Anders Eldrup is the chief executive officer of DONG Energy of Denmark. The following was sent exclusively to EurActiv:

"The European Union has put forward an ambitious goal to increase the share of renewable energy and become decarbonised by 2050. According to several studies, such an energy transformation away from European dependence on largely imported fossil energy will strengthen European competitiveness.

“I’m pleading with you not to come up with reservations but with general support that can be crucial to our generation,” an impassioned Oettinger told the ministerial roundtable in Brussels.

Europe’s electricity networks are currently stuck in “the world of 19^th century principalities,” and without a rapid roll-out of energy transmission grids, “it will be the end of Europe,” Oettinger warned darkly.

Gauri Khandekar is a researcher at the Brussels office of the Madrid-based FRIDE think tank and head of its Agora Asia-Europe programme.

Russia has maintained stable deliveries to European customers despite "abnormally cold weather conditions in Russia and in Europe," said Alexander Medvedev, deputy chairman of Gazprom's management committee and director general of Gazprom Export. This was largely due to new underground gas storage facilities, or UGSF, he said.

During the peak demand period, Gazprom has been extracting natural gas from storage facilities located in Europe at the maximum rate - more than 38 million cubic meters per day.

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Arthouros Zervos

Arthouros Zervos

Mon, 2012-02-13 19:58

• specialreport-europes-electricity-grid
• climate-environment

Arthouros Zervos is president of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). He spoke to EurActiv's environment and climate change correspondent Arthur Neslen.