24/7 at RE-Source 2022

Live in Amsterdam this week, RE-Source Platform hosted their annual event, #RESource2022. Over the past two days, the largest gathering of renewable energy buyers and suppliers in Europe has seen discussions on how renewable corporate sourcing can help Europe achieve energy competitiveness, security, and climate goals. Amid a continental energy crisis, this conference is a ‘timely match’ (see our white paper). ?With energy prices higher than they have ever been, due to the extraordinary price of gas, massive deployment of renewable energy is the main way out of the crisis, and all the options for corporate sourcing must be incentivised, including 24/7 carbon-free energy.

Hourly energy matching: The next step to decarbonise the power system???

At Eurelectric, our goal is to promote decarbonisation through electrification. While corporates have led the way in delivering on their sustainability pledges and taking tangible steps to decarbonise their electricity consumption through PPAs, the wider ecosystem of 24/7 stakeholders is growing rapidly.

“24/7 market can be an essential tool to facilitate decarbonised well-functioning market.” – Gilles Etienne , ENTSO-E

A voluntary, coordinated and scaled approach to deliver transparent granular matching of clean energy supply and demand would have far-reaching positive impacts on decarbonising power grids:

1. Credibility: Increasing transparency of corporate sustainability claims and potential granularity of carbon accounting.
2. Driving new renewable energy capacity, flexibility, storage and grid projects. By providing an awareness of when RES assets are producing, electricity procurement drives investment towards physical infrastructure needed to switch to clean energy 24/7: not only more wind and solar but also smart grids, storage, and flexibility applications. Companies are incentivised to consume when the grid is cleaner as they would not need to buy certificates on top of them. There’s also an incentive to build storage projects, as they could buy certificates at the time when the grid is clean and resell it when the grid is carbon reliant.
3. Optimal siting of projects: 24/7 accelerates electricity decarbonisation by supporting the development of renewable energy assets to better reflect when and where RES-E generation is most needed.
4. Innovation: Facilitating new business models and technologies
5. Tangible: Bringing closer correlation between certificates and real-world availability of renewable energy

Do the benefits outweigh the costs?

“24/7 solutions do not have to be more expensive than other alternatives. We have to remove the fear that ‘going the extra mile’ you definitely have to pay more. We will definitely go 24/7 and there is no other way.” - Klaas Bauermann , Statkraft

Indeed, from a competitiveness perspective, recent studies show that reaching 80 _90% carbon-free energy (CFE) has comparable cost and system impact to annually matching 100% renewable energy, whilst bringing increased emission reductions. A carbon-free target of 80-90% can be met through a combination of wind, solar and batteries.

What do we need to accelerate the process??

“ 1) education on the topic to get people familiarised with the concept, 2) voluntary standards, 3) solutions from service providers.” - Killian Daly , EnergyTag

To accomplish this, we have established the 24/7 European Hub with partners including the RE-Source Platform , EnergyTag , Flexidao , RE100 Climate Group, CDP , WBCSD – World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the UN (United Nations) Carbon-Free Energy Compact. Today at Re-Source, along with these partners and 谷歌 , 微软 , Statkraft , 阿斯利康 and ENTSO-E , we presented this next step in clean energy procurement.

With RE-Source acting as a physical marketplace for buyers and suppliers to meet, discuss, network, learn and do business, we are delighted to have brought a number of these stakeholders and solution providers to present the next generation in clean energy. It will not happen overnight, but this is the direction of travel. Thought leadership, and sharing solutions will get us there, and that is what we are doing with the 24/7 European Hub.

If you would like to learn more about 24/7 see our #247Hub and reach out to Marianne Leonet Karu or Augustin Chabrol to get involved.