How are we going to pay the €1 trillion for the Pan-European super smart grid?

There are less than three months until the next climate-change conference in Durban. As pledged in previous summits, can we really achieve a 20-30% emission cut by 2020?

        To do so, experts agree that our grids must become at least carbon-neutral. Last December, the European Commission unveiled its plan for a Super Smart Grid joining up the electricity networks of the EU and North Africa by 2050 to bring low-cost, low-carbon electricity and better investment opportunities in renewable energies. But it estimates that all infrastructural upgrades will need €1 trillion investment. So, the Pan-European Supergrid can’t go ahead unless the financing arrangement is sorted out soon.

European Super Smart Grid: Great Opportunities for Renewable Energy Sources

In December 2010, the European Commission formally presented the proposal for a Super Smart Grid (SSG), which joins up the electricity networks of the European Union’s member states and North Africa by 2050 as part of its energy infrastructure priorities for the next two decades.  Super smart grids are a type of infrastructure perceived by the European Parliament as indispensable to improve the efficiency of using renewable energy sources.  SSG will decarbonise the Pan-European electricity industry and economy and hence combat climate change; enhance security of energy supply; realise a single energy market; and in particular, increase the scale of renewables portfolio. (Prodi, 2011) A low-carbon Europe is in the making.