Tag: renewable energy

While Europe's citizens feel that the way to tackle climate change and energy security is to increase the share of renewable energy, business says that the future is nuclear.

Energy ministers agreed to raise biofuels use to a minimum of 10% by 2020 but rejected an EU-wide binding target for renewables, leaving it to member states to decide on specific objectives at national level.

Christian Egenhofer, in this Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) policy brief, examines the nature and effectiveness of targets set by the EU in the context of its new energy and climate-change package.

In an exclusive interview with EurActiv, Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs says that new energy and climate-change proposals should lead to higher prices for consumers. But paying 5% more now will avoid much steeper price hikes in the future, he argues.

In a paper to be presented this week, the Commission proposes a three-year road map towards a common European energy policy, with the aim of achieving a 20% greenhouse-gas emissions reduction by 2020.

Bioenergies are derived from wood, waste and agricultural crops for transport uses (biofuels). Currently, the EU meets about 4% of its energy needs from biomass. The main objective of the Biomass Action Plan, put forward in December 2005, is to double this share by 2010. The plan would reduce oil imports by 8%, prevent greenhouse gas emissions worth 209 million tons CO2-equivalent per year and create up to 300,000 new jobs in the agricultural and forestry sector.

Ministers agreed to pursue efforts on renewable energies but countries such as France refuse new binding targets until priority is placed on low-carbon sources, including nuclear, to achieve overarching climate goals.

Led by industry and supported by the EU, the new technology platform will seek to map out priorities for wind-energy research up to 2030 and to direct funding into targeted areas such as offshore wind and grid integration.

This report, issued by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, pays attention to the role that renewable-energy technologies can play in a ‘clean, clever, and competitive energy future’.

High oil prices have already driven renewable energies such as wind power past the point where they can compete with fossil fuels. But more ambitious policies are needed to spur growth, say two leading think-tanks.

The Commission is about to drop a Parliament decision to ring fence two thirds of the EU's energy research budget for renewables, European renewable energy industry associations have warned.

The European Parliament has allocated 2.4 billion euros to energy research in a vote on the EU's next seven-year R&D programme (2007-2013). Some two thirds are allocated to renewable energies and energy savings.

A new report by Ernst & Young identifies corporate requirements to carry out the large-scale infrastructure programmes needed to diversify Europe's energy mix and bring forward alternatives to gas.

Sales of modern wood-based stoves, heaters and fireplace inserts are shooting up in France with about 6 million households equipped today, according to ADEME, the French environment and energy agency.

Researchers at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) in Belgium evaluate the possibility of a single European certificate system for electricity produced from renewable energies.

The Commission has launched legal action against several EU countries for failing to transpose directives on electricity generation from renewables and biofuels in transport.

Shortly after the 2006 European Spring Summit, which focused on energy policy and only days before a German national summit on energy policy, industry is pressurising Chancellor Angela Merkel to water down the previous red-green government's policy of phasing out of nuclear energy.

Well-functioning and transparent energy markets are the best way to diversify EU energy supplies, Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told EurActiv on the eve of a Spring European Summit dominated by energy issues – and controversial mergers.

On the eve of an eagerly awaited Commission Green Paper on energy policy, the Greens have presented their own vision for Europe's energy future. They criticise the Commission for being short-sighted on the transport sector.

Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has promised to table a proposal for a new directive on renewable energies for heating and cooling before the end of 2006 after a massive show of support in the European Parliament.

The Commission's Biomass Action Plan should reduce oil imports by 8%, prevent greenhouse gas emissions of 209 million tons CO2-equivalent per year and create up to 300,000 new job. Too good to be true?

On 7 December, Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs will present a biomass action plan that aims at doubling the use of biomass energy for transport, electricity and heating by 2010 and quadrupling it by 2030.

The Parliament's Greens/EFA group says that the current FP7 is biased towards the promotion of forms of energy that have no future and is calling for common sense and democratic debate on the allocation of the EU's energy research funds.

On the eve of the eagerly awaited Commission communication on national support schemes for renewable energies, a multi-stakeholder Task Force has argued for support to continue until at least 2015.