Tag: renewable energy

Hungary could have become the second EU member state after the UK to pass an overarching climate framework bill. But the ruling socialist party backed down on Monday (22 February) citing job concerns after heavy pressure from the industrial lobby. EurActiv Hungary reports.

EU ministers will trigger a debate on an EU strategy for electric cars this week amid warnings by green groups that the electricity used to charge the vehicles could prove as polluting as the fuel engines they are supposed to replace.

The global wind energy market continued to grow last year, driven by a strong push from China, which installed more new turbines than Europe and the US, according to new statistics from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

EU countries want to open the debate about increasing funds for low-carbon technologies in the next EU budget for 2013-19, but they are not willing to make any concrete commitments at this stage, shows a draft paper discussed by national experts on Wednesday (26 January).

The UK government gave on Friday (8 January) its green light to the construction of nine new offshore wind farms, which would see Europe's capacity multiply and bring the UK closer to meeting its renewable energy targets.

"We have no interest in relying on a transit country, whichever it is," French MP Jean-Jacques Guillet (UMP), co-author with Socialist MP Tony Dreyfus of a report on energy security in Europe entitled 'Should we be afraid of Russia?', told EurActiv France in an interview.

Renewable energy generation capacity in Europe grew by 13% in 2007, indicating a strong move towards low-carbon technologies, according to statistics published by electricity industry association Eurelectric on Monday (23 November).

Europe's electricity companies have published a new report setting out a number of scenarios for shifting Europe's electricity supply towards a carbon-neutral path by 2050.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's majority for a new centre-right government means she can rewrite a national nuclear phaseout deal by allowing reactors to run longer than laid down by her predecessors.

The European Commission yesterday (30 June) adopted a template for national renewable energy action plans (NREAPS), requiring member states to detail how they intend to reach their national targets for the share of renewables in their energy mix.

Renewable energy could spearhead regional market integration in Europe if member states were to take advantage of the cooperation mechanisms in EU renewables legislation, Eurelectric President Lars Josefsson told Euractiv in an interview.

The EU could create more than 400,000 additional jobs by boosting its policies in support of renewable energies and delivering on the bloc's 2020 target, a new study published by the European Commission argues.

The EU's Council of Ministers yesterday (6 April) adopted the final legal texts of the energy and climate change package of legislation negotiated by member states in December last year.

Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), urged world governments to ensure that stimulus packages aimed at restoring growth also embrace low-carbon technologies. He spoke to EurActiv in an exclusive interview ahead of the European Business Summit, which opens today (26 March) in Brussels. 

A Romanian scheme that grants double incentives for wind farms and other renewable energy projects was acclaimed by large investors in the region. But Rod Christie, GE Energy's president for Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS, warns that financing difficulties risked halting some projects. He spoke to EurActiv in an interview.

As the EU embarks on ambitious plans to boost its share of renewable energy, Norway seeks to diversify its offering and swamp EU consumers with green electricity produced from large-scale offshore wind farms, Liv Monica Stubholt, state secretary for energy, told EurActiv in an interview.

Wind, biomass, water, solar and geothermal energies will together represent a 47% share of Germany's total electricity consumption by 2020, according to the country's renewable energy agency.

The Renewables Directive agreed in December will provide incentives to develop wind energy by forcing new legislation in all 27 member states, Christian Kjaer, chief executive of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), told EurActiv in an interview.

At a landmark summit in December 2008, EU leaders reached agreement over an energy and climate change 'package' to deliver the bloc's ambitious objectives of slashing greenhouse-gas emissions and boosting renewable energies by 20% by 2020. The package is designed to reduce the Union's dependency on imported fuels and set the pace of "a new global industrial revolution".

EU governments and the European Parliament have agreed a far-reaching new directive to boost EU renewable energy use to 20% by 2020, following a compromise struck with Italy over a controversial 'review clause'.

Despite gloomy economic forecasts, manufacturers of solar panels, wind turbines and other non-fossil fuel technologies say they are ready to deliver more than the bloc's target of sourcing 20% of energy needs from renewables by 2020.

50% of global electricity supplies will need to come from renewable energy sources by the middle of the century if mankind is to avert the most serious effects of climate change, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

European biofuel producers were disappointed by a key vote in Parliament yesterday (11 September), which, though confirming a binding 10% target for renewables in transport fuels by 2020, shifts the focus away from agro-fuels and provides for a "major" mid-term review, which they say threatens investment in the sector.

With an offshore wind plan due from the European Commission in the autumn, environmental campaigners at Greenpeace have presented a study showing that the construction of 10,000 offshore wind turbines in the North Sea could be feasible if supported by a mega electricity grid.