The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC)and the Ministry of Energy and Industry of Albania held a joint workshop on the future role of energy storage in South Eastern Europe on 21 -22 October in Tirana.The workshop was attended by 40 specialists from academia, government, regulatory bodies, power industry and consultancies from both EU accession and candidate countries as well as from EU Member States.The participants actively discussed the technical, financial and regulatory challenges of the energy systems of the Western Balkans, and options of how these could be overcome.