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Coping with the Crisis: Increasing Resilience in Small Businesses in Europe through Energy Efficiency
…At the same time, SMEs are the backbone of economies around the world, making their survival essential.To help smaller businesses overcome these perilous challenges and to sustain European economies, the European Commission and the International Energy Agency have teamed up to raise the awareness of governments, businesses and related stakeholders about the available options to empower and protect SMEs. These include EU support measures currently available to SMEs that can be tailored to meet their specific needs. They also include steps that businesses can take themselves to use energy more efficiently and wisely, making them more resilient and secure…
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How to Avoid Gas Shortages in the European Union in 2023
…natural gas markets are not yet out of the danger created by Russia’s cuts to pipeline deliveries of gas. If gas exports from Russia drop to zero and China’s LNG imports rebound to 2021 levels, there is a risk of a shortfall gas supplies in 2023. Measures already taken by EU governments on energy efficiency, renewables and heat pumps should help reduce the size of this potential natural gas supply-demand gap in 2023. A recovery in nuclear and hydropower output from their decade-low levels in 2022 should also help narrow the gap. Despite all of this…
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Northwest European Hydrogen Monitor 2022
Northwest European Hydrogen Monitor Northwest Europe is at the forefront of renewable and low-emission hydrogen development. This region accounts for around half of Europe’s total hydrogen demand, and has a vast and untapped renewable energy potential in the North Sea. It also has a well-developed, interconnected gas network which could be partially repurposed to facilitate the transmission and distribution of renewable and low-emission hydrogen from production sites to demand centres.The development of renewable and low-emission hydrogen in Northwest Europe is expected to gradually scale up in the short- to medium-term to reach a…
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Is the European Union on track to meet its REPowerEU goals?
…energy does increase in all three of these sectors by 2027 in our main-case forecast, in none of them are levels consistent with the REPowerEU plan. While the share of renewables in electricity expands to almost 55% by 2027 in our main case, this is well below the 69% share the European Commission estimates is needed to support the REPowerEU plan. To enable further increases, governments across the European Union will need to minimise policy uncertainty, simplify permitting procedures and accelerate transmission and distribution network upgrades. Ramping up renewables-based power generation is also essential to expand renewable energy…
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Is renewable energy capacity in the European Union making windfall profits from high wholesale prices?
…In October 2022, the European Council passed a regulation on an emergency intervention to address high energy prices. The regulation proposes windfall-profit levies on fossil fuel producers through a temporary solidarity contribution, and on electricity generators (or inframarginal electricity producers) that have lower marginal costs than the price-setting gas units. The Council also introduced plans to cap the wholesale electricity price at EUR 180/MWh or lower, and expects that member countries would raise EUR 117 billion annually. This market intervention aims to reduce electricity prices to protect and support vulnerable energy consumers. As the proposal’s interpretation and…
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A 10-Point Plan to Reduce the European Union’s Reliance on Russian Natural Gas
…10-Point Plan is consistent with the EU’s climate ambitions and the European Green Deal and also points towards the outcomes achieved in the IEA Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Roadmap, in which the EU totally eliminates the need for Russian gas imports before 2030.We also consider possibilities for Europe to go even further and faster to limit near-term reliance on Russian gas, although these would mean a slower near-term pace of EU emissions reductions. If Europe were to take these additional steps, then near-term Russian gas imports could be reduced by more than 80 bcm…
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Will new PV manufacturing policies in the United States, India and the European Union create global PV supply diversification?
Renewables 2022 This report forms a component of Chapter 4 of Renewables 2022 and addresses a key question in renewable energy markets. The high level of geographical concentration in the global PV supply chain has led the European Union, India and the United States to introduce policy incentives to support domestic PV production. This could result in an unprecedented expansion of PV manufacturing outside of China in the next five years. However, diversifying manufacturing will be possible only if production costs fall to ensure competitiveness with the lowest-cost producers (e.g. in China and ASEAN countries) in both the short and…