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The participants of the discussion also emphasized that in order to develop a wide charging network, effective cooperation between the state, local governments, electricity traders and JSC Sadales tīkls as an installer of electricity connections is very important. Alina Kozlovska, the press secretary of the Distribution Network, informed about it.
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Public demand and the European Green Course also make Latvia think more and more actively about the development of electromobility, and its promotion is also included in the Latvian National Energy and Climate Plan for 2021-2030. Achieving the Green Course targets will require the creation of 1 million electric charging stations in Europe by 2025, serving around 13 million electric cars. As the experts discussed in the discussion, the creation and development of the necessary infrastructure in Latvia is a challenge, as it is an expensive and time-consuming process, and currently it falls primarily on the shoulders of local governments.
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“Alternatives to fossil fuels are not only electricity, but also, for example, hydrogen and methane, but electricity is the only real choice now and in the coming decades in terms of technological readiness and cost.
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When it comes to the development of the charging network, it is important to take into account that a fast or medium-fast charging point is not just a “socket” in an urban environment, its construction requires specific equipment and adequate voltage, and the construction of one such point costs tens of thousands of euros. Sandis Jansons, Chairman of the Board of Sadales tīkls.
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“Currently, the consumption of fossil fuel in the transport sector is growing, while the use of renewable resources in the sector is insignificant. It must be said that the distribution system operator will play a key role in implementing the Green Course and will have to carry out this transformation of the energy sector on our shoulders – we want to develop a smart grid infrastructure that will enable a large and sustainable electricity grid. We hope that it will also have access to EU funding, ”said Edijs Šaicāns, Director of the Energy Market and Infrastructure Department of the Ministry of Economics.
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“Our goal is to minimize the number of cars in the city and invest in the development of convenient, modern public transport.
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If we are talking about electromobility, private e-car residents should be able to charge at home and in companies, while city guests should be able to charge in public places. Therefore, financial support would be needed for the construction of charging infrastructure and stations in the yards of apartment buildings and public areas.
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In my opinion, the Latvian state could defend this position in Brussels as well, ”said Gunārs Ansiņš, Deputy Chairman of the Liepāja City Council for City Development and Cooperation.
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The need for a large electric charging network is dictated not only by the need to achieve the EU climate neutrality targets binding on Latvia, which envisage a 90% reduction in total transport emissions by 2050, but also by the rapidly growing public demand for electric cars. According to the data of the Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD), the number of electric cars registered in Latvia has quadrupled in the last five years. The European Electromobility Association predicts that by 2030, 50% of the global car market will be electric cars. This means that, in the very near future, the development of electric charging infrastructure in cities and along major motorways will be an absolute priority to meet growing demand and, at the same time, the pressure to replace environmentally unfriendly internal combustion vehicles with electric cars. Experts estimate that in large European countries, such as Germany, France, Spain, Great Britain, etc., the number of electric charging points could increase as much as 20 times in the next ten years, Latvia should also follow the example of these countries.
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JSC “Sadales tīkls” emphasizes that in general the state electricity supply infrastructure is ready for the increase of the volume of electric cars, and thinking about the development of electric mobility in the future, the modernization of the electricity network is taking place in parallel.
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