The European Union has committed to becoming climate-neutral by 2050. Central to this vision is the urgent need to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from key sectors, particularly industry and transport, which collectively account for a significant portion of the EU’s carbon footprint.

Electrification, the process of replacing fossil fuel-based systems with electric alternatives, has emerged as a critical strategy to meet these decarbonisation objectives.

Last week, the French utility EDF presented its latest vision for how the electrification of industry can contribute to that goal. More than just contributing, the analysis concludes that electrification will be essential and the EU’s 2050 climate goal will be impossible to reach without it.

The scenario envisions a fully decarbonised energy sector by 2050 with a share of electricity of 57%. But crucially, other molecules such as hydrogen and derivatives would still play an important role for hard-to-abate targeted uses in certain industrial sectors and international transport. Each industrial process has unique characteristics, determining how easily it can be electrified.

Sectoral consumption

Today, the chemicals sector has the most energy consumption in Europe, followed by steel, non-metallic minerals, the food industry, paper and aluminium. Together, these six sectors account for 80% of industrial energy consumption.

The analysis found that the low-hanging fruit solutions are found in those processes that require less than 150 degrees Celsius of heat: chemicals, steel, minerals, and aluminium. The food and paper industries will be harder to electrify.

“Targeting low-hanging fruit processes that are simpler to electrify would result in quick wins toward industry decarbonisation,” explained Aurélie Orcibal, Director of EDF’s Foresight and External Relations Mission, while presenting the report at an event in Brussels last week. There is a technical possibility to go from 30% electrification in industrial processes today to 95% by 2050, she said.

“However, we consider that we will not reach that technical potential because it’s not a techno-economical optimum, since, for example, you won’t replace existing biomass plants with electrical heat.” The techno-economic optimal potential is slightly lower at around 85%.

Electrification obstacles

The scenario identified three main obstacles to reaching these electrification goals: technological obstacles such as a lack of innovation, economic obstacles such as insufficient CO2 price signals, and organisational obstacles such as a lack of information-sharing. “We still need to develop some technologies like electrical furnaces,” Orcibal explained.

The scenario for industry follows EDF’s general net zero scenario for Europe for 2050. It concluded that to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 the EU will have to reduce its energy consumption by 40% by 2050, and there will need to be a shift from fossil fuels to decarbonised fuels. Electrons would represent about 57% of the final energy mix in the scenario.

Reacting to the scenario, Alexandre Paquot, Director of Innovation for a Low Carbon, Resilient Economy at the European Commission’s climate department, said it shows that the transition can go hand in hand with increasing the competitiveness of industry. “This is very much at the core of the Clean Industrial Deal,” he said.

Paquot added that, “The core element is to create a business case for all these technologies, including electrification because we know it will be a very important pathway to decarbonise industry, transport and buildings.”

Industrial decarbonisation bank

One policy tool that Paquot is leading with to help develop these technologies and the OPEX and CAPEX financing issues they’re struggling with is the industrial decarbonisation bank. “How can we cover the gap between the cost of mitigation and the carbon price?” he asked, adding, “Because today the carbon price is not high enough to really stimulate the investment.”

“The best is a carbon contract for difference, which we would like to roll out. But it’s difficult in the current [EU long-term budget] to organise that. So what we can do is a fixed premium, as we did for hydrogen.”

Companies are still waiting for policy tools that can make investing in electrification easier. Philippe de Lastic, CEO of the French paper company Clairefontaine, agreed that the carbon price today is not high enough to stimulate investment.

“We face a lot of obstacles to reach this goal of carbon-neutral paper,” said de Lastic. “The first is the grid connection. Right now, if we wanted to electrify our process, we need very high-voltage connections, and a new station for a factory like ours would be a five-year delay, maybe three if sped up, and that’s not acceptable for an industry.” The other obstacle, he said, is a lack of high-voltage transformer makers. “There are few in Europe and they prefer to take orders from major customers like grid operators and railways.”

In the end, the electrification of industry isn’t merely a technological upgrade but a fundamental pillar for the EU to achieve its decarbonisation and climate goals. Taking into account the specifics of each sector will be critical to making that transition a success.

[Edited By Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab ]