Solar battery storage more than doubles in 2025

Households are increasingly storing electricity generated by rooftop solar panels for their own consumption with battery installation more than doubling in 2025.

Installed capacity of small-scale battery storage systems reached 31.645MWh across 3,150 installations, according to the 2026 National Report by the Regulator for Energy and Water Services (REWS).

The report shows that battery storage capacity grew by 109.7% in a year, up from 15.089MWh across 1,636 installations in 2024. In 2023, capacity stood at 6.687MWh across 848 installations.

The growth in installations has been supported by government investment grant schemes encouraging consumers to store renewable electricity and reduce the amount they draw from the public grid.

Batteries remain a minority in solar installations

Malta had more than 35,000 independent renewable energy producers, the vast majority of whom own rooftop solar systems. Comparing this figure with the 3,150 battery installations at the end of 2025 suggests an adoption rate of roughly 9% among renewable energy producers.

This is an indicative estimate rather than an exact measure, since the two figures may not cover precisely the same population. Nevertheless, the report suggests that battery storage remains far from universal among households and other renewable energy producers.

The estimated share has risen from around 2.4% in 2023 and 4.7% in 2024.

Small-scale batteries allow consumers to store surplus electricity generated by solar panels during the day and use it in the evening when solar production falls to zero but household demand remains high. The batteries store electricity that would otherwise be exported to the public grid and release it when needed.

An inverter converts electricity between the direct current generated by solar panels and batteries and the alternating current used by household appliances. This enables consumers to use more of the electricity they generate themselves, reducing their reliance on grid electricity and making better use of renewable energy.

By the end of 2025, 97.5% of Malta's grid-connected solar photovoltaic systems were rated at 11kWp or less, underlining the dominance of small-scale installations in the country’s solar energy profile.

A third of renewable electricity consumed on site

The growth in battery storage has coincided with an increase in renewable electricity generation. Malta generated an estimated 363.75GWh of renewable electricity in 2025, an 8% increase over the previous year.

Of this, 124.7GWh, or 34.3%, was consumed directly on site by producers rather than exported to the distribution grid. On site consumption includes solar power used directly while panels are generating electricity together with electricity stored in batteries.

Almost half of renewable energy producers, 48.3%, opted for partial-export arrangements, allowing them to prioritise their own consumption before sending surplus electricity to the grid.

By the end of 2025, Malta’s installed solar photovoltaic capacity had reached 268.6MWp in direct current terms, equivalent to 250.4MW in alternating current nominal capacity.

Carbon intensity falls as renewables grow

The increased contribution of renewable energy also coincided with a reduction in the carbon intensity of electricity supplied to consumers. The direct emissions factor fell by 4.2%, from 380g of carbon dioxide per kWh in 2024 to 364g in 2025.

However, renewable energy generated locally and injected into the public grid accounted for only 7.7% of total electricity supplied to end users.

At the annual peak in electricity demand, recorded at 636.6MW on 25 July 2025 at 5pm, local fossil fuel generation supplied 52.8% of demand, while electricity imported through the Malta-Italy interconnector accounted for 32.7%. Solar photovoltaic generation contributed 14.6%.

Utility-scale batteries planned for Marsa and Delimara

Alongside the growth in household storage, InterConnect Malta continued preparations for two utility-scale battery energy storage systems planned for Delimara and Marsa. The public tender for their engineering, procurement and construction closed in 2025, attracting 16 offers, while the associated EU state aid approval procedure was completed.

A 1MW battery storage system with a capacity of 2MWh, installed at the Xewkija Distribution Centre in 2021, also remains operational as a research and development facility to test network management and the integration of variable renewable energy.

National legislation adopted in 2025 transposed provisions relating to self-consumption, storage and network flexibility under the EU’s electricity market rules.