Power grids of the futureGlobal Grids: When electricity flows around the globe

Worldwide, over 3,000 gigawatts of renewable projects are waiting to be connected to the grid because there are no lines or existing grids are not powerful enough.¹ That’s about three times the total power plant capacity available in the EU. So regenerative generation has long since been around. What’s missing are the lines that bring the power to where it’s needed.

This challenge does not stop at national borders. In Germany, the share of renewable energies in domestic grid feed-in is currently around 60 percent.¹ More and more countries are thinking bigger about the next step: across countries and even continents. This mission statement is called “Global Grids”. At klimaVest, we are monitoring the development closely, as it directly affects the backbone of the energy transition.

What are global grids?

The term describes an idea that includes several stages. At the beginning are the national transmission networks, such as the Amprion company in Germany, in which our klimaVest fund holds an indirect stake. This is the basis for cross-border connections, so-called interconnectors, which connect neighbouring networks. The most far-reaching stage is cross-continental alliances that connect generation regions and consumption centres over thousands of kilometres.

The international vision behind this is called the “Green Grids Initiative - One Sun, One World, One Grid”. The project was launched in 2021 at the World Climate Conference in Glasgow, India and the UK.² The guiding principle: The sun never goes down. Somewhere on earth it always shines and somewhere there’s always wind. By connecting these sources across time zones, you can direct electricity to places where it is dark or weak. So much for the theory. It becomes exciting to see what global grids can do and where their limits lie.

Compensating for volatility, overcoming distances

Wind and sun do not deliver what is needed at the push of a button. When viewed across individual regions, their production varies with the weather, time of day and season. Above all, the so-called dark flea is feared: those periods when neither the sun is shining nor the wind is blowing, sometimes over the days.

This is precisely where global grids come in as transnational or transcontinental power grids. A geographically dispersed mix of different generation sources balances different temperature ranges, weather conditions and time zones.³ What is missing in one place may be in excess in another. The larger the compound, the more stable the supply.

The picture behind it is compelling: Solar power from the North African desert flows via long sea cables to wherever there is demand in Europe. Sunny production where it’s cheap, consumption where it’s needed. However, whether such connections actually succeed over thousands of kilometres depends on more than just the technology.

Security of supply and geopolitical independence

A second argument for the implementation of global grids has been particularly important for several years. Sharing electricity with neighbours makes you more independent of individual suppliers and fossil fuel markets.
Europe’s closely interconnected electricity system has proven this several times over. When numerous French nuclear power plants had to be maintained at the same time in 2022, France was able to import electricity from Spain and the UK. And when Ukraine in the same year urgently moved ahead of synchronisation with the continental European power grid within hours, the alliance helped to cushion power outages caused by the war.³

The Baltic countries provided an impressive example from last year. In February 2025, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania uncoupled from the post-Soviet BRELL power ring, which was controlled from Moscow, among other places, and also synchronised with the continental European network.⁴ The step was backed by 15 years of preparation and a clear motive: Energy supply should no longer be suitable as a means of political pressure.
 

Economic efficiency and cost reduction

There are also many economic arguments in favour of the association. When cheap electricity flows from one region to a more expensive one, both sides benefit, and overall costs fall.³ An invoice from the European transmission system operator ENTSO-E shows how large the leverage is: Investments of around six billion euros per year in cross-border capacity could bring the EU an economic gain of around nine billion euros per year.⁴

The amazing thing is that So far, this potential has hardly been exploited. Worldwide, less than three percent of the electricity generated is traded across borders to date, worth around USD132 billion in 2023.⁵ Many regions continue to import fossil fuels, while renewable generation is being scaled down elsewhere because the grid cannot absorb it. There is considerable and unused leeway here.

The barriers beyond technical feasibility

As convincing as the logic is - the path is not easy. Interconnectors are expensive and time consuming. Planning, approval and construction often take many years, and the initial investments are high. In addition, there is a need for coordination: Network operators, regulators and governments of several countries need to harmonise technical standards and market rules. And not every region benefits equally. If prices approach those of a more expensive one in a cheap market, electricity can become more expensive for local consumers, even if the overall system becomes cheaper.³

The most well-known experiment of this kind shows that such projects can stagnate: Xlinks, the Moroccan desert power cable to the UK. In mid-2025, the British government refused to support the project and referred to high risks and cheaper domestic alternatives. Since then, the developer has realigned the concept with other European customers such as Germany.⁶ The lesson learned: Without political support, viable financing and secured buyers, even the best technical idea remains theory at first.

After all, networking also makes people vulnerable. The damage to the Estlink 2 connection in the Baltic Sea at Christmas 2024 showed that critical infrastructure can become the target of hybrid threats.⁷ So resilience is not created by lines alone, but also by protecting them.

Political tailwinds are increasing

Despite these hurdles, the trend in Global Grids is moving forward. At the COP30 World Climate Conference in Belém, Germany and partners from Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia presented a joint grid package at the end of 2025 to accelerate the global expansion of electricity grids and storage.¹ It reaffirms the goals that had already been set a year earlier at COP29 in Baku: By 2030, 25 million kilometres of power lines will be built or upgraded worldwide and 1,500 gigawatts of storage capacity will be created.⁸

The International Energy Agency supports this project with figures. Global grid investments amount to around 400 billion US dollars per year and should increase by about half by 2030 to keep up with power demand.⁹ At the same time, more than 3,000 gigawatts of projects are stuck in connection queues worldwide.³ In short: Grids are the bottleneck where the energy transition is deciding.