EU increases investment in clean sectors to cope with energy crisis

The EU is actively responding to the current energy crisis by increasing investment in clean energy. Southern Europe is dominated by photovoltaics, while Western and Northern Europe are dominated by wind power. Countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, in particular, have abundant offshore wind power resources and are relatively mature offshore wind power markets in the world. The IEA said forecasts for European renewable energy capacity additions will rise by 40% as European countries step up efforts to find alternatives to Russian gas. The agency said that newly installed solar and wind energy capacity is estimated to save EU electricity consumers 100 billion euros between 2021 and 2023 by replacing more expensive fossil fuels.

Raise renewable energy development goals

The goal put forward in the EU's "REPowerEU" plan is to increase the proportion of renewable energy from the previous 40% to 45% in 2030. Germany, Italy and other countries have also successively raised their renewable energy development goals. Germany plans to achieve the goal of 80% renewable energy power generation by 2030. Italy has increased its renewable energy development target to 64% in 2030. According to Italy’s newly revised climate and energy plan, Italy’s renewable energy installed capacity development target will be increased from the previous 80 million kilowatts to 131 million kilowatts by 2030. In addition, Portugal released a revised draft of the "2030 National Energy and Climate Plan", which increases the renewable energy power target from 80% to 85% in 2030, and increases the share of renewable energy in total final energy consumption from 47%. % increased to 49%.

Not only that, the EU has also set specific renewable energy development goals in the fields of transportation, industry, construction, heating, and refrigeration: in the transportation field, the proportion of renewable energy utilization should reach 29% by 2030; in the industrial field, the goal It is to increase the proportion of renewable energy by 1.6% every year. By 2030, the proportion of hydrogen production from renewable energy in the total industrial hydrogen consumption should reach 42%; in the construction field, by 2030, building energy consumption will be 49%, and renewable energy The annual growth rate of consumption reached 1.6%.

Tapping the potential of offshore wind power resources

Offshore wind power is considered a more economical and reliable energy alternative. Currently, many European countries have formulated offshore wind power development plans. For example, the European Union and the United Kingdom have respectively increased their offshore wind power installed capacity targets to more than 60 million kilowatts and 50 million kilowatts in 2030. At the second North Sea Summit held in April this year, nine countries including Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway and Luxembourg signed the "Ostend Declaration" on the development of offshore wind energy in the North Sea, further enhancing the original There is a North Sea offshore wind power installation target. The "Ostend Declaration" emphasized that participating countries will make full use of the energy and industrial potential of the North Sea region and build it into "Europe's largest green energy base" by 2050. The offshore wind power installed capacity that the UK plans to deploy by 2030 includes 5 million kilowatts of floating offshore wind power installed capacity. In response, the UK launched the 160 million pound Floating Offshore Wind Power Manufacturing Investment Plan (FLOWMIS) to improve the offshore floating offshore wind power supply chain capabilities, promote cost reduction and commercialization of offshore floating wind power technology, and achieve industry, regional economic growth and Improve social benefits, ensure additional power supply, and achieve the goal of net zero emissions by 2050. Germany's revised Renewable Energy Law sets the goal of offshore wind energy reaching at least 30 million kilowatts by 2030, and onshore wind energy reaching about 115 million kilowatts, with about 10 million kilowatts added every year.

At present, with the increase in offshore wind power projects, Europe does not have a complete plan for the grid construction of offshore wind farms, and submarine cables are usually constructed point-to-point, which requires comprehensive offshore grid deployment and onshore grid enhancement. At the same time, existing equipment production capacity in Europe cannot meet its annual demand for new wind power installations, and there are bottlenecks in the supply chain of cables, wind turbine casings and other components.

