Renewable energy production refers to generating electricity or heat from sustainable sources like solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, and biomass. Unlike fossil fuels, renewables are naturally replenished and emit far fewer greenhouse gases, making them crucial for addressing climate change and reducing Europe’s dependency on imported energy.

Traditional Challenges
While renewable energy holds immense promise, several challenges have slowed its widespread adoption:
-> Intermittency: Solar and wind energy, the most common renewable sources, are not consistently available. Variability in production creates challenges for maintaining a stable power supply, especially during seasons or times of day when solar or wind is scarce.
-> Focus on Electricity: Much of the renewable energy effort has focused on electricity generation, leaving heat production—equally crucial for industrial and residential sectors—largely underdeveloped.

-> Dependency on Imports: Many renewable energy systems rely on materials like neodymium for magnets and copper for wiring, which are often imported. This dependence threatens Europe’s energy sovereignty and supply chain stability.
-> Sustainability Impact: While solar panels and wind turbines generate green energy, their production involves significant carbon emissions. For instance, a solar panel can take years of operation to offset the emissions produced during its manufacture.
-> Suboptimal Energy Management: Without effective systems for managing energy supply and demand, large-scale deployment of renewables risks leading to blackouts, inefficiency, and price fluctuations.

Benefits of Deep-Tech Integration
The integration of deep-tech solutions is vital to overcoming the above challenges. Key innovations include:
-> New Renewable Energy Technologies: Tidal and wave energy, wind kites, and vertical wind turbines offer more stable and efficient alternatives to traditional renewable sources.
-> Baseload Energy Solutions: (Deep) geothermal and other consistent energy sources can help balance the grid when solar or wind energy is unavailable.
-> Sustainable Manufacturing: Developing alternative materials and manufacturing processes within Europe can reduce the dependency on non-European imports and lower the carbon footprint of renewable energy systems.
-> AI-Based Energy Management: Advanced algorithms and smart systems for grid management, demand-response, and sector coupling can ensure optimal energy distribution and usage, preventing disruptions while improving efficiency.

Market Potential
The renewable energy market in Europe is rapidly expanding. In 2022, renewable energy contributed 23% of the EU’s energy consumption, with a target of reaching 42.5% by 2030. This shift is driven by ambitious policies like REPowerEU and the Renewable Energy Directive, which aim to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.
As global leaders in renewables, Europe must strengthen its position by intensifying the development and adoption of innovative energy technologies. The global market for renewable energy is projected to exceed $1 trillion by 2030, with vast opportunities in wind, solar, and emerging technologies like geothermal and tidal power.

Call for Innovation
Europe’s path to sustainability depends on the breakthroughs and contributions of deep-tech startups and stakeholders. D2XCEL invites ventures developing renewable energy technologies to apply to its pan-European scaling program. If your startup focuses on AI-powered energy management, alternative renewable energy production methods, or material innovations, now is the time to join.

A full description of this market opportunity can be found here.

D2XCEL invites investors, lead customers, mentors, and network partners to join the network and have access to top-performing ventures in this vertical.

This project has received funding from the European Union under grant agreement Nº101121100. Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.