EURELECTRIC Conference
RENEWABLE ENERGY 2020: Opportunities and Challenges
7-8 May 2009, Hotel
Radisson Royal SAS, Brussels
Introduction and Keynote
David Porter OBE - Videoclip
“The
target of producing 20% of the EU’s energy from renewable sources (RES) by
2020 is extremely challenging and will require many things to go right”,
David Porter OBE, Chief Executive of the UK Association of
Electricity Producers and Chairman of the EURELECTRIC Energy Policy and
Generation Committee, told some 170 delegates at the opening of this
conference - ‘Renewable Energy 2020: Opportunities and Challenges’ - in
Brussels on 7 May, adding: “The European electricity industry is ready to
grasp the challenge, as part of our overall drive to deliver a secure,
carbon-neutral power supply to citizens and industry. We recognise that in
order to incentivise RES-production, some subsidies over market price are
needed and our customers may therefore have to pay a higher price for
their electricity.” However, it will be vital to “optimise cooperation,
between countries and between the various actors, and take proper steps to
ensure that RES development becomes a driver, rather than a constraint,
for the regional integration of electricity markets,” Mr Porter underlined.
Today some 16% of EU electricity is
generated from renewable energy sources. A 20% RES share in total energy
will imply raising this figure to around 34%. If we assume a steady 1.5%
increase in EU power demand up to 2020, that would mean that out of the
3,800 TWh consumed in 2020, some 1,300 TWh would be generated from
renewables. This is more than the current total power generation of
Germany and France combined, and represents “a tremendous business
opportunity for European power companies, if Member States involve them in
the right way,” Mr Porter told the audience.
As each EU Member State has its own
binding national target for RES-uptake, but some will not be able to meet
their targets from purely domestic production, it will be crucial to make
proper use of the inter-country cooperation mechanisms provided in the new
Renewables Directive. Moreover, “our figures show that allowing full
flexibility in trading RES-power across borders in order to meet the
overall EU target could bring savings of up to €17 billion per annum by
2020 versus the total cost of meeting national targets from purely
domestic RES-generation, so it is vital, for this reason as well, that
Member States make maximum use of the cooperation mechanisms,” stressed Mr
Porter. The National Action Plans, due out in June 2010 will be key
documents in this respect.
During the six sessions of the 2-day
conference, a panel of over 30 speakers, including electricity sector
managers, specialist RES-power producers, network experts, equipment
manufacturers, traders, energy economists and EU energy officials,
presented and discuss the full range of issues arising from the provisions
of the RES Directive, the EU energy targets, and the ongoing drive for
liberalisation and further integration of the electricity market.
Hans Van Steen - Videoclip
Hans Van Steen, Head of Unit
for Regulatory Policy and Promotion of Renewable Energy at the European
Commission, reminded the audience that the 20% RES target is part of a
triple objective including a 20% increase in energy efficiency and a 20%
reduction in CO2 emissions. All three targets “hang together” and
“renewable energy contributes to all three, promoting sustainability,
supply security, competitiveness,” he told the conference.
The EU has been promoting renewable
energy since 1997, but progress towards the 2010 targets set in the first
(2001) RES Directive has been “patchy” and the “main raison
d’être of the new Directive is to change this picture”, he underlined.
Mr Van Steen explained the main aspects of the new Directive, which enters
into force this month and must be implemented by the Member States within
18 months: mandatory national targets (including a sub-target for the
transport sector) and mandatory National Renewable Energy Action Plans to
be set out on a template to be created by June 2010; reduction of
administrative and regulatory barriers; and sustainability criteria for
biofuels; plus flexibility mechanisms allowing transfers and joint efforts
between Member States.
He explained that the new Directive provides
flexibility and thus cost- effectiveness by setting no sectoral targets
other than for transport and no technology-specific requirements. There
are major differences in the marginal increase that the different Member
States need to achieve and valuable flexibility is provided by allowing
Member States to set up joint projects and make ‘statistical transfers’ of
RES-power, he underlined.
Cédric Philibert- Videoclip
Cédric Philibert, Director of
the Renewable Energy Unit at the International Energy Agency (IEA), warned
that world primary energy demand as set out in the IEA reference scenario
is unsustainable and baseline emissions of greenhouse gases must be halved
in order to avoid serious consequences from climate change. “If we don’t
act more decisively…by 2050 emissions will double…the power sector will
see the biggest increase in CO2”. Therefore, what we need, he said, is “a
completely different energy system”. Mr Philibert argued that an energy
efficiency drive, especially demand-side management, should come first,
but renewable energies have a major role to play in the fight against
climate change.
Mr Philibert outlined for the
audience the IEA Global Renewable Energy Markets and Policies Programme (GREMPP),
which is a comparative assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of
RES-support policies in the OECD and some other countries, stressing that
“effective systems have in practice been the cost-effective ones”.
However, for onshore wind, feed-in tariffs have been more effective and
cost efficient than tradable green certificates but the opposite is true
for solid biomass. We need to move beyond the FIT-TGC debate as both have
shown successes and failure, he stressed.
Mr Philibert pointed to non-economic
barriers to RES-development which must be addressed, including grid
availability and access, administrative barriers and social acceptance
issues. There is a current downturn in investment in renewables due to the
financial and economic crisis but there are significant “win-win”
opportunities for a ‘Clean Green New Deal’ if economic stimuli designed to
address the crisis are well-targetted in this area of the energy field.
Support for RES must be predictable and gradually reduced over time, he
underlined.
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