Companies throughout Europe have been switching to electrical energy from fossil fuels for his or her industrial wants, inspired by subsidies from EU funds.
Whereas that’s serving to deliver down emissions of climate-warming gases, it has additionally made companies extra weak to energy cuts.
And in Spain and Portugal that menace was made painfully clear final yr.
On each side of the border, companies are in search of methods to keep away from disruption.
“The commercial sector has been one of many first to take a look at storage programs, since it could actually’t have its manufacturing drop off too abruptly,” says Miguel Matias, founding father of the Portuguese power companies firm Self Vitality, headquartered within the UK.
“A backup for a number of hours, and even minutes, may assure that machines do not get broken,” he says.
And there have been newer incidents to spur funding.
On the finish of January, Storm Kristin toppled hundreds of electrical energy and telecom poles throughout central Portugal, reducing energy and communications to lots of of hundreds of individuals – some for weeks.
So, firms and different organisations have been taking motion.
In Spain, battery storage capability has risen virtually sevenfold since final April, from about 28 MW earlier than the blackout to 193MW in April 2026, in accordance with the grid operator Purple Eléctrica.
And far more capability is deliberate.
In December, the IDAE, Spain’s Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Vitality, awarded €827m in EU funds to 133 power storage tasks totalling 2,400MW. Round 80% of that’s battery storage.
The brand new capability might be near 10 instances the quantity that Purple Eléctrica at present registers on the Spanish grid.
It is all excellent news for battery suppliers.
“We’re seeing not solely a rise in demand, but additionally a transparent evolution in buyer necessities,” says Alberto Bodegas, from battery storage firm Sungrow.
Historically, business and industrial shoppers have been in search of partial or full backup options, Bodegas says.
In the present day, Bodegas says prospects are demanding extra superior capabilities, akin to seamless backup, that means the swap from grid to backup happens instantaneously and with none noticeable interruption.
That is significantly important for delicate environments akin to hospitals and knowledge centres.
Supply instances are additionally essential for consumers, at present beneath tight deadlines linked to EU funding programmes. Battery firms are being pressed to fulfill more and more shorter supply dates, Bodegas says.
