EIT InnoEnergy: Electrification of mobility at COP24
EIT InnoEnergy held a session at the COP24 UN Climate Change Conference
A session entitled “Electrification of mobility” was organised by EIT InnoEnergy and Eurelectric at the UN COP24, on 4 December in Katowice (Poland). A cost-effective full decarbonisation of our economy by mid-century is not an option anymore. With the European power sector committing to be fully carbon-neutral well before 2050, new opportunities are opening to Europe. Hosted by Céline Jullien, Industry Programme Management Officer at EIT InnoEnergy, the panel highlighted the challenges and opportunities created by the electrification of mobility. It put the light on key public and private initiatives, such as the European Battery Alliance or the gigafactories that can help decarbonise the energy supply and demand cost-effectively.
Speakers of the panel included Henning Häder, Manager Energy Policy, Climate & Sustainability at Eurelectric, Peter Carlsson, CEO of Northvolt, Krzysztof Bolesta, Vice-President, Electric Vehicles Promotion Foundation, Peter Badik, Co-founder & managing partner, Greenway as well as Guillaume Gillet, Manager of UE Business Unit of EIT lnnoEnergy.
Peter Carlsson said: 'The snowball effect of EV we are seeing now will become bigger when consumers will realise it is a better investment than buying old fuel vehicles. To run the electromobility transition we will need 40 large scale factories'. Northvolt was founded with the mission to build the world’s greenest battery, with a minimal carbon footprint and the highest ambitions for recycling, to enable the European transition to renewable energy. EIT InnoEnergy has already invested EUR 3.5 million to support the creation of Europe’s first large scale battery factory.
In this landscape, electrification of our energy usages, notably of mobility, will have a growing role to play. At the crossroad of penetration of renewables, storage, and decentralised energy, electrified mobility progressively appears as a one-off opportunity to be seized by Europe for global competitiveness while supporting European automotive and electricity industries.
Guillaume Gillet commented: 'The European Battery Alliance is a pragmatic alliance, which thanks to its bottom-up approach, brings the project closer to the industrials and the consumers'.
For this future to happen, battery is a key technology, building bridge between mobility and power systems. For instance, flexibility services that Vehicle to Grid technologies provide for balancing of the electricity grid could become an important element of the integrated energy system.
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