Europe is Betting on Long Duration Energy Storage
- 11 hours ago
- 2 min read
Long-duration energy storage startup Ore Energy has landed what it says is the largest iron-air battery deal in continental Europe so far.
The Netherlands-based company has announced an agreement with Dutch energy supplier Budget Thuis - with the objective of storing excess wind power when it’s plentiful and release it back to the grid during periods when renewable generation drops and electricity prices rise.
The project is notable not only for its size but also because it’s the first iron-air storage agreement with a European energy supplier. As countries add more wind and solar power, utilities are looking for ways to store renewable energy for longer periods when weather conditions don’t cooperate and so that the energy generated does not go to waste.
Unlike lithium-ion batteries, which are typically designed to deliver energy over a few hours, Ore Energy’s iron-air batteries can store electricity for up to 100 hours. The technology uses iron, water, and air and is designed to help fill multi-day gaps in renewable energy generation. Modular 40-foot containers are used (as pictured in the rendering above), which can be easily linked together to scale up capacity.
Iron-air batteries are not perfect. They are bulkier and less efficient than lithium-ion batteries, so they lose more energy along the way. But for a grid-scale system that’s designed to store cheap wind and solar power for days at a time, size matters a lot less than cost. That’s where iron-air’s simple, inexpensive materials could give it an edge. Better yet, Ore Energy says it can rely on a European supply chain and thereby avoid many of the (expensive and difficult to reliably source) critical minerals used in conventional batteries.
The agreement follows an earlier grid-connected deployment in France. In February, the company announced the completion of a pilot project with EDF, which it described as Europe’s first grid-connected iron-air long-duration storage pilot. Conducted between August and November 2025, the project demonstrated up to four days of energy storage under real-world utility conditions.