European countries curtailed a record amount of wind power in the first nine months of the year as excess output overwhelmed infrastructure that was unable to absorb surges in the flow of renewable power.
From January to September, Germany, Spain, France and South Sweden recorded the highest curtailment rates, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group. UK wind curtailment was not included in the dataset. West Denmark saw a slight decline compared to the same period a year earlier.
As Europe has rapidly expanded its renewable fleets without matching grid investments, curtailment — the intentional reduction of wind and solar output — has become increasingly common. Some plants are ordered to shut down when the grid is overloaded, while others do so voluntarily when power prices drop too low. The costs of grid-related shutdowns often end up being passed on to consumers.
Spain, Germany and France also saw monthly records for shutdowns of wind parks this year. Spain reached a record in May, when 19.6% of wind generation was deliberately curtailed, according to the LSEG data — three times higher than in the same month a year earlier. France posted a monthly record in August with 11.2% curtailed, while Germany saw its peak in March at 7.3%.
Europe’s battery storage capacity is expected to grow around five-fold by 2030, bringing with it increasing returns for energy majors, project developers and traders, as the cost of new projects falls.
Wind and solar use has grown to make up around a third of Europe’s energy mix, but because these renewable sources are intermittent, they have also driven demand for batteries to provide backup.
Even the expected leap in capacity is unlikely to be enough to meet demand to balance national energy grids, according to industry estimates.
Aurora Energy Research forecast capacity will increase to over 50 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, representing investments worth around 80 billion euros ($82.80 billion).
This would still leave a shortfall, compared with expectations from industry group the European Association for Storage of Energy, which estimates 200 GW will be needed by 2030.
Already a record 3.7 GW of projects were added in 2024, taking Europe’s total battery capacity to 10.8 GW, according to data from Aurora Energy Research.
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But battery storage offers multiple ways to make money.
One way is for project operators to secure what are known as ancillary contracts from grid operators that pay them to help balance the system. Capacity market contracts, for instance, pay generators or battery owners to be available when power demand is high.
Now renewable generation is a bigger share of the power mix, price volatility also offers the prospect of rich returns for traders on wholesale energy markets.
At times when more wind or solar is produced than the grid demands, electricity prices have turned negative and battery operators can be paid to store the power for times of need.
“If you can be paid to charge your battery because prices are negative and then sell the electricity at a premium price when the sun goes down at 6 o’clock, then that can be lucrative for traders,” said Roberto Jimenez, executive director at BW ESS, part of global infrastructure firm BW Group.
Data from LSEG shows the number of hours priced at negative or around zero in Britain’s day-ahead electricity market hit a record 176 hours in 2024. It forecasts an almost four-fold increase to 792 hours in 2026.
The picture across Europe is similar. The number of German negative hours is forecast to grow from less than 500 hours in 2024 to above 900 hours in 2026, LSEG forecast.