European bid to break dependency on Russian gas will hasten the renewable transition

Azelio’s CEO, Jonas Wallmander, shared his insights into the current and future challenges for the renewable energy landscape with the Reuters Global Markets Forum on April 7th, advising that energy storage will play a critical role as Europe looks to reduce it’s reliance on Russian gas in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

“Short-term, this (Russian gas) may be substituted by fossil energy from other countries, but in the medium to long-term, I believe we’ll see an even faster shift to renewables,” said Jonas Wallmander.

“Renewables will increase significantly in 2022. There are strong political and economic drivers behind the continuing transition. But the key thing is to increase energy storage solutions because more renewables on the grid create imbalances in the system – this will lead to power outages and fluctuating prices unless sufficient storage is deployed.”

“The time is now for making the transition into renewables. We see a clear need for long-duration storage, and Azelio is targeting markets with a lot of sun, high electricity costs, and where customers face challenges with the grid. This points us towards the U.S., Southern Africa, the Middle East, and Australia.”

“We’re looking forward to being a part of the transition to a more sustainable society,” added Jonas Wallmander.

Read the full interview here.