|
BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 7, 2006 (Refocus
Weekly)
Solar thermal will play “an important role in the
future” and contribute to a sustainable continental energy policy,
and the industry “will succeed in bringing the solar thermal energy
at the place it deserves in the market,” says the energy
commissioner of the European Union.
“In spite of the fact that EU industry is the leader in solar
thermal technologies, the EU produces only 10% of the world’s total
output of solar panels,” Andris Piebalgs said at the launching of
the European Solar Thermal Technology Platform. “To increase our
world market share and maintain our technology leadership should be
a priority.”
“The creation of the Solar Thermal Technology Platform can be of
great use for this sector in Europe where there is a clear potential
for improvement,” he adds. “Even though the solar market shows
encouraging signals, with a sustained growth of around 12% per year
over the last 3 to 4 years, at the end of 2004, the installed
thermal capacity of collectors in EU-25 was just about 10 GW; this
corresponds to 15.5 million square meters of collectors and is well
below the EU target of 100 million square meters by 2010, fixed in
the White Paper in 1997.”
“Solar thermal installations are not equally distributed across the
EU,” with Germany, Austria, Greece and Cyprus accounting for 80% of
installed solar thermal capacity in the EU. “There is no doubt that
good market conditions have fostered market penetration in these
countries and that this is a success story that could be extended
all over Europe by taking EU-wide measures for market development.”
The European Commission recently adopted a green paper on a
continental energy strategy, which presents an overall framework for
a common policy. By the end of this year, it will table a ‘Renewable
Energy Road Map’ on how to achieve targets for 2010 and set possible
new targets for renewables to provide long-term certainty for
industry and investors.
The European Council has suggested a 2015 increased target of 15%
for all renewables and a specific 8% target for biofuels, and
studies will enumerate other initiatives, such as green heating and
cooling.
“The aim of this roadmap is to create a coherent approach on the
future development of renewables,” says Piebalgs. “Together with the
Annual Strategic Energy Review, it will establish renewables as a
stable part of the energy mix. The roadmap will explain how existing
and future targets could be achieved.”
“It is very important to see the European Solar Thermal Technology
Platform in this general context” regarding the European energy
strategy, and continental technology platforms have already been
established for solar PV, smart grids, hydrogen, fuel cells,
biofuels and clean coal, with new ones expected soon for the wind
sector, he explained. The Commission is preparing an initiative
concerning green heating and green cooling sectors ”which will
consider the global context of the solar thermal sector when
defining priorities.”
“The EU needs to maintain a high level of innovative products” to
develop a new generation of collectors, to design and market new
storages systems, new heating and cooling systems for domestic and
industrial applications, all of which are “vital to secure the
competitiveness of our industry,” he added.
The platform was developed by the European Solar Thermal Industry
Federation.
Click here for more info...
Visit http://www.sparksdata.co.uk/refocus/
for your international energy focus!!
Refocus © Copyright 2005, Elsevier
Ltd, All rights reserved.
|
