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The EU will court docket the US for extra fuel to assuage President Donald Trump whereas additionally slashing crimson tape to spice up renewable energy capability this yr, the bloc’s power commissioner has stated.
The European Fee expects file renewable capability to be put in within the EU in 2025.
However Dan Jørgensen stated 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 drive.
Trump on Monday had instructed that the EU purchase about $350bn of US power with the intention to cut back its commerce deficit, concurrently dismissing an overture from Brussels to do a “zero-for-zero” tariff deal on industrial items and vehicles.
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’s potential for us to purchase extra LNG from the US however after all it must be on situations which can be additionally according to our [green] transition,” Jørgensen stated, including that he had signalled this to the US power secretary Chris Wright. However there’s little Brussels can do aside from encourage corporations to signal contracts.
The European Fee expects a file 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 stated renewable energy was “important” to carry down excessive power costs and finish the bloc’s reliance on imports of Russian fossil fuels.
“We’re all effectively conscious that the excessive power costs we’re paying aren’t sustainable within the world competitors sooner or later,’’ he stated. ‘‘We have now spent extra money shopping for fossil fuels from Russia since 2022 than we’ve given in assist to Ukraine”.
Jørgensen will announce the figures for renewable deployment at an business convention in Copenhagen on Thursday in an try and encourage offshore wind buyers pummelled by the impression of Trump’s fossil gasoline 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 prone to a “downward spiral” due to excessive prices and provide chain disruptions.
The EU accredited its preliminary response to Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday, after he introduced sweeping measures that quantity to the largest commerce struggle for the reason that Thirties.
Commerce physique WindEurope stated 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 development had slowed dramatically from 53 per cent in 2023 to 4 per cent final yr for comparable causes.
Ørsted is considered one of a number of European corporations whose US tasks might 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 ‘‘comparatively small’’, in keeping with business physique SolarPower Europe, however the impression could possibly be “important” for corporations concerned in exporting sure key elements.
Jørgensen stated that the EU may gain advantage from the turmoil attributable to the tariffs and the financial fallout: “I believe this disaster that the world economic system is in proper now will make it much more engaging for corporations to hunt protected havens in locations the place there’s predictability and Europe is such a spot.”
He stated that the bloc wouldn’t backtrack on its inexperienced agenda however needed to simplify guidelines governing renewable power. Common wait instances for permits ought to be minimize from between 5 and 7 years to simply six months, he stated, including that “nature safety directives are a part of the problem” and must be addressed.
