According to the European Commission’s Baseline business-as-usual scenario, electricity demand will increase 52% between 2000 and 2030.

Total installed power generation capacity will increase by about 400 GW, from 656 GW in 2000 to 1,118 GW in 2030, and additionally about 365 GW of current power stations are to be retired or decommissioned.

The total new build requirement in Europe to 2030 is 761 GW, more than the entire European power capacity in existence today.

Some 80% of incremental energy consumption to 2030 is predicted to be met by gas.

A dramatic increase in power consumption will require substantial investments in generation assets.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) the EU will need to invest €100 billion in transmission networks and €340 billion in distribution networks for reinforcement, asset replacements and new connections over the three decades from 2001- 2030.

Irrespective of whatever policy is chosen by the EU, massive investments in generation plants and grids are required. For policy-makers, the question is the priority to be assigned to different technologies.