"Energy supplies derived from renewable energy sources (RES) are
undergoing a phase of expansion in Western Europe," said Rajat Kumar, a
research analyst for Frost & Sullivan. "Each country has individual
policies and incentives in place to foster RES, complemented by activities
at the European level, mainly through the European Commission."
At the Kyoto Conference, for instance, participants agreed on an 8 percent
greenhouse gas reduction target until 2008-2012. This is possible only if
renewable energy sources largely replace conventional sources or if the
level of energy consumption lessens.
The European Commission, in its White Paper on renewable energy sources,
suggested that renewable energies should constitute 12 percent of the
total European Union energy consumption by 2010. Following this, the
Commission implemented various noteworthy directives such as the
Renewables Directive of 2001, which established targets for renewable
energy to increase its share of gross electricity consumption from 14
percent in 1997 to 22 percent in 2010.
All of these activities will give a boost to renewable technologies, which
in the past have had to survive on their own merits, unsupported by
pricing concessions or any other incentives for producing clean energy.
The market revenues are likely to reflect this, growing from $8,997.9
million in 2005 to $17,291.2 million in 2011 at a compound annual growth
rate of 8.9 percent.
However, the growing recognition among European governments that renewable
energy should be able to compete on a more even basis and the resulting
trend toward blanket promotional incentives is likely to rectify this
pricing disparity. Nonetheless, renewable energy technologies are on
course to play a much bigger role in global energy supply. Rapid growth in
the wind power and solar photovoltaics (PV) sectors is likely to fuel
future expansion of the European renewable energy markets, whereas the
biomass power sector may fall short.