Europe’s energy security challenge has moved from emergency supply management to long-term economic strategy. The scale is significant: the European Commission estimates that Europe needs around €660bn of energy investment every year between 2026 and 2030. The opportunity is not simply to build more renewable power. It is to finance the infrastructure that makes Europe less exposed, more competitive and more resilient. Jalo is positioned directly in that gap: secure biomass-based energy, BECCS-enabled carbon removal, contracted industrial revenues and a repeatable platform for deployment across Europe.

Energy is a security priority

This matters because Europe is still living with the consequences of geopolitical shocks. The lessons from recent years and global tensions make things clear. Imported energy is not just a commodity risk. It is a competitiveness risk, an inflation risk and a strategic risk. Low-carbon, sovereign-sourced energy has moved from being a climate priority to an economic and security priority, the two are intertwined and EU are moving. 

The European Energy Shift is underway 

That shift is now explicit in EU policy. Dan Jørgensen, EU Commissioner for Energy and Housing, has said: “To ensure that Europe’s economy is powered by secure, affordable and clean energy, we must step up the pace and scale of investments… This strategy is the step change we need in energy investments for our competitiveness, security, and decarbonisation” (European Commission).

The significance of that statement is not just political. It reframes energy security as a capital allocation theme. Europe does not simply need more energy supply. It needs bankable assets that reduce volatility, support industry and fit the direction of regulation.

Opportunity for Investors

The scale of the opportunity is substantial. The European Commission estimates that Europe needs around €660 billions of energy investment annually between 2026 and 2030, rising to €695 billion annually from 2031 to 2040 (European Commission). That compares with average annual energy investment of €240 billion between 2011 and 2021, implying a step-change in deployment of capital across generation, grids, storage, efficiency and industrial decarbonisation (European Commission).

€3 trillion of power-sector investment

Investment banks are making the same point. Goldman Sachs Research estimates that Europe may require around €3 trillion of power-sector investment over the next decade, including grid modernisation and new generation capacity. In a higher-electrification scenario, Goldman Sachs estimates €2 trillion of power-generation investment and around €3.5 trillion of total electrification investment including grids over the coming decade.

Gas still has a part to play 

This is the energy transition tension which Europe must solve today. Since the conflict in Ukraine the continent has being doing everything to reduce its dependence on gas. The reality is, and now more reliant than ever on US imports, gas has not disappeared from power-price formation. Wood Mackenzie notes that gas will continue to exert a major influence on European power prices through the 2020s, even as renewables become the majority source of power supply (Wood Mackenzie). At the same time, Goldman Sachs warns that a system increasingly reliant on weather-dependent wind, solar and hydropower becomes less secure unless backup measures such as batteries, gas plants and grid upgrades are put in place.

Stronger case for renewables

That does not weaken the case for renewables. It strengthens the case for a broader energy-security stack. Europe needs more clean electricity, but it also needs dispatchable capacity, sustainable fuels, storage, heat, carbon management and domestic supply chains. A secure energy system is not built from one technology. It is built from a portfolio of mixed assets that can reduce import exposure and provide resilience when markets are stressed.

Grids are only one part of the problem

The never-ending grid challenge encapsulates the point. The European Commission says €584 billions of investment is needed in electricity grids, while EU electricity consumption is expected to rise by around 60% by 2030 and 40% of distribution grids are more than 40 years old (European Commission). Grids are essential, but they are not the whole answer. Europe also needs investable projects that can supply useful energy, support industrial customers and create measurable carbon impact.

That is where Jalo is positioned.

Jalo’s Almelo project sits at the intersection of three investable themes: energy security, industrial decarbonisation and carbon removals. It is designed as a BECCS-enabled biomass platform, producing sustainable pellets while capturing biogenic CO₂. The strategic value is not only that Almelo is a low-carbon energy asset. It is that the model is intended to be repeatable and scalable across the Netherlands and wider Europe.

Jalo delivers both industrial and investor goals

For policymakers, that matters because domestic, sustainable biomass infrastructure can reduce Europe’s reliance on imported fossil fuels and support a more resilient energy mix. For industrial customers, it offers a route to more dependable energy inputs and lower exposure to fossil-price volatility. For investors, it combines infrastructure-style contracted cashflows with upside from the emerging market for high-integrity carbon removals.

Not a replacement to wind and solar

This is an important distinction. Jalo is not positioning itself as a replacement for wind or solar. It is positioned as part of the infrastructure layer that makes a renewables-heavy system more secure. Europe’s energy future will require intermittent renewables, but also firm, flexible and carbon-negative assets around them.

Secure and contracted green energy revenues

The investment case is therefore not simply “green energy”. It is resilience. Assets that can deliver secure supply, contracted revenues, policy alignment and verified carbon impact should become increasingly valuable as Europe moves from climate targets to implementation. Goldman Sachs describes stronger power demand and electrification spending as supportive of a potential “earnings super-cycle” for utilities. The same logic applies more broadly: energy-security infrastructure with clear revenue models and regulatory alignment should attract capital.

Premium investment project 

Europe’s challenge is no longer whether to decarbonise. It is how to decarbonise without weakening competitiveness, affordability or security of supply. That creates a premium for projects that solve more than one problem at once. Jalo fits that mandate. It provides a pathway to secure biomass-based energy, carbon-negative infrastructure and repeatable European deployment. 

In a market where energy security has become an investment priority, that is the opportunity: not just to produce cleaner energy, but to build the infrastructure Europe needs to make the transition secure, investable and industrially relevant.