Skip to content
voltsdaily

Sunday, 5 July 2026

11 briefs so farlast update 18:51 UTC

Key points

  • TYNDP 2026 draft sees European power demand climbing about 20% this decade.
  • Wood Mackenzie sees US wind adding 46 GW through 2029 as data center load surges.
  • NESO Opens Industry Input on Redesigning Great Britain's Wholesale Power Market.
  • Bruce Unit 3 Back in Service Seven Months Early After Refurbishment.
All sectionsPolicy & GeopoliticsRenewablesGrid & StorageGeneration

Grid & Storage

InfoLink Sees Europe Battery Storage Additions Climbing to 35.1 GWh in 2026

Europe added 25.3 GWh of energy storage in 2025, and InfoLink Consulting, as reported by pv magazine, expects annual additions to reach 35.1 GWh in 2026.

The forecast lands as the battery supply chain enters what InfoLink Consulting CEO Corrine Lin calls a new phase marked by structural tensions, with prices across the chain no longer moving in a single direction and cost pass-through turning less linear.

That break from the old pattern matters most where upstream input costs and delivered system prices stop tracking together. Developers writing fixed-price engineering, procurement and construction contracts carry more exposure when the two move out of sync, according to Lin's read of the market via pv magazine.

The jump from 25.3 GWh in 2025 to a projected 35.1 GWh raises annual procurement volume across the continent, testing that pricing dynamic at scale.

Source: pv-magazine.com (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink

Grid & Storage

TYNDP 2026 draft sees European power demand climbing about 20% this decade

Europe's power demand looks set to climb roughly 20% over the coming decade even as overall energy use falls on efficiency gains, according to the TYNDP 2026 draft scenarios.

ENTSO-E and ENTSOG built the scenarios, working under guidance from the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). The Ten-Year Network Development Plan (TYNDP) covers electricity, gas, and hydrogen out to 2050, and EU regulators lean on it to weigh cross-border infrastructure and rank projects of common interest.

Electrifying transport and heating tops the list of pressures pushing power use higher, according to pv magazine. Growth in data centers, industrial fuel switching, and hydrogen electrolysis add to that pull.

ENTSO-E and ENTSOG warn that a larger share of variable renewable output will demand far more flexibility on the system. The draft scenarios flag batteries as central to short-term balancing, congestion management, and renewable integration.

Gas moves the other way. The draft scenarios project natural gas demand falling steadily as biomethane and renewable gases displace it, with the sharpest cuts in the power sector as renewables and storage grow.

Source: pv-magazine.com (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink

High voltage transmission pylons crossing European countryside with wind turbines, solar panels and a battery storage site in the distance.
Photo: Jiří Dočkal / Pexels (opens in a new tab)

Grid & Storage

Tesla Ties Powerwall Discount to Grid Support in Two-State VPP

Tesla is offering homeowners in Massachusetts and Connecticut a discount on a Powerwall home battery if they agree to let the unit support the grid, Canary Media reported. The company announced the virtual power plant (VPP) program this week.

The discount is conditional. Buyers who take the lower price commit to letting their backup battery dispatch to the grid when called.

Tesla is the US market leader in residential energy storage. The two-state offer channels that position into a pooled model, where household batteries can be aggregated and dispatched together during demand peaks.

A virtual power plant links distributed batteries into a single resource that grid operators can call on when supply tightens. In Massachusetts and Connecticut, delivering the incentive as an upfront hardware discount rather than ongoing payments lowers the entry cost for homeowners weighing residential storage.

For customers in the two states, the trade is a cheaper battery in exchange for shared control of it during grid stress. For the local grid, each enrolled Powerwall adds capacity that can be tapped without new generation.

Source: canarymedia.com (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink