Building blocks for a common vision for a decarbonised electricity system in the Penta region

In early 2022, the Pentalateral Energy Forum has selected Artelys to establish building blocks for the construction of a joint vision for a decarbonised Penta electricity system. The project outputs will serve as inputs for the actual vision building process among Penta members in 2023. The Pentalateral Energy Forum is the framework for regional cooperation in Central Western Europe towards improved electricity market integration and security of supply, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Switzerland. For this purpose, Artelys analysed and compared a large number of national and international scenario studies and technical reports. The identification of likely developments common to the different transition pathways, but also remaining uncertainties, allowed to derive a set of recommendations for power sector decarbonisation in the Penta region. It highlights that electricity will play the central means of decarbonisation of all economic sectors and should hence be decarbonised in itself as quickly as possible, ideally towards 2035. The countries in the Pentalateral Energy Forum are particularly well placed to initiate or accelerate the required changes. Regional cooperation between countries will enable decarbonisation in the cheapest way – but requires dedicated infrastructure investments.