European investors push for rapid electrification to secure growth and energy independence by 2040

A coalition of European investors, companies and growth-stage startups has stepped up pressure on EU policymakers to make the bloc the world’s first “electro-continent”, arguing that Europe should aim for more than half of final energy consumption to come from clean, domestically produced electricity by 2040.

The open letter, coordinated by Norrsken and backed by the Corporate Leaders Group Europe, H&M, Oatly, Einride, Flower and Trawa among others, frames electrification as both an industrial strategy and an energy-security imperative. Its signatories say Europe’s exposure to fossil fuel imports has left businesses and households vulnerable to repeated price shocks, while also weakening the region’s competitiveness in sectors that depend on affordable power.

That argument has sharpened after a sequence of disruptions since 2022. The coalition points to Russia’s use of gas supplies as leverage, shipping disruption in the Red Sea and the recent closure of the Strait of Hormuz as reminders that Europe’s energy system remains tied to markets and routes it does not control. In that context, the group says the EU needs a clear long-term target to guide grid investment, permitting reform and cross-border integration.

According to David Frykman, founding general partner at Norrsken VC, the cost of imported energy has become strategically unsustainable. He argues that Europe should be able to electrify as much as 90% of its economy using technologies that already exist, but says the pace of change has been held back more by politics and regulation than by engineering.

The case for faster electrification is also being made in economic terms. The coalition says industrial electricity prices in the EU remain around twice those in the US and roughly 50% higher than in China, a gap that is becoming more consequential as demand from AI, data centres and other power-intensive industries grows. The International Energy Agency has warned that data centre electricity use could more than double by 2030, making access to cheap and reliable power a central factor in where new industrial capacity is built.

Frykman argues that this shifts the debate from climate policy alone to competitiveness and resilience. In his view, Europe’s problem is no longer whether clean power can compete on cost, but whether policymakers will allow deployment to happen quickly enough. He says the continent should treat electrification as the organising principle for a more secure industrial model, with clean generation, storage, networks and flexible demand scaled together.

The coalition’s message is reinforced by broader market trends. Solar module costs have fallen sharply over the past decade, and many new renewable projects are already cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives. Wind and solar generation also overtook fossil fuels in the EU for electricity supply in 2025, underlining how quickly the economics have shifted. The Electrification Alliance has separately urged the European Commission to back this transition with a dedicated action plan and a 2030 milestone, signalling growing industry support for more explicit policy direction.

Yet the campaign also reflects Europe’s uneven execution. Norrsken, the foundation behind the initiative, has built an ecosystem around impact entrepreneurship, while Norrsken VC has backed climate and industrial-tech companies including Einride and Northvolt. Those examples illustrate both the promise and the difficulty of scaling new energy systems in Europe: some businesses are moving quickly into electrified transport, distributed energy and storage, while others have struggled to turn capital and ambition into durable industrial capacity.

That tension is particularly visible in heavy industry and infrastructure, where permitting, grid constraints and national politics can delay projects for years. Frykman says Europe can no longer afford a model built around imported fossil fuels and should instead set a clear destination that gives investors and operators confidence to commit. For industrial decarbonisation executives, the underlying message is straightforward: the question is no longer whether electrification will matter, but whether Europe can align policy, infrastructure and capital fast enough to make it the basis of its next growth cycle.