Solar advocacy organization, the Global Solar Council (GSC), has expanded its mandate to now also include battery storage, making it the world’s 1st global association for both solar and storage. This move, it says, addresses a critical gap in renewable energy representation.
Announced during New York Climate Week and the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA80), the move addresses storage’s vital role in achieving energy security, said GSC.
Earlier, in an exclusive interview with TaiyangNews Managing Director at the TaiyangNews & SNEC Solar Leadership Conversations 2025 at this year’s SNEC, GSC CEO Sonia Dunlop had called the council the global solar PV and battery storage industry association (see SNEC 2025 Exclusive: Interview With Global Solar Council CEO Sonia Dunlop).
Stressing the growing significance of battery storage, GSC notes that the global installed capacity of this technology has expanded from less than 1 GW in 2013 to over 155 GW at present. Another 350 GWh is expected to come online in 2025 alone.
Investor interest in the space is growing, with the annual storage investment in battery storage reaching $60 billion in 2024. Yet, a lot more needs to be done to achieve a global storage capacity of 1.5 TW, including 1.2 TW of battery installations to be able to support the goal of tripling renewable energy by 2030. GSC says, as a storage association, it will guide future capital investments towards creating maximum impact.
“Until today, the world's fastest-growing energy storage technology had no unified global voice. That changes now,” explained Dunlop. “Solar and storage have evolved from complementary technologies to an integrated solution transforming how the world thinks about reliable, locally produced power. GSC is stepping up to lead this transformation because we need to move beyond traditional silos,” she added.
This should comprise both short- and long-duration storage, whether mechanical, thermal, or chemical, pumped storage hydro, and even long-term chemical storage solutions such as green hydrogen, stresses GSC in a position paper launched at the event.
Titled Connecting the Sun, GSC’s position paper talks about the significance of solar+storage for the energy transition. This combination can emulate conventional grid services through grid-forming enabled battery energy storage systems (BESS). The association seeks policy support at all levels – governments, multilateral, international organizations, industry, and civil society for solar and storage. At the global level, it seeks:
Facilitating regional super-grids and creating guidelines for cross-border interconnections to enhance system flexibility, especially in ASEAN, West Africa, Southern Africa, India-Gulf, Europe-MENA, and Central America.
Nations should share best practices to facilitate structured peer-learning for high-renewable energy grid operation with grid-forming capabilities.
International cooperation must be promoted to expand manufacturing and logistics capacity for cables, transformers, substations and HVDC equipment which should be backed by long-term investment ‘signals’ to de-risk production.
Align standards for grid-forming technologies, cybersecurity, and cross-border clean power transmission to ensure safer and more efficient grid operations.
Early and transparent community engagement to build trust and public support. This will reduce public opposition and avoid project delays.
Governments at their level should work to improve national grids, embed storage within planning for grid buildout, remove barriers to hybrid plant development, and set up a national BESS or short-duration energy storage target or action plan with clear milestones for 2030 and beyond.
GSC further demands that they should empower prosumers and incentivize self-consumption. BESS should be able to consume and inject power without double-charging. At the national level, governments can also facilitate a standardized, low-cost, and automated connection process for distributed solar and storage to connect to the grid.
For emerging markets and developing economies, the GSC seeks donors and multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank, to scale up concessional finance for grid infrastructure, enable access to affordable equipment, and invest in training and workforce planning, among other measures.
The complete position paper is available on GSC’s website.
