[Episode #279] – Debottlenecking Europe’s Grid

You're listening to the free abridged edition of the Energy Transition Show.

Oil, coal, hydro, nuclear energy, natural gas, energy infrastructure, solar panels, wind turbines.

A lot of the connection reform process we're doing is not trying to find space for new projects to come in.

It's actually clearing out a lot of the projects we actually just don't need.

The only good capacity market is a dead capacity market.

For July 1st, 2026, this is the Energy Transition Show with Chris Nelder.

There are more than enough new solar projects waiting to be connected to the distribution grid in Great Britain right now to meet its 2030 renewable energy target.

In Italy and Poland, there's enough solar waiting around in a connection queue to get them halfway to their 2030 solar targets.

Across just eight European countries, there's a whopping 375 gigawatts of wind and solar PV projects and an even more astonishing 455 gigawatts of battery storage projects waiting in connection queues.

None of it can get onto the grid.

In addition to the renewable projects waiting for distribution grid connections, those eight countries are already paying 7.2 billion euros a year for wind and solar power being curtailed from existing installations because the transmission grid is congested.

Instead, they have to pay high prices for imported natural gas to run power plants and generate much more expensive power along with more carbon emissions.

Inadequate grid capacity is rapidly becoming a global problem as wind and solar and batteries continue to be adopted far more quickly than the grid capacity is being built to accommodate that power.

Most studies to date on grid congestion and how it's preventing the deployment of more wind and solar, and therefore also preventing many countries from making progress toward their clean grid power targets, have focused on the transmission grid, because that's where utility-scale wind and solar projects typically get connected.

But a new study commissioned by the European climate non-profit Beyond Fossil Fuels has for the first time looked into how much wind, solar, and battery capacity is waiting to connect to the distribution grid in those eight European countries.

Counting only projects over one megawatt in size, there is renewable generation equivalent to more than a third of the total grid capacity of those eight European countries, just languishing in connection queues.

And add in the battery capacity waiting to be connected and it's roughly equivalent to the entire generation capacity of those countries.

In today's conversation, we welcome Tara Connolly, program lead for energy markets and grids with Beyond Fossil Fuels, to walk through the report's findings and learn what can be done about this sad state of affairs.

And it will not surprise our longtime listeners at all to learn that it mostly comes down to regulation.

Then in the new segment, we'll see how the same kinds of grid connection issues are holding up renewable projects in Australia.

We'll note a new milestone for batteries on the Australian grid.

We'll review the decarbonization goal proposed in Britain's new carbon budget.

We'll check out the first transmission line between Ireland and continental Europe.

And we'll have a peek at a new transmission line running between Quebec and New York City.

You're listening to the free abridged edition of the Energy Transition Show.

Oil, coal, hydro, nuclear energy, natural gas, energy infrastructure, solar panels, wind turbines.

A lot of the connection reform process we're doing is not trying to find space for new projects to come in.

It's actually clearing out a lot of the projects we actually just don't need.

The only good capacity market is a dead capacity market.

For July 1st, 2026, this is the Energy Transition Show with Chris Nelder.

There are more than enough new solar projects waiting to be connected to the distribution grid in Great Britain right now to meet its 2030 renewable energy target.

In Italy and Poland, there's enough solar waiting around in a connection queue to get them halfway to their 2030 solar targets.

Across just eight European countries, there's a whopping 375 gigawatts of wind and solar PV projects and an even more astonishing 455 gigawatts of battery storage projects waiting in connection queues.

None of it can get onto the grid.

In addition to the renewable projects waiting for distribution grid connections, those eight countries are already paying 7.2 billion euros a year for wind and solar power being curtailed from existing installations because the transmission grid is congested.

Instead, they have to pay high prices for imported natural gas to run power plants and generate much more expensive power along with more carbon emissions.

Inadequate grid capacity is rapidly becoming a global problem as wind and solar and batteries continue to be adopted far more quickly than the grid capacity is being built to accommodate that power.

Most studies to date on grid congestion and how it's preventing the deployment of more wind and solar, and therefore also preventing many countries from making progress toward their clean grid power targets, have focused on the transmission grid, because that's where utility-scale wind and solar projects typically get connected.

But a new study commissioned by the European climate non-profit Beyond Fossil Fuels has for the first time looked into how much wind, solar, and battery capacity is waiting to connect to the distribution grid in those eight European countries.

Counting only projects over one megawatt in size, there is renewable generation equivalent to more than a third of the total grid capacity of those eight European countries, just languishing in connection queues.

And add in the battery capacity waiting to be connected and it's roughly equivalent to the entire generation capacity of those countries.

In today's conversation, we welcome Tara Connolly, program lead for energy markets and grids with Beyond Fossil Fuels, to walk through the report's findings and learn what can be done about this sad state of affairs.

And it will not surprise our longtime listeners at all to learn that it mostly comes down to regulation.

Then in the new segment, we'll see how the same kinds of grid connection issues are holding up renewable projects in Australia.

We'll note a new milestone for batteries on the Australian grid.

We'll review the decarbonization goal proposed in Britain's new carbon budget.

We'll check out the first transmission line between Ireland and continental Europe.

And we'll have a peek at a new transmission line running between Quebec and New York City.