The Electrification Alliance introduced a new 'Electrification Manifesto', urging the European Commission to accelerate the electrification process in Europe. The Manifesto requests the implementation of a specific Electrification Action Plan within the first 100 days of the incoming European Commission's term.

Members of the Electrification Alliance explain that this Electrification Action Plan should set a target of 35% electrification of final energy use across the EU by 2030. It should ensure electrification becomes an integral element of Member States’ National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs). 

The Manifesto also calls on the incoming Commission to ramp up investments in electricity grids. Europe needs to overhaul its energy infrastructure planning – starting with an immediate reform of the TEN-E Regulation and Ten-Year Network Development Plan processes for both transmission and distribution system operators. Crucially, grid planning needs better coordination and more political oversight to ensure it delivers on net zero. 

Other concrete policy actions in the Manifesto include programmes to attract skilled workers, the prioritisation of direct, smart electrification in the EU’s funding and financing programmes and the empowerment of end-users to utilise the full potential of demand side management. 

They say that today less than 25% of all energy consumed in Europe is electricity. The remaining energy Europeans use to heat their houses, fuel their vehicles and power their factories largely comes from fossil fuels. This needs to change. To achieve climate neutrality by 2050, up to three-quarters of final energy consumption in Europe will be electrified directly or indirectly. To align with the Green Deal All this electricity will need to come from clean energy sources by then. 

Commissioner Kadri Simson receives European Electrification Award 

The Electrification Alliance also presented its inaugural ‘European Electrification Award’ to Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy, for her outstanding contributions to accelerate the direct electrification of Europe’s economy.

After receiving the award, Commission Simson said; “Electrification will play a crucial role in the next decades to deliver an efficient, secure, decarbonised and integrated energy system.  Electricity will become our main energy carrier by 2040, and we need to ensure that both the market conditions and infrastructure will push the transition forward.  I look forward to continuing our good cooperation with the power sector to build a strong EU-market where electricity is always produced in the cheapest and cleanest possible way, and delivered to where it is needed.”

At the award ceremony, Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, said that “presenting Commissioner Simson with this Electrification Alliance Award is a significant moment. Amazing work has been achieved so far, and we cannot stop until we reach Net-Zero emissions. Renewable electricity technologies like solar, will play a key role in delivering the green transition, for all European citizens.”

For his part, Giles Dickson, CEO of WindEurope, said “electricity is only 23% of the energy we consume today. The rest is the petrol we put in our cars, the gas we burn in our boilers at home and the fuel we put in our planes and ships. Nearly all of that is fossil. We can take the fossil fuels out by electrifying transport, heating and industrial processes. Electrifying is the quickest and cheapest way to decarbonise energy. It’s a no brainer. The EU must embrace it.”