Social Challenges of Electricity Transmission: Grid Deployment in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Belgium

The European Union needs to decarbonize its energy generation to reach its goals of climate change mitigation and energy security policies. In 2011, the European Commission published a road map to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) by at least 80% by 2050. The road map foresees five pathways, and, across all of them, renewable energy generation plays a significantly stronger role today. The deployment of renewable energy sources (RES ) to generate electricity is one possible option to decarbonize energy generation. The goals of the European energy security policy require restructuring energy generation toward a greater share of lowcarbon energy generation. In October 2014, EU leaders agreed on the 2030 policy framework for climate and energy, which settles the GHG reduction target of 40% compared to 1990, as well as an increase of the share of renewable energy to at least 27% of EU energy consumption by 2030.