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Breakthrough on renewables targets
MEP’s have insisted that EU member states should be set binding
targets for increasing the share of electricity generated from renewable
energy sources under the draft renewables directive proposed
by the European Commission (EC) last May. Previously the percentage
targets were seen as ‘indicative’ rather than compulsory.
According to END’s Daily ‘The move signals an impending
battle with EU governments over the issue because most oppose the
idea.’
Under pressure from ministers, the Commission had dropped its own
attempts to propose binding targets However, in its first reading
of the draft directive, the euro-parliament called for targets to
be made mandatory and for a "burden sharing" arrangement
to be agreed, similar to the one used to distribute responsibility
for meeting the EU’s greenhouse gas emission reduction target
under the Kyoto protocol.
The parliament backed the Commission’s aim for renewables to
meet 12% of EU energy needs by 2010. But it calculated that this would
require 23.5% of electricity to come from renewables by the same date
rather than the 22.1% suggested by the Commission.
END’s reports ‘Acknowledging that long negotiations
on binding targets would hinder progress on finalising the directive,
MEPs said binding targets should be agreed after its adoption, though
with a gap not greater than one year. Renewable electricity traded
across borders should be counted to the importing country’s target,
they said, and the Commission should provide "indications"
of longer-term targets for 2020 by the end of 2004.’
Another key issue is the proposed harmonisation of financial support
structures for renewables. The EC had been pushing hard for this,
but has had to retreat following opposition by many member countries-
and by defenders of REFIT subsidy schemes- and had come up with a
compromise of ‘waiting for five years’. However the euro-parliament
saw even this as too soon and called for the whole thing to be left
"until 2010 at the earliest"- if this risked "jeopardising
the continuation or effectiveness" of national schemes.
Renewable energy proponents were delighted by the euro MEPs new approach.
Green MEP Claude Turmes said it was a "major breakthrough."
Waste Combustion stays out
The MEPs also took at look at the details of the energy sources included
in the Renewable Directive, and defeated proposals by some MEPs to
classify waste incineration as renewable- by the narrowest of margins
(226 to 222). MEPs did nevertheless vote to expand the directive’s
definition of renewable sources, calling for inclusion of annual peat
growth, landfill gas, biodegradable pulp and paper industry waste
and the biodegradable fraction of municipal waste as fuels considered
to come from "non-fossil" sources. However, note that there
are still further rounds to go before all these decisions are finalised!
Follow-up: for the debate see http://www.europarl.eu.int/cre/pdf/20001115ii.pdf
for the amendments to the Directive see:
http://www3.europarl.eu.int/omk/omnsapir.so/calendar?APP=DOC&TYPE=PV2&FILE=p000-11-16en.doc&LANGUE=EN
and http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/dat/2000/en_500PC0279.html
Patchy Progress on EU Renewables
ALTENER 2000 Conference
Very uneven progress is being made by Europe to achieve the EU's
targets to replace energy from fossil fuel sources with ecologically
sound energy from renewable sources. Some countries are doing well
in certain sectors, experts at Europe’s major forum in the field
heard at the Altener 2000 conference at Toulouse, SW France, last
October.
Europe's goal is to double its renewable energy to achieve a 12 per
cent proportion of all energy used originating from renewable sources
by 2010. To reach that target, countries and sectors that are lagging
behind have to be given more attention, according to Mr Francois Lamoureux,
Director General of the Commission’s directorate-general that
co-ordinates the programme. This would need to involve investment-friendly
legislation, tax reform, financing, and improved co-operation including
more public-private partnerships. Otherwise, on the basis of current
forecasts the EU might only achieve a 9.8% contribution from renewables
by 2010.
In 1999, wind power in Europe reached 9182 MW, dominating the world
total of 13356, and compared with 6427 in 1998. Leaders in Europe
were Germany, with 4440, Denmark with 1761 and Spain with 1478 MW
capacity. In the biogas subsector of biomass renewable energy, in
1999 the lead country by far was Spain, with 13 900 GWh, out of the
EU total of 22205. Sweden came second, with 1360 GWh production.
