Tag: renewables

Global wind power expanded by almost 20% in 2012 to reach a new peak of 282 gigawatts (GW) of total installed capacity, while solar power reached more than 100GW, having more than doubled in two years.

Wind power accounted for over a quarter of all power capacity installed in the European Union last year, but turbulent times lie ahead, says a new report by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).

Three Central European policymakers – a civil servant, an academic and a business leader - lined up to question the EU's renewables policy at a Brussels think tank last week, expressing concern over the instability of the German power grid.

EXCLUSIVE / Europe’s power grid stability is hanging in the balance this winter, with a cold snap liable to create a ‘critical’ situation, the director of one of Europe’s five biggest power grids has told EurActiv.

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

SPECIAL REPORT / Practically half of the EU’s renewable energy currently comes from wood and wood waste, according to the EU statistics office Eurostat, but a lack of sustainability criteria for measuring its environmental impact is stoking fears of a hidden carbon debt mountain. 

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.

An escalating row between solar panel makers stepped up a gear on Monday ( 5 November) when China complained to the World Trade Organisation that Italy and Greece had unfairly favoured domestic suppliers.

The EU yesterday (17 October) launched new rules to account for indirect greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels, sending what EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard called a clear signal that first-generation biofuels were “not the future in Europe”.

The EU needs to advance its plans for renewable energy targets for 2030 soon, but only as part of a wider climate package, a member of energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger’s cabinet said yesterday (16 October).

SPECIAL REPORT / A spate of climate and clean energy-related trade squabbles is heightening fears that as recession advances, the world could be entering a period of tit-for-tat conflicts, many involving China.

Europe’s offshore wind capacity soared by 50% in the first half of 2012, compared to a year before, figures from the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) show.

European climate policy has to be flexible with respect to the outcome of international negotiations as well as updates in the evaluation of climate change, says a Bruegel analysis.

The biggest reforms to the UK energy sector in two decades were set out yesterday (22 May), prompting warnings from consumer groups and green campaigners that they would raise bills and penalise renewable energy while boosting nuclear power.

Europe’s solar photovoltaic (PV) industry is “weathering a period of uncertainty” and growth rates are likely to stall, according to the industry’s Global Market Outlook for Photovoltaics until 2016, released today (9 May).

Germany’s accelerated nuclear exit and increased reliance on renewables is likely to cause a power gap equivalent to the output of up to 15 plants by 2020, participants at a high-level energy meeting said on Wednesday (2 May).

Unpredictable cuts to Europe's feed-in tariff schemes for solar energy threaten the recession-hit renewable sector with disaster, the head of the solar industry’s business association has told EurActiv.

Europe's wave and tidal power technology is likely to disappoint EU expectations for 2020 and take over a decade to contribute to energy supply in a significant way, even though it is chalking up rapid growth and drawing in big industrial investors.

The UK government wants nuclear power to be given parity with renewables in Europe, in a move that would significantly boost atomic energy in Britain but downgrade investment in renewable generation, according to a leaked document seen by the Guardian newspaper.

Six EU-funded wind and solar energy projects which provide electricity for 600 West Bank Palestinians have been put on a ‘demolition list’ by Israel, allegedly in response to an EU heads of mission report which called for laws to prevent the financing of settlements.

Germany’s solar energy output defied government subsidy cuts to rise by a record 60% last year, according to the German Solar Industry Association BSW-Solar.

Germany cannot go it alone in its pioneering effort to transition to nuclear-free and low-carbon energy, say Severin Fischer and Oliver Geden. They argue that success will depend on the existence of a broader European strategy, including a more integrated energy market and a functioning emissions trading system.

The prospects for solar energy are bright, but an industrial policy that attracts investment for renewables and fair global energy subsidies are needed, a leading industry figure says.

Clean energy projects in rural areas are still being held back by administrative burdens, one year after EU member states began implementing their National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs), EurActiv has learned. However, Brussels believes the situation is improving.