Energy Transition in Europe | www.energy-cities.eu

The European Union needs to reform its electricity market as quickly as possible in order to stabilise prices for consumers and stimulate investment in renewables, EU politicians have told EURACTIV.

Almost all members of the lower house of the Parliament of Romania voted for a bill limiting the prices of gas and electricity for households and small businesses and introducing support for a range of other categories of consumers. Electricity producers with the exception of power plants that run on fossil fuels will pay a tax on revenues from prices higher than EUR 91 per MWh.

MILAN, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Italy is looking to monitor fuel poverty as part of broader plans to reform the energy market and temper price increases for consumers, a government decree showed.
Under the plan, presented to parliament for a non-binding opinion, a national observatory for fuel poverty would be set up at the Energy Transition ministry within 90 days of the decree coming into effect.

To deal with the current instability in energy prices and accelerate the green transition, there is a need for a central energy authority acting similar to modern central banks in money markets, argues Mike Parr, founder of PWR, a consultancy specialising in power systems.

Les tarifs du gaz sur les marchés internationaux ont quadruplé depuis avril, un choc pour les ménages et les entreprises. Cette nouvelle situation, qui touche l’ensemble des sources d’énergie, risque de s’installer dans la durée.

The IEA’s report released earlier this year, “Hydrogen in North-Western Europe: A vision towards 2030”, welcomes the fact that the six countries analysed – Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK – have the ambition to build a hydrogen economy. They are Europe’s major hydrogen producers and consumers, have major ports that already service this sector, have natural gas infrastructure that can be repurposed, and access to new offshore wind and carbon storage capacity that can make low or no-carbon hydrogen. But the report’s main purpose is to warn that the current pipeline of projects is not enough to meet ambitions. Policies must be strengthened, with better coordination. The report makes its recommendations, including the development of an integrated regional market, support for innovation and market size scale-up, and the creation of a strategy for new production capacities for low-carbon hydrogen.

German energy company Uniper has confirmed its intention to sue the Dutch government over the country’s planned coal phase-out, in what will be the second legal challenge filed against the Netherlands this year under the controversial Energy Charter Treaty.

In May 2020, the IEA market update on renewable energy provided an analysis that looked at the impact of Covid-19 on renewable energy deployment in 2020 and 2021. This early assessment showed that the Covid-19 crisis is hurting – but not halting – global renewable energy growth. Half a year later, the pandemic continues to affect the global economy and daily life. However, renewable markets, especially electricity-generating technologies, have already shown their resilience to the crisis. Renewables 2020 provides detailed analysis and forecasts through 2025 of the impact of Covid-19 on renewables in the electricity heat and transport sectors.

The energy transition is disrupting the entire fossil fuel system, with profound consequences for financial markets and geopolitics.
In this report we calculate the size and vulnerability of the different parts of the system. We take a wider definition of the whole fossil fuel system, looking at stocks and flows, supply and demand, fossil fuels, infrastructure and financial markets.

Energy service companies have been around for decades, working with municipalities to renovate public buildings such as schools, hospital and swimming pools in exchange for a guaranteed return on investment in the form of energy savings. With the EU's building renovation wave coming soon to your local town hall, has the time finally arrived for the energy services industry? In this special report, EURACTIV gives an overview of the challenges and opportunities facing the sector.

The Government of North Macedonia has declared a state of energy crisis to secure electricity supplies to consumers in the country. It will last 30 days.
The government’s decision enables measures and activities to be taken, including financial intervention to purchase additional quantities of electricity. It determines the rights and obligations of state-owned power producer Elektrani na Severna Makedonija (ESM) and transmission system operator MEPSO.
The government’s intention is to enable the transfer of budget funds to these companies.

ENEA recently participated through the contribution of experts from the National Energy Efficiency Agency, in the drafting of the “WHITE PAPER: Open Dialogue on Energy Poverty”, a text prepared by the Alliance Against Energy Poverty, with the participation of other important stakeholders at national level such as associations, citizen representatives, research bodies, specialists and professionals

“Playing around with the emissions trading scheme” would only have a “very small” impact on the current energy price crunch, EU climate chief Frans Timmermans said on Wednesday (6 October) as he walked into a meeting of EU environment ministers in Luxembourg.

The hike in energy prices is only marginally caused by the rise in CO2 prices on the carbon market, Timmermans said, adding that he did not expect this to derail discussions on the revision of the EU emissions trading scheme that EU environment ministers will have later today.

“We need to be clear about one thing: this is the market, because the demand from us coming out of the COVID crisis is higher than in the last 25 years,” the Dutchman insisted.

The Commission adopted today a Communication on Energy Prices, to tackle the exceptional rise in global energy prices, which is projected to last through the winter, and help Europe's people and businesses. The Communication includes a “toolbox” that the EU and its Member States can use to address the immediate impact of current prices increases, and further strengthen resilience against future shocks. Short-term national measures include emergency income support to households, state aid for companies, and targeted tax reductions. The Commission will also support investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency; examine possible measures on energy storage and purchasing of gas reserves; and assess the current electricity market design.

The European Union said on Wednesday (6 October) it will examine the way its power market is run and consider proposals to revamp regulations within the bloc, as it seeks to keep plans to tackle climate change on track amid record-high energy costs.

European electricity and gas prices have rocketed this year as tight gas supplies have collided with strong demand in economies recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gas network operators from 11 countries have joined the European hydrogen backbone initiative, presenting an updated vision for a pure hydrogen network of nearly 40,000 kilometres by 2040.

Spain has auctioned a total of 3 GW of renewable energy capacity under the country’s new auction design, the Contracts-for-Difference (CfD) model, resulting in the lowest ever price for new onshore wind energy in Europe, of EUR 20 per MWh, according to WindEurope.

The CfD model brings the lowest prices for renewables because it minimizes the financing costs of new projects. CfDs are cheap for governments, as governments get paid back as well as paying out. In this way, citizens win twice, both as consumers and taxpayers, according to WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson.

I juni måned 1978 blev Danish Board of District Heating stiftet som eksportorganisation for en række danske virksomheder. Formålet med rådet var at fremme salg af danske leverancer og dansk viden inde

Large-scale geothermal energy has long been constrained to volcanic areas where heat can easily be captured and turned into electricity. Today, breakthroughs in drilling techniques are opening new horizons for the technology, offering the prospect of “geothermal anywhere”.

The Fossil-free Energy Districts project, FED, is an innovative effort by the City of Gothenburg to decrease the use of energy and the dependence on fossil fuel in a built environment. A unique local marketplace for electricity, district heating and cooling is developed together with nine strong partners.

The German government has found the right premises for its hydrogen strategy by recognising that only green hydrogen supply, made from renewable energies, is sustainable, writes Felix Heilmann. But there are also shortcomings, he says.
Felix Heilmann is a researcher at E3G, an independent think tank operating to accelerate the transition to a climate-safe world.