On Tuesday 14 January, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy published a report to provide an overview of the state of ‘net-zero’ industrial production in the EU and of national policies in this area in the Member States. The report is intended as a basis for more targeted recommendations.
To strengthen their production capacity, 22 Member States have introduced policies, which are supported by economic incentives in 19 countries and training programmes in 15 others. However, four Member States have no dedicated strategy.
In addition, most of the measures focus more on demand than on developing industrial capacity.
The gap between Germany, with a production capacity of up to 17.75 GW for photovoltaic and wind technologies, and Luxembourg and Estonia, with capacities of 25 to 75 MW and 100 to 200 MW respectively, also illustrates the persistent imbalances.
The complexity and slowness of industrial approval procedures, which can take longer than the recommended 9 to 18 months, are also hindering the development of these technologies. These are issues that some countries, such as France and Germany, are trying to overcome by adopting decisive legislation, such as that on green industry, introduced in 2023 in France.
Finally, the document mentions a shortage of skilled workers – one million people are expected to be lacking this year – which could be remedied by continuing training and vocational retraining.
Read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/f2u (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)