U.S. Electric Vehicle Sales Soar Into 2024

North Sea Offshore Wind Farms will deliver 150 GW by 2050 as EU partners scale renewable energy, offshore turbines, grid interconnectors, and REPowerEU goals to cut emissions, boost energy security, and reduce Russian fossil dependence.

Key Points

A joint EU initiative to build 150 GW of offshore wind by 2050, advancing REPowerEU, decarbonization, and energy security.

✅ Targets at least 150 GW of offshore wind by 2050

✅ Backed by Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark

✅ Aligns with REPowerEU, grid integration, and emissions cuts

Four European Union countries plan to build North Sea wind farms capable of producing at least 150 gigawatts of energy by 2050 to help cut carbon emissions that cause climate change, with EU wind and solar surpassing gas last year, Danish media have reported.

Under the plan, wind turbines would be raised off the coasts of Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, where a recent green power record highlighted strong winds, daily Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten said.

The project would mean a tenfold increase in the EU's current offshore wind capacity, underscoring how renewables are crowding out gas across Europe today.

“The North Sea can do a lot," Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen told the newspaper, adding the close cooperation between the four EU nations "must start now.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo are scheduled to attend a North Sea Summit on Wednesday in Esbjerg, 260 kilometers (162 miles) west of Copenhagen.

In Brussels, the European Commission moved Wednesday to jump-start plans for the whole 27-nation EU to abandon Russian energy amid the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. The commission proposed a nearly 300 billion-euro ($315 billion) package that includes more efficient use of fuels and a faster rollout of renewable power, even as stunted hydro and nuclear output may hobble recovery efforts.

The investment initiative by the EU's executive arm is meant to help the bloc start weaning themselves off Russian fossil fuels this year, even as Europe is losing nuclear power during the transition. The goal is to deprive Russia, the EU’s main supplier of oil, natural gas and coal, of tens of billions in revenue and strengthen EU climate policies.

“We are taking our ambition to yet another level to make sure that we become independent from Russian fossil fuels as quickly as possible,” von der Leyen said in Brussels when announcing the package, dubbed REPowerEU.

The EU has pledged to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 55% compared with 1990 levels by 2030, and to get to net zero emissions by 2050, with a recent German renewables milestone underscoring the pace of change.

The European Commission has set an overall target of generating 300 gigawatts of offshore energy of by 2050, though grid expansion challenges in Germany highlight hurdles.

Along with climate change, the war in Ukraine has made EU nations eager to reduce their dependency on Russian natural gas and oil. In 2021, the EU imported roughly 40% of its gas and 25% of its oil from Russia.

At a March 11 summit, EU leaders agreed in principle to phase out Russian gas, oil and coal imports by 2027.

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ONroute EV Charging Stations now live on Ontario's Highways 401 and 400, powered by Ivy Charging Network with 150 kW fast chargers, Tesla-compatible ports, Canadian Tire support, and government-backed clean transportation infrastructure.

Key Points

ONroute EV Charging Stations are Ivy-managed 150 kW fast-charging hubs along Highways 401/400, compatible with all EVs.

✅ Up to 150 kW DC fast charging; ~100 km added in about 10 minutes

✅ Compatible with all EV models, including Tesla-compatible ports

✅ Located along Highways 401/400; 2-4 chargers per ONroute site

Electric vehicle (EV) drivers can now charge at 10 ONroute locations along Highways 401 and 400, reflecting progress on the province's charging network rollout to date.

Ivy Charging Network, ONroute and their partners, Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC) and the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) announced the opening of four Charge & Go EV fast-charging stations today: Ingleside, Innisfil, Tilbury North, Woodstock

Each of Ivy's Charge & Go level 3 fast-chargers at ONroute locations will support the charging of all EV models, including charging ports for Tesla drivers.

Quick Facts

Ivy Charging Network is installing 69 level 3 fast-chargers across all ONroute locations, with the possibility of further expansion as Ontario makes it easier to build charging stations through supportive measures.

Ivy's ONroute Charge & Go locations will offer charging speeds of up-to 150 kWs, delivering up to a 100 km charge in 10 minutes.

This partnership is part of CTC's ongoing expansion of EV charging infrastructure across Canada, as utilities like BC Hydro add more stations across southern B.C.

Ivy Charging Network is a joint venture between Hydro One and Ontario Power Generation.

Natural Resources Canada, through its Electric Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Deployment Initiative, invested $8-million to help build the broader Ivy Charging Network, alongside other federal funding for smart chargers supporting deployments, providing access to 160 level 3 fast-chargers across Ontario including these ONroute locations.

'Our partnership with ONroute, Canadian Tire and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation will end range anxiety for EV drivers travelling on the province's major highways. These new fast-charging locations will give drivers the confidence they need on their road trips, to get them where they need to go this summer,' said Michael Kitchen, General Manager, Ivy Charging Network.