Increase photovoltaic development efforts

The EU plans to connect 320 million kilowatts of solar photovoltaic power to the grid by 2025, double that of 2020, and almost double again to 600 million kilowatts by 2030. To achieve this goal, the EU's annual new installed capacity must reach at least 45 million kilowatts in the future. In addition, the EU has also proposed a phased rooftop photovoltaic legislation. By 2026, all new public buildings and commercial buildings with a roof area greater than 250 square meters must install rooftop photovoltaics, and all eligible existing buildings need to be completed by 2027. Installation, all new residential buildings after 2029 will require mandatory installation of rooftop photovoltaics. The UK has decided to increase photovoltaic installed capacity fivefold by 2035, with an average annual growth of more than 5 million kilowatts. As one of the six European countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions, the Netherlands is under tremendous pressure for energy transition. In recent years, the proportion of photovoltaic power generation in the Dutch power structure has increased significantly, rising rapidly from 1% in 2015 to 14% in 2022. In 2022, photovoltaic power generation in the Netherlands will account for 7.3% of the total power generation in EU countries. As the country with the highest proportion of photovoltaic power generation among EU countries, the Netherlands is undoubtedly the new "leader" in the field of photovoltaic power generation in Europe.

The report "European Photovoltaic Manufacturing: Understanding the Value Chain to Build Successful Industrial Policies" released in May this year pointed out that rebuilding the EU photovoltaic industry faces challenges. It is mentioned that polysilicon, ingot and wafer production are key links in photovoltaic manufacturing and are also lagging areas of EU production capacity. There is still a lack of sufficient industrial manufacturing capabilities and investment to establish a strong local supply chain; in addition to technology, investment and licensing In addition to obstacles, skills shortages related to manufacturing and operation also need to be addressed; photovoltaic manufacturing cost competitiveness mainly depends on energy costs, and operational challenges in photovoltaic manufacturing from raw material production to module assembly need to be addressed, and support for R&D and deployment of more advanced Manufacturing technologies for high energy efficiency and greater throughput; the continent’s lack of integration into the PV value chain requires special attention to ensuring capacity availability across the entire PV value chain.

Promote large-scale supply of green hydrogen

The EU plans to produce 10 million tons of green hydrogen in 2030 and import green hydrogen to 10 million tons. In March this year, the European Commission proposed the European Hydrogen Bank plan while launching the Net Zero Industry Act. At present, the EU Hydrogen Energy Bank has been officially launched. According to the plan, the EU will launch the first batch of renewable hydrogen energy pilot auctions under the Innovation Fund this autumn. This will be the first financial instrument of the Hydrogen Energy Bank. Through the Hydrogen Bank, the European Commission hopes to further support the introduction of green hydrogen within the EU as well as hydrogen imports from internationally. In February this year, the EU announced 170 million euros to fund Danish hydrogen production technology and support renewable energy electrolysis hydrogen production and its derivatives technology. The industry estimates that to achieve the 2030 green hydrogen supply target of the EU's "REPowerEU" plan, the installed capacity of electrolyzers needs to reach 90-100 million kilowatts, while the current capacity is only 1.6-1.75 million kilowatts.

Germany is the most representative country in Europe in developing hydrogen energy. Germany plans to significantly increase its domestic electrolysis hydrogen capacity and plans to double its domestic electrolysis hydrogen capacity target from 5 million kilowatts to at least 10 million kilowatts by 2030. Germany will also establish efficient hydrogen energy infrastructure and plans to transform and build more than 1,800 kilometers of hydrogen pipelines by 2027/2028. France recently launched the Green Industry Act to accelerate the decarbonization of heavy industry, with a particular focus on promoting carbon-free hydrogen. It is expected to introduce a new hydrogen energy strategy within this year to further clarify how to quickly deploy and implement green hydrogen production, with a view to 2030 It has achieved a green hydrogen production capacity of 6.5 million kilowatts. The American company Plug Power announced this year that it will invest 6 billion euros to build three hydrogen production plants in Finland to supply hydrogen to Western Europe through a pipeline. The electrolyzer production capacity built in this project will account for nearly 5% of the "REPowerEU" target. In order to promote intra-EU exports, Ireland and Germany signed a joint statement on May 31 to cooperate in the field of green hydrogen. The Irish government has set a goal of increasing offshore wind power installed capacity to 5 million kilowatts by 2030, and plans to add an additional 2 million kilowatts of offshore wind power for the production of green hydrogen.