European Utilities Support Faster Shift to Clean Energy

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Europe's power companies have declared their intention to be carbon-neutral "far ahead" of 2050.

European electricity industry trade group Eurelectric, which represents 3,500 utilities with a combined value of $235 billion, said that it intends to accelerate Europe's transition to clean energy.

Releasing its long-term vision, the group committed to playing a key role to enable and sustain what it called "a vibrant, competitive European economy, reliably powered by clean, carbon-neutral energy." The declaration comes at the same time as a new report from Carbon Tracker highlighted how 54% of European coal-fired plants are "cashflow negative," increasing to 97% by 2030.

"Our industry sees a great opportunity on the path towards a progressively decarbonised and fully sustainable European energy future," explained Francesco Starace, president of Eurelectric and chief executive officer of the Italian energy major Enel SpA (Rome, Italy). "Electricity is playing a growing role in making this vision happen, and Eurelectric will lead this transformation. Today's announcement shows how together we are determined to accelerate the energy transition through a progressive electrification of Europe's energy consumption while making the European power sector carbon-neutral well before mid-century."

The group claimed that a faster transition will boost competitiveness claiming that after "decades of dependence on fossil fuels in the power, transport and industrial sectors, domestically produced clean electricity will improve our balance-of-trade and reduce dependence on fuel imports from outside the European Union (EU). This is a much-needed shift from a resource-based to a European technology-based economy."

In its coal-fired power report, Carbon Tracker found that the operating cost of coal could be higher than the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) of onshore wind by 2024 and solar photovoltaics (PV) by 2027, while battery storage and demand response increasingly provide auxiliary services and peak shaving. Since most units will be loss-making by 2030, it estimated that the EU could avoid $26 billion in losses by phasing out coal power in line with the Paris Agreement.

"The changing economics of renewables, as well as air pollution policy and rising carbon prices, has put EU coal power in a death spiral," said Matt Gray, Carbon Tracker analyst and co-author of the report. "Utilities can't do much to stop this other than drop coal or lobby governments and hope they will bail them out."

A growing number of European countries are pushing to get rid of coal by 2030. Last month, Industrial Info reported on the formation of an alliance of 20 European and other global countries and provinces, led by the U.K. and Canada, to end the use of coal-fired power before 2030. It expects to have 50 nations and states on board by the time next year's round of talks is held in Poland, Europe's largest user of coal-fired power. For additional information, see November 24, 2017, article - U.K., Canada Lead Anti-Coal Power Charge.

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