'ONroute is proud to now offer EV charging stations to our customers, in partnership with Ivy and Canadian Tire. We are focused on supporting the growth of electric cars and offering this convenience for our customers as we strive to be the recharge destination for all travelers across Ontario,' said Melanie Teed-Murch, Chief Executive Officer of ONroute.

'Together with our partners, CTC is proud to announce the opening of EV fast-charging stations at four additional ONroute locations along the 400-series highways. Our network of EV charging stations is just one of the ways CTC is supporting EV drivers of today and tomorrow to make life in Canada better, with growth similar to NB Power's public charging network underway,' said Micheline Davies, SVP, Automotive, Canadian Tire Corporation. 'We will have approximately 140 sites across the country by the end of the year, making CTC one of the largest retail networks of EV fast charging stations in Canada.'

'We're giving Canadians cleaner transportation options to get to where they need to go by making zero-emission charging and alternative-fuels refueling infrastructure more accessible, as seen with new fast-charging stations in N.B. announced recently. Investments like the ones announced today in Ontario will put Canadians in the driver's seat on the road to a net-zero future and help achieve our climate goals,' said the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources.

'Ontario is putting shovels in the ground to build critical infrastructure that will boost EV ownership, support Ontario's growing EV manufacturing industry and reduce emissions, complementing progress such as the first fast-charging network in N.L. now in place,' said Todd Smith, Minister of Energy. 'With EV fast chargers now available at ten ONroute stations along our province's business highways it's even more convenient than ever for workers and families to grab a coffee or a meal while charging their car.'

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Offshore Wind Vessel Charging System enables renewable energy offshore charging from wind turbines, delivering clean power to electric vessels and crew transfer ships, boosting range, safety, and net zero maritime operations with reliable, efficient infrastructure.

Key Points

A turbine-mounted offshore charger delivering renewable power to electric vessels, extending range and improving safety.

✅ Turbine-mounted, field-proven offshore charging interface

✅ Delivers 100% renewable electricity to electric vessels

✅ Accelerates net zero, cuts maritime fossil fuel use

An offshore charging system will power vessels with 100% renewably generated electricity from wind turbines, aligning with projects like battery-electric high-speed ferries now advancing in the United States.

The system, developed by Teesside marine electrical engineering firm MJR Power and Automation, will be presented at the Global Offshore Wind event in Manchester (21-22 June), alongside interest in EV energy storage for buildings that could complement offshore charging solutions.

Known as the Offshore Wind On-Turbine Electrical Vessel Charging System, MJR says the chargepoints will provide efficient, safe and reliable transfer of clean power for crew vehicles and other offshore support vessels, while emerging vehicle-to-grid capacity on wheels concepts highlight the wider role of electric fleets.

“This innovation will break down the existing range barriers and increase the uptake by vessel owners and operators, as demonstrated by electric ships on the B.C. coast moving to fully electric and green propulsion systems for retrofit and new-build vessels,” an announcement said.

“In combination with other field-proven technologies, the charging system will be an important part for government and offshore wind owners and operators to achieve their net zero maritime operations targets, and switch away from fossil fuels, complemented by port initiatives such as all-electric berth at London Gateway now under development. The ability to charge when in the field will significantly accelerate adoption of current emission-free propulsion systems, which will be a major asset for the decarbonisation of the global maritime sector.”

The firm recently announced that construction and in-house testing of the system had been completed. The development project was part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition, funded by the Department for Transport and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK, reflecting wider interest in reversing the charge to the grid for resilient energy systems.

MJR electrical engineer Mohammed Latif said: “Our system will be absolutely crucial in helping governments to deliver on their net zero carbon targets, supported by plans like new UK-Europe interconnectors that strengthen clean energy supply, and I am looking forward to demonstrating how it works and the benefits it offers.”

As part of the project, MJR Power and Automation led a consortium of partners – Ore Catapult, Xceco, Artemis Technologies and Tidal Transit – that all provided expertise.

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US Grid Decarbonization demands balancing renewables, reliability, and resilience with smart transmission, storage, siting, and demand response, leveraging digital asset management to modernize infrastructure while meeting climate goals and rising electricity consumption.

Key Points

Low-carbon power while maintaining reliability via renewables, storage, transmission, and digital operations.

✅ Siting wind and solar requires community engagement and environmental review

✅ Balance variable renewables with storage, flexible load, and firm capacity

✅ Modernize transmission and digitize asset data for reliable operations

Last week, over 13,000 energy and technology leaders arrived in Dallas for DISTRIBUTECH International to share knowledge, showcase new technology advancements, and discuss initiatives to prepare for the future of energy. Among the many topics discussed was the critical need to balance rising energy demands and environmental pressures while understanding why the grid isn't 100% renewable today alongside effective climate change solutions.

