Projects Zone: Spotlight on the European Energy Projects

It is 100 seconds to midnight. Again. That’s the latest setting of the Doomsday Clock unveiled by the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which by the way includes 11 Nobel Laureates.

Since the 1940s the clock has indicated the world’s vulnerability, or Doomsday (midnight), to disaster from nuclear weapons and climate change, and it has been striking the same number of seconds for three years in a row (2020, 2021, 2022).

Which makes this statement from a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) highly timely and relevant: “The number of countries that have pledged to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century or soon after continues to grow, but so do global greenhouse gas emissions.

"This gap between rhetoric and action needs to close if we are to have a fighting chance of reaching net zero by 2050 and limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5°C”.

But the shift towards a low carbon economy – especially via the deployment of renewable sources of energy and the decentralization of energy generation – calls for a fundamental transformation of the global economy. “A transformation that would affect all countries and all sectors of the economy, either directly or indirectly,” says a recent report by consulting firm McKinsey.

Accelerating decarbonisation around the globe is the big challenge of the net-zero pledge. On top of all that, the EU Commission raised the climate goals for the European States and proposed a 55% cut in emissions compared to 1990 levels, by 2030.

The previous target had been a reduction of 40% by the same year. Seems a bit exaggerated at first glance, but as Mark van Stiphout, Deputy Head of Unit - Research Innovation Competitiveness and Digitalisation at DG Energy, European Commission - said in an Enlit Europe interview, “… by doing more, now, we can be sure that we achieve the 2050 target”. Valid point.

The way forward is by creating a viable action plan and investing in the correct people and projects that can help us get there. From storage and grid infrastructure to electric vehicles and data management, those much-needed solutions to our collective energy issues come from the constant research and innovation, which the various European projects bring to the table.

That is why the EU Commission and various energy companies in Europe finance projects that have as a focus the promotion of research and development in various topics of the European energy sector.

Enter the fifth list of Energy Projects of Common Interest (PCIs). These are key cross-border energy infrastructure initiatives that include a total of 98 projects. They comprise 67 focusing on electricity transmission and storage, 20 in gas, six CO2 network projects and five smart grids. All of them are eligible for financial support from the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).

On top of these projects, we also have the Bridge Initiatives which are part of the wider Horizon projects, those supported by Directorate Generals other than the ENER one (Connect, Innovation, etc.), not to mention those that are privately supported or owned by utilities such as Italgas, Tennet and E.ON, and companies like Microsoft, AWS and Oracle.

Confused yet? Don't worry: the Enlit Projects Series is here to demystify things. Alongside a database of hundreds of projects, we are inaugurating a weekly podcast series and in-depth articles where we shall dig a bit deeper into individual projects, as well as quarterly webinars with a more strategic vision.

Stay tuned!

Areti Ntaradimou

Content Director at Enlit for EU Projects Series
Editor Smart Energy International