EU: Green energy needs milestones to grow

"European Ministers must turn this message into action and back a renewable energy target for 2030, as supported by the Strategy's Impact Assessment", said Stephane Bourgeois, Head of Regulatory Affairs of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) in Brussels. "A legally binding renewable energy target for 2030 is crucial if we want to foster Europe's leadership in wind energy, and in particular offshore wind".

Eurelectric, the association representing Europe’s electricity industry, reacted to the communication with a call for renewables to be put on an equal footing with other technologies, consistent policies to be applied under the EU ETS, a strengthening of the scope of renewables development and a clear distinction to be made between pre and post-2020 planning.

“The growth of renewables is a welcome development,” said Eurelectric’s secretary-general Hans ten Berge, “it contributes to diversification, security of supply, and the shift towards a greener, low-carbon economy. With technologies like onshore wind and solar PV reaching maturity, Europe must integrate renewable energy into the market. In a difficult economic environment, European citizens and businesses deserve cost-efficient solutions. To this end, we must build on the experiences from the pre-2020 period when designing the post-2020 framework: this means a more European approach, more market, more consistency and a level playing field for mature RES and other generation technologies.”

But the Coalition of progressive European energy companies – which represents SSE, Eneco, DONG Energy, EWE, Acciona, Sorgenia, PPC, EDP Renewables and Stadtwerke – renewed their call for a binding EU 2030 renewables target, which they said “is needed to bridge the policy gap between 2020 and 2050 and to allow the renewables industry to mature and to reach cost competitiveness. In the absence of a binding 2030 target, renewable growth is put at great risk, which will undermine the decarbonisation scenarios of the EU Energy Roadmap 2050, as well as the overarching EU 2050 carbon reduction target of 80-95%.” 

To give investors a better long-term perspective, the Renewable Directive’s Energy Roadmap for the post-2020 period should be brought forward from 2018 to 2014, they said. “It should be recognised that the binding 2020 renewables target has worked – in the absence of a robust carbon price – to create new European industries, growth and jobs, whilst diversifying energy supply and reducing European energy import dependency. Now the time has come to focus on the 2030 policy framework, of which a binding renewables target must be the cornerstone.”

Marc Oliver Herman, Oxfam’s EU biofuels expert, welcomed the “ambitious” EU renewable energy policy announced but found it “shocking that the Commission’s blueprint ignores that the current EU biofuels policy is driving up global food prices and helping push people in poor countries off their land.”

“When they meet next week,” he continued, “EU Ministers have the chance to tell the Commission that a renewable future for Europe must not come at the expense of millions of families in developing countries struggling to feed their children. Ministers must urge Energy Commissioner Oettinger to reform the flawed 2020 biofuels policy before moving on to 2030. This means scrapping the binding 10% 2020 target for renewable energy in transport, as this will be largely met through biofuels produced from food crops.”

The position found an echo with the World Wildlife Fund. "A renewable energy target for 2030 is an essential element in the post-2020 strategy,” said Imke Lübbeke, Senior Renewable Energy Policy Officer at WWF European Policy Office. “It will keep Europe at the forefront of innovation, and will aid economic recovery by boosting jobs. An increasing role for renewable energy will also help to cut the hundreds of billions of euros (€315bn) Europe pays every year for imported coal, oil and gas."

On the same theme, Daniel Fraile, the Climate Action Network's Europe Senior Energy Policy Officer said that "a stable policy framework, if well designed, will help realize investments and support continuous growth of the European renewables industry, which will in turn create jobs.” Before making renewables compete in a market specifically designed for inflexible conventional generation, fossil fuel subsidies had to be removed and energy markets reformed, he expounded. "It is important to understand that conventional energy sources have enjoyed huge financial support for decades, which distorts the market and does not allow renewables to compete on a level playing field," he said.

The bioenergy company, Novozymes, issued a statement welcoming the plan to propose legislation on the post-2020 regime in 2014. “Renewed ambitious mandatory targets for renewable energy should be part of the new framework,” it said. “Combining targets for GHG emissions reduction with targets for renewables and energy efficiency hold true post-2020. They will guarantee we achieve long term GHG emissions reduction and energy security objectives in a cost effective manner, using most sustainable renewable energy technologies. This is particularly relevant for the transport sector where energy demand is growing and GHG emissions are increasing.

"More trading of renewable electricity within the EU is exactly what we need,” said the Liberal Democrat MEP Graham Watson. “We all need to be importing and exporting our renewables. The sun is always shining and wind always blowing somewhere in Europe, and a single market for renewables will make the green energy switch work"

"But in order to do that we need the capacity for long-distance electricity transmission,” he went on, “and by and large our power lines currently stop at national borders. The next EU budget is due to put €9bn towards cross-border energy links - but that money is being squeezed."