Europe needs carbonfree power now: report

EU Roadmap 2050 outlines a nearly zero-carbon power sector using renewable energy, energy efficiency, a European supergrid, and existing technologies, achieving 80% emissions cuts by 2050 with manageable costs and improved grid reliability.

Europe must start overhauling its energy system soon and virtually eradicate carbon-emitting power generation to achieve an 80 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at lowest cost, according to a new study.

The report funded by the European Climate Exchange and conducted by consultants and academics says slashing climate warming gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels within 40 years is possible with a nearly zerocarbon power supply and existing technologies already available today.

The short term cost of low or zero carbon electricity policies could be higher than the business as usual path, but over time these differences disappear, the report by consultants McKinsey & Company, Imperial College London, Oxford Economics, and the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands concludes.

I am encouraged by the main message of the European Climate Foundation that substantial decarbonization of the EU power sector is both technically and economically feasible by 2050, as the EU plans to double electricity use by 2050 across sectors, European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said at the report launch.

The Roadmap 2050 study calls on European countries to prioritize energy efficiency, support the rapid roll out of a European supergrid and encourage massive investment in low carbon technologies and consider tripling the price of carbon to accelerate shifts while making a firm commitment to phase out high carbon plants.

Realizing this radical transformation requires fundamental changes to the energy system. This level of reduction is only possible with a nearly zerocarbon power supply within the broader global energy transition now unfolding, the report says.

Realistically, the 2050 goals will be hard to realize if the transition is not started in earnest within the next five years.

Some experts have questioned the idea of a power sector free of fossil fuels, saying unpredictable solar and wind energy requires backup from coal and gasfired power stations, and nuclear and clean coal as cost-containment measures, some say.

But the ECF, which promotes policies aimed at reducing Europes global greenhouse gas emissions, says more grid connections between countries — particularly Spain and France — could minimize the need for back up.

It was assumed that highrenewable energy scenarios would be too unstable to provide sufficient reliability, that highrenewable scenarios would be uneconomic and more costly, and that technology breakthroughs would be required to move Europe to a zerocarbon power sector, Matt Phillips of the European Climate Foundation, which funded the study, said.

Roadmap 2050 has found all of these assertions to be untrue.

Building the necessary infrastructure will require average annual European capital expenditure of about 52 billion euros US $70.74 billion, and some analyses indicate trillions needed globally to cut emissions.

Essentially we need to double capital expenditure in the electricity sector, and delaying things will make it a lot more expensive, said the ECFs Tom Brookes.

Despite the sharp rise in capital expenditure, the impact on consumer electricity prices would be small, thanks to the lower operating costs of renewable energy and affordable lifestyle changes by consumers, the report says.

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