Description
In recent months, the European Union has been facing high and volatile energy prices. After Russia’s unprecedented military attack on Ukraine, security of supply concerns exacerbate the situation. The new geopolitical and energy market reality requires us to drastically accelerate the clean energy transition and increase Europe's energy independence from unreliable suppliers and volatile fossil fuels. The European Commission has proposed an outline of a plan to make Europe independent from Russian fossil fuels well before 2030, starting with gas. “REPowerEU” will seek to diversify gas supplies, speed up the roll-out of renewable gases and replace gas in heating and power generation.
In this context, the European Cluster Collaboration Platform, on behalf of the European Commission, DG GROW, organised the EU Clusters Talk “REPowerEU: Energy solutions and industrial competitiveness” on 13 April 2022, 8:30 – 10:00 CEST, to present the plan and to talk with cluster and industry representatives about energy solutions, possible bottlenecks, and proposals for the effective implementation of the plan. The focus of the discussion was on (rooftop) solar, wind, and heat pumps, while also having a glance at hydrogen technologies.
To give us input for our discussion, we welcomed experts to share their views with us:
- Luca Demicheli, Policy Officer for Green and Circular Economy at Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), European Commission
- Ricardo Renedo Williams, Policy Officer for Infrastructure and Regional Cooperation at Directorate-General for Energy (DG ENER), European Commission
- José Ignacio Hormaeche, General Manager, Basque Energy Cluster
- Krzysztof Brzozowski, CEO, Centre of Energy Technology Cluster
- Simon Ducasse, General Director, Altansun
- Thomas Nowak, Secretary General, European Heat Pump Association
Important links:
- Communication from the European Commission: REPowerEU
- Press release: REPowerEU: Joint European action for more affordable, secure and sustainable energy
- Factsheet: REPowerEU
Watch the full recording of the webinar:
Summary
Please find below the event summary of this EU Clusters Talk which includes the key takeaways from the session.
EU Clusters Talks: The bi-weekly meeting point for the cluster community
The European Cluster Collaboration Platform invites the cluster community to a regular online meeting to discuss up-to-date insights into the latest industrial policies and cluster activities, cluster knowledge, best practices, the latest ECCP news, and funding opportunities.
The EU Clusters Talks take place every two weeks. Information on the next Talks will be published on the website – stay tuned for more!