Today, the International Energy Agency (IEA) unveiled its Special Grids Report. Dr. Fatih Birol, IEA’s Executive Director stated: “Between now and 2040, in less than 20 years of time, the world needs to build or refurbish about 80 million kilometers of grids. This equals to what we have built in the last 100 years.”
The conclusion of the Special Report is that we need immediate action on grids. If no forward-looking investments and regulatory reforms are put in place in the coming years, grids would become the bottleneck of the path towards energy transition and security. This is vital as renewable projects are moving faster than grid projects: an estimated 1500GW of renewable energy is waiting a connection to the grid, equivalent to all renewable integration of 2021.
To avoid grids from undermining energy transition and security, the Special Report recommends, among others:
- Planning for transmission and distribution grids to be further aligned and integrated with broad long-term processes by governments;
- Policy makers to speed up the process on grids by enhancing planning, ensuring risk assessments allow for anticipatory investments and streamlining administrative processes;
- Secure supply chains and skilled workforce.
Europacable has contributed to this Special Report and will work with IEA to ensure that power grids further accelerate the clean energy transition and ensure electricity security.
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