Comparative analysis of national energy strategies of 19 European countries in light of the green deal’s objectives

Abstract

• National energy strategy of the individual European countries are not harmonized. • Climate goals set by European Green Deal cannot achieved with current strategies. • The current level of data collection on power production is not accurate enough. • Hourly resolution date on rooftop solar units’ production would be necessary. • Separate hourly data on pumped storage hydro & other storage technologies is a must. The European Green Deal is setting clear objectives for the transformation of the economy into a cleaner and at the same time competitive working model. The energy sector and especially the electricity sector faces serious challenges in order to comply with the objectives set by the policy. Aging power plants and grid infrastructure, phasing out fossil based energy production, the nuclear phase-out in some countries, increasing weather dependent intermittent power sources, the requirements of the security of electricity supply are also individually stressing issues, but all together are even more challenging. In line with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) the energy strategy is the competence of the individual countries, based on the fact that the different countries have very different geological, socio-economical and ecological conditions, and their access to natural resources can be diverse. Therefore the national governments and national Parliaments are setting the national strategies which has to be in-line with the European framework. An important question arises evidently, namely, whether the national pieces of the big European Puzzle will result to a picture that has been set by the European Green Deal published on 14th July 2021? In the research presented in this paper, we tried to answer the abovementioned questions by investigating the energy strategy of 19 countries situated in continental Europe. We ran simulations for the year 2030 and 2040 using full year models with hourly resolution to investigate if the power plant portfolios of the individual countries could cover the electricity needs foreseen by their national energy strategies. Possible curtailment and unserved demand of the 19 countries in question were summed and final conclusions were drawn based on the simulation results.