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BRUSSELS, Belgium, September 7, 2005 (Refocus
Weekly)
A committee of the European Parliament has called
for at least Euro 300 million a year to be dedicated to renewable
energies.
A report from the committee on industry, research and energy
“insists that in the 7th Framework Programme for Research &
Technological Development (FP7), a minimum of Euro 300 million a
year be dedicated to renewable energies and Euro 200 million a year
to energy efficiency, to compensate the historical bias in EU energy
research programs.” It stresses that FP7 must include increased
funding for renewable sources of energy and energy efficiency and
“stresses the need to bridge the gap between the demonstration,
dissemination and marketing of renewable energy technologies and to
focus on research into offshore windparks.”
The EU has released numerous communications and directives on the
promotion of green power and green fuels, and the report says “it
must be conveyed with greater emphasis to the Commission that
environmental objectives must be achieved more than is currently the
case throughout the whole Community.” It encourages the EC to
“continue to develop an ambitious and, at the same time, realistic
strategy in the area of renewable energies,” and notes the potential
from 21 different renewable energy technologies which cover all
geographical areas and all relevant energy uses.
“Renewable energies are the fastest growing sector of the energy
industry in Europe and even worldwide, with a growth rate above 20%
a year in wind and solar PV, and that the development of renewable
energy technologies has created more than 300 000 jobs,” it
explains. There have been “impressive price reductions” in different
renewables technologies, in some cases of 50% in 15 years, but
“further price reductions must be achieved, which will require the
provision of strong incentives.”
“The EU is a world leader in most renewable energy technologies as a
result of the efforts in some Member States and (it) calls on new EU-wide
initiatives and directives” and “stresses the importance of setting
mandatory targets for 2020 to give a clear signal to market actors
... that renewable energies are the future of energy in the EU and
part of its environment and industrial strategy.” It considers
incentives and tax cuts to be “an effective way to promote renewable
energies (and) encourages the Member States to use such instruments;
encourages the EC to abolish all obstacles to such action by the
Member States.”
Heating and cooling are “a major market for low-temperature
renewable energies,” with 40% of energy use in the EU being consumed
in green heat applications. The report “urges a systemic approach
that will integrate best available technologies for reducing heat
and cooling demand with low-density energy from low-temperature
renewables or from co- or tri-generation units.”
The EU wants 21% of electricity to come from renewables, and it
welcomes the introduction by Germany and Spain of an “adequate
policy framework” to fulfil their national targets, but notes that
other governments are not forecast to meet their targets. It urges
the EC to consider a directive that would introduce binding national
targets, and asks for the removal of all administrative and
political barriers to allow free access to the grid, with
non-discriminatory tariffs, for renewable sources of electricity.
Generation of power from renewable technologies, “mainly
photovoltaic,” is still very expensive, and the report encourages
the EC and member states to “promote measures to reduce the cost,
mainly through research and development, and to draft incentives in
such a way that improvement of technology and reduction in costs
will continue.” It also wants the EC to allow for the ‘polluter
pays’ principle and the internalisation of external costs for every
energy resource.
The committee “regrets that the EU has so far failed to provide the
support needed for solar thermal power station technology to be
introduced onto the market” and calls on the EC to enable “the great
potential of this technology to be tapped on a larger scale.” It
also regrets that “the enormous potential of biomass in the field of
renewable energies has not been exploited in line with its
technically potential at feasible cost” and encourages an ambitious
plan to include “concrete, legally binding proposals” to exploit
that source.
“In the energy field, all non-mature energy technologies need a
certain amount of support in the first years of development” and it
quotes the IEA that only 8.2% of total energy R&D funds of OECD
countries were allocated to renewables between 1974 and 2001. It
calls on the EIB and the EBRD to set escalating targets for the
share of renewables in their respective energy loans portfolio and
to make the prevention of GHG emissions “an indispensable criterion
in the selection of projects to be supported.”
“Renewables have the potential to cover over 80% of all energy needs
at the end of this century,” it concludes. “How quick this will
happen is depending on the right mix of policy instruments
efficiently applied at the relevant levels, EU, national, regional
and local.”
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