In Short : The smart route to achieving net zero emissions involves a multifaceted approach. It necessitates a blend of renewable energy adoption, energy efficiency improvements, and innovative technologies. Smart grid systems, electric vehicles, and sustainable urban planning are pivotal. Additionally, investing in research, incentivizing green practices, and fostering international collaboration are crucial. By combining these strategies, nations can effectively navigate the path to a sustainable, net zero future.
In Detail : A multi-technology approach to renewable energy production is the best way to achieve global CO2 emissions targets.
High winds, blazing sun and clean water — the most common compound on the planet — are fueling the future.
In the next few years, countries across the globe will need to decarbonize their existing electricity infrastructure and massively scale up investments in renewable energy sources, flexible technologies and grid modernization. The EU alone has identified the need to reach more than 1200GW of renewable energy installed capacity by 2030.
To meet this target, more investment is needed in expanding grids: including in transmission and distribution, more efficient use of current grid assets, automation and digitalization, and generally making grids ‘smarter.’
“We need technology innovation,” says Miguel Stilwell de Andrade, CEO of EDP, one of the world’s leading renewable-energy companies — and one that itself has committed to becoming all green by 2030 and net zero by 2040. “But we also need business-model innovation, which is combining these different technologies together and selling that energy to customers in a smarter way.”
Renewable sources are by nature intermittent or weather dependent, with the amount of sun, wind and rain varying throughout the year. To ensure a constant supply of energy to homes and industry a proper balance among technologies is key, not only renewables but flexibility sources like storage or demand response.
EDP has led the way in developing hybrid generation plants that use two or more renewable sources of electricity in the same location. These reduce costs by sharing a single electrical infrastructure, produce a smaller environmental footprint than single-source plants and maximize the energy delivered to the system. Not only that, but these plants also help mitigate fluctuations in sun, wind, or rainfall.
EDP boasts an extensive portfolio and know-how of varied renewable energy production and storage technologies — a fundamental aspect of guaranteeing energy security and autonomy. Further hybridization of its existing plants is on the agenda — and sites that must remain single-technology, due to geographic conditions, will become increasingly efficient.
Exploring EDP’s projects around the world offers a blueprint for the green transition in Europe and beyond
Hybrids
Since July 2022, EDP has been operating a combined hydro and solar generation plant at the Alqueva dam in southern Portugal. In addition to electricity generated by four hydroelectric turbines, a four-hectare array of 12,000 photovoltaic panels, floating on the water surface, produces 7.5GWh of power annually, enough to supply 30 percent of the energy consumption of the region’s homes — an infrastructure to which a battery system with a storage capacity of around 2MWh has more recently been added, using the same grid connection point.
In the same Alqueva reservoir, a few kilometers from the dam, an additional hybrid project is being developed by EDP, where an 84 MW floating solar park and a 70MW wind farm will work in tandem, sharing the same connection point to the grid. EDP is also developing solar projects to hybridize the 510 MW connection point available at the Alqueva dam, thereby increasing efficiency, and reducing environmental impact, while transforming Alqueva in a true renewable hub.
In January 2023, EDP installed an 8.4MW solar plant adjacent to a wind farm near Sabugal in eastern Portugal. By using the wind farm’s existing electrical infrastructure, it was able to increase the plant’s total output with few additional overheads.
In Poland, EDP has opened a 45MW solar plant in Konary, alongside the existing 79.5MW Pawlowo wind farm. This hybrid, the first of its kind in the country, will help power 20,000 households annually.
And in Spain, the company has received authorization to add solar capacity to the existing Cruz de Hierro wind farm in Santa María del Cubillo, Ávila, north-west of Madrid.
The success of hybrid projects such as these opens the possibility of cost-effective enhancements to the many renewables projects around the world.
Offshore Wind
High winds out at sea are a huge untapped source of clean, renewable energy. The challenge, however, has been building wind farms that are able to endure the extreme conditions of such locations. Wind speeds can reach gale force and the sea can be too deep for turbines to be fixed in position on the seabed.
