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The EU will court docket the US for extra fuel to assuage President Donald Trump whereas additionally slashing purple tape to spice up renewable energy capability this yr, the bloc’s power commissioner has mentioned.
The European Fee expects report renewable capability to be put in within the EU in 2025.
However Dan Jørgensen mentioned the inexperienced push didn’t preclude potential commitments to purchase extra US liquefied pure fuel, as a part of a response to Trump’s tariffs.
The US president issued a 90-day pause and lowered many of the tariffs on Wednesday, shortly after they got here into pressure.
Trump on Monday had advised that the EU purchase about $350bn of US power in an effort to scale back its commerce deficit, concurrently dismissing an overture from Brussels to do a “zero-for-zero” tariff deal on industrial items and automobiles.
The US is already the largest provider of liquefied pure fuel to the bloc, accounting for 45 per cent of its imports in 2024 at a worth of about $13bn.
“There is potential for us to buy more LNG from the US but of course it needs to be on conditions that are also in line with our [green] transition,” Jørgensen mentioned, including that he had signalled this to the US power secretary Chris Wright. However there may be little Brussels can do apart from encourage corporations to signal contracts.
The European Fee expects a report 89 gigawatts of renewable energy capability to be put in within the EU in 2025, together with a further 19GW of wind energy and 70GW of photo voltaic. That’s regardless of the worldwide financial turmoil and complaints from business about lengthy waits for permits and poor grid connections.
Jørgensen mentioned renewable energy was “essential” to carry down excessive power costs and finish the bloc’s reliance on imports of Russian fossil fuels.
“We’re all nicely conscious that the excessive power costs we’re paying usually are not sustainable within the international competitors sooner or later,’’ he mentioned. ‘‘We have spent more money buying fossil fuels from Russia since 2022 than we have given in aid to Ukraine”.
Jørgensen will announce the figures for renewable deployment at an business convention in Copenhagen on Thursday in an try to encourage offshore wind buyers pummelled by the impression of Trump’s fossil gas agenda to push forward with tasks.
Rasmus Errboe, chief govt of the world’s largest offshore wind developer Ørsted, warned on Wednesday that Europe’s wind business was liable to a “downward spiral” due to excessive prices and provide chain disruptions.
The EU accepted its preliminary response to Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday, after he introduced the sweeping measures which quantity to the largest commerce struggle because the Thirties.
Commerce physique WindEurope mentioned it anticipated new wind energy capability in Europe to extend 34 per cent this yr in contrast with 2024, however that new installations final yr had been decrease than anticipated, with progress held up by ongoing points over permits, and bottlenecks for connections to the grid.
The photo voltaic business warned that year-on-year capability progress had slowed dramatically from 53 per cent in 2023 to 4 per cent final yr for related causes.
Ørsted is one in all a number of European corporations whose US tasks will likely be hit by Trump’s tariffs on aluminium and metal due to their reliance on imported elements from Europe.
EU photo voltaic sector exports to the US are ‘‘relatively small’’ in response to business physique SolarPower Europe, however the impression might be “significant” for corporations concerned in exporting sure key elements.
Jørgensen mentioned that the EU may gain advantage from the turmoil brought on by the tariffs and the financial fallout: “I think this crisis that the world economy is in right now will make it even more attractive for companies to seek safe havens in places where there is predictability and Europe is such a place.”
He mentioned that the bloc wouldn’t backtrack on its inexperienced agenda however needed to simplify guidelines governing renewable power. Common wait occasions for permits ought to be reduce from between 5 and 7 years to only six months, he mentioned, including that “nature protection directives are part of the challenge” and must be addressed.
