Recent tensions in the Gulf have once again exposed Europe’s vulnerability to fossil fuel volatility: Richard König, CEO of Enery, explains why accelerating the deployment of renewables and battery storage is strategic necessity for energy independence and long-term price stability.
While global oil and gas markets react to geopolitical shocks, a significant shift is occurring within Europe’s power systems. Despite surging gas prices, electricity markets have shown remarkable resilience, largely due to the increasing share of renewables acting as a buffer against external crises. As a co-founder and CEO of Enery, Richard König has spent years driving the transition across Central and Eastern Europe. In this expert talk*, he discusses the decoupling of energy prices from fossil fuels, the critical need to overcome bureaucratic hurdles in electrification, and how Enery is leveraging the region’s largest battery storage (BESS) portfolio to provide 24/7 green energy to industrial consumers.
What impact do you see on energy markets, beyond price increases, because of the situation in the Gulf?
Recent geopolitical tensions have once again highlighted the resilience of Europe’s electricity markets. Even when gas prices surged dramatically, doubling at one point, electricity prices increased much more moderately, by around 25–30%. This decoupling is largely due to the significant share of renewables already integrated into the system.
Even if this conflict is not long-lasting, what should be the key signal, especially for Europe, which is highly dependent on oil and gas imports? What will be the impact on energy prices, given that a decrease has been expected due to the growth of renewables?
The key signal for Europe is clear: accelerating the deployment of renewables is not only a climate priority, but a strategic necessity for energy security and price stability. Solar, wind, and increasing energy storage are acting as buffers against external shocks, reducing exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets. Overall, thanks to the scale of renewable capacity built over the past decade and the pipeline of storage investments, future shocks to the electricity system are likely to have a more limited impact than in the past.
Richard König, CEO Enery
Although we already have two wars with a major impact on energy prices, at the European level we are not seeing a decline in fossil fuel consumption, and electrification seems to be stagnating. What solutions do you see, including for the local market?
From our perspective, the issue is not a lack of solutions, but a lack of speed in implementation. Fossil fuel consumption remains high because electrification, grid expansion, and permitting renewables are still too slow, with high bureaucratic burden. The political will and execution of an ‘electrified’ industry is not decisive enough. The priority should be to accelerate renewable deployment by simplifying permitting and ensuring grid access, while actively supporting electrification in industry, heating, and transport. At the same time, investments in storage and grid infrastructure are essential to provide the needed flexibility. At the local level, this means focusing on projects that are already viable, especially solar and storage, while adapting to grid and regulatory constraints. Ultimately, renewables are the most effective way to reduce dependence on fossil fuels—the key challenge now is scaling them faster.
Do you see an increase in demand for projects, especially in the current geopolitical context?
We are seeing a growing demand for integrated projects, especially those that combine renewable production with storage solutions. The current geopolitical context emphasizes the need for energy security and predictability from all points of view – production and energy prices – which translates into a greater interest on the part of industrial consumers for long-term contracts. It is a dynamic that confirms the transition of the market towards more sophisticated models, in which the optimization of portfolios and production are becoming essential, and standalone PV projects are becoming less sufficient.
Speaking of storage solutions: What are Enery’s plans regarding BESS in CEE?
We have c. 700 MWh of own batteries in operation and have c. 4 GWh of third-party batteries under contract for portfolio optimization and hence are operating and trading already the largest battery portfolio in CEE. We are bringing two more utility-scale projects with together 1.8 GWh into construction in the next months and are further increasing our portfolio optimization business for third parties. Batteries are crucial for energy security, grid stability, lowering system costs and help on the route towards providing 24/7 renewable supply to customers at affordable prices. Our battery portfolio allows us to further advance our client offering.
*Parts of this interview were first published in Ziarul Financiar (https://www.zf.ro/).