European businesses installed roughly 20 GW of commercial and industrial (C&I) solar in 2024, but only around 1 GW/2 GWh of C&I battery storage. The gap is striking. Both technologies promise lower energy bills, improved resilience, and decarbonization, but batteries are yet to achieve the same commercial traction that solar enjoys. LCP Delta’s Dina Darshini asks why the gap persists.
Dina Darshini
Image: Eaton
From ESS News
Most decision-makers (CFOs, COOs, energy managers) are comfortable with solar’s passive, intuitive value proposition: generating onsite, offsetting grid consumption, and savings per megawatt-hour.
Batteries, by contrast, are active assets. Their returns depend on how intelligently they are operated on tariff structures that reward flexibility, and on access to electricity markets where revenues fluctuate daily. As a result, many decision-makers still lack confidence in whether the business case is reliable.
At the same time, project developers and energy service companies are still focusing on selling the technology, rather than articulating the battery’s value in the language of the customer’s challenges (energy cost, resilience, capacity limits, or sustainability objectives). Until that communication gap is closed, market hesitation will persist.
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