Energy, Environment & Transport Pro Brief |
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Thu 14 November 2024 | View online
Estimated reading time: 4-5 minutes |
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Bulgaria hit hardest as power prices soar again in south-east Europe |
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While no definitive explanation has yet been given for the latest power surge, cooler weather means that air conditioning usage and coal plant cooling limits are unlikely to be the cause.
These were cited as drivers of the price spikes in the region this Summer. [NK]
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French 2024 power exports already beat previous annual record |
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France has already exported 78 TWh of power to neighbouring countries this year, beating its previous annual export record of 77 TWh, the country's main electricity transmission operator, RTE, confirmed during the presentation of its winter outlook yesterday.
For comparison, Belgium generated circa 76 TWh of electricity in 2023.
Current forecasts suggest France's power exports could reach 85 TWh by the end of the year, with EDF even expecting 90 TWh.
Historically, France has been the largest net exporter of electricity in the EU, with Sweden generally in second place.
For 44 years, France only imported more than it exported in a single year, 2022 – when the European energy crisis was accompanied in France by very low nuclear and hydropower generation.
The record-breaking exports in 2024 show that "low-carbon production [in France at least] is very competitive on European markets," said member of the RTE executive board Thomas Veyrenc. [PM]
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One third of 2023 had super-low power price, ACER finds |
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Across Europe, power prices dipped below €5 per MWh for 2,949 hours last year, according to a new market report released yesterday by EU energy watchdog ACER.
Low-price hours have tripled since 2019, which the Ljubljana-based agency links with power generation across Europe which is less responsive to price signals.
Power line operators and regulators have been too slow to respond, the agency stressed. “27% of the market design rules defining market operations faced implementation delays in 2023,” it writes.
TSOs are also slow to embrace cross-country balancing operations: “Europe’s balancing energy platforms can only reach their full potential with the participation of more transmission system operators.”
The potentially pan-European balancing scheme PICASSO, launched in 2022, has only six active members as of October – Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Czechia, Austria and Italy.
More countries joining up would allow Czechia, which has limited balancing capacity 40% of the time, to reduce this to just 8% of the time.
The report also finds that markets for power prices more than one year in the future are not liquid enough to make investment cases on. [NK]
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German industry warns of increased lithium dependency |
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To cover its need for battery cells, the EU wants to produce more lithium close to home, in states like Serbia, Portugal and Germany – the latter of which has just opened its own lithium plant west of Frankfurt.
However, a recent report by Germany’s main industry BDI states that so far the country’s dependency on imports of lithium and other critical raw materials has instead increased.
“While in 2014, Germany used to import 18% of its lithium batteries from China, this figure has risen to 50% by 2024,” states the report from BDI and consulting agency Roland Berger.
As of 2023, Germany was heavily dependent on a few suppliers for 23 of the 48 raw materials considered by the study – including gallium, cadmium, germanium and magnesium.
The study warns that lithium’s crucial role in the energy transition could expose industry, and carmakers in particular, to serious geopolitical risk. [JS]
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German experts focus on decarbonisation of road freight |
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The German Council of Economic Experts, an advisory academic body set up by law, has dedicated a full chapter in their latest annual report to the decarbonisation needs of freight transport. The report was released yesterday.
Elaborating on the poor condition of transport infrastructure in Germany, the panel of experts known as the ‘Five Sages of Economy’ demand mileage-based car tolls to finance the required modernisation, and call for a faster expansion of charging infrastructure, to accelerate the roll-out of battery electric trucks.
The experts see limited potential to shift freight transport in Germany from road to rail. Instead they see EU ETS 2 carbon pricing as key to decarbonising cargo road transport. [JS]
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Baku Bulletin: Climate finance troubles, Brazil’s new 2035 goal |
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Yesterday saw much talk at the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, but limited progress.
The High-Ambition coalition of countries (which co-brokered the Paris Agreement) is back at COP29, this time with Germany, France and the EU as signatories, and is pushing to “urgently increase the amount of financing for climate action.”
