Europe’s battle for power spurs evolution of a new ecosystem for energy-hungry firms
Electric grid is seen in Krakow Poland as Polish government lifts cup in electricity prices what is expected to rise inflation once more – January 18,2025. Poland has one of the highest inflations in Europe. (Photo by Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
The boom in artificial intelligence, a pressing need for more data centers and the energy transition story — particularly in transportation — are all spurring demand for electricity, and the existing power infrastructure is struggling to keep up.
Businesses are facing five to eight-year wait times to connect to Europe’s ageing and strained electricity grids, experts told CNBC, as the emergence of new areas of demand drives an unprecedented rise in permit requests for power. According to the IEA, at least 1,500 gigawatts of global clean energy projects have been stopped or delayed because of a lack of grid connections and about $700 billion of grid investment is needed for countries to meet their green goals.
Data centers, the large facilities that house servers for computing processes and often require huge amounts of power, are the “primary director” of that growing competition to connect to the grid, said Diego Hernandez Diaz, partner at McKinsey.
He told CNBC that clients have quoted wait times of up to eight years to connect to the grid.
“There are certain transmission system operators in Europe, that are already facing two, three or more folks all attempting to interconnect to the same node at the same time. … There is a literal queue within individual connection points to see who gets to connect first,” he explained.
Hernandez, whose work focuses on electro-intensive industries, said that over the last 18 months, nearly all of his work has focused on data centers, a sector that he expects to grow at an annual compound growth rate of 20% over the next six years. Demand for the facilities required to train large language models (LLMs) is expected to continue its exponential increase as tech giants race to dominate in AI.
Energy management firm Schneider Electric warned in a January report that Europe faces a looming power crunch, with three to five-year waiting lists for grid connections in energy-constrained regions.
We’re going from a situation where you have one application or two applications per year, in some countries to 1,000.
Steven Carlini
Chief advocate of AI and data center
“It’s kind of a race,” Steven Carlini, chief advocate of AI and data centers at Schneider Electric, told CNBC. “You have all these companies that are trying to deploy as much capacity as they can. But it’s constrained by the number of GPUs [graphics processing units] and the available power and the permitting.”
“We’re going from a situation where you have one application or two applications [to connect to the grid] per year, in some countries, to 1,000,” Carlini said.
It’s not just the amount of investment needed — but also the speed with which it can be deployed — which will be key to addressing the issue, McKinsey’s Diaz said. He also pointed to the growing complexity of the work of high-voltage grid operators and the example of Germany, which needs to go from building 400 kilometers of power lines a year to 2,000 kilometers.
Diaz sees the competition to connect to the grid “either maintaining or intensifying” in 2025.
Jerome Fournier, director of innovation at subsea cable manufacturer Nexans, said his firm has a “huge” order backlog in the range of seven-to-10 billion euros ($7.28 billion-$10.40 billion). Nexans’ cables are used to transmit electricity generated by wind and solar farms, and to supply power to homes and businesses.
“Everybody’s considering: do we still have some room in our plans to manufacture other projects?” he said.
Fournier told CNBC that firms like Nexans should also keep slots available for smaller projects such as interconnections for offshore wind turbines. “You’ve got to have the right balance between the load of the plans, the profitability and this type of electrification,” he said.
A new power ecosystem
Power constraints are leading data center operators to evolve their own “ecosystem of power backup,” according to Schneider Electric’s Carlini.
In the future, data centers are expected to be at the center of that grid ecosystem, particularly if they are able to generate their own power with small modular reactors — mini nuclear reactors that produce electricity.
Battery storage and strategic charging are also becoming increasingly important, Carlini said. These systems allow for the temporary storage of energy from the power grid to provide extra backup.
The CEO of power solutions provider AVK, Ben Pritchard, said some European countries are facing large, 100-megawatt grid connection requests of a size that they’ve never seen before.
He advocates for transition-linked energy solutions such as the use of microgrids, which are a separate islanded power system.
In Norway, they’re trialing flexible connection agreements where customers limit their connection to the grid based on certain conditions, Beatrice Petrovich, senior energy and climate analyst at think tank Ember, highlighted. This allows them to adjust their energy usage depending on how the grid is faring at certain times.
Ember also called for the implementation of rules on what it calls “anticipatory” grid investments. These would allow electricity grid operators to plan in a forward-looking way, taking into account the market trends of key technologies, such as growth in renewables and battery storage, Petrovich explained.
