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The EU Commission is about to launch 584 billion in investments in the electricity grid, which we will all pay for

The European Commission is expected to propose a plan next week to accelerate investments in networks to support the EU's renewable energy goals, according to a draft of the plan seen by Reuters .

“Grids, the backbone of today's electricity systems, are set to become increasingly important as the clean energy transition progresses, but they currently receive too little attention,” the International Energy Agency said last month ( AIE) in a report.

According to the agency, global annual investments in energy networks must double to more than $ 600 billion per year by 2030 if national climate and energy goals are to be met. For example, the US electricity grid would have to at least double in size to allow for the transition.

The EU has estimated investment needs of 584 billion euros, 634 billion dollars, by 2030, for both transmission and distribution networks, to achieve its objectives,

Kadri Simson, European Energy Commissioner, said earlier this year.

The EU aims to increase investment in networks with the new plan to be presented next week. The proposal will include priority access to EU funding and faster permitting processes granted to 68 electricity projects that will be given the status of "projects of common interest", according to the draft seen by Reuters.

“Grids must adapt to a more decentralized, digitalized and flexible electricity system, with millions of rooftop solar panels and local energy communities sharing resources,” the draft plan reads.
The EU is sticking to its goal of being carbon neutral by 2050. Earlier this year the European Parliament approved much higher binding targets for renewable energy by 2030, approving the Renewable Energy Directive, a key part of the European Green Deal to make the EU a carbon-neutral bloc by 2050.

The directive, which must be approved by EU member states to become law, increases the share of renewable energy in EU energy consumption to 42.5% by 2030, up from the current target of 32%.

Obviously someone will have to pay for these enormous and, in the mentality and language of the commission, "Ambitious" investments. The problem is that those who pay for these investments, in the end, will always have to be the same ones, the European citizens, who had no say in the definition of this directive. But they will have to become more ambitious, and poorer.

According to Eurostat, renewable energy accounted for 21.8% of energy consumed in the EU in 2021, down from 22.1% in 2020.


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The article The EU Commission is about to launch 584 billion in investments in the electricity grid, which we will all pay comes from Economic Scenarios .


This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-commissione-ue-sta-per-lanciare-584-miliardi-di-investimenti-nella-rete-elettrica-che-pagheremo-tutti-noi/ on Sun, 26 Nov 2023 08:00:34 +0000.