In recent years, the EU has steadfastly accelerated the deployment of renewable energy and made every effort to promote green energy transformation, achieving significant results in policies, production capacity, and emerging energy fields.
Policy support continues to strengthen
To achieve the ambitious goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, the European Union has actively introduced a series of policy measures. In May 2022, the Joint Action Plan for Affordable, Secure, and Sustainable Energy in Europe was released, which significantly increased the EU's energy efficiency target from 9% to 13% by 2030, and plans to invest an additional € 210 billion by 2027 to break through key clean energy technologies, aiming to increase the proportion of renewable energy in EU energy consumption to 45% by 2030.
Under the framework of this plan, the EU Solar Strategy has emerged, which explicitly proposes to double the installed capacity of solar photovoltaics from 2020 to over 320 gigawatts by 2025, and approach 600 gigawatts by 2030. At the same time, the "Roof Solar Energy Plan" is steadily being implemented, installing solar panels in new public and commercial buildings, as well as residential areas in stages. EU countries have also responded, with the Irish government announcing the cancellation of value-added tax on the supply and installation of solar photovoltaic panels last year, directly prompting over 60000 households to install rooftop solar systems.
Wind power is also a key area of renewable energy construction in the European Union. In October last year, the European Wind Power Action Plan was launched, proposing a series of powerful measures to support the development of wind power, including improving the digitalization of the licensing process, enhancing bidding design and financing assistance in the electricity market, and providing large-scale talent training. Among them, accelerating the development of offshore wind power is the focus of the plan. Last April, leaders and energy ministers from nine European countries gathered in Ostend, Belgium, and adopted the Ostend Declaration, which plans to increase the offshore wind power installed capacity of countries near the North Sea to 120 gigawatts by 2030 and over 300 gigawatts by 2050. In 2023, Poland achieved its first commercial offshore wind farm investment, officially opening the chapter of offshore wind power development; The Kuster Zuid offshore wind power project in the Netherlands, with a capacity of 1.5 gigawatts, was officially put into operation in the same year. It is currently one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world.
In addition, to adapt to the continuous growth of renewable energy generation, the European Commission proposed an action plan for grid construction in November last year, aiming to accelerate the construction and upgrading of transmission and distribution networks, ensure more efficient operation of the EU power network, and lay a solid foundation for energy transformation.
Innovative high photovoltaic and wind power production capacity
Under the strong promotion of policies, the deployment of renewable energy in the European Union has shown a rapid growth trend. The "2023-2027 European Photovoltaic Market Outlook" report released by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association at the end of 2023 shows that the newly installed photovoltaic capacity in the European Union will reach 55.9 GW in 2023, a year-on-year increase of about 40%, reaching a historical high. Germany ranks first with a newly installed capacity of 14.1 gigawatts, followed closely by Spain and Italy with 8.2 gigawatts and 4.8 gigawatts respectively. The Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Romania also exceeded 1 gigawatt of newly installed photovoltaic capacity for the first time last year. In 2023, nearly 17 million new households in the European Union will use photovoltaic power generation.
According to data released by the European Wind Energy Association, the newly installed wind power capacity in the European Union reached 16.2 gigawatts in 2023, and the proportion of wind power generation in total power generation exceeded that of natural gas for the first time. Among the newly added wind power installed capacity, onshore wind power accounts for 79%, and offshore wind power has reached its highest level on record. Germany has the highest newly installed wind power capacity, while the Netherlands ranks second and maintains a leading position in the offshore wind power sector. The European Wind Energy Association predicts that the EU will add 200 gigawatts of wind power installed capacity from 2024 to 2030, with an average annual increase of about 29 gigawatts.
It is worth mentioning that the EU hydropower industry has gradually recovered from the impact of drought weather in 2022, with hydropower generation increasing by about 45 terawatt hours in 2023 compared to the previous year. The "2023 Carbon Dioxide Emissions" report released by the International Energy Agency shows that the EU's total carbon dioxide emissions in the energy sector decreased by nearly 9% in 2023, with half of it benefiting from the growth of clean energy. From 2019 to 2023, the addition of wind power alone reduced the annual carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to nearly 5% of the EU's 2023 emissions.
Promote the development of the green hydrogen industry chain
European green hydrogen company Lhyfe recently announced that its green hydrogen plant located in the port city of Brak in Lower Saxony, Germany, has officially started construction. This is the first commercial green hydrogen plant in northern Germany, capable of producing 1150 tons of green hydrogen annually. The electricity required for hydrogen production will come from domestic wind and photovoltaic power plants in Germany, which is considered another important milestone in the development of Germany's green hydrogen industry.
As early as 2020, the European Commission introduced the "EU Hydrogen Strategy", which regards green hydrogen as an important solution for low-carbon transformation in industries such as transportation, chemicals, and smelting, and has deployed 840 related projects in various links of the entire industry chain. In 2022, the EU further proposed in the "Plan" to produce 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen in the EU and import 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen by 2030. To increase investment in the hydrogen energy market, the European Union has also created the "European Hydrogen Bank".
In February of this year, the European Commission approved a new plan to support the construction of hydrogen energy infrastructure. France and seven other EU countries will provide 6.9 billion euros in public funding, which is expected to drive over 5.4 billion euros in private investment. According to the plan, 32 companies will participate in 33 hydrogen related projects, including the construction of large electrolytic cells for the production of renewable hydrogen, the construction and renovation of approximately 2700 kilometers of hydrogen transmission and distribution pipelines, and the construction of large-scale hydrogen storage facilities. Stephen Jackson, Deputy CEO of the European Hydrogen Organization, stated that this is an important step on the road to establishing a mature and Europe wide hydrogen infrastructure network.
However, although hydrogen energy is of great significance to the EU in building a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system and achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, the current hydrogen energy technology is still immature and relatively expensive. Its research and development, promotion, transportation and storage technologies still need to be continuously improved, and there is still a long way to go before large-scale commercial applications.
The European Commission's Energy Commissioner, Kadri Simson, stated that the EU is working towards its 2030 emission reduction targets and has also set a target for 2040. In the future, the EU will continue to leverage its rich advantages in clean energy and actively cooperate with other regions and countries in the field of clean energy, working together to promote the global green energy transformation process.
(Editer：admin)