Countries that move forward with improving legislation on enabling firms to have a fully decarbonized energy stack will be the “winner of the race,” putting forward a more “friendly ecosystem” around data centers, AVK’s Pritchard said.
Ultimately, a bottleneck in the grid “encourages people to think differently, and when people are encouraged to think differently, they’re more open to different solutions. That, I think, is teeing up for the market to shift quite significantly,” said Pritchard.
Modest EU growth
Despite a growing need for power from some new and developing industries, Europe is still lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to growth in power demand. High electricity prices and operational costs are hampering overall demand in the region, leading to a more fragmented market.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) this month hailed the rise of a “new Age of electricity,” as it upped its forecasts for global demand, predicting growth of 3.9% for 2025-2027 — the fastest pace of growth in recent years.
The forecasts for Europe are more modest, however. Following two years of sharp declines in power demand, the region saw an increase of just 1% in 2024, according to a January report from energy think tank Ember.
“2024 marks a turning point for electricity demand,” said Ember’s Petrovich, one of the authors of their report. “What we saw is the first rebound — even if it was a small rebound after many years of decline — it was widespread across the block.”
McKinsey’s Diaz explained that since the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions, electricity prices have settled around 60 to 80 euros per megawatt hour. This is still 50-100% more expensive than prices seen in the previous two decades, however.
As a result, costs for consumers have soared, leading to signs of a deceleration in demand for heat pumps and electric vehicles, he said.
Diaz added that for manufacturers in Europe, the energy requirements “tower above those of any other geography in the world, it’s not only potentially more expensive, but even potentially more challenging,” Hernandez said.
The “unprecedented” growth in data centers is “helping the overall curve ever so slightly, but everything else is fighting against it,” Hernandez said.
America’s best-selling electric pickup may be headed for the chopping block. According to sources, Ford is now considering killing off the F-150 Lightning.
Is Ford canceling the F-150 Lightning electric pickup?
After Ford halted production of the electric pickup at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, earlier this year, it may never return to the assembly line.
Ford announced during its third-quarter earnings that F-150 Lightning production would remain paused after a fire at Novelis’ plant in New York disrupted aluminum supply.
The company said it would focus on gas and hybrid trucks, which are more profitable and require less aluminum.
According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Ford’s electric pickup may be as good as dead. Citing sources close to the matter, the WSJ report claims Ford is now considering scrapping the F-150 Lightning altogether.
The move comes after Ford’s electric vehicle business, Model e, lost another $1.4 billion in Q3. Ford’s EV unit has now lost $3.6 billion through the first nine months of 2025.
Around $3 billion of the loss is due to its current EVs, such as the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E. The other $600 million is for investments in next-gen electric models.
Ford is shifting to smaller, more affordable electric cars with its Universal EV platform. The flexible, low-cost platform is key to unlocking more affordable EVs, which will start at around $30,000.
The first vehicle on the platform is expected to be a midsize electric pickup, similar in size to the Ford Maverick or Ranger. It’s set to roll out sometime in 2027.
CEO Jim Farley said during the company’s Q3 earnings call that $30,000 EVs are “not a distant plan,” adding they are “right around the corner” at Ford.
The F-150 Lightning is still America’s best-selling electric pickup, after Ford sold a record 10,000+ in Q3. Through October, Ford sold 24,577 F-150 Lightnings, slightly less than the 24,670 sold during the same period in 2024.
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In the spirit of SEMA week, Stellantis’ Chinese EV brand Leapmotor is getting some tuner cred from the German performance experts at Irmscher, delivering a 590 hp compact EV that should play well in both the Asian and European street scenes.
European regulators may be slapping heavier tariffs on Chinese EVs in an attempt to slow them down, but automakers like Stellantis-owned Leapmotor finding new ways to build momentum. The latest proof of that is a new, limited-edition Leapmotor i C10 SUV that was developed in and for the Chinese market, but that’s had its edge sharpened up for European roads through a partnership with German tuner Irmscher.
It’s another clear signal that Chinese brands are ready to play the long game in Europe, and they’re doing it by appealing directly to the continent’s performance heritage and partnering with known and respected brands.
The first results of what is being called a long-term partnership is the Leapmotor i C10 by Irmscher, a limited run, 250 unit sports crossover built for the German market — and, with nearly six hundred hp on tap, the German autobahn, too!
