As the dust settles on COP29, the Grids and Storage Pledge included in initiatives for governments and interested organisations, which involves a target to increase global energy storage capacity to 1.5 TW by 2030, is a big win for the hydropower sector and particularly pumped storage which presently dominates mass-scale energy storage. The success of delivering on these targets will depend on how nations go on to set their own local targets. Gordon Edge, Head of Policy IHA sets out a list of areas that policy makers need to address to form robust targets for their jurisdictions.

• Failing to plan is planning to fail. How much storage is needed will emerge from an overall plan of the energy system in the coming decades. In general, the more variable renewables in the power mix, the more storage is required. The global targets suggested for 2030 are only five years away, and thus likely to be fulfilled primarily by installing chemical batteries, which can be built quickly. The need for long-duration storage means that targets need to be set further out, as either the assets need longer to plan and build, which is the case with PSH, or the technologies need time to scale up.

• Duration matters. It is vital these pledges turn rapidly into actions and policy mechanisms. The shift of energy generation to wind and solar is the fastest transition in history. In 2023, 80% of additional net global generation capacity was solar and wind, growing at compound rates of 22% and 11% annually. This shift to variable renewable sources is good for reaching net zero targets, but it also means we need to be able to store the solar and wind energy when we have excess supply and then use it when we need it. If we do not have a means to store this fantastic amount of variable renewable energy, there is a very real risk of grids either having too much or too little supply to meet the changing demand through the day, the seasons, and indeed over time as we move to more electrification. This has been the ignored crisis within the current energy crisis, so it is encouraging to see storage on the world stage at COP29 for the first time. As more of a power system’s supplies come from wind and/or solar energy, the risk of a “resource drought” increases, where those energy forms are not available for an extended period. Storage can help bridge these gaps if it is long duration, able to provide energy for periods from eight hours to several days at rated power capacity. Governments need to ensure there is enough long duration storage in the planned mix of technologies within their Nationally Determined Contributions.

• Work with what you’ve got. It’s important to match your target to the available resources. While chemical batteries are widely available, they will likely need to be imported; home-grown options like Pumped Storage Hydropower (PSH) can be dependent on there being suitable sites. And there are plenty of potential sites - the Australian National University has developed an atlas of over 600,000 potential off-river sites - all outside protected areas or populated areas. Even if only 1 in 100 of these were viable then we have enough storage to make full use of wind and solar generation around the world several times over. This doesn’t include the extensive opportunities for potential brownfields sites - again ANU has developed an atlas.

• Policymakers need to deliver. Many world leaders are waking up to how much investment is needed to maintain grid stability to balance the rapid roll-out of variable renewable energies. This realisation is leading to a welcome renaissance of PSH globally. China has been leading the way with massive construction and delivery of projects and has included PSH in multiple Five-Year Plans, with a target for 120GW by 2030. In 2023, numerous major PSH projects were announced in India following policy changes to attract investment in reliability and a PSH target of 27GW by 2032, and in Australia, they plan to quadruple firming capacity to 49GW by 2050 with much of it coming from PSH. Targets like these inspire developers to invest in bringing new projects to the point of construction. To get those built will require a policy environment that is conducive to the large up-front investment in this scale of infrastructure. The market alone will not deliver this. Unless there is certainty in the revenues that projects can obtain, the capital won’t flow. Governments will need to show that they are serious about policy support if industry is to take any national targets seriously.

Overall, IHA welcomes the Global Energy Storage and Grids Targets. Recognising the mix of renewables as well as volume is essential to getting the world to get to net zero by 2050. But success will need government intervention. We call on all governments to implement the policies necessary to ensure that pumped storage hydropower plays its full and essential role in the energy transition.  

Find out more about the International Forum for Pumped Storage Hydropower in Paris Sept 2025.

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