Notably, “grant-based and concessional finance” is put in the context of adaptation rather than mitigation. Instead, the group stresses the “need to make innovative forms of finance a reality.”
But discussions on climate finance remains difficult.
China and the G77 group of the world's poorest countries rejected a text which had been drafted over the past months. A new text in circulation expanded is 34 pages, compared to the original 9 page draft.
The EU’s incoming climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, teased a new EU-South Africa initiative to bring electricity to the people of Sub-Saharan Africa, which his boss Ursula von der Leyen will fully reveal at next week’s G20 leader summit.
Brazil committed to reduce emissions by 2035 by at least 59% of emissions compared to 2005, and up to 67%. Argentina withdrew its entire delegation from the summit.
The nuclear alliance, founded at COP28 at the initiative of France and the US, gained six new countries at COP29, bringing its membership to 31. Notable among them is Turkey. None of the new members use nuclear power today. [NK]
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France’s Pannier-Runacher will not attend COP29 |
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French Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher made her decision yesterday following the “unacceptable” remarks made “against France and Europe” by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with regard to France's management of its overseas territories.
In a statement in front of French parliamentarians, Pannier-Runacher also cited Aliyev’s statement that fossil fuels were a “gift from God.”
French President Emmanuel Macron has already announced that he would not attend. At the time of writing, there are no indications that any senior French government representatives will be attending this year's COP.
There are, however, indications that the French government’s apathy towards COP29 predates the Azerbaijani president’s comments.
“It had been planned for a long time that it would be a ‘blank’ COP for France,” a source familiar with international negotiations told Euractiv.
Another source, currently in Baku, said that “there is no French pavilion in Baku, the delegation has been reduced to a minimum, and the Quai d'Orsay [French foreign affairs ministry] has advised some French delegates against going there.” [PM]
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Today centre-right MEPs will vote for a two-year deforestation delay |
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Low risk for French electricity supplies this winter |
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France's main electricity transmission operator, RTE, considers the risks to the country’s security of electricity supply to be “very low” for the 2024-2025 winter, even in a so-called ‘cold snap’ scenario, based on an analysis of the company released yesterday.
Nuclear availability is back (50 GW of capacity is expected in mid-winter, similar to 2023 levels and much higher than in 2022), hydropower production is exceptionally high, and electricity consumption should be 6% lower than the 2014-2019 period (the last period of ‘normal’ energy consumption before covid and the 2022 energy crisis) RTE shows.
Only an exceptional combination of factors – cold snap, drop in nuclear output, limitation on import capacity – could cause RTE's forecasts to deviate from reality, the company concluded.
For the other EU countries, as far as RTE knows, “There are no countries with a high level of insecurity.” ENTSO-E is due to issue a report in the coming weeks. [PM]
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German rule changes benefit small-scale power generation |
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In one of its last acts, the German federal government is changing the ‘energy industry law’ (EnWG) to allow smaller energy producers to sell their electricity directly and thus generate income.
By bringing smaller producers directly into the market, the reforms aim to help reduce electricity costs. The move should also boost the rollout of smart meters – a key step on the path to creating a ‘smart grid.’
The capacity cap to qualify for these direct sales will be incrementally lowered from 100 kW to 25 kW in a three-stage process, according to circles within the German economy ministry.
However, the so-called ‘balcony PV’ will remain excluded from the mandatory use of smart meters. [JS]
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More than 80% of Italians concerned by high energy bills (IT) |
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Opinion: Russian energy sanctions are failing – what can be done? |
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Opinion: The Clean Industrial Deal is a make-or-break opportunity |
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Today’s brief was brought to you by Euractiv’s Energy, Environment & Transport team |
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Today’s briefing was prepared by the Energy, Environment and Transport team: Donagh Cagney, Paul Messad, Nikolaus J.Kurmayer, Bárbara Machado and Jasper Steinlein. Share your feedback or information with us at [email protected]. |
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