Highlights
- Industrial electrification is now seen as essential for Europe’s energy independence, competitiveness and climate neutrality, not just a technical option.
- Process heat remains a major source of emissions in sectors like paper, ceramics, asphalt and aluminium, but proven electrified solutions already exist and work in pilots.
- The biggest barrier to deployment is economics: electricity is still significantly more expensive than gas in many Member States, and upfront investment costs are high.
- Policymakers and industry agree on the need for a coherent framework that combines the European Green Deal, ETS, targeted auctions, national funding and carbon pricing to structurally lower the cost of clean heat.
- Industry voices stress that trust, digital control and proof of product quality are just as important as technology performance to convince conservative sectors to switch.
Main conclusions
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Electrification is a strategic necessity, not a niche option
Opening the policy panel, MEP Nicolás González Casares framed industrial electrification as “an essential condition for the future of Europe,” linking it directly to energy sovereignty and the need to reduce exposure to volatile fossil fuel imports. He argued that the European Green Deal remains the key policy umbrella for industrial decarbonisation and warned that weakening its legislation would undermine progress on electrified heat.
Other panellists echoed this view: electrification is not only about cutting emissions, but about maintaining a competitive industrial base in Europe, where energy costs and climate policy are increasingly determining where companies invest and produce.
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The economics of energy are still the main bottleneck
Alper Akdag (A.SPIRE and ABB) highlighted that roughly half of industrial energy demand goes to process heating, yet only a small fraction of that heat is currently electrified. He underlined two major hurdles: relatively high electricity prices compared to gas in countries such as Germany, Belgium and Italy, and the significant capital expenditure required to convert existing fossil-based systems to electrified solutions.
Industry representatives, including Marcel Mallah (Fricke und Mallah Microwave Technology) and Katariina Torvinen (Valmet), confirmed that many customers will continue using gas as long as it is cheaper, even when microwave or other electric technologies deliver faster processes and lower energy use. For them, the price of electricity and the ability to stabilise business cases over the long term are decisive factors in investment decisions.
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Technology is ready at pilot level, but confidence and integration must follow
The panel built on earlier presentations from SteamDry and MetaWave showing that superheated steam drying and advanced microwave/plasma/induction heating can deliver substantial energy savings and CO₂ reductions in paper, ceramics, asphalt and aluminium. However, speakers stressed that moving from pilots to deployment is not only a matter of scaling equipment.
Marcel Mallah emphasised that microwave solutions require materials with suitable dielectric properties and that product quality must be validated through mechanical and physical testing, which demands time, money and dedicated research projects. Katariina Torvinen highlighted the need to integrate electrified components into whole‑mill concepts, supported by advanced digital control to manage variable renewable electricity and ensure stable operation.
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Policy tools must lower costs and de‑risk investment
When asked which policy or market change would most accelerate electrified industrial heat by 2030, panellists converged on three priorities:
- Structural price signals: aligning taxation and carbon pricing so that electricity used for industrial heat is consistently cheaper than gas, including reforms to the Energy Taxation Directive and strong, predictable ETS rules that discourage fossil fuel use and fund clean alternatives.
- Targeted funding and de‑risking: using instruments such as the Innovation Fund, industrial heat auctions, national recovery and resilience plans, and carbon contracts for difference (CfDs) to reduce CAPEX risk and support first‑of‑a‑kind projects.
- Stable regulatory framework: providing long‑term certainty for companies planning multi‑decade investments, so business cases for electrified heat are not undermined by sudden policy reversals.
Nicolás González Casares stressed that ETS revenues should be used to support transformation and innovation, not short‑term bill relief, and defended a robust ETS as the backbone of Europe’s decarbonisation pathway.
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Scaling requires a systems approach: integration, flexibility and trust
The panel agreed that scaling electrified heat is about more than replacing burners with electric devices. It requires:
- Integration with heat recovery, insulation and, where appropriate, hybrid systems combining different technologies.
- New sensors, modelling and digital twins to maintain quality under harsh industrial conditions and coordinate production with renewable availability and market prices.
- Virtual power plant and energy management concepts to align industrial demand with a cleaner, more flexible electricity system.
- Clear safety standards, skills development and evidence of economic feasibility to build trust among conservative industrial sectors.
Overall, the policy panel sent a clear message: Europe already has working pilot solutions for electrified industrial heat; what is needed now is a coherent mix of policy, price signals and industrial partnerships that make clean heat the default, lowest‑cost choice for energy‑intensive industries in the coming decade.