Pedro Amaral Jorge, CEO of the Portuguese Renewable Energy Association, put it succinctly in his opening speech at the conference: "Grid, grid, grid, grid."

In the ensuing discussion, the panelists went on to discuss "developer priorities, pain points and progress" in Europe.

"Solar developers face all kinds of challenges, but for me the grid is the most fundamental challenge," said Warren Campbell, chief operating officer of independent power producer Alight.

"It is worth noting that many countries have projects under development. In Italy and Sweden, the number of project applications requiring grid connection is 100 times the number of projects actually built each year. So the constraint is not that there are no developers trying to build projects, but It's more a question of whether the project can be realized."

regulatory issues

Part of the problem is legislation. Holger Bang, chief investment officer at Nordic Solar, said the industry needs to see "Brussels' ambition; we need to see them go all the way in the grid space because while there are grid plans, they are always extremely delayed and very opaque." "

Recent reports from the International Renewable Energy Agency and reports from PV Tech Premium show that grid and transmission infrastructure is a global issue that has the potential to drive the energy transition to new heights or hinder its development.

Asked how member states can help the industry achieve their deployment targets, Sonnedix CFO Karen Boesen said: "It comes back to the grid. It's not just about connection, it's about creating a flexible environment and There is the issue of establishing regulation. Without regulation, corporate investment will be full of uncertainty.”

Bang elaborated on the issue: "In many markets we are actually seeing developers being tasked with building grids that haven't been built in many years. We need more collaborative efforts - civil society needs to Focusing on how to obtain the grid connection permission route, how to finance, how to operate, it cannot be just the industry on our side."

Can Italy become a model for Europe?

Italian grid operator Terna recently announced that it will invest US$18 billion in the country's power grid through 2028 to expand and modernize the grid, thereby moving from a traditional centralized power station system to the more decentralized system required for the widespread use of renewable energy. model.

This level of investment can transform the grid system, but as it currently stands, it is far from perfect. Cristiano Spillati, general manager of Italian renewable energy developer Limes, told PV Tech later at the conference that the approval process for Italian grid connection is creating a backlog.

"The cost of applying for a grid connection permit in Italy is very low, about 3,000 euros ($3,247.30). "There are many individuals or companies that only do the first two steps; they sign [purchase] a piece of land, they get the grid connection point, Even without accepting it. You have an idea for a project that you can sell at a higher price [than your application fee].”

"That's why there are 140GW of applications for grid connection in solar power alone."

The topic of the Italian grid came up again in the final panel discussion of the conference, titled "EU Grid: Investments in Transmission and Distribution Infrastructure".

"Developers have to change their behavior and try not to clog the grid at the same time," said Pietro Radoia, senior solar analyst at Bloomberg.

He cited Italy as an example. In Italy, photovoltaic power generation is mainly concentrated in the sunny and spacious southern regions, especially Sicily and Sardinia, while most of the electricity demand is in the north. This creates inherent physical barriers to shipping power across the country.

Short-term solutions, energy storage and flexibility

Building transmission infrastructure and redesigning the grid is a long-term endeavor, but Campbell said at the summit's opening that he believes there are some short-term solutions to grid bottlenecks:

"Many distribution network operators are still quite slow to adapt to the fact that this is not a centralized production system and have not yet built up the resources to handle large grid applications."

He went on to say that this led to developers and projects facing "administrative embarrassment, even when there are no technical constraints on the grid." "There are no excuses for this. These issues can and should be addressed."

In addition, Campbell also said that market rules around "interoperability and battery capacity contracts" are not yet in place. If you can put these rules in place with some relatively minor grid changes, you can make batteries profitable, and you can get more solar projects into the same areas of the grid without having to make technical improvements.

Industry insiders recently said that in Europe, commercial applications for energy storage and solar-battery co-sited grid projects need to be determined before the technology can take hold.

Berto Martins, director of energy markets at Portuguese energy company EDP, said at the end of the meeting that grid upgrades should take advantage of innovation and technological flexibility wherever possible.

"In the short term, there is a need to invest in the grid. But you can find some flexibility in the grid that will also help manage the energy system in the future," because there will be more renewable energy in the future and there won't be a need for huge grid investments. . "

"It's important to be 100 percent sure that what we call grid investments are indeed what is necessary for the future, and not something that can be replaced with flexibility such as energy storage or grid-connected charging of vehicles." But he said current discussions around the grid did not take this fully into account.

Martins continued that in order to reduce the cost of fully upgrading the grid for future energy consumers, "everything needs to be managed in a smarter way and with greater flexibility".

Campbell pointed out at the opening that many developers are finding it difficult to obtain long-term offtake agreements for battery energy storage projects in the European market. "Whether it's for regulatory reasons or simply because players see an opportunity to gain access to battery capacity and be able to exploit it; the solar industry is not currently equipped to launch large-scale energy storage battery projects."

trina solar panels