German battery storage capacity increases 50% in 2024 – report
Clean Energy Wire
Almost 600,000 new stationary battery storage systems were installed across Germany in 2024, increasing the country’s storage capacity by 50 percent year-on-year, according to preliminary data from the German Solar Industry Association (BSW Solar). This brings the total number of installed battery storage systems up to 1.8 million, with a total capacity of 19 gigawatt hours (GWh), the equivalent of the daily electricity consumption of two million two-person households, said the interest group.
The vast majority of new battery systems (580,000) were installed in homes, raising the total home battery storage capacity to 15.4 GWh. “Combining photovoltaic systems on your own roof with storage systems is now inexpensive and has become standard,” Carsten Körnig, managing director of BSW Solar, said. “Intelligent storage operation not only saves electricity costs for operators, but also relieves the burden on the grids and reduces the costs of the energy transition,” he added.
In addition to new home systems, about 100 large-scale battery storage systems (with a capacity of at least 1MWh) were installed in 2024, twice as many as the year prior, bringing the total large-scale capacity up to 2.3 GWh. The growth in large-scale battery storage capacity is likely to rise significantly, up to fivefold in the next two years, BSW said.
“Storage systems are the fastest, cheapest and most effective instrument for integrating solar energy into the electricity market and grid,” Körnig said. “A rapid expansion of storage capacities is an important key to the success of the energy transition,” he added, calling for approval of new battery systems to be fast-tracked and market barriers reduced.
This comes after reports that transmission grid operators received 650 connection requests, with a combined capacity of 226 gigawatt (GW), by the middle of January this year. If only half of these projects were approved, they would store enough energy to power 30 million German households for one day. Battery storage is needed to supplement the country’s rapid rollout of renewable energy installations, which reached a new record share in electricity production of 55 percent in 2024.
