Post by Domantas Tracevicius

🌡️ This week in Europe was another stark reminder: climate change has not disappeared. Record-breaking heat is already costing lives — from drownings to tragic cases of children dying in overheated cars. At the same time, in Brussels, where the European Economic and Social Committee TEN Section meetings took place, temperatures reached 37°C. This created a very real backdrop for our discussions on renewable energy as a solution to Europe’s industrial challenges and as an essential part of the transformation needed to end our dependence on fossil fuels and address the climate crisis. 🌍⚡ Among the many documents discussed, I would like to highlight the excellent opinion by Thomas Kattnig on the energy storage strategy as key to our energy transition as we already (to a high degree) mastered solar and wind. 🔋 The example of California shows that the old idea of “baseload” energy is dead. With the growth of solar, wind and, especially, battery storage, dependence on gas-fired generation and other dispatchable power sources is being reduced, while power systems becomes more flexible, decentralized and resilient. This is also the direction of EU Member States, including Lithuania. As storage capacity grows, price differences between midday and peak periods will decrease, and the periods when alternative generation such as fossil fuel or nuclear is needed because the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing will become shorter. I would also like to thank the rapporteur for accepting my amendment on introducing cable pooling as a policy tool for EU grids. ⚡ Lithuania is one of the few countries applying this principle across the whole electricity network. It allows existing grid infrastructure to be used much more efficiently and helps avoid the grid congestion that is currently slowing down renewable energy and storage deployment in many EU Member States. If EU countries want to move forward, it is the right time to learn from Lithuanian experience! #EnergyTransition #RenewableEnergy #EnergyStorage #CablePooling #GridCongestion #ClimateAction #Lithuania #EESC