The Irmscher version of the i C10 features a more prominent rear spoiler and a new set of five-spoke alloy wheels wrapped in low-profile, high-performance rubber, sure, but the real magic lies beneath the car’s skin.
Irmscher has fitted a firmer suspension setup specifically engineered to sharpen the SUV’s handling, making it more suited to the Leapmotor’s already potent, dual-motor AWD powertrain. That powertrain remains largely unchanged, offering a hefty 590 hp (440 kW) for a zippy 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) sprints in under 4 seconds.
Built to move
The electric motors get power from an 81.9 kWh li-ion battery pack, good for an estimated range of 437 km (272 miles), positioning it as a performance-oriented variant of the standard crossover rather than a long-distance tourer (and, yes, I know what “GT” stands for, I’m just choosing to ignore the baked-in irony).
Priced from €49,900 in Germany (about $57,600 US, as I type this), the Irmscher i C10 commands a €5,000 premium over the standard flagship C10, but the pricing strategy is just as calculated as the Irmscher partnership itself.
By pricing the car well into Mercedes and BMW territory, Stellantis is showing that its Chinese-developed EVs aren’t just competing on cost alone. So, while the tariffs aim to protect the European car brands in their home markets by raising their prices, Leapmotor and Irmscher are betting that European drivers will willingly pay more for a Chinese EV that delivers authentic performance.
Take a look at the photos provided, below, and let us know what you think of Leapmotor’s chances in the comments.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Stellantis; via CarScoops.
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Canadian heavy equipment dealer Nors and Volvo CE are kicking off the season of giving early, handing over the keys to a brand-new Volvo L25 Electric compact wheel loader to Habitat for Humanity!
Volvo CE’s donation to Habitat for Humanity Greater Toronto Area (Habitat GTA) marks the nonprofit’s first-ever electric construction machine. The asset will be put to work immediately on a 30-home affordable housing project in Brampton as a quiet, zero-emission alternative to diesel for the site’s preparation.
For the volunteers and staff at Habitat GTA, that fantasy of a quiet, fume-free job site is now a reality. “Much of our equipment is older than some of our volunteers” admitted Ene Underwood, CEO of Habitat GTA. This makes the electric Volvo loader a massive leap forward for the volunteers, proving that electric machines are ready to do real work right now, even for organizations operating on tight budgets — but you shouldn’t mistake the decision as pure charity.
The L25 Electric donation is just an opening salvo for Nors’ new “Compact Solutions, Community Impact” marketing campaign, and the company has already committed to donating two more Volvo CE electric machines to worthy organizations across Canada. “We’re … helping build a better world for future generations,” said Paul George of Nors.
It’s a smart PR play, for sure, but it’s also a powerful, real-world demonstration program that puts its money where its mouth is and directly tackles the, “but I’ve never seen one!” barrier to battery electric equipment adoption.
As far as equipment goes, the Volvo L25 Electric is perfect for the infill development and residential lots where Habitat builds. As Agako Nouch of Volvo CE pointed out, the loader eliminates the noise and air quality issues that are major headaches when building in existing neighborhoods. It’s an example of how electrification can fundamentally improve the relationship between construction sites and the communities they serve.
Nors is inviting Canadians to nominate other nonprofits or municipalities that could benefit from an electric excavator or wheel loader. It’s a public consultation, not a contest, and the final two recipients will be announced on December 16th. It’s a genuine chance to put more electric iron to work where it can do the most good.
Electrek’s Take
A new, turbocharged section 179 in the US tax code means it’s a great time to buy some electric equipment assets for your construction fleet, and with these Volvo wheel loaders proving themselves day in and day out on job sites like these, in the cold AND heat of Toronto, you can be sure they’ll do your job, wherever that is.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo CE.
If you drive an electric vehicle, make charging at home fast, safe, and convenient with a Level 2 charger installed by Qmerit. As the nation’s most trusted EV charger installation network, Qmerit connects you with licensed, background-checked electricians who specialize in EV charging. You’ll get a quick online estimate, upfront pricing, and installation backed by Qmerit’s nationwide quality guarantee. Their pros follow the highest safety standards so you can plug in at home with total peace of mind.
Ready to charge smarter? Get started today with Qmerit (trusted affiliate).
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
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