Tag: energy

The European Commission will examine in "pragmatic way" Russia’s request to exempt its Nord Stream and South Stream gas pipelines from EU rules granting competitors access to the infrastructure, EurActiv has learned.

After decreasing steadily for years, household electricity consumption in 2010 reached its highest level in two decades, says a report by the European Commission.

The EU has taken a global lead on energy efficiency policies but still has a long way to go if it is to reap the full benefits, argue Caroline Lucas, Anders Wijkman and other signatories from the energy savings coalition.

A German power utility specialising in renewable energy was hit by a serious cyber-attack two weeks ago that lasted five days, knocking its internet communications systems offline, in the first confirmed digital assault against a European grid operator.

EU energy ministers have teamed up with electricity grid operators and environmental groups to counter the NIMBY syndrome on new renewable energy infrastructure builds.

The decision by the European Commission to approve a certification scheme for palm oil has been condemned by environmental groups, which say the biofuel is driving deforestation in Indonesia and other countries, and should be banned in the European Union.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought to convince Czech leaders yesterday (3 December) to pick US firm Westinghouse over a Russian rival for a €8 billion nuclear power project, the country's biggest-ever public energy tender.

EU energy ministers are poised to seek "non-binding" guidance from the European Commission on reform of green fuel subsidies as part of a debate on new post-2020 policy goals, according to a draft document.

The lack of liberalisation of the energy and low-carbon energy market is one of the factors contributing to the lack of investment in Poland's chemical industry, says Wojciech Lubiewa-Wieleżyński.

SPECIAL REPORT / UN plans to double the world’s renewable energy capacity within two decades are under threat from fossil-fuel handouts, which have almost doubled in three years, campaigners say.

SPECIAL REPORT: Clean tech jobs to power green growth is considered a no-brainer by progressive policy makers, NGOs and businesses, and the idea forms the core of the UN’s Year of Sustainable Energy For All (SE4ALL). But some economists, academics and environmental thinkers increasingly question its central premise.

Poland took a decisive step yesterday (20 November) towards building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on its Baltic coast, a project that could significantly reduce Central and Eastern Europe's reliance on Russian imports.

Reports of turmoil in a futuristic plan to generate 15% of Europe’s energy from Saharan solar power have been stoutly denied by the chief executive of the Desertec initiative, Paul van Son. 

Lithuania will find it difficult to ensure the security of energy supply without building a new nuclear power plant, Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said.  

EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger has signalled that Brussels may soon accept the proposed Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP), despite its earlier support for the Nabucco pipeline.   

The European Commission's energy market communication, to be published on 15 November, indicates that there are major obstacles to the implementation of the internal energy market by the target date, 2014, writes Georg Zachmann.

The growth of wind power generation is likely to slow over the next few years, hit by cutbacks in the budget subsidies in the United States and Europe that have driven 15 years of construction, says a report published today (14 November).

Future energy relations between Bulgaria and Russia could be decided on 15 November, the deadline for Bulgaria to sign a deal to build the South Stream gas pipeline across its territory. European officials say they are closely watching the developments but don’t see South Stream as a priority. 

SPECIAL REPORT / Faced with strong political headwinds against new environmental legislation in the current economic crisis, the European Commission is multiplying initiatives to keep resource-efficiency on the political radar.

EXCLUSIVE: This year’s annual European coal industry conference in Brussels is being co-organised by the Central European Energy Partners (CEEP), which was founded by, and is mostly made up of, state-owned Polish energy firms.

Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom reported sales declines in Europe and its home market, showing the importance of its strategy to expand into Asia.

Russia's Gazprom committed more than €29 billion to develop an East Siberian gas field and build a pipeline to the Pacific port of Vladivostok in a bid to lessen its reliance on exports to Europe and develop Asian markets, amid falling demand from Europe.

Polish environmentalists say that they are operating in a ‘climate of fear’ involving harassment by the country’s security police, and denunciations from government ministers for “working against the public interests of the state”.