Europe’s Aging Grids Buckle Under Renewable Energy Demands 

Politicians in Europe and the UK demanding too much too soon in the way of renewables under the guise of net-zero fervour have created a bad situation for their national power supplies, which can only get worse if it goes on like this. Rational thinking and planning has lost out to unrealistic climate dogma, leading to putting the generation cart before the delivery horse, in the governments of many countries.
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Summary fromOilPrice.com:
— The world’s power grids require significant upgrades and expansion to meet growing electricity demands and integrate renewable energy sources effectively.

— Insufficient investment in grid modernization is already causing issues like critical congestion and blackouts in Europe, hindering the clean energy transition.

— Countries like the Netherlands are experiencing power cuts and energy consumption austerity measures due to rapid clean energy adoption without commensurate grid infrastructure development.
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The world’s power grids need a major upgrade to keep pace with growing rates of electrification and the ever-increasing energy demands of big data.

A cleaner energy landscape means a whole lot more electricity demand, as we switch from gas-powered vehicles and appliances to newer, cleaner models that need to plug into the grid to charge.

This means that expanding grid capacity and making our aging grids smarter and more flexible will be essential to maintaining energy security for the future – but grid infrastructure remains woefully neglected, and we’re already starting to see some of the fallout.

“To achieve countries’ national energy and climate goals, the world’s electricity use needs to grow 20% faster in the next decade than it did in the previous one,” states a 2023 report from the International Energy Agency. As a result, grids need to expand at an unprecedented rate.

“Reaching national goals also means adding or refurbishing a total of over 80 million kilometres of grids by 2040, the equivalent of the entire existing global grid,” the report goes on to say.
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Much of Europe has neglected to properly invest in grid infrastructure as a part of national clean energy planning. “We have an enormous amount of solar panels being installed, and they are installed at a rate that is much, much too high for the grid to be able to accommodate” – Damien Ernst, professor of electrical engineering at Belgium’s Liege University.

Full article here.