From ESS News

The outlook for storage in Portugal is “positive”, according to analysis from the Portuguese Association Of Renewable Energy (APREN), with deployments set to increase in the coming years in order to meet end of decade targets.

Susana Serôdio, APREN’s Policy and Market Intelligence Coordinator, told ESS News that deployment of battery storage systems in Portugal will accelerate after starting from a limited base.

The association’s latest annual review found Portugal had deployed 20 MW of battery storage by the end of 2025. The country’s National Energy and Climate Plan (PNEC 2030) sets a target of 2 GW of battery storage by 2030 but a more recent National Energy Storage Strategy presented by the government has raised the target to 3 GW, before increasing to 4.5 GW by 2040.

The majority of Portugal’s installed large-scale storage capacity is pumped-hydro storage, standing at 2.8 GW by the end of last year, according to APREN’s statistics. Serôdio said pumped hydro accounted for approximately 8.3% of electricity generation in mainland Portugal last year. The country’s National Energy Storage Strategy targets further expansion of the technology, with goals of reaching 3.9 GW of pumped hydro capacity by 2030, before increasing to 5.26 GW by 2040.

In January 2025, Portugal awarded 43 storage projects, representing approximately 500 MW, a share of €100 million ($116 million). Serôdio said these projects are expected to become progressively operational. 

She added that Portugal’s storage rollout will be supported by two competitive procedures planned for September, alongside plans to develop a capacity market for batteries.

The two tenders, one allocating up to 750 MVA of grid capacity to standalone storage facilities, and another allocating up to 300 MVA to new renewable generation projects with co-located storage, represent 1.05 GW of new grid-connected capacity. A tender to expand pumped-hydro storage is also envisaged, Serôdio added, subject to discussions with the European Commission regarding state aid rules.

“The outlook is therefore positive, but progress will depend on the speed of licensing and project delivery, access to the grid and, above all, the creation of sufficiently stable revenue streams,” Serôdio told ESS News. “The two announced procedures are fully exposed to market revenues and do not currently include a capacity mechanism remunerating availability, which may create challenges for project bankability.”

In January, Chinese battery maker CALB unveiled plans to build a lithium-ion battery factory in Portugal. The company says it is targeting an annual capacity of 15 GWh for the site. The plan has been identified by the Portuguese government as a project of national interest and has obtained special grid access rights.