Four years after the start of the Ukraine war, the European Union has lost the sense of urgency needed to "strengthen its energy security", with bureaucracy still slowing renewable projects and preventing the bloc from cutting "costly energy imports", the head of Portuguese energy group EDP (with obvious vested interests) said.
Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade, CEO of one of Europe’s largest renewable power producers, told Reuters companies were struggling to build wind and solar assets fast enough to replace imported fossil fuels.
“We need to invest more in networks, be much faster in terms of licensing and permitting and take out the bureaucracy,” he said.
“The pace of growth of renewables in Europe should be two, three times faster than what it is...the sense of urgency has been lost.”
d’Andrade declined to mention however, that almost all renewables projects in Europe are massively subsidised by the taxpayer, and that the same EU bureaucracy he complains about was also instrumental in hamstringing nuclear power in Europe, a far more efficient competitor to renewables.
Energy companies have the capital and technology to deploy renewables quickly but are hamstrung by slow approvals, he said. Projects can take four to six years to secure permits but require only 12–18 months to build, he added, adding that several member states have still not implemented European Commission proposals to shorten the approvals process to years.
“Immediately after the war in Ukraine everyone was in a war mentality. I think we’re lacking the sense of urgency and actually wanting to get things done.”
Stilwell d’Andrade said Europe’s heavy reliance on imported gas remains its biggest competitive disadvantage as prices are several times higher than in the United States. He claimed Europe should accelerate domestic wind, solar and battery capacity to reduce dependence on imported fuels be it Russia, the United States or anywhere else.
“Europe should have its independent energy because we’ve realised that energy can be weaponised,” he said.
In the United States, EDP has put three US offshore wind projects into “hibernation-mode” due to policy uncertainty, he added.
On Spain’s nuclear fleet, he said EDP supported keeping the existing timetable to close reactors by 2035 (there are those vested interests again - Ed).
(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov in Davos; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle, Baird Maritime)