To answer these challenges, in 2011 EDP started a prototype version called WindFloat1, off the coast of Aguçadoura near Porto, which preceded the WindFloat Atlantic project, continental Europe’s first floating offshore wind farm, located off the coast of Viana do Castelo, Portugal. After several years of work, the project became fully operational in July 2020.
The plant comprises three turbines, which are anchored to the sea floor and use dynamic ballast to keep the turbines upright. Since 2020, the plant has been supplying clean energy to 25,000 homes.
EDP, through its joint venture Ocean Winds, is also developing offshore wind projects in the US, the UK, France, Belgium, Poland and South Korea. In the Moray Firth, off the north-east coast of Scotland, a 100-turbine EDP plant has an installed capacity of 950MW, enough to power 40 percent of Scotland’s electricity demand.
Solar
In 2021, EDP inaugurated a 252MWP solar park in Pereira Barreto in São Paulo state, Brazil. It is the fifth-largest solar park in Brazil and created 1,500 jobs. Comprising nearly 600,000 photovoltaic panels, when fully operational it will have an annual production capacity of 547,000MWh — enough to supply a city of 750,000 inhabitants.
Less well-known is offshore solar, which is especially promising for countries where land is scarce. In the Straits of Johor, off Singapore, EDP has installed one of the world’s largest floating offshore solar farms, with more than 13,000 photovoltaic panels producing 6GWh of electricity per year and potentially offsetting 4,258 tons of carbon dioxide. The array is held in place by a constant tension-monitoring system that enables it to withstand changing weather conditions.
Solar distributed generation, which is expected to represent close to 50 percent of all new solar additions globally in the coming years, has become another of EDP’s fastest-growing business segments. The group is committed to investing €2.5 billion up to 2026 to install an additional 4GWp in solar projects on the energy users’ or the grid side of the meter, for families and businesses, thereby ensuring a decisive contribution to the energy transition.
Renewable systems also need ways to store excess energy that is produced during periods of high winds and sunlight. Technologies such as hydrogen and batteries can ensure the balance between supply and demand by maintaining the flexibility of energy assets.
Hydrogen
Renewable hydrogen, produced by electrolysis that is powered by renewable electricity, will have a key role to play in decarbonizing sectors that are hard to electrify. These include transport means such as shipping and aviation as well industries such as chemical and steel industries, which now use — or can be adapted to use — hydrogen in the production line.
EDP is a leader in the development of renewables, which is a critical input for the competitiveness of renewable hydrogen, currently representing nearly 70 percent of the total cost of hydrogen production.
The company has several projects in different stages of development, including its first pilot in operation in Brazil, since 2022, in the site of an existing coal power plant. Additionally, EDP is in the process of converting other coal sites in Spain and Portugal, repurposing existing infrastructures therefore saving cost and time.
Furthermore, EDP is building a portfolio of renewable H2 projects leveraging on its wind and solar assets in the geographies where it is present.
Storage
EDP already has 2.3GW of pumped storage across its hydroelectric facilities in Portugal. These enable it to store water in times of excess generation for later use. And it is investing heavily in developing battery solutions.
EDP is developing its first standalone battery storage system in the UK, which contributes 50MW to the country’s power grid and provides two hours of storage capacity. It has also already begun working on two storage projects totaling 190MW that are located adjacent to solar energy parks in Fresno, California, with expected operating dates next year. From 2025 onwards, the group will be adding 432MW of new storage capacity in California alone.
A business model for innovation
To reach net zero, Europe and the world will have to adopt technologies, policies and know-how that can make renewable energy constant, reliable and cost-effective. And partnerships between policymakers and industry leaders will be fundamental.
“What is holding back the necessary scaling of renewables are issues like licensing, permitting, interconnection, NIMBY mindset,” says Stilwell de Andrade. “We need focus on taking out road obstacles and red tape so that we can actually drive the energy transition with the speed that it needs.”
He is optimistic, though. Initiatives such as the EU’s net-zero industry act, which supports, in particular, strategic net-zero technologies, will open the way for innovation and scaling of renewables, storage, and grid modernization.
“I think if you look back in ten, twenty years’ time,” he says, “we will have made it.”