Tag: electricity grid

SPECIAL REPORT: Clean tech jobs to power green growth is considered a no-brainer by progressive policy makers, NGOs and businesses, and the idea forms the core of the UN’s Year of Sustainable Energy For All (SE4ALL). But some economists, academics and environmental thinkers increasingly question its central premise.

The EU’s 2020 energy targets will be imperilled if a three-year guillotine for transmission line permit appeals is watered down, the head of Europe’s electricity network operators warned yesterday (29 February) at the launch of a 10-Year network development plan.

Arthouros Zervos, president of the European Wind Energy Association, shares his perspective on how to improve Europe's ageing power grid networks so that they can integrate the large amounts of renewable energies needed to meet the EU's 2020 targets.

EU proposals to impose a three-year deadline on local authorities to issue construction permits for new power lines has met with sharp opposition in the 27-country bloc, EurActiv has learned.

A survey of European stakeholders has found overwhelming support for giving priority, funds and planning waivers to allow the speedy construction of European grid infrastructure.

€200 billion is needed to upgrade Europe's gas and electricity grids over the coming decade, the European Commission said yesterday (17 November), adding that half of the sum will have to come from government coffers at a time of budgetary presssure.

Only European electricity network planning will deliver the required transmission capacity to meet current energy challenges and optimise the use of existing networks and power plants, Brussels-based think-tank Bruegel said yesterday (7 June). Its new analysis shows that upcoming EU legislation will not be enough to do the trick.

The expansion of renewable energies poses a challenge to existing electricity grids. The boom in weather-dependent power sources like wind and solar requires the development of storage technologies and smart grids, write Thu-Lan Nguyen and Josef Auer of Deutsche Bank (DB) Research in an April paper.

Europe will need to invest up to 28 billion euros in electricity infrastructure over the next five years to secure its key energy goals, including integrating renewable energies into the grid, Konstantin Staschus, secretary-general of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), told EurActiv in an interview.

The European Commission is working on a framework for developing Europe's electricity grids to integrate the massive increase in renewable energy expected in the next decade, a senior official said last week (28 January).

The European Investment Bank (EIB) yesterday (28 September) inked a loan of 300 million euros to lay an electricity cable between Ireland and Wales.

The electricity industry's call for subsidies to build new grid interconnections was dismissed as a misguided, 'one-size-fits-all' solution to creating an integrated EU energy market during a conference in Brussels yesterday (6 July).

Against all odds, South Eastern Europe's electricity grid was able to withstand soaring consumption during the January gas crisis between Russia and Ukraine. Collapse in any of the countries would have triggered a long-lasting regional blackout, experts told EurActiv.

Upgrading the current European electricity grid with smarter technologies is key to overcoming the infrastructure challenges posed by the EU’s energy and climate package, according a leading supplier of power generation technologies.

A conference organised by UCTE, the Union for the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity, will try to fill a communication gap between policymakers and technicians, Dr. Klaus Kleinekorte, managing director of German energy giant RWE, told EurActiv in an interview.

A joint venture involving transmission system operators from Germany, Denmark and Norway has been given the green light by the Commission, opening up the North European electricity market.

Plug-in hybrids and battery electric cars can offer a sustainable transportation system for Europe but barriers to the development of these "superior technologies", including subsidies to the oil sector, must first come to an end, says the green NGO.

France, Germany and six other member states have submitted proposals outlining a 'third option' for energy liberalisation. The full document, seen by EurActiv, argues that the Commission's proposals to unbundle vertically-integrated energy firms will not achieve their desired effect in terms of more grid investments and lower energy prices.

French and Spanish leaders have promised to move forward a stalled project to interconnect France and Spain's electricity grid across the Pyrenees, following a preliminary report by former EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti.

The Parliament's Industry, Energy and Research (ITRE) committee has voted in favour of a report that supports the full liberalisation of electricity markets, rejecting an earlier proposal that called for continued ownership of distribution networks. The report also makes an important distinction between the liberalisation of gas and electricity markets. 

Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has welcomed the move by France, Belgium and the Netherlands as the first step towards European-wide integration of electricity markets, as member states struggle to agree on common energy policy.

European regulators have launched an enquiry over the power cut that briefly left 10 million people in the dark last week-end. But the outing also raised questions about the grid's ability to cope with the addition of renewable energy sources.

Researchers at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) look at worldwide liberalisation initiatives in the electricity industry and comparatively assess the potential for further development of the European Internal Electricity Market (IEM).

On the eve of an EU summit dominated by energy issues and controversial mergers, competition commissioner Neelie Kroes warns of "further measures" if energy liberalisation if not fully followed through.