Jacqueline van den End, CEO of Carbon Equity, is of the opinion that we have already passed the climate transition turn: “Last year, 90% of all new electricity productions came from renewable sources worldwide, i.e. generated by solar, wind or water. In the meantime, China is actually ahead of its climate goals compared to other countries,” she said.
This is not a sign to let up. If at all, van is the end of the view that we need more investments in Klima -Tech solutions that help to accelerate the transition and make clean energy accessible worldwide. However, European climate-tech financing in the first quarter of 2025 has dropped a low point of five years.
In the recent episode of KIAS Next Big Drive, van tells the end of how Carbon’s own capital uses its platform to democratize climate finance by enabling individuals to invest in pioneering climate protection companies.
Check out the interview here:
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Despite the recent headlines, the support for the energy transfer through the continent is growing. European citizens not only express their opinions, but also take measures by reducing and recycling waste (64%) and reducing disposable items if possible (49%).
Many also put their money where their mouth is. The first half of 2025 marked a significant milestone for the market for European batteries (BEV) with new registrations compared to the same period in 2024.
According to the European Commission’s Eurobarometer survey: 2025 Eurobarometer:
The rise of the energy communities
The appetite for the creation of what the EU -ENNER -ENER -ENERGEICHENSAUTION has gained has increased in recent years because the EU financing has supported new community -LED actions. By securing ownership of renewable energies, these communities can protect the residents from price shock by providing a stable, affordable force all year round.
Investments in an energy network based on wind turbines, an electrician and heat pumps paid off for the HVIDE District in Denmark during the 2022 energy crisis. While energy bills rose across Europe, the residents of the community fell over 50%of the heating costs.
Since 2015, Ireland’s Ecovision Community has been using energy -saving profits to create a community fund that is intended to help residents achieve the financing of energy -saving renovation work. So far, over 900 houses and 50 community and trade buildings have been renovated, which saves over 10 GWH energy, which corresponds to the average annual electricity consumption of more than 2,300 Irish households. All renovation work is carried out by local contractors who help to strengthen the local economy.
Recently, a Finnish city with 5,000 inhabitants introduced a sand battery that uses dirt to store excess renewable energies as heat. The battery warms up on a sunny or windy day and stores energy for weeks or even months. The Polar Night, the startup behind the battery, estimates that the battery can heat the whole city for a week in winter or a whole month in summer.
This pilot project could start a new trend for communities to heat their houses and companies sustainably.
More network, more energy
However, the Iberia-Wide Blackout on April 28th carried the skepticism, with some ambitions of Spain and Portugal Net zero. Shortly before the power failure, Spain had reached a milestone on April 16 by running 100% on wind, solar and hydropower for the first time.
Our Sustainability Tech Reporter Siôn, which was headed in Portugal, quickly reported about the history at the time and interviewed several climate -tech experts who have attributed the Iberian blackout points to network -growing pain -to green energy failure.
“While wind and solar create a clean, cheap electricity, they do not produce any power in a steady current – they rise and fall with the weather. However, the grids in Europe were largely built for predictable energy sources such as coal, gas or nuclear power plants,” says Windt. “Without this stabilizing force or the addition of alternatives such as battery storage systems, the network becomes more susceptible to painting in terms of power needs or offer.”
Experts, including Carbon Equity Portfolio Company Octopus Energy, say that updating the network to enable more flexibility is an essential step for the transition. South Australia had a similar blackout in 2016. Then it increased its network by introducing:
- More intelligent demand reaction systems
- Modernized grid settings
- Further battery capacity of the battery
By 2023, South Australia reached 64% renewable electricity with zero -severe failures.
Batteries on wheels
While the increase in EVS is increased in the considerable capacity of CO2 emissions, it could also put pressure on the demand for green energy. However, the car manufacturers are preparing for a future in which their car becomes more than a way to get from A to B: it could also play an important role in the energy ecosystem of the future.
The interview between van den Ende and the TNW founder Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten took place in Kias Rein Elektrischem EV9. The first model that was equipped with vehicle-to-grid technology and bidirectional shop and made it possible to store energy from renewable sources and put it back into the power grid. In fact, a fully charged EV9 with a battery of 99.8 kWh could supply a household with electricity for about a week.
In a recently carried out study, the researchers examined the advantages of using an EV to optimize the solar energy parts between neighbors. They found that this agreement could reduce electricity costs for both households for around 1.2 cents per kilowatt hour for the house in solar ownership and 3.6 cents for the neighbors.
A Fraunhofer study for T&E examined the potential economic advantages of “vehicles” for Grid technology for the broader EU with some promising results:
- By 2040, the widespread introduction of bidirectional fees could reduce annual energy system costs in the EU by 8.6%, which corresponds to 22.2 billion euros per year. Even by 2030, savings of 5.5% or € 9.7 billion will be projected per year. The total savings between 2030 and 2040 could be € 175.45 billion – which is almost the entire EU budget for 2023.
- EVS could contribute up to 9% of the annual power supply in Europe and become the fourth largest power supply supplier. During the top -quality periods, EVS could deliver 15 to 20% of the immediate electricity requirement and act as a virtual power plant of mass distribution.
- The bidirectional charge could enable another 430 GW Solar -PV capacity by 2040, which almost doubles the current EU capacity.
- The need for stationary battery storage could be reduced by up to 92% in 2040, while the capacity of the backup power plant can be reduced by 126 GW.
Possible savings in grid expansion costs could reach 9.8 billion euros by 2040, but the researchers warn that this technology should not be regarded as a replacement for the necessary reinforcement and expansion of the network.
However, the infrastructure requirements, the standardization of the technology and the regulatory framework for the security and fair pricing of the energy trade between EV owners and supply companies are some roadblocks that have to be worked out before we can exhaust the full potential of EVS.
At the moment it seems that EVS will be a community-managed experiment as “batteries on wheels”, the knowledge of which can be used to scale this potential later. For example, there are studies to compensate for lost energy during working hours and the development of heterogeneous energy reference in several communities are all steps in more energy -efficient direction.
The scaling of initiatives and experiments with energy community community could be the key to helping the EU to overcome the energy transfer to achieve a quick introduction.
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