This expression summarizes the instructions of European electricity operators to achieve a more competitive and sustainable energy system. Here, integration has a double meaning: on the one hand, speeding up the process leading to European unification, on the other, facing technological challenges with an open approach that includes all available solutions.
Indeed, plans and resources will not be successful unless they are set within a consistent perspective that considers the system’s vast complexity, with the concurrent assessment of every element and interaction.
By indicating a consistent European policy that grants long-term stability, the Energy Roadmap 2050 proposed by the European Commission is certainly a necessary condition for the harmonization of national regulations and the achievement of a true single market.
The next step consists in executing this programme, aimed at achieving a carbon-free energy sector, as cost-effectively as possible.
From a technological point of view, the path suggested by Europe’s electricity industry is clear, foreseeing a consistent development of networks and of the generation system and choices based on cost-effectiveness and equal conditions applied to all low-carbon technological options.
Essentially, the latter means that competitiveness and market mechanisms must be strengthened in order to identify a global answer to the global challenge set by climate change.
Without any pre-conceived views, considering all technologies mutually complementary, as prescribed by the EU Roadmap. Without excluding any: renewable sources and nuclear power when a country decides to use it, carbon capture and storage systems and enhanced energy efficiency, the sustainable use of fossil fuels and Smart Grids, applying the most cutting-edge innovations in every field.