It´s a Bird, It´s a Plane, It´s a...Supergrid!: Evolution, Opportunities, and Critical Issues for Pan-European Transmission

Several initiatives have been launched in the last decade in the European Union (EU) to align pan-European power grid development with the EU?s policy targets, particularly in the energy and climate change fields. The building of new infrastructures, initially driven mainly by the need for increased cross-border trading and integration of the wholesale electricity markets, is nowadays also strongly supported by the demand for integrating diversified, low-carbon energy sources (e.g., renewable wind and solar sources).