‘SupergridEurope’ Launches to Accelerate the Delivery of a European Supergrid for a Fossil-Free, Energy Independent Europe

-Calls for an Independent European Grid Architect.

Brussels, 2 July 2025 – Today marks the official launch of SupergridEurope, a new Brussels-based think tank dedicated to accelerating the planning and delivery of the European Supergrid - a pan-European electricity system designed to unlock affordable, secure, renewable energy across Europe.

The launch comes at a critical moment for Europe’s energy future, just ahead of the European Commission’s legislative Grids Package, due this autumn. On 19 June, the European Parliament adopted its resolution on grids, calling for a coordinated, pan-European approach to electricity system planning. In May 2024, EU Energy Ministers also agreed on the need for “holistic, long-term, coordinated” electricity grid infrastructure planning at European level. 

As a central policy priority, SupergridEurope is calling for the establishment of a European Energy Agency to serve as an independent grid architect. This agency would complement the Energy Union Task Force, work with the EIB, and be tasked with coordinating long-term grid planning, providing transparent data, identifying grid innovation gaps, overseeing the delivery of major cross-border infrastructure, and ensuring that Europe’s energy system evolves to meet its climate and competitiveness ambitions.

With over €1 trillion needed for grids by 2040 (€730 billion for distribution, €477 billion for transmission), action must start now. The European Commission echoed this in June 2025, issuing a guidance document to drive anticipatory grid investments. But how we connect and sequence these investments matters. With an independent European Grid Architect coordinating the scale-up, we can reduce delays and avoid costly mistakes.

“The realisation of a pan-European electricity Supergrid is no longer a technical debate - it’s an urgent political priority for maintaining European competitiveness that requires governance reform,” said Lesley O’Connor, Founder of SupergridEurope.

Europe must move beyond fragmented initiatives to deliver on President von der Leyen’s bold vision to drive European competitiveness, though innovation, affordable energy and reducing excessive dependences. That vision is enabled by a Supergrid - a European mega-programme of mega-projects that SupergridEurope exists to unlock. Using innovative grid technologies, we can provide cost-competitive, indigenous energy across a unified European market.

“The Energy Union is incomplete and will remain so until we create the necessary grid infrastructure. More than 35 years have passed since the signing of the Single European Act, establishing an Internal Market based on four freedoms: the free movement of goods, services, capital and people. A Supergrid is the enabler for establishing the free movement of electricity as a fifth European freedom," said Christian Kjaer, Executive Director, SupergridEurope. 

Further Information on SupergridEurope

SupergridEurope was founded in April 2025 by Lesley O’Connor, a global renewable energy investor and practitioner with over a decade of experience advancing decarbonisation projects worldwide. She is a Non-Executive Director of Aker Mainstream Renewables and has served on the board of Mainstream Renewable Power since 2015.

The organisation is guided by the vision set out in ‘Supergrid – Super Solution: A Handbook for Energy Independence and a Europe Free from Fossil Fuels’, written by Irish renewables pioneer Eddie O’Connor with co-author Kevin O’Sullivan, former editor of the Irish Times. An extensively updated, posthumous second edition was published in 2024 by Lesley O’Connor, Eddie’s daughter, alongside O’Sullivan and a team of experts.

SupergridEurope is led by Executive Director Christian Kjaer, Chief Public Affairs Officer at SuperNode, Chair of CurrENT, and former CEO of WindEurope. SupergridEurope will have a permanent presence in Brussels, represented by Senior Advisor Suzana Carp.

For further information, please contact:

 Aoife Cronin, Communications Officer - aoifecronin@supergrideurope.eu | +353 85 283 7150

Suzana Carp, Senior Advisor – suzana.carp@supergrideurope.eu