Renew On Line (UK) 64

13. Renewables in Europe

Wind in the Ukraine

The potential for wind power in Ukraine is 70 million MWh per year, and the country could be completely self sufficient in electricity generation through the use of renewable energy sources and increased energy efficiency says the World Wind Energy Association.

WWEA president Anil Kane claimed that ‘Together with other renewable energies, like hydropower, geothermal energy, solar and biomass, wind energy can completely replace dangerous and polluting energy sources. Renewable energies can rid nations of their dependence on increasingly expensive imported fossil and nuclear energy sources like oil, gas, coal, or uranium,’ and added that wind energy had created 1,400 jobs in the Ukraine. -and globally, 235,000 people are employed in wind energy.

‘Ukraine has huge reserves of renewable energy and, in particular, the share of wind power produced electricity in the system could reach 20% by 2020,’ explains Andrej Konechenkov of the Renewable Energy Agency, Ukraine. ‘Twenty-three facilities, which were formerly military production complexes, are involved in the production of wind turbine components.’

However, the WWEA says the country’s recently-approved energy strategy is a document ‘without a sound economic and technical rationalization’. The plan to construct 22 new reactors and to meet demand for power and heating through increased nuclear production would result in an economic and environmental crisis in Ukraine. ‘There is a huge capacity for more energy efficiency in Ukraine, and this initiative would work directly against that,’ says Konechenkov. ‘We should, instead, invest the funds into financially and environmentally sound technologies, as developed countries do. Ukraine would then become a very European country with a bright future for generations to come.’

‘The time has come to switch completely to renewable energy,’ adds Stefan Gsänger of WWEA. ‘More and more governments understand the need for such a shift, and wind energy will be the locomotive in this drive. It is important to create the necessary political frameworks which are reliable enough for investment into new generation units, based on renewable energy. With this, mankind can avoid that a second Chernobyl disaster happens. Besides, proliferation of wind energy and renewable energy technology has no negative side effects, but enhances in general human development.’
WWEA represents the wind sector in 80 countries: www.wwindea.org

EU Wind problems

Wind power may face a potential problem in France. A recent report to the government from the National Academy of Medicine says that, until full scientific investigations are completed into the potential harmful effects on health of noise from wind turbines, there should be a ban on larger turbines near houses. Meanwhile, the Spanish government has passed an emergency decree removing the REFIT styled production incentive payment and guaranteed minimum purchase price for wind projects. Confidence in the Spanish wind market, one of the world’s top three, has been ‘shattered’. Windpower Monthly

EWEA speaks out

The European Wind Energy Association submitted comments to a public hearing on ‘Towards a Common European Energy Policy’ that was organised by the socialist group in the European Parliament. The current national targets for renewables should it says be made mandatory and national targets should be adopted for 2020, in line with the recommendation of the Euro Parliament. The overall target must be translated into sectorial targets of at least 35% from green power by 2020, at least 25% from green heat by that time, and at least 12% from green fuels.

EU bio- growth

Output of biodiesel in the EU will grow by at least 20% a year up to 2010, mainly from rapeseed, according to France’s leading producer Diester Industrie: ‘in France it will grow 50% which helps the average’.

Greece backs renewables

The Greek parliament has approved legislation for renewables, which includes the elimination of production or installation permits for solar PV systems less than 150 kWp in capacity. Systems over 20 kWp still require an environmental permit. Feed-in-tariffs are guaranteed for 20 years, and range from Euro 0.4 to 0.5 per /kWh, and a target of 700 MWp (500 MW for mainland and 200 MW for islands) until 2020 has been set for PV. Grants of 30% to 55% of total system costs are available for commercial sites, while smaller sites are eligible for a 20% tax deduction capped at Euro 500 per system (Euro 700 in 2007). Solar thermal power plants will also receive incentives for the first time, with tariffs ranging from Euro 0.25 to 0.27 per kWh, and grants of 30% to 55% for such systems.
* Norway is to invest Euro 2.6bn in renewables and energy efficiency and the national target for green energy production and saving is to rise from 12 TWh p.a by 2010 to 30 TWh by 2016.

EuroParliament backs Renewables

The European Parliament has voted to dedicate two thirds of the non-nuclear energy research budget to renewable energy and energy efficiency, under the EU’s SeventhFramework Programme for Research (FP7).

“The European Parliament’s vote reverses decades of unbalanced focus on fossil fuel energy research”, said Christian Kjaer, Chief Executive of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). “After today’s vote, Europe is moving closer to a European energy future based on known and predictable cost of energy, derived from clean and indigenous energy sources free of all the security, political, economic and environmental disadvantages associated with the current energy supply structure”.
If the decision is agreed by the Member States at the next Competitiveness Council, non-nuclear energy research will total €2.4 billion over the seven years of the programme (2007-13). Two thirds of this for renewables and energy efficiency would equal about €226m per annum. However, the European Parliament has no legislative powers in the area of nuclear energy research, which is expected to receive €580m per annum over the next five years under a separate Euratom research budget.

..but nuclear still gets 2.5 times more

Green MEPs Claude Turmes and Rebecca Harms said: ‘We strongly welcome Parliament’s support for our proposal to give two-thirds of the budget for non-nuclear energy to renewables and energy efficiency, this is Euro 450m more than the Commission proposes. Unlike nuclear fusion, these clean technologies are already proven and effective at addressing the problems of climate change and meeting our future energy needs.’

But they added, ‘despite this success, the energy research budget remains disgracefully skewed in favour of nuclear power, which will receive two and a half times as much funding as renewables and energy efficiency combined. Most of the nuclear funding is foreseen for new nuclear reactors and fusion, a massively expensive technology that won’t produce any of our energy for decades at best. Prioritising research in energy efficiency and renewables, would deliver massive benefits in the short-term, without the enormous risk of the nuclear option. The decision to allocate such a disproportionate amount of EU funds to nuclear research is a major blot on the overall research framework programme. It is a disgrace that Parliament continues to have only consultation on nuclear energy decisions, when all other research funding is subject to co-decision. The result is a distorted energy research budget under which nuclear power, which is expensive, unpopular and dirty, gets the lion’s share of the funds.’

Gorbachev intervenes

In June, while British Prime Minister Tony Blair was in Paris for talks with French President Jacques Chirac over the future of Europe’s energy supplies and in particular collaboration on nuclear power, Mikhail Gorbachev, one time premier of the USSR, and now president of the Green Cross international lobby, warned about the dangers of nuclear power. ‘Think again, think seven times again before you leap and start construction of new nuclear power plants. With my experience of Chernobyl I know what is involved. The explosion of one reactor required a superpower country to spend tens of billions of roubles. Still there was the longer pollution of the soil, the deaths of a number of people and consequences that will be far reaching.’

He said climate change could only be stopped through a combination of developing new energy sources like solar & wind and increasing efficiency of energy usage.