The most widespread source of energy consumption is electricity. According to The U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2020 electricity consumption rates were roughly 3.8 trillion kWh - 13 times higher than in 1950. With our ever-increasing reliance on electricity, renewables' share of generation is also rising and this number is sure to grow exponentially in the coming years.

How can the US achieve meaningful decarbonization goals without sacrificing reliable and stable energy? Here are 4 of the biggest challenges and practical ways to meet them:

Siting New Solar and Wind Farms
Building renewable energy sources is more difficult than it seems. Scouting for sites is fraught with issues such as community opposition due to local aesthetics and clean energy's hidden costs around disruption to the environment and recreation.

NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) is an influential source of opposition. Local residents join together in an effort to prevent shore front views in wealthy coastal areas from obstruction, which are needed to support offshore wind farms. These farms can also negatively impact local fisheries, while outdoor sports and entertainment activities such as sailing, waterskiing, fishing, or swimming may be disrupted, which are equally opposed by NIMBY advocates.

Utilities must take these concerns into account when scouting for renewable energy sites.

Maintaining Consistent Availability of Generation Capacity
The capacity to generate consistent, reliable electricity is both a regional and nationwide concern.

Wind and solar farms depend on a consistent level of wind velocity and sunny periods, yet wind and solar could meet 80% of U.S. demand and regional concerns must be considered. For example, the southwestern United States is an ideal location for large commercial solar arrays. Areas in the north are more problematic since fall and winter days are shorter, reducing their ability to consistently generate energy. The Midwest is a prime location for wind-based generation since it experiences a consistent level of wind throughout the year.

Nighttime periods and cloudy days virtually eliminate solar farms as a consistent energy source while loss of available winds impacts the reliability of wind as a base load supply of energy generation.

Pivoting From Current Energy Usage Models
Over the last 20 years, utilities have been heavily involved with normalizing consumer energy consumption curves, pursuing grid resilience strategies to manage variability. Due to the high cost of siting new fossil fuel facilities, building new electric grid interconnections, and the high commodity pricing for imported power, utilities were driven to modify their customers’ energy usage patterns.

These consumption regulating policies included:

• Time of use metering to entice customers to use high energy devices at night
• Installation of energy monitoring devices on high use customer equipment to enable the utility to reduce energy demand during peak use periods
• Charging electric vehicles overnight

With fundamental changes occurring in how energy is generated, the availability of renewable power during low or no-sun periods and lower wind levels will require utilities to alter their energy consumption models.

Utilizing Government Support of New Electric Infrastructure
With the proposed government infusion of funds, including a rule to boost renewable transmission, to build and modernize infrastructures, utility leaders will be ideally positioned to drastically improve the reliability of the US electric grid.

Utilities will be involved in aggressive transmission line building projects to ensure the effective distribution of energy across multiple state lines, aligning with the U.S. grid overhaul for renewables underway today. This expansive build out of the US transmission and distribution system will create a dramatic increase in the need to accurately document the location and details of the new utility assets for current tracking and future analysis needs.

Energy leaders must seek advanced technology to provide them with solutions for precisely this purpose. Manual, paper-based field data collection must be replaced with digital workflows which automate and simplify asset data capture and analysis. Continued reliance on manual methods will cause them to lag behind the industry and impede their ability to support renewable energy for the modern era.

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Electricity Alliance Canada champions clean power, electrification, and net-zero, uniting renewable energy, hydropower, nuclear, wind, and solar to decarbonize Canada with sustainable, reliable, affordable electricity across sectors by 2050, economywide growth.

Key Points

A national coalition advancing clean power and electrification to help achieve Canada's net-zero by 2050.

✅ Coalition of six Canadian electricity associations

✅ Promotes electrification and clean, reliable power

✅ Aims net-zero by 2050, coal phase-out by 2030

Six of Canada’s leading electricity associations have created a coalition to promote clean power’s role, amid a looming power challenge for the country, in a sustainable energy future.

The Electricity Alliance Canada’s mandate is to enable, promote and advocate for increased low or no-carbon electricity usage throughout the economy to help achieve the nation’s net-zero emissions target of 100 percent by 2050, with net-zero electricity regulations permitting some natural gas generation along the way.

The founding members are the Canadian Electricity Association, the Canadian Nuclear Association, the Canadian Renewable Energy Association, Electricity Human Resources Canada, Marine Renewables Canada, and WaterPower Canada, and they aim to incorporate lessons from Europe's power crisis as collaboration advances.

“Electricity will power Canada’s energy transition and create many new well-paying jobs,” reads the joint statement by the six entities. “We are pleased to announce this enhanced collaboration to advance discussion and implement strategies that promote greater electrification in a way that is sustainable, reliable and affordable. Electricity Alliance Canada looks forward to working with governments and energy users to capture the full potential of electricity to contribute to Canada’s net-zero target.”

