<p>Approval procedures for pumped storage and storage hydropower plants are highly complex, risky, time-consuming, and associated with high costs and legal uncertainties, and last often more than ten years. This is one of the reasons why planning activities have been cancelled for the majority of projects planned just a few years ago. No new pumped storage power plants have been commissioned in Germany in the last twenty years, while the global pumped storage market is booming. Pumped storage power plants already fulfil key functions for integrating highly fluctuating electricity generation from renewable energies, particularly from PV and wind power plants, and for ensuring grid stability, and further expansion is necessary. Based on a brief overview of the situation and an analysis ranging from public perception of projects to legal uncertainties, opportunities for shortening and simplifying the procedures are presented. The need for this has already been recognised, and initial measures have been initiated in Germany and at the EU level; however, further steps are required soon. Specific projects and potential for the further expansion of pumped storage and the renewal of permits for existing pumped storage also exist in Germany.</p>