06/16/2024 – 9:33
A joint grid for renewables would help the continent achieve its climate goals. But the money to build one and the spirit of cooperation are scarce in the European Union. It is not yet clear how the results of the European Parliament elections – which saw a rise in the far right – will influence the policies of the next European Commission, the executive body of the European Union. European bloc that brings together 27 member states. Among other important issues, this uncertainty hangs over the European Union’s plans to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
But one thing is certain: electricity from renewable sources will be a vital element in achieving Europe’s climate goals.
Some regions of the continent are especially suited to specific types of green energy production. But for the entire continent to benefit, energy companies would need to build a Europe-wide electrical grid that incorporated these new technologies.
“The European electrical infrastructure is already well developed,” Kadri Simson, an Estonian lawmaker who has been EU energy commissioner since 2019, told DW in May.
“We hope to electrify different sectors, which means our electricity consumption will double. And that, of course, means we also have to strengthen our electrical grid. We have to update our electrical grid to allow for the installation of more renewable energy,” he explained, adding that Europe is only halfway there at the moment.
Wind in winter, solar in summer
European countries have different strengths when it comes to green energy production. In the stormy north and in the North and Baltic Seas, wind energy is an asset. The sunnier south, in turn, is ideal for solar energy.
“Photovoltaics and wind energy complement each other well,” says Harald Bradke, head of the Competence Center for Energy Technology and Energy Systems at the Fraunhofer Institute in Karlsruhe, Germany. “Wind energy produces a lot of electricity in the winter months, and photovoltaics predominantly in the summer.”
The best methods for storing electricity also differ by geographic location. Pumped hydro energy storage facilities, which function like huge batteries, are a good option. If there is more electricity available than is consumed at any given time, it will be used to pump water to a reservoir or to the top of a mountain. When there is a need for electricity, the water is released again to drive the turbines that produce it.
“This type of storage exists, above all, in Scandinavia and in Alpine countries, such as Austria, Italy and Switzerland”, explains Bradke. “It can be used when the demand for electricity exceeds what we can produce at that time.”
More power lines are needed
Increased interconnectivity would make the supply of green electricity more efficient across the EU.
“Electricity would be cheaper because it would be obtained where it could be produced at the lowest price,” explains Bradke. Furthermore, according to him, it would not be necessary to turn on “expensive backup power plants that only operate a few hundred hours a year” so frequently.
Backup power plants, such as those running on natural gas, are currently used to cover demand during peak hours. But if Europe had a common electrical grid, this demand could be met by diverting electricity across the continent, from places where it is particularly cheap to others where it is needed.
“Everyone would benefit,” says Bradke.
However, before this can happen, additional power lines must be built – especially in places like Germany. Much electricity is produced by wind in the north of the country, but it is mainly needed further south, in the industrial center. Although this imbalance has been recognized for years, construction of the electrical lines needed to bring power to customers in the south has been very slow.
“We are seven years behind in expanding our network,” Bradke said. “We should have covered an additional 6,000 kilometers a long time ago.”
What prevents network expansion
Money is not the only problem in Germany. Many people don’t want to live near transmission towers because they fear the effect the power lines might have on their property values or their health. This has led some people to take legal action to stop new projects from being built.
But laying electrical lines underground is not a solution either: it would be much more expensive. Additionally, because hot electrical cables can dry out the soil, they could also be harmful to agriculture. Bradke explains that this would mean that farmers would be limited to what they could plant near buried power lines – if they could plant anything at all – and would need compensation.
These problems in a single country are an indication of the size of the challenge of creating a network on a European scale. “If the idea is to build a transmission line through Germany to allow power to flow from France to Poland, acceptance by the local population will probably be lower than if we were talking about supplying German electricity to Germany,” Bradke said.
Costs of 800 billion euros
Disputes over which country would end up being the biggest beneficiary are particularly likely when transmission lines cross borders, highlights EU Energy Commissioner Simson.
The solution to such disputes, according to her, is often to finance these projects using EU funds. As a result, the rules for building Trans-European Energy Networks (TEN-E) were changed to facilitate access to EU funds and speed up work.
A study commissioned by the industrial lobby organization European Round Table for Industry estimated that investments of 800 billion euros are needed in the electricity grid by 2030. At the end of 2023, the European Commission itself presented an action plan for the same period, with a estimated cost of 600 billion euros.
Simson said this may seem like a lot, but he stressed that the current energy supply also comes at a price.
“Let us keep in mind that, in 2022 alone, European consumers paid 600 billion euros to buy fossil fuels from third countries. So it may seem like a huge need for investment, but at the same time, fossil fuels don’t come for free either,” he pondered.
Where would the money come from?
Some of the costs could be covered by private investors, Bradke said, pointing to the recent start of construction of an electrical line between Germany and the United Kingdom financed exclusively with private funds.
“Major insurance companies and pension funds are very interested in investing in building networks,” says Bradke, adding that “revenues don’t need to be that high, but secure in the long term.”
He emphasized, however, that money is not the only important thing in expanding an electrical grid. Equally vital is accurately assessing the real need. For example, what would happen if fewer heat pumps or electric vehicles were used than planned? What if electric cars function as mass energy storage and also supply electricity to the grid?
Bradke said this would result in less power sharing on the grid. “And this could mean that we have high voltage lines that are not necessary,” he highlighted.
Simson said that EU funding for the expansion of the electricity grid comes from the financing instrument called the Connecting Europe Facility. “I strongly advocate that when the next multi-year financial framework is designed, we should just reinforce this fund,” he said.
The current financial framework, which determines the EU budget, runs until 2027. After that, everything will be in the hands of the next European Commission and the newly elected European Parliament.
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