Tag: cogeneration

The EU's Energy Efficiency Directive, which has entered its final stages of negotiation, has missed the opportunity to give the cogeneration industry the incentives it needs to attract investors, according to Fiona Riddoch, managing director at COGEN Europe.

EU energy strategies are currently overlooking significant energy savings that could be achieved with an integrated approach that allows the use of waste heat, according to Fiona Riddoch, managing director of Cogen Europe, and Sabine Froning, managing director of Euroheat&Power. They spoke to EurActiv ahead of their joint annual conference today (2 June).

Cogeneration was first promoted at EU level in a Green Paper on security of energy supply published in November 2000. The paper argued that if the EU's share of cogeneration, which only accounted for 11% of total electricity production in the EU in 1998, were to be increased to 18% by 2010, the ensuing savings could amount to 3-4% of total gross consumption in the EU 15.

Speaking at a 9 May stakeholder conference on cogeneration, Green MEP Claude Turmes called on the EU to make co-generation a cornerstone of its future energy policy and efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. 

Backing the deal hammered out with Parliament, Council on 26 January formally adopted the Cogeneration Directive, which is designed to promote the simultaneous production of electricity and heat in Europe.

The Council and the Parliament have agreed on an approach to the Cogeneration Directive, thereby narrowly avoiding a conciliation procedure.

The Parliament's Industry Committee has refused to bow to pressure from the Council and the Commission, sticking to its initial position on the Cogeneration Directive. The possibility of a conciliation procedure looms ever closer.