Jacqueline van den Ende, CEO of Carbon Equity, believes we have already passed the climate transition tipping point: “Last year, 90% of all new electricity production worldwide came from renewable sources, i.e. generated via solar, wind, or water. Meanwhile, China is actually ahead of its climate goals compared to other countries,” she said.
This isn’t a sign to let up; if anything, van den Ende believes we need more investment into climate tech solutions that will help accelerate the transition and make clean energy accessible across the globe. Yet, European climate tech funding sunk to a five-year low in Q1 2025.
In the latest episode of Kia’s Next Big Drive, van den Ende shares how Carbon Equity is using its platform to democratise climate finance by making it possible for individuals to invest in pioneering climate tech companies.
Watch the interview here:
Europe wants clean energy — and fast
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Despite recent headlines, support for the energy transition is growing across the continent. European citizens are not only voicing their opinions but taking action by reducing and recycling waste (64%) and cutting down on consumption of disposable items whenever possible (49%).
Many are also putting their money where their mouth is. The first half of 2025 marked a significant milestone for the European battery electric vehicle (BEV) market, with new registrations up 34% compared to the same period in 2024.
According to the European Commission’s 2025 Eurobarometer survey:
The rise of energy communities
Appetite for creating what the EU calls ‘energy communities’ has increased over the last few years, as EU funding has supported new community led actions. By securing ownership of renewable energy production, these communities are able to protect residents from price shocks by providing stable, affordable power year-round.
Investment into an energy network based on wind turbines, an electric boiler, and heat pumps paid off for Denmark’s Hvide Sande District during the 2022 energy crisis. While energy bills soared across Europe, residents of the community saw heating costs drop by over 50%.
Since 2015, Ireland’s Ecovision community has used energy saving profits to create a community fund aimed at helping residents access funding for energy saving renovations. Over 900 homes and 50 community and commercial buildings have been renovated so far, saving over 10 GWh of energy, the equivalent of the average annual electricity consumption of more than 2,300 Irish households. All renovations are done through local contractors, helping to boost the local economy.
Recently, a Finnish town of 5,000 people introduced a sand battery that uses dirt to store excess renewable energy as heat. On a sunny or windy day, the battery heats up, storing energy for weeks or even months. Polar Night, the startup behind the battery, estimates the battery will be able to heat the whole town for a week in winter or an entire month in summer, on just one charge.
This pilot project could kick start a new trend for communities looking to heat their homes and businesses sustainably.
More grid work, more energy
However, the Iberia-wide blackout on April 28th fueled skepticism, with some blaming Spain and Portugal’s net zero ambitions. Just before the blackout, on April 16th, Spain had reached a milestone by running 100% on wind, solar, and hydro power for the first time.
Our sustainability tech reporter, Siôn Geschwindt, based in Portugal, was quick to report on the story at the time, interviewing several climate tech experts who attributed the Iberian blackout points to grid growing pains — not green energy failure.
“While wind and solar generate clean, cheap electricity, they don’t produce power in a steady stream — they rise and fall with the weather. However, grids in Europe were largely built for more predictable sources of energy, like coal, gas, or nuclear plants,” says Geschwindt. “Without that stabilising force, or the addition of alternatives like battery storage systems, the grid becomes more vulnerable to surges in electricity demand or supply.”
Experts, including Carbon Equity portfolio company Octopus Energy, say updating the grid to enable more flexibility is an essential step for the transition. South Australia experienced a similar blackout in 2016. Afterwards, it strengthened its grid by introducing:
- Smarter demand response systems
- Modernized grid settings
- More backup battery capacity
By 2023, South Australia achieved 64% renewable electricity with zero major outages.
Batteries on wheels
While helping to significantly lower CO2 emissions, the rise of EVs could also put pressure on the demand for green energy. But carmakers are preparing for a future in which your car will become more than a way of getting from A to B: it could also play an integral role in the energy ecosystem of the future.
The interview between van den Ende and TNW founder Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten took place in Kia’s all-electric EV9, the first model equipped with vehicle-to-grid technology and bidirectional charging, allowing it to store energy gained from renewable sources and feed it back into the power grid. In fact, a fully charged EV9 with a 99.8kWh battery could power a household for about one week.
In a recent study, researchers explored the benefits of using an EV to optimise solar energy sharing between neighbours. They found that this arrangement could cut electricity costs for both households by about 1.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for the solar-owning home and 3.6 cents for the neighbor.
A Fraunhofer study for T&E investigated the potential economic benefits of ‘vehicles to grid’ technology for the wider EU with some promising findings:
- By 2040, widespread adoption of bidirectional charging could reduce annual energy system costs across the EU by 8.6%, amounting to €22.2 billion in savings per year. Even by 2030, savings of 5.5% or €9.7 billion annually are projected. Total savings between 2030 and 2040 could amount to €175.45 billion – which is almost the entire EU budget for 2023.
- EVs could contribute up to 9% of Europe’s annual power supply, becoming the 4th largest power supplier. During peak demand periods, EVs could supply 15-20% of instantaneous electricity demand, acting as a mass distribution virtual power plant.
- Bidirectional charging could enable an additional 430 GW of solar PV capacity by 2040, nearly doubling the current EU capacity.
- The need for stationary battery storage could be cut by up to 92% in 2040, while backup power plant capacity could be reduced by 126 GW.
Potential savings in grid expansion costs could reach €9.8 billion by 2040, but the researchers warn that this technology should not be seen as a substitute for necessary grid reinforcement and expansion.
However, infrastructure requirements, standardization of the technology, and regulatory frameworks governing safety and fair pricing in energy trading between EV owners and utility companies are a few roadblocks that need to be worked out before we can realise the full potential of EVs.
For now, it seems the use of EVs as ‘batteries on wheels’ will be very much a community-led experiment, the learnings of which can be used to later scale up this potential. For example, studies into offsetting lost energy during working hours and developing heterogeneous energy sharing across multiple communities are all steps in a more energy efficient direction.
Scaling up energy community-led initiatives and experiments could be key to helping the EU move past the energy transition tipping point towards rapid adoption.
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