Energy, Environment & Transport Pro Brief |
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Fri 8 November 2024 | View online
Estimated reading time: 4-5 minutes |
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Good morning , And welcome toFriday 8 November’s daily Energy, Environment and Transport Pro Brief.
The power sector says that electricity prices are returning to normal in south eastern Europe.
And Berlin’s government collapse means that central Europe may be stuck with the resented gas transit fee.
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Power sector says southeast Europe price spike is over |
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Power sector association Eurelectric says that average day-ahead electricity prices in Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Greece, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia have calmed down since their Summer spikes.
In July and August prices in the region averaged €120/MWh, but in October this fell to €90/MWh.
Eurelectric says that summer demand for cooling and less hydro and nuclear power were the main drivers of the price spikes. The association said that power exports to Ukraine played only a minor role.
The industry, nervous of potential fresh fiddling with market rules, will be glad to share the good news.
The summer’s price volatility spurred the prime minister of Greece to write to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, demanding European-level action. This was followed by letters from the energy minsters of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania to Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson.
Even as prices were easing, national leaders kept up the pressure.
During the 17 October European Council meeting, the Council invited the Commission to “urgently propose measures addressing (…) the high and volatile electricity prices in some parts of Europe.”
So far, the Commission seems to be resisting the pressure.
During the parliamentary hearing of incoming Energy Commissioner Jørgensen on Tuesday, the Dane said that he did not expect to revise power market rules during his mandate. [DC]
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Abolishment of Central Europe gas transit fee in limbo after Berlin collapse |
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On 30 May, Berlin announced that it would abolish a contested €2.5 ‘transit fee’ on every MWh of gas that passes through its territory.
The fee was meant to go from January 2025 – a date that now seems impossible because the key law, a revision to the Energy Industry Act, is currently stuck in the German parliament following the collapse of the government.
“This would not be good news for Austria's gas supply, especially in light of the transit agreement between Ukraine and Russia, which expires at the end of 2024,” energy expert Christoph Dolna-Gruber told Euractiv.
The transit fee was introduced last year to to recoup the billions of losses racked up by the German government’s gas spending spree during the 2022 energy crisis.
Germany backed down under pressure from central European countries, which complained that the fee made it more expensive for them to replace Russian gas with LNG via Western Europe. [NK]
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MEPs approve returning climate chief Wopke Hoekstra, with a title tweak |
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Yesterday, delegate Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra (EPP) passed his Parliament hearing.
MEPs from the EPP, S&D, Renew, Greens and ECR groups gave him the thumbs up, with all but the ECR stressing that ‘taxation' should be added to his title.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen already assigned responsibility for tax files to the Dutchman, but MEPs want it explicitly spelled out too.
This week's parliamentary hearings have followed a similar pattern: MEPs try to extract policy promises from commissioner hopefuls while they, in turn, seek diplomatic ways to avoid committing to anything.
To avoid tying himself to policy promises, Hoekstra’s strategy was to repeatedly point out the limits of the climate commissioner’s powers, and put the ball back in the court of economy, industry, and environment MEPs.
He said any commitments he made could undermine the Parliament's future work on the files in question – a gentle reminder to MEPs that they also have a role to play in passing new EU rules and targets.
On tax, Hoekstra embraced the idea that "whether we like it or not, member states have the leading role in most taxation files."
To know what Hoekstra said (and did not say) check out the full article from the Euractiv’s energy & environment team.
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New ‘expression of interest’ call for cross-Europe hydrogen network |
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Yesterday afternoon, a coalition of five gas transmission system operators launched a call for expressions of interest to assess the needs of future users of their planned H2Med hydrogen network.
H2Med is a corridor of several hydrogen pipelines running from Portugal to Germany via Spain and France, which should be able to transport 2 million tons of hydrogen a year by 2030.
The EU is aiming for the annual production of 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen by 2030 and the import of another 10 million tons. Some observers, including the EU’s Court of Auditors, consider this target unattainable. [PM]
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Today Germany gets its own its own battery-grade lithium factory |
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Today, a plant in Industriepark Höchst, near the country’s financial centre of Frankfurt am Main, is going into operation. The facility operated by startup Vulcan Energy will convert lithium chloride from into lithium hydroxide monohydrate, with a purity level high enough to supply batteries.
The Upper Rhine Plain in western Germany has a large lithium deposit and some hope it can contribute to the EU’s domestic lithium ambitions.
The EU currently has to import 80% of the lithium it extracts in metal form and 100% when it is processed, with much of it coming from China, the global cleantech competitor.
Brussels wants to boost production domestically and in neighbouring countries, but these efforts are proving to be more complicated than planned. [JS]
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EDF will appeal the dismissal of its Czech nuclear complaint |
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“EDF plans to appeal the decision as soon as possible,” the French energy producer told Euractiv, referring to the 31 October rejection by Czech authorities of an earlier EDF complaint.
EDF’s original complaint was against the decision of public Czech energy company CEZ to pursue exclusive negotiations with South Korean company KHNP, concerning the construction of two new nuclear reactors in the Dukovany power plant.
Pending review of the appeal, signature of the contract for the two reactors has been blocked. As a reminder, the Czech authorities want to sign the contract before 31 March 2025.
EDF has until 15 November to lodge its appeal. [PM]
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Ukrainians told rising power prices part of European integration process |
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Ukrainian MP Bohdan Kitsak says that there will be a gradual increase in power prices as part of the country’s adoption of EU rules, according to local media Unian.
The comments were made on the tv channel Новини.Live. Back to top. |
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Opinion: A warming planet needs Europe |
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Today’s brief was brought to you by Euractiv’s Energy, Environment & Transport team |
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Today’s briefing was prepared by the Energy, Environment and Transport team: Donagh Cagney, Paul Messad, Nikolaus J.Kurmayer, Jasper Steinlein and Bárbara Machado. Share your feedback or information with us at digital@euractiv.com. |
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