Emphasises that hydropower must play a central role in the planned development of RES, primarily to balance out the increasingly volatile generation of power by RES but also, through pumped storage, as a method of storing electricity; stresses, therefore, that the existing development potential of hydroelectric power generation and pumped storage in the EU must be fully exploited;

32. Underlines the potential of smart grids, demand side management tools and energy storage solutions, both to facilitate the best possible integration of RES-E and to even out grid fluctuations; re-emphasises the urgent need for further research into, and deployment of, electricity storage including on the basis of cooperation with pumped-storage hydroelectric plants; notes in particular the need for further research into variable-speed storage options, which offer a more flexible system for controlling storage speeds and thus facilitate faster and better-matching connections; calls on the Member States to avoid imposing a double ta ...[+++]x burden on electricity storage operators;

Underlines the potential of smart grids, demand side management tools and energy storage solutions, both to facilitate the best possible integration of RES-E and to even out grid fluctuations; re-emphasises the urgent need for further research into, and deployment of, electricity storage including on the basis of cooperation with pumped-storage hydroelectric plants; notes in particular the need for further research into variable-speed storage options, which offer a more flexible system for controlling storage speeds and thus facilitate faster and better-matching connections; calls on the Member States to avoid imposing a double tax bu ...[+++]rden on electricity storage operators;

3. For the purposes of paragraph 1(a), gross final consumption of electricity from renewable energy sources shall be calculated as the quantity of electricity produced in a Member State from renewable energy sources, excluding the production of electricity in pumped storage units from water that has previously been pumped uphill.

Further, electricity produced in pumped storage units from water that has previously been pumped uphill should not be considered to be electricity produced from renewable energy sources.

the quantity of electricity actually generated in year i by all hydropower plants of the Member State measured in GWh, excluding production from pumped storage units using water that has previously been pumped uphill;