“The end is not nearly in sight … and I am convinced that this will get worse,” he said of the energy shock, which experts have described as the worst the world has ever experienced.
“So the name of the game here can only be one thing, and it is fast-forwarding to energy independence,” he added. That means speeding up electrification, the interconnection of EU countries’ grids, more nuclear power in countries that want it, and more battery storage.
“We need faster permitting, we need much more money — public money and private sector money — to move into grids,” Hoekstra continued. “In my view, we would need to pave way more European rooftops with solar panels and build an additional I don’t know how many million heat pumps that we then bring to vulnerable European households.”
The EU should also ensure that this extra demand is met with goods produced within its borders, he added. The Commission last month put forward legislation seeking to boost made-in-EU clean technologies.
“We have an opportunity to really push the frontier here and to make sure that there is a double whammy, in the sense that we embark much more actively on getting these products but also making them in Europe, which would have a very positive economic effect,” he said.
He also suggested that, as part of a highly anticipated reform of the bloc’s carbon market coming in July, the continued distribution of trading permits free of charge to industry could be made conditional on their investing more in European production.
