The European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) aims to boost the transition towards a climate-neutral energy system by developing low-carbon technologies.
This initiative aims to align the SET Plan with the objectives of the European Green Deal by:
- renewing policy aims and targets for the development of innovative clean energy solutions and preparing for their deployment
- pooling national and European research & innovation resources.
The EU’s Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan supports the development of clean, efficient and cost-competitive energy technologies through coordination and collaboration in clean energy research and innovation (R&I), bringing together European industry, academia and governments of the SET Plan countries. The SET Plan has played a central role in implementing the research, innovation and competitiveness dimension of the Energy Union. It has had a structuring effect on joint R&I actions, helping them deliver on common energy research objectives with greater speed and effectiveness.
The European Green Deal and the REPowerEU Plan set out strategic objectives for the clean energy transition, including the decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries and the reduction of pollution. The Green Deal Industrial Plan provides further direction by calling for a more autonomous and resilient EU industry, with the Net-Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act as its building blocks:
− The Critical Raw Materials Act sets the goal to ensure a secure supply of critical raw materials by developing the EU value chain while improving the circularity and sustainability of critical raw materials production.
− The Net-Zero Industry Act aims to increase the EU’s capacity to manufacture strategic ‘net-zero technologies’ to approach or reach a benchmark of at least 40% of the EU’s annual deployment needs for the corresponding technologies by 2030, and sets a target of 50 million tonnes of annual CO2 storage capacity by 2030.
In addition, the revised Renewable Energy Directive asks Member States to set an indicative target for innovative renewable energy technology of at least 5% of new installed renewable energy capacity by 2030. Finally, the Communication on ‘A new European Research Area for Research and Innovation’ and the European Research Area Policy Agenda call for a better alignment of R&I investments and reforms at national and EU level to accelerate the green and digital transition.
This new policy context underlines the need for increasing the resilience, autonomy and competitiveness of the European energy system and its supply chains, using circular and human-centred solutions, within our planetary boundaries.
