The global energy crisis continues to make headlines. Multiple issues over the past couple of years like the pandemic and geopolitical conflicts have led to spikes in coal, oil, natural gas, and electricity prices. While we are already in the midst of the transition to renewable energy, these factors have further accelerated the need to de-fossilize the energy sector. In fact, for the chemical industry as well, the road to achieving net-zero targets by 2050 is largely dependent on the availability of renewable energy.

In Europe, since the introduction of the Renewable Energy Directive, the share of renewable energy sources in EU energy consumption almost doubled from 2010 (12.5%) to 2022 (23%). That shows good progress but given the urgency to drive EU’s clean energy transition, the directive was revised in 2023 and a challenging target of 42.5% was set for 2030. Reaching the new target will require a very challenging CAGR of 8% on the share until 2030.¹