Does Spain need a Bess energy system?

Currently, Spain has 6.3GW of hydroelectric and 1GW of thermal storage capacity installed. In fact, the non-BESS storage capacity in Spain is higher than in any other European country. As a result, the need for BESS to integrate renewable energy sources into the electricity system is less immediate than in the UK, for example.

Does Europe need energy storage?

Europe needs energy storage, and fast. Factories depend on uninterrupted power. So do logistics hubs, data centers, and food processing plants. Even a 30-minute outage can cause: BESS shields industrial operations. With the right system, a facility can switch to stored energy instantly during a blackout. No downtime. No losses.

How does Bess work?

Unlike traditional gas or coal plants, renewables lack inertia. Whereas renewable energy sources are vital for energy transition and undeniably revolutionary, they can’t stabilize grid frequency when the system is under stress. This is where BESS steps in. It fills the gaps. It keeps the grid steady. Without storage, grids collapse under strain.

Is Bess the missing piece in Europe's renewable transition?

BESS is the missing piece in Europe’s renewable transition. On April 28, 2025, large parts of Spain and Portugal were plunged into darkness. In a matter of seconds, over half of Spain’s electricity demand vanished from the grid. The outage left millions without power and industries scrambling for backup. This wasn’t a cyberattack.

How much power is in the Bess pipeline?

According to BloombergNEF, the total capacity currently in the BESS pipeline is around 3GW. However, Red Electrica’s (the Spanish TSO) registry of requested connection capacity, shows that accumulated requests add up to 22.1GW.

Who is a Bess provider?

Customers of FTM installations are primarily utilities, grid operators, and renewable developers looking to balance the intermittency of renewables, provide grid stability services, or defer costly investments to their grid. The BESS providers in this segment generally are vertically integrated battery producers or large system integrators.