A consortium of over 3500 European electricity companies, represented by Eurelectric, announced their support for the ambition to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by at least -55% by 2030 and called for an Electrification Strategy to enable the uptake of clean electric solution for other sectors of the economy.
In a letter to the Heads of State and Government, EU’s electricity generators, distribution operators and suppliers, called for the development of a dedicated Electrification Strategy, aimed at driving investments and accelerating the overall decarbonisation of the economy.
Why an Electrification Strategy is urgently needed?
First, an accelerated decarbonisation ambition triggers higher investment needs, and puts a stronger pressure on those Member States that are at earlier stages of the energy transition. Investors need clear signals to allocate funds to such capital intensive projects. It is therefore essential to get the budget right, and to devise compensatory measures, proportionally to the new climate commitments, to mitigate associated compliance costs.
Second, the deployment of renewables must be accelerated. To meet the objectives, within the next 10 years, the pace of deploying wind and solar capacities must at least double. But a number of barriers are still hampering the electrification and decarbonisation processes. Among those, there are the permit granting procedures, which often delay the deployment by 6-10 years. With this in mind, we would have to have everything decided before Christmas, in order to launch the massive deployment of renewables needed by 2030.
Third, the electrification rates must increase to make use of the ever more abundant renewable supply. The share of renewables is expected to reach around 68% of the power mix by 2030 (up from this year’s 40%). Speeding up the electrification of end-use sectors is necessary to avoid a situation where the oversupply of renewable-based electricity negatively impacts the prices and markets. A situation where prices are constantly into the negative, would reduce the ability to invest in the long term. This is why, Eurelectric is calling on the EU leaders to thoroughly assess how this situation would affect the power market and prices in the future.
The position paper “Stepping up Europe’s 2030 climate ambition” can now be consulted here.
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