Will Europe be able to achieve 100% renewables by 2050? Albert Cheung, Head of Global Analysis at Bloomberg NEF, talks to Joana Freitas, Ambassador for the Lights on Women initiative of the FSR, about the key obstacles and challenges of an energy system with high penetration of renewables. According to Albert Cheung, although solar and wind are becoming the cheapest forms of power generation, “there are a lot of obstacles and it's a really long road to get to those sorts of high penetrations”. As 100% renewables also mean a zero-carbon power system, it will require a “huge collaborative effort between government, energy companies and the investment community”. Despite the obstacles, several European countries are already setting ambitious targets for the next decade – by 2030, Austria expects to achieve 100% of renewables in electricity consumption while UK will be coal free by 2025. Albert Cheung also notes that this change of paradigm will require “massive amounts of flexibility” as an “energy system that has 90 percent renewables in 2050 is going to operate very differently from the one that we have today”.

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