Thursday

7th Dec 2023

Opinion

The press aren't doing their homework on 'costly' renewables

  • The European Commission’s Energy Roadmap 2050 has been hotly anticipated for months (Photo: European Community, 2005)

The European Commission’s Energy Roadmap 2050 has been hotly anticipated for months. Within minutes of its finally being published today, press releases and news alerts were flying around.

What a shame that some reporters were so keen to put the news out that they apparently failed to read the roadmap they were reporting on.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Misinformed articles are being published about the “high costs” of decarbonisation and renewables, as purportedly shown in the roadmap. But in fact, the roadmap shows that all the 2050 energy scenarios, including the high-use-of-renewables scenario and the business-as-usual scenario, would have the same “overall system costs”.

On the other hand, perhaps those reporters are basing their claims on the finding that the high-use-of-renewables scenario has a higher electricity price than other decarbonisation scenarios after 2030.

However, until 2030, electricity prices are set to increase just as much under business-as-usual scenarios with a low penetration of renewables as they are in the decarbonised scenarios. It is not decarbonisation or renewables that will cause price rises, but the need to invest in replacing ageing power plants and grids.

The increase post-2030 in the high-use-of-renewables scenario is the result of far-fetched assumptions such as offshore wind costing the same in 2050 as today or running 50 nuclear power reactors at 50-percent capacity; but also oil prices dropping from over $100 per barrel today to $70 per barrel in 2050, and no gas or carbon-capture-and-storage infrastructure costs being accounted for in the next 40 years. Despite this, the overall costs of the high-use-of-renewables scenario are the same as the other scenarios. And the scenario with the lowest possible cost is missing: the one that would have combined high use of renewables and high energy efficiency.

Those who are trying to claim that decarbonisation is costly and that this is due to renewables are mistaken or, quite simply, have not done their homework.

Stephane Bourgeois is the head of regulatory affairs at the European Wind Energy Association.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

Lithuania faces funding gap in dismantling Chernobyl-type plant

A precondition for Lithuania's EU membership, the closure of its Chernobyl-type nuclear plant in Ignalina is behind schedule and faces a funding gap of €1.5 billion, Lithuania's energy minister has said. But experts question the way money was spent.

Divisive gas pipeline launched under EU banner

The leaders of Germany, the Netherlands and Russia, the prime minister of France and an EU commissioner have celebrated the launch of a new gas pipeline that some fear could be used to divide the EU.

Wind energy in figures

Europe is the world's biggest fan of wind energy. But other parts of the world, notably China, are catching up fast.

Tusk's difficult in-tray on Poland's judicial independence

What is obvious is that PiS put in place a set of interlocking safeguards for itself which, even after their political defeat in Poland, will render it very difficult for the new government to restore the rule of law.

Can Green Deal survive the 2024 European election?

Six months ahead of the EU elections, knocking an 'elitist' climate agenda is looking like a vote-winner to some. Saving the Green Deal and the EU's climate ambitions starts with listening to Europeans who are struggling to make ends meet.

Can Green Deal survive the 2024 European election?

Six months ahead of the EU elections, knocking an 'elitist' climate agenda is looking like a vote-winner to some. Saving the Green Deal and the EU's climate ambitions starts with listening to Europeans who are struggling to make ends meet.

Latest News

  1. Is there hope for the EU and eurozone?
  2. Crunch talks seek breakthrough on EU asylum overhaul
  3. Polish truck protest at Ukraine border disrupts war supplies
  4. 'Green' banks lend most to polluters, reveals ECB
  5. Tense EU-China summit showdown unlikely to bear fruit
  6. A look to the past and the future of China-EU relations
  7. Tusk's difficult in-tray on Poland's judicial independence
  8. EU nears deal to fingerprint six year-old asylum seekers

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  3. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  4. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?
  5. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  6. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us