Storage: The New Requirement for Financing Renewable Projects?
At the Portugal Energy Storage Forum 2026, the debate showed that financing solar without storage is increasingly difficult — but the underlying problem is regulatory.
STARTSIMPLE attended the Portugal Energy Storage Forum 2026, organised by APREN, where the debate centred on whether it is still possible to finance renewable projects without storage. The answer is increasingly no, especially for solar: price cannibalisation linked to high renewable penetration is driving down captured prices, making the "stand-alone" solar model less and less viable for project finance.
PPA vs. Merchant Projects
Storage allows energy to be shifted in time, stabilises revenue and reduces market exposure, but still faces revenue uncertainty and inadequate remuneration for system services. Projects backed by a robust PPA can still be financed without storage, but for merchant projects storage becomes almost mandatory. Compared with pumped hydro storage — more stable, predictable and long-lived, but with high CAPEX and complex licensing — batteries emerge as more flexible, though less mature.
- The core problem is not technological, it is regulatory
- Essential services are still not properly remunerated
- There is no adequate market design and not enough predictability
- The best-positioned projects will be those that already build in flexibility from the start