According to a report by the Ember Climate think tank published on Thursday 26 September, the European Union would gain enormously, both in terms of energy and finance, by speeding up the introduction of flexibility solutions to store the surplus generated by renewable energies.
“By 2030, wind and solar energy could exceed domestic demand by 183 TWh across all EU countries”, says the report, which calls for “batteries and interconnectors” to “shift this excess clean power to replace fossil gas generation”.
According to Ember Climate, the share of solar energy reached or exceeded 80% of hourly electricity demand in nine EU countries between August 2023 and July 2024. Exploiting this surplus energy would generate savings of €9 billion.
While the EU has committed a great deal of resources to the massification of renewable energies, “clean flexibility”, i.e. the use of batteries and storage systems, is still lacking. Ember Climate recommends that this situation be remedied quickly to help the EU achieve its decarbonisation and fossil fuel phase-out targets.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/dmy (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)