Editorial

Dear Reader,

Here some interesting news in the EU energy landscape:

• The European Parliament has approved the new College of Commissioners. In the new Commission which took office on the 1st of December Dan Jørgensen has taken up the role of Commissioner for Energy and Housing.
• The European Commission, Spain, Lithuania and Austria announced new financial support for the development of renewable hydrogen via the Innovation Fund. The three Member States will participate in the ‘Auctions-as-a-Service' scheme as part of the second European Hydrogen Bank auction,  launched on 3 December. In addition to the €1.2 billion in EU funding from the Innovation Fund, the three EU Member States will deploy over €700 million in national funds to support renewable hydrogen production projects located in their countries.
• In its latest report, the European Network for Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) confirmed the EU is well-prepared in terms of electricity supply for winter 2024-2025, instilling further confidence in Europe’s security of supply. Main findings of the report mention that the electricity generation capacity, especially solar PV and wind, has expanded further. In addition, there remains good availability of electricity from thermal power plants, comparable to last winter. Reservoir levels for hydropower are overall higher than average, largely as a consequence of exceptional rainfall in Europe since early spring. Finally, gas storage level remain high, reaching 94% on 1 October 2024, exceeding the target of 90% by 1 November.
• The 7th ID-E Webinar Series on the Wind Power Action Plan took place on Thursday 21 November. The event report is available in this edition!

On the ID-E side, our members continued their discussions to define the characteristics of the new pilot schemes identified in previous WG meetings. This will provide insights and recommendations to the European Commission on possible new energy financial support schemes to increase the effectiveness and impact of EU support, based on the members’ experience and views.

Between end of November and this first week of December, we finalised round 15 of WG meetings covering pilots that include both continuations from the previous round and new topics:

• WG1: Scheme for hydrogen financing (follow-up of Round 14)
• WG2: Infrastructure and aggregation fund (new)
• WG3: Funding of energy storage projects under the Modernisation Fund (new)
• WG4: Guarantee/de risking scheme for geothermal (follow-up of Round 14)
• WG5: Aggregation platform model (follow-up of Round 14)

Your truly,

The Editor