• In the energy transition, just like in life, no one should walk alone. Renewable fuels can be the support the electron needs to go further.

  • Magda Kopczynska, Director-General of the DG Mobility and Transport of the European Commission, warns that “electrification is not enough to meet all energy demand.”

  • According to experts Héctor Santcovsky and Joan Ramón Morante, while electric propulsion is about 250% more efficient, there are significant technical challenges to its universal application, especially regarding heavy transport, maritime transport, and aviation.

  • Eric van den Heuvel, Bioenergy Coordinator at the IEA, proposes replacing the term “decarbonization” with “carbon neutrality” because the key is not to eliminate carbon but to reduce net emissions and use it smartly to produce renewable gases.

Last week, we explored electrical grids as the vital circulatory system of the energy system. Today, we turn our attention to another essential circulatory system: transportation and mobility. This complex web of roads, railways, maritime routes, and air corridors is much more than infrastructure: it is the invisible bridge that connects raw materials with factories, products with markets, and needs with solutions. Without this constant flow, the industrial heart of our economy would simply stop.

The numbers reveal the magnitude of this system: according to Eurostat, in 2022 the transport sector consumed 31% of final energy consumption in the European Union, making it the largest energy consumer, ahead of households (26.9%), industry (25.1%), and services (13.4%). Road transport alone represents 73.6% of all energy consumption in the sector. In Spain, the Transport and Logistics Observatory notes that national transport accounts for 10.3% of greenhouse gas emissions from transport across the EU.

This energy snapshot places the industrial sector at a strategic crossroads: transforming transportation linked to industry is not only an environmental challenge, it is an imperative need to achieve climate neutrality while maintaining competitiveness. Electrification is revolutionizing industrial processes and short-distance transport, but when it comes to heavy industrial logistics, maritime cargo transport, or long international supply chains, electricity faces technological barriers.

This is where a powerful idea comes into play: let’s not let the electron walk alone. Like the iconic song You’ll Never Walk Alone, the path to sustainability cannot be walked alone. Other energy sources, such as renewable fuels, can be that indispensable companion, the support the electron needs to overcome the challenges it cannot face alone. Together, they can chart a route to a future where mobility and sustainability are not opposing concepts but allies on the way to climate neutrality.

Europe’s strategic autonomy begins by breaking its dependency cage

Vulnerability has a name on the global geopolitical board, and Europe seems to have become its protagonist. Antonio Brufau, Chairman of Repsol, outlined this scenario during the recent event on “Renewable Fuels: Pillar for Decarbonization and Energy Sustainability.” The diagnosis is as striking as it is concerning: Europe has almost unwittingly built its own dependency cage.

The first bar of this cage is the massive outsourcing of our industrial production to China, turning the world’s factory into the owner of our productive fabric. The second bar is even more delicate: we have delegated our security to the United States, entrusting our protection to an ally with its own strategic interests. And the third bar, perhaps the most visible in recent times, has been the cession of energy supply to Russia, a dependency whose consequences we have experienced with painful clarity.

This triangle of dependencies is not just a theoretical reflection, it is a reality that conditions our capacity for action. And now, as the world moves toward a new energy economy, Europe faces a crucial dilemma: will we repeat the mistakes of the past or learn the lesson?

The development of domestic industrial capabilities in renewable fuels production is not just a technical solution but a key piece in the puzzle of European strategic autonomy. Without the right incentives to scale the implementation of carbon-neutral fuels in our territory, we risk creating new and dangerous dependencies. The equation is simple but relentless: if we don’t do it, others will, and we will depend on them again.

When the electron doesn’t reach the moving industry

Electrification is undoubtedly a crucial process in the energy transition, especially in short-distance transport. However, when it comes to long-distance transport, maritime, air, or land transport, electrification faces limitations. As Magda Kopczynska, Director-General of DG Mobility and Transport of the European Commission, pointed out during the event organized by the Repsol Foundation, “electrification is not enough to cover all energy demand.”

Héctor Santcovsky, sociologist and former associate professor at the University of Barcelona, and Joan Ramon Morante, Emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Barcelona, raised important reflections on the limits of electrification in road transport in a recent article published in El Periódico de la Energía. They highlighted that, while electric propulsion is about 250% more efficient than internal combustion propulsion, there are significant technical challenges to its universal application.

In the case of heavy vehicles, the autonomy requirements of 500 km or the demands of intercity or urban passenger transport require battery capacities of over 750 kWh or even 1 MWh. This not only significantly increases the weight and volume of the vehicle but also demands charging systems with power levels beyond current fast or ultra-fast charging systems, potentially requiring values up to 3 MW, equivalent to the consumption of 600 households.

These numbers reveal the limits of electrification in heavy transport. The current electrical grid, both in transport and distribution, is not prepared to supply this amount of energy in a stable and efficient manner.

A window opens, not a door closes

It is precisely at these limits where a window of opportunity opens for renewable fuels. These fuels can reach where electrification cannot, overcoming barriers that the electron cannot jump. They can offer solutions to move toward climate neutrality in all transport sectors that today seem inaccessible to direct electrification. We are not facing the end of a road, but a fork toward new complementary solutions.

This window opened by carbon-neutral fuels is neither narrow nor limited. On the contrary, it opens a broad landscape of technological and strategic possibilities. Through it, we can glimpse a horizon where green hydrogen, advanced biofuels, synthetic fuels, and other innovative solutions form a diverse and resilient energy ecosystem.

From decarbonization to neutrality: from waste to resource

Eric van den Heuvel, Executive Committee Technical Coordinator at Bioenergy of the International Energy Agency, emphasizes the importance of shifting the focus. More than talking about decarbonization, he advocates the idea of climate neutrality or carbon neutrality. The key is not to eliminate carbon but to reduce net emissions and use it intelligently for the production of renewable gases.

Industry can play a fundamental role in this process, creating synergies between productive sectors. Through carbon capture mechanisms, CO₂ emitted in industrial activities can be recovered and used as a raw material to generate e-fuels or synthetic fuels that power the industrial logistics itself, closing the circle.

If we take this logic a step further, we can imagine a world where industrial byproducts are not waste, but the source of energy for transport, which, in turn, distributes its products to the final consumer. A truly circular system where carbon is no longer a problem but part of the solution.

An irreversible transition needs multiple paths

As Morante and Santcovsky conclude in their analysis, “the energy transition is inevitable, but sustainable mobility is yet to be made and requires innovation, investment, and political will to accelerate a process as necessary as irreversible.”

In the industrial energy debate, electrification usually occupies the center of the conversation, and wherever it is feasible for industry, it will remain a protagonist. But in sectors that are hard to electrify, renewable fuels are emerging as a fundamental piece.

Their ability to leverage existing infrastructure, their potential to transform waste into resources, and their compatibility with energy-intensive sectors make them key allies in the energy transition of industry-linked transport. They are not just another alternative; they are a necessity in an industrial world that seeks to reduce emissions without giving up the mobility and logistics that sustain our value chains and our productive model.

Industry has a historic opportunity to lead this transformation, turning current challenges into drivers of innovation and sustainable growth.

All paths lead to climate neutrality, but the more there are and the wider they are, the better. Especially when we talk about mobility.