Europe is sitting on a goldmine of unaccounted for renewable energy

The energy price crisis is creating fierce political debates over the block’s energy security with renewed pushes for centralised energy supply solutions such as hydrogen or nuclear energy.

This one-size-fits-all logic is dangerously pushing us towards sub-optimal investment decisions. The danger of de-zooming so much on the complexities involved with moving to a climate-neutral energy mix is that we tend to oversimplify the issue at end. This leads to short-sighted conclusions like the typical comment that renewable output being too unstable, we need back-up gas or nuclear facilities, period.

In my home country, the Netherlands, the involvement of local authorities mean energy supply is no longer a black or white question. It is rather a colorful patchwork of answers that depend on the local context and specificities.

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