologies such as CO2 and iron-air batteries ranging from 10 to 100 hours duration respectively.

It is important to note that the pipeline results demonstrate the capacity in the storage sector and potential build-out and are not a prediction of what might occur. Indeed, the survey showed that the route to market for most of the pipeline is still uncertain with many citing the lack of a specific long-duration storage procurement scheme on the island.

This is why it is so important that policy makers address the revenue uncertainty challenges facing storage developers and put in place support schemes, similar to RESS for wind and solar, to incentivise the development of long-duration storage assets. These storage assets are needed to minimise renewable dispatch down, support the grid, reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and reduce Ireland’s carbon emissions.

Ireland’s electricity storage policy framework mandates the establishment of these support mechanisms by both ESB Networks and EirGrid. We need to see these established urgently to provide investment certainty for the developing energy storage pipeline.

The following is clear from our 2025 pipeline results:

• the industry is ready to deliver;
• the technologies exist today or are developing rapidly with lithium-ion, CO2, and iron air batteries included in our results;
• uncertainty on the route to market is the main constraint at present;
• industry has shown in the past it can deliver, as it did under the DS3 system services framework with 1GW of storage deployed since 2020;
• we need policy to move faster on areas such as energy market access, network charging reform and LDES procurement. It is a timing issue as we know energy storage will be needed in large volumes, but industry will not wait around forever given investment opportunities elsewhere; and
• if we want a secure, independent, clean and affordable energy system then energy storage is the key.

You can read the full pipeline report on our website

W: www.energystorageireland.com