Tag: renewables

The Chinese government's energy policy has led to a large rise in investment in renewables, helping it to dislodge the UK in a ranking of the top five most attractive countries for investment in renewable energy, according to a study published on 19 August.

Massive solar power installations in the Sahara desert could feed the EU's growing energy demand via a new supergrid. The idea is backed by France and the UK, which is simultaneously trying to limit priority access for renewables to domestic grids.

As fuel prices for coal, natural gas and nuclear continue to rise, the cost of solar power is due to break even with fossil fuels in the US by 2015, according to a study published in June 2008.

Member states' positions on proposals designed to cut EU CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020 continue to diverge significantly as the EU enters into what could be one of the busiest and potentially divisive negotiation periods in its history. 

Technology breakthroughs and falling solar panel prices point to a bright future for Europe's photovoltaic (PV) sector. But the industry still faces a number of obstacles, including public misconceptions and hesitant investors, says Ernesto Macias Galán, vice president of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA).

The EU's biofuel targets should be scrapped and the renewables trading mechanism as proposed by the Commission should be redesigned to avoid fraud and legal complications, says Green MEP Claude Turmes, who spoke with EurActiv in an interview.

Europe's wind sector has enjoyed impressive growth in recent years, but even more effort is needed to boost one of the EU's most promising sources of renewable energy in order to realise the EU's energy policy ambitions, according to EU Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik.

Member states look set to demand stricter sustainability criteria for biofuels made from agricultural crops in a bid to avert negative environmental side-effects linked to their mass production, according to a draft paper circulated by the Slovenian Presidency.

Now that the political commitments by EU leaders to achieve a 20% share of renewable energy use by 2020 have been translated into binding targets for individual member states, a debate is heating up in Brussels about how, and if, the targets can actually be met. 

Enzo Gatta, chairman of the Italian Association of Electricity Enterprises (Assoelettrica), says Italy's renewables target of 17% is too high, particularly given the limitations to trading in renewables certificates. He spoke to EurActiv in an interview.

The European Commission put forward ambitious targets yesterday (23 January) to boost the EU's overall consumption of renewable energies to 20% by 2020. But while the plans to promote technologies such as solar and wind were largely welcomed, Brussels faces widespread criticism over controversial biofuels targets.

Commission plans to introduce a trading mechanism for green power certificates have come under fire from Germany, Spain and the renewables industry, who argue they will undermine existing support schemes and investor confidence and ultimately hamper growth in the renewables sector.

Firms' reduction commitments that give carbon a value will be 'critical' in any post-2012 climate change agreement in order to create a framework where innovation for climate change technologies flourishes, the authors of a December CEPS paper suggest. 

An early draft of an upcoming Commission proposal to increase the use of renewables in final EU energy consumption includes guidelines for establishing individual national targets, provisions for mandatory use of certificates for renewables trading and sustainability criteria for biofuels production.

The industry lobby group BusinessEurope has warned that the EU must focus more on energy efficiency, rather than renewable energies and emissions trading, if it wants to prevent energy-intensive industries such as chemicals and steel-making from taking their operations elsewhere.

The emerging Asian superpower is poised to surpass world solar and wind manufacturing leaders in Europe, Japan, and North America in the next three years, the Worldwatch Institute said in a new report released on Wednesday.

The Commission may push for increased cross-border trade in renewable energy as part of upcoming proposals to promote the uptake of non-fossil energy sources in the EU to 20% by 2020, EurActiv has learnt. The renewable energy industry is sceptical of the idea, however, saying that it would discourage investment.

Administrative and technical barriers as well as excessive costs and delays present larger barriers to local electricity producers than the ownership structure of EU energy markets, according to experts who debated the issue in Brussels yesterday (13 September 2007).

Only city cars or other small vehicles used for short distances are likely to run on solar power by 2020, experts and policymakers agree. To reduce CO2 emissions, the car industry is instead focusing on innovation into solar-hybrid models, lighter materials and increased battery-storage capacity.

European leaders signed up to a binding EU-wide target to source 20% of their energy needs from renewables, including biomass, hydro, wind and solar power, by 2020. To meet this objective, they also agreed on a new directive to promote renewable energies, which set individual targets for each member state.

The solar industry is positioning itself as a key contributor to the 20% target for renewables in the EU's energy mix by 2020. But, despite impressive growth, solar's contribution is likely to be limited compared with wind, hydro and biomass.

Industry and NGO representatives showed considerable consensus on the urgent need for a stable regulatory framework for effective climate change policy during a Shell conference in Brussels on the role of industry to tackle global warming.

The UK has joined Germany, the European Commission and other member states to push for an EU target on renewable energies to be made mandatory, raising the stakes of the Spring Summit that will take place in Brussels on 8-9 March 2007.

Renewable energy can deliver half of the world's primary energy needs by 2050, according to a report produced by the European Renewable Energy Council and Greenpeace.