Europe's Energy Transition Continues To Require Money, Infrastructure And Considerable Optimism

The European Commission announced on 19 October that it is awarding 3.4 billion euros from the Innovation Fund to 77 net zero technology projects in 23 countries. The money, which comes from the revenues of the EU emissions trading system, goes to energy intensive industry, renewables, storage, clean technology manufacturing, critical raw materials, alternative fuels and carbon capture; for the first time the list includes a small modular nuclear reactor and a project that removes carbon dioxide directly from the air. The Commission expects the projects to avoid some 290 million tonnes of emissions in their first ten years.

High energy prices, slow permitting and an electricity grid that cannot keep up continue to complicate the transition all the same, and the final grant agreements follow only next year. European policymakers remain enthusiastic about announcing investments in technologies that will eventually make energy cleaner, cheaper and more secure. The difficulty lies in the interval between the announcement and the arrival of functioning infrastructure, during which businesses must keep paying their electricity bills.

Europe has become exceptionally skilled at producing ambitious targets, sophisticated funding mechanisms and attractive presentations of the future. Building the grids, securing the permits and keeping industry affordable while it waits for that future have proved rather less photogenic.