Investment group Bill Gates says EU must invest 800 billion euros in green energy

As the European Commission is set to vote on REPowerEU, a bill to fund alternative natural gas suppliers, Breakthrough Energy says the bloc needs more battery storage capacity

As the European Commission is set to vote on REPowerEU, a package that would diversify the bloc’s natural gas deliveries, Revolutionary Energya private investment group, created by Bill Gates, released a report calling for massive investment in renewables instead.

According to Bloomberg Media, the Breakthrough Energy report asks about 800 billion euros investments in energy storage capacity, grid infrastructure for renewable energy, clean hydrogen and sustainable aviation. This would put available capital on par with that of the fossil fuel industry and allow for a much faster transition to energy independence and lower carbon emissions.

The EU could reduce its energy dependence by approximately 1.4 million gigawatts – about a tenth of its projected primary consumption in 2030. This proposal seems to go against the plan proposed by the European Commission, called REPowerEU. The plan aims to speed up the EU energy independence from Russian imports of fossil fuelsin light of the war in Ukraine.

The Commission is expected to vote on the plan on May 18, with its main proposal being to rapidly diversify the bloc’s gas supply amid fears of a possible sudden disruption in Russian delivery. Plans were already underway to slowly wean the EU off fossil fuel imports by 2030, however, recent months have made that goal much more immediate.

Energy storage – the biggest obstacle to a renewable transition

One of the greatest obstacles to a full renewable energy sector is that the power outputs of power-generating equipment vary widely. In simple terms, photovoltaic systems produce energy when there is sun, wind turbines produce when there is wind. In addition, they generally produce energy during the day, when consumption is lower.

Of course, some of this relative unpredictability is mitigated by location – PV systems are preferably placed in less cloudy regions and wind farms are in windy regions, some even offshore, to take advantage of tidal winds.

Thus, to maintain a stable flow of electricity and prevent the electrical network against overload, countries need to develop various flexibility techniques on a fairly new scale. Most grids are designed to handle stable generation, rather than the ups and downs of green power.

That’s where natural gas comes in – it was even recognized by the EU’s energy taxonomy as a transition fuel, last February. Gas is a very lucky energy source to complement renewable energy because it is very easy to increase production when demand fluctuates and it emits fewer pollutants than its fossil counterparts. However, there are not enough in the EU.

But reducing the bloc’s dependence on energy imports and fluctuating gas prices, as well as a political dependence on Russia, shows how unreliable this model can be. That’s why in mid-April, Breakthrough Energy, the European Association for Energy Storage – EASE, Solar Power Europe and Wind Europe signed an open letter calling for more renewable energy storage.

They explain that the only way to truly steer the EU’s energy supply away from foreign dependence, whether it comes from Russia, the United States or other players, the only way to massively and reliable Europeans in sustainable and renewable energy is to provide greater stable input and output.

As they said in the open letter, the bloc needs a massive and rapid deployment of energy storage solutions. Investing in gas in the short term, on the other hand, runs counter to Europe’s climate agenda, energy independence and security of supply ambitions.

Ann Mettler, vice president of Breakthrough Energy explained that the US and China are already investing heavily in energy storage deployment, while without action the EU risks ‘coming late to another tech trend’. For years, Europe has injected large sums into R&D in the field and it is time to reap the rewards, she said.