Investment needs to upgrade power grid for e-mobility “surprisingly low” – E.ON board member

E.ON's distribution grids in Germany will be able to support a complete switch to electric cars by 2045, according to a joint study by E.ON and Consentec, the energy company said in a press release. According to the study, E.ON will need to invest a total of around 2.5 billion euros over the next 25 years. This sum is “surprisingly low”, said Thomas König, the E.ON board member responsible for energy networks, at the study presentation in Berlin, reports Tagesspiegel Background. If the total investment is distributed evenly among the 6.5 million electric cars in the E.ON service areas, the average investment will be just under 400 euros per vehicle, said König.

So far, Germany’s energy transition has in fact been a power sector transition, with little progress made on switching to renewables in the rest of the energy system, including transport and heating. If the country is serious about its national target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 to 95 percent by the middle of this century, all sectors need to be based on renewables. The plan is to achieve this through sector coupling: Using renewable power to drive cars, and power-to-x technologies to convert it into clean fuels – such as hydrogen and synthetic gas – to heat homes and fuel lorries. This means Germany has to invest in upgrading its transmission and distribution power grids.