The energy transition and beyond

A partnership of provinces, municipalities and industry has asked us to develop their plans for reducing local greenhouse gas emissions. For each proposed measure we made clear what would be the intended reduction, what costs are involved and what social benefits it entails. We worked with the public and private parties involved to find subsidies, guarantees and loans to finance the plans. With this approach, the province is significantly fulfilling its responsibility to contribute to the climate objectives.

A medium-sized municipality wants to generate 25% of its energy needs sustainably. Including a new wind farm on an existing business park. The municipality is working with a development partner on a plan which allows both residents and local businesses to participate in the project. A suitable investment model must be set up for this. In addition, the municipality wants the electricity produced to be purchased mainly by its own citizens and companies. And finally, the remaining financial return from the mills should go to a local sustainability fund. The municipality has asked PwC to assess the financial aspects of the plan drawn up by the development partner. Thanks to the knowledge we have built up in the Netherlands and Germany about the development, structuring and financing of off- and onshore wind farms, we have drawn up an extensive set of benchmark data. With this benchmark set we were able to quickly provide insight into the robustness of the development partner's business case.

The energy transition has a major impact on Dutch grid operators. The Climate Agreement sets the target that all public bus transport must be zero emission by 2030. In practice, this means a major change in the required infrastructure for public bus transport. It is a major challenge for the network operator to connect all charging points for those buses to the network in a timely manner, because they often involve complex locations (such as busy station areas). This may require many different parties to be involved in the development of such a location.

In a report prepared for one of the Dutch Network Operators, PwC has mapped out the entire chain and relevant players for electric bus transport. Bottlenecks in, among other things, legislation and regulations for the timely realization of the new infrastructure by the network operator for electric public bus transport have been identified. We have also come up with solution directions to address these bottlenecks.

A commercial carrier in the Netherlands has the ambition to be completely emission-free by 2050. To achieve this, the client’s entire fleet must be electrified. Since the (purchase) costs of means of transport with electric engines are considerably higher than means of transport with a conventional combustion engine, it was important for the carrier to gain insight into the possibilities surrounding tax facilities and subsidies for electric transport. PwC has investigated which tax facilities and subsidies are available for the client's investments. An optimal selection was then made of these options and PwC started the application process. During this process, there were various consultations with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. As a result, the application of various tax facilities and subsidies has been allocated, which has reduced the investment costs for the electrification of the carrier's fleet by approximately 10%.