Storage and Networks: the Achilles’ heel of Renewable Energy Sources expansion – Michalis Mathioulakis

This paper analyses the elements that compose two of the structural vulnerabilities of the European energy system and undermine the efforts in Greece and the rest of the European Union to further increase the penetration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) successfully in their energy mix and accelerate the energy transition.

• The production of electricity from Renewable Energy Sources in Greece in 2023 as a share of total electricity production was among the highest in Europe, while also throughout the EU the shares of RES increased.
• However, as RES shares increase, their stochasticity in electricity production can create problems for the stability of the electricity grid since, on a global level, there is a deficit of mature storage technologies and a lack in adequate volume of electricity distribution and transmission network infrastructure.
• The costs required to cover these deficits are currently passed on to the European consumers in the form of regulated, non-competitive charges, for which consumers cannot freely choose their provider.
• This issue constitutes a regression from the European structure of a free and competitive common European market, a relapse that increases together with the growing shares of regulated costs in the energy bills of European citizens.
• However, without sufficient new investments in networks and electricity storage, the EU faces the risk of system instability.
• In addition, administrative restrictions in production for grid-ready RES systems, deem new investments in RES economically non-viable and carry the additional risk of disinvestment from new RES projects.
• In this complex environment of interconnected issues and modular problems, it is now crucial to approach the decarbonisation effort through the realization that painful compromises need to be made at an energy policy level, since the future of tackling climate change needs to be hybrid and, unfortunately, not completely green if we want it to be resilient and sustainable in the long term.

Read here (in Greek) the Policy paper by Michalis Mathioulakis, Energy Strategy Analyst and Academic Director of the Greek Energy Forum; ELIAMEP Research Associate.