From crisis to resilience: How renewables are strengthening Europe's energy security

Hello and welcome to Energy Evolution, a podcast where we explore the forces transforming how we power, fuel and electrify our future.

In this episode, we're talking about crisis and resilience in Europe's electricity system.

The war in the Middle East has put energy security back at the top of the political agenda.

We've seen soaring energy prices and governments scrambling to respond.

It all brings back some very familiar memories of twenty twenty-two.

That was the year Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent European gas prices through the roof, triggered emergency interventions, and forced a fundamental rethink of the continent's energy strategy.

However, that crisis also accelerated change.

Renewables deployment picked up pace, and energy independence became a national security priority.

So now, as Europe faces a new geopolitical shock, how different is this situation? Is the power system more resilient? And what does this mean for the pace of the energy transition? To answer these questions, we are lucky to be joined by Miguel Stilwell d'Andrade, the CEO of Portugal's EDP, which is one of Europe's largest utilities and a major player in renewable energy globally.

Miguel has a front row seat to how Europe's power system is evolving, and he spoke recently with my colleague Alex Blackburn, a senior reporter at S&P Global Energy Platts, who joins me now.

Welcome, Alex.

Thanks for speaking with me and great to have you back on the podcast.