Europe needs eight actions to spur green power, says EC

BRUSSELS, Belgium, January 31, 2007 (Refocus Weekly) Europe must immediately develop eight main areas of action on green power, says the European Commission.

There must be an “Immediate lifting of administrative barriers, unfair grid access and complex procedures,” it concludes in a communication to the European Council and European Parliament in ‘Green Paper follow-up action: Report on progress in renewable electricity.’ Member states must also “correctly and fully implement” the EU directive on electricity from renewables.

Support schemes must be optimized and, this year, the EC will re-examine the situation concerning national support systems for renewables “with a view to assessing their performance and the need to propose harmonized support schemes for renewables in the context of the EU internal electricity market,” it explains. “While national schemes may still be needed for a transitional period until the internal market is fully operational, harmonized support schemes should be the long term objective.”

Special attention shall be given to increasing the use of biomass for combined heat and power (cogeneration), and renewables should be “speedily integrated” into the EU’s Lisbon strategy through the competitiveness and innovation program, regional and cohesion funds, rural development and reinforced RTD until 2013.

“The internal electricity market shall be developed in a manner consistent with the development of renewable energies,” it adds. “Liberalisation, in particular concerning transparency, unbundling and higher inter-connectors capacity, also offers the opportunity for new innovative players to enter the market.”

Renewables promise strategic improvements in the security of supply, reduce long-term price volatility and could offer an enhanced competitive edge for the EU energy industry, the report explains. Renewables reduce air pollution and GHG emissions and facilitate improvement in the economic and social prospects of rural and isolated regions in industrialised countries and help to meet basic energy needs in developing countries.

“The cumulative effect of all these benefits makes a robust case for renewables support,” and the EC must assess the progress of member states towards achieving national targets and compliance with the target of sourcing 21% of electricity from renewables in its 25 states by 2010. The target was established in the 2001 EU renewables directive, which has been “a historical step in the development of renewable electricity (and) has been a main driving force behind new policies being implemented.”

Since the last EC report two years ago, 50% additional non-hydro green power has been produced and, with current policies and efforts in place, “it can be expected that a share of 19% by 2010 will be reached.” Hydro remains the largest source of renewables and contributes 10% of total power consumption, but “solar thermal electricity and wave and tidal will certainly have a role to play in the years to come,” it adds.

In 2005, green power contributed 15% to overall electricity consumption in the EU, but this should be seen against a higher-than-expected level of overall power consumption in Europe. In the EU, power consumption is growing at 2% per year and in some member states, the share of green power is even declining.

Since 1990, new sources of green power have produced 148 TWh, which is a positive achievement due to serious efforts by a few active countries but “overall, not good enough with many member states lacking far behind their national targets,” it continues. “More needs to be done if Europe wants to reverse the trend towards an increasingly unsustainable energy future.”

Nine countries (Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands) have a good opportunity to reach the 2010 target but eleven others (Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, UK, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Austria, Cyprus, France, Italy, Latvia, Malta and the Slovak Republic) are failing to meet their national commitment, it notes. Wind is poorly supported in nine of the 25 member states and, “where the total support received by producers is lower than generation costs, no take-off of renewable energies can be expected.”


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