It was noted that solar thermal energy has increased significantly
in Austria and Germany, in spite of having less promising natural
resources than in southern countries.
Overall, they say, while countries such as Denmark, Germany and Spain
have experienced a real take-off, others, while having even higher
potential, have not been developing at as high a rate. And that, sadly,
includes the UK
Source:WIRE See Agores: Detailed information on the EU and Member
States’ renewable energy programmes is available at: www.agores.org
which links to many other relevant websites.
* France recently expanded its windpower target by six times-
to 3GW by 2010, nearly ten times the current UK wind capacity. It
may also introduce a REFIT type support scheme .
Euro Green Power Trading
Two programmes have been announced in Europe to accelerate the growth
of the renewable power generation. By 2002 the Danish Energy Agency
hopes to have a fully operating marketplace for the purchase and sale
of green power certificates. Certificates will be issued by the Agency
to producers relative to the amount of green power generated. Customers
can then purchase certificates and thus become investors in renewable
energy. The Agency’s system makes use of legislation in Denmark
that obliges end users to purchase 20% of their electricity from renewable
sources by 2003.
Another scheme- the Renewable Energy Certification System
(RECS) should be open for business on the Internet shortly. The system,
set up voluntarily by 50 companies, also issues certificates based
on qualified green power production. However, since the scheme is
market based, not helped (yet) by government legislation, the initial
attraction to the system for producers would be for an environmentally
friendly public image. See the DEA at http://www.ens.dk/uk/index.asp
and RECS at http://www.recs.org/
German REFIT support is legal
An attempt by a utility company to halt the generous financial support
scheme for German renewable energy generators has been deflected following
a ruling by an advisor to the European Court of Justice (ECJ)
that the new scheme ‘does not amount to a state subsidy’
and so should not be subject to EU rules limiting state aids.
If upheld by the court, this ruling could open the way for similar
schemes across the EU, despite the EC’s preference for schemes
with a stronger competitive element. Germany’s 1990 "feed-in"
law obliges electricity distributors to buy at a premium all renewably
generated electricity offered to them by generators in their distribution
area.
The law has led to an enormous expansion of German renewables capacity.
In 1998 Preussen Elektra challenged the law in a German regional
court, claiming it contravened EU state aid rules and demanding reimbursement
of the extra costs it has borne. The court referred the matter to
the ECJ. ECJ’s advisor, Advocate General Jacobs has now said
that the feed-in law was not a subsidy because the financial support
comes directly from utilities such as PE and not from "state
resources". Although this assessment is not legally binding on
the full court, it nevertheless usually rules in accordance with advocate
generals’ opinions.
ENDS Daily commented ‘Though a setback for PE, the ruling
is potentially a bigger reverse for the European Commission, which
has long opposed the feed-in system as potentially disruptive to the
EU's single market’. The EC had previously warned Germany
that it might challenge the scheme as an illegal subsidy, prompting
several changes to it. ENDS added ‘It has
not yet taken similar action against Spain, however, which also operates
a successful feed-in scheme. The Commission also tried unsuccessfully
to block feed-in schemes EU-wide in draft proposals for a directive
on electricity from renewables.’
According to ENDS, an ECJ judgement reaching the same conclusion
as Mr Jacobs would effectively exempt feed-in initiatives from Commission
scrutiny. "This is a major breakthrough for renewables," Green MEP and clean energy campaigner Claude Turmes told
ENDS Daily. "It's important for the whole of Europe; it means
Spain is also secure."
Never the less, a spokesman for EU competition commissioner Mario
Monti told Reuters that the EU's executive was maintaining its opposition
to the interpretation. "We think that even if the state is
not directly involved in giving a subsidy... it can still be a subsidy
because the obligation for companies to buy electricity is a legal
obligation."
- Heat Trap: The German government plans
to draft an energy efficiency ordinance so that building energy
efficiency would have to be measured according to primary rather
than end-use energy consumption. Horrified, HEA, Germany's association
of electricity suppliers, equipment manufacturers and electricians,
said the government's plan would effectively be an "electrical
heating ban." But environmental group WWF has welcomed the
government’s approach. They say it would leave builders and
architects free to choose the technical means to comply with the
law
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