GSEP hosted a webinar on Wednesday, November 18, 2020 to present findings of the study “Europe’s Energy Transition: Sustainable Paths for Increased Climate and Energy Ambition” realized by Enel Foundation, Compass Lexecon and Enerdata. the presenters were Daniele Agostini, Head of Energy and Low Carbon Policies, Enel Group, and Giuseppe Montesano, Deputy Director, Enel Foundation.
The European Union’s climate and energy scenarios are increasingly ambitious in light of the recent fall in technological costs of renewable energy sources (RES) and electric vehicles (EV). This increasing ambition is technically achievable if power and transport lead the way to 2030 and all sectors follow suit by 2050.
Within such a scenario, electricity will play a key role with electrification levels increasing to over 30% by 2030 and rapidly reaching 60% by 2050. Increasing the target to 55% by 2030 and 100% by 2050 would lead to a net annual total cost reduction of approximately 2% from an overall energy system perspective. However, realizing such scenarios at lower costs is possible if three critical enablers are put in place: 1) Increased RES penetration, digitalisation and flexibility on the supply side; 2) digitalisation of power grids to optimally integrate supply side variable RES while ensuring system wide energy efficiency; and 3) demand side flexibility to allow dynamic load shifting especially with the support of Vehicle to Grid technologies.