Canada is much further along than many nations when it comes decarbonizing its power generation sector, yet it is expected to miss 2035 clean electricity goals without accelerated efforts. More than 80 percent of its electricity mix is fueled by non-emitting hydroelectric and nuclear as well as wind, solar and marine renewable generation, according to the Alliance. By contrast, the U.S. portion of non-emitting electricity resources is closer to 40 percent or less.

The remainder of its coal-fired power plants are scheduled to be phased out by 2030, according to reports, though scrapping coal-fired electricity could be costly and ineffective according to one report.

Hydropower leads the way in Canada, with nearly 500 generating plant producing an average of 355 TWh per year, according to the Canadian Hydropower Association. Nuclear plants such as Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington station and Bruce Power also contribute massive-scale and carbon-free electricity capacity, as debates over Ontario's renewable future continue.

Observers note that clean, affordable electricity in Ontario should be a prominent election issue this year.

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Spain has broken its reliance on fossil gas as soaring wind and solar energy drive Europe’s lowest wholesale electricity prices, reducing emissions, stabilizing the grid, and advancing renewable power, energy independence, and clean transition goals across the EU.

How Has Spain Broken the Gas Link with Wind and Solar??

Spain has broken the link between gas and power prices by rapidly expanding wind and solar generation, which now supplies nearly half its electricity, cutting fossil fuel influence by 75% since 2019 and reducing power costs 32% below the EU average.

✅ Wind and solar cut fossil influence by 75% since 2019

✅ Power prices 32% below EU average in 2025

✅ Renewables meet nearly half of national electricity demand

Spain has emerged as one of Europe’s most affordable electricity markets, largely due to its rapid expansion of wind and solar power. By decoupling its wholesale electricity prices from volatile fossil gas and coal, Spain has achieved a 32 percent lower average wholesale price than the EU average in the first half of 2025. This remarkable shift marks a dramatic turnaround from 2019, when Spain had some of the highest power prices in Europe.

According to new data, the influence of fossil fuels on Spain’s electricity prices has fallen by 75 percent since 2019, mirroring how renewables have surpassed fossil fuels in Europe over the same period, dropping from 75 percent of hours tied to gas costs to just 19 percent in early 2025. “Spain has broken the ruinous link between power prices and volatile fossil fuels, something its European neighbours are desperate to do,” said Dr. Chris Rosslowe, Senior Energy Analyst at Ember.

The change is driven by a surge in renewable generation. Between 2019 and mid-2025, Spain added more than 40 gigawatts of new solar and wind capacity—second only to Germany, whose power market is twice the size. Wind and solar now meet nearly half (46 percent) of Spain’s electricity demand, compared with 27 percent six years ago. As a result, fossil generation has fallen to 20 percent of total demand, well below the levels seen in other major economies such as Germany (41 percent) and Italy (43 percent).

This renewable growth has also cut Spain’s dependence on imported fuels. In the past five years, new solar and wind plants have avoided 26 billion cubic metres of gas imports, saving €13.5 billion—five times the amount the country invested in transmission infrastructure over the same period. The Central Bank of Spain estimated that wholesale electricity prices would have been 40 percent higher in 2024 if renewables had not displaced fossil generation, and neighboring France has seen negative prices during periods of renewable surplus.

August 2025 marked a historic milestone: Spain recorded a full month without coal-fired generation for the first time. A decade earlier, coal accounted for a quarter of the nation’s electricity supply. Gas use has also declined steadily, from 26% of demand in 2019 to 19% this year.

However, the system still faces challenges. Following the April 28th Iberian blackout, Spain has relied more heavily on gas-fired plants to stabilize the grid. These services—such as voltage control and balancing—have proven to be expensive, with costs doubling since the blackout and accounting for 57 percent of the average electricity price in May 2025, up from 14 percent the previous year. Curtailment of renewables has also tripled, reaching 7.2 percent of generation between May and July.

Despite being Europe’s fourth-largest electricity market, Spain ranks only 13th in battery storage capacity, underscoring the need for further investment in clean flexibility solutions, such as grid-scale batteries to provide flexibility and stronger interconnections. Post-blackout reforms aim to address this weakness and ensure the gains from renewable integration are not lost.

“Spain risks sliding back into costly gas reliance amid post-blackout fears,” warned Rosslowe. “Boosting grids and batteries will help Spain break free from fossil dependency for good.”

With record-low electricity prices and one of the fastest decoupling rates in Europe, Spain’s experience demonstrates how large-scale wind and solar adoption can reshape energy economics—and offers a roadmap for other nations seeking to escape the volatility of fossil fuels.