[Episode #279] – Debottlenecking Europe’s Grid

What this episode covers

Right now, Great Britain has more than enough new solar projects waiting to be connected to its distribution grid to meet its 2030 renewable energy target. Italy and Poland could reach half their 2030 solar targets just by connecting the solar already sitting in their queues. Across just eight European countries, there's a whopping 375 GW of wind and solar PV projects, and an even larger 455 GW of battery storage projects, just languishing in connection queues. Together, these wind, solar and battery resources are roughly equivalent to the entire generation capacity of those countries. These are the shocking findings from a new study commissioned by the European climate nonprofit Beyond Fossil Fuels. Its estimates are deliberately conservative: the study values the trapped clean energy projects at around €100 billion, with the real total almost certainly higher. In this episode, we welcome Tara Connolly, their Programme Lead for Energy Markets and Grids, to share what the report found and learn what can be done about this sad state of affairs. And the crunch isn't only on the supply side. Data centers are now muscling to the front of the same queues. In Ireland, they already consume half of greater Dublin's electricity, while households' EV chargers, rooftop solar, and home batteries wait behind them. It will not surprise our longtime listeners at all to learn that unlocking all this mostly comes down to regulation, with many of the fixes already on the books, just not enforced.

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