Curtailment costs set to rise significantly

Renewable curtailment costs will grow significantly in the years ahead according to latest analysis.

A report found that insufficient grid investment is delaying progress toward electrification and calls for rapid grid expansion to tackle rising connection queues, increasing congestion and limited cross-border capacity.

The Aurora Energy Research study said that most European grid connection queue management processes are no longer fit for purpose.

Over 800GW of solar and wind and 550GW of battery projects are currently requesting grid access in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands—far more than current capacity. Meanwhile, requests from major power users in these countries already exceed 2024 peak demand.

Gerhard Salge, Chief Technology Officer at Hitachi Energy which commissioned the report, said: “As Europe continues to electrify and boost power generation capacity, it is imperative to focus on the grids that will enable electricity delivery to growing demand loads such as heating, transport, data centres, and industry.”