Renewable energy in the European Union - Wikipedia

%-Share of Renewable Energy in the EU

2004

2006

2008

2010

2012

2014

The countries of the European Union are the number two global leaders in the development and application of renewable energy.[citation needed] Promoting the use of renewable energy sources is important both to the reduction of the EU's dependence on foreign energy imports, and in meeting targets to combat global warming.

The Maastricht Treaty set an objective of promoting stable growth while protecting the environment. The Amsterdam Treaty added the principle of sustainable development to the objectives of the EU. Since 1997, the EU has been working towards a renewable energy supply equivalent to 12% of the total EU's energy consumption by 2010.

The Johannesburg Summit failed to introduce the radical changes targeted for ten years after the Rio Summit. No specific goals were set for the energy sector, which disappointed many countries. While the EU had proposed an annual increase in the use of renewable energy at a rate of 1.5% worldwide until 2010, Johannesburg's action plan did not recommend such a "substantial" increase, with no concrete goals nor dates being set.

The EU was unwilling to accept this result and with other nations formed a group of "pioneer countries" that promised to establish ambitious national or even regional goals to achieve global targets. The Johannesburg Renewable Energy Coalition (JREC) has a total of more than 80 member countries; the EU members, Brazil, South Africa and New Zealand amongst them.

In the European Conference for Renewable Energy in Berlin in 2004, the EU defined ambitious goals of its own. The conclusion was that by 2020, the EU would seek to obtain 20% of its total energy consumption requirements with renewable energy sources. Up until that point, the EU had only set targets up to 2010, and this proposal was the first to represent the EU's commitment up to 2020.

Renewable energy targets[edit]

In 2009 the Renewables Directive set binding targets for all EU Member States, such that the EU will reach a 20% share of energy from renewable sources by 2020 and a 10% share of renewable energy specifically in the transport sector. By 2014 the EU realized a 16% share of energy from renewable sources with nine member states already achieving its goals.

In 2014, negotiations about EU energy and climate targets until 2030 are set to start. Central and Eastern European member states are likely to attempt to slow down the transformation process.[3][4]

The key parts of the European renewable energy targets agreement set in 2014 are as proposed by a Shell lobbyist in October 2011. Shell is the sixth biggest lobbyist in Brussels, spending between €4.25-4.5m a year lobbying the EU institutions. Agreement has no binding targets for member states on energy efficiency or renewable energy.[5]

Links to climate policy[edit]

Underlying many of the EU's energy policy proposals is the goal to limit global temperature changes to no more than 2 °C above pre-industrial levels,[6] of which 0.8 °C has already taken place and another 0.5–0.7 °C (for total warming of 1.3-1.5 °C) is already committed.[7] 2 °C is usually seen as the upper temperature limit to avoid 'dangerous global warming'.[8] However some scientists, such as Kevin Anderson[3], professor of energy and climate change in the School of Mechanical, Aeronautical and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester and former director of the Tyndall Centre, the UK's leading academic climate change research organisation, have argued that to be consistent with the science, 1 °C is a more accurate threshold for "dangerous" climate change.[9][10]

Actions[edit]

EU energy efficiency and renewable energy actions includes:

Member states[edit]

Article 4 of the Renewables Directive required Member States to submit National Renewable Energy Action Plans by 30 June 2010. These plans, to be prepared in accordance with the template published by the Commission, provide detailed roadmaps of how each Member State expects to reach its legally binding 2020 target for the share of renewable energy in their final energy consumption. Member States must set out the sectoral targets, the technology mix they expect to use, the trajectory they will follow and the measures and reforms they will undertake to overcome the barriers to developing renewable energy. The plans are published by the EC upon receipt in the original language, allowing public scrutiny. The Commission will evaluate them, assessing their completeness and credibility. In parallel, the plans will be translated into English. In addition, the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands was contracted by the European Environment Agency to create an external database and quantitative report of the reports received so far.

The Member States which joined the EU in 2004 must apply the provisions of Directive 2001/77/EC on producing electricity from renewable energy sources. Their Accession Treaty sets national indicative targets for the proportion of electricity produced from RES (RES-E) in each new Member State the result of which is an overall objective of 21% for the EU-25.

The Member States must adopt and publish, initially every five years, a report setting the indicative Member State targets for future RES-E consumption for the following ten years and showing what measures have or are to be taken to meet those targets. The Member State targets must take account of the reference values set out in the Annex to the Directive for Member States' indicative targets concerning the share of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in gross electricity consumption in 2010. They must also be compatible with all the national commitments entered into as part of the commitments accepted by the Community in Kyoto.

Germany[edit]

Electricity by source in 2014

•   Nuclear: 91.8 TWh (17.2%)
•   Brown Coal: 140.7 TWh (26.4%)
•   Hard Coal: 110.1 TWh (20.7%)
•   Natural Gas: 33.9 TWh (6.4%)
•   Wind: 51.4 TWh (9.7%)
•   Solar: 32.8 TWh (6.2%)
•   Biomass: 53 TWh (10.0%)
•   Hydro: 18.5 TWh (3.5%)

In 2014, Germany's share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption increased by 1.4% to 13.8%. In 2004, renewables accounted for only 5.8% or about the same share as for the Netherlands in 2014 (5.5%).[2]

In the same year net generated electricity from renewable sources accounted for about 30%. Compared to the previous year, biomass, solar and wind increased their production by 13%, 5.9% and 1.5%, respectively, while weather permitting hydro power decreased by 9.6%. Wind and solar combined generated almost as much as nuclear in 2014 (see pie-chart). Nuclear remained unchanged, while electricity generation from natural gas, brown and hard coal decreased by 15.8%, 2.9% and 10.4%, respectively.[11]

Italy[edit]

In 2014, 38.2% of Italian electric energy consumption came from renewable sources (in 2005 this value was 15.4%), covering 16.2% of the total energy consumption of the country (5.3% in 2005).[12]

Solar energy production accounted for almost 9% of the total electric consumption in the country in 2014, making Italy the country with the highest contribution from solar energy in the world.[12]

Lithuania[edit]

The majority of renewable energy in Lithuania is from firewood. The principal source of electricity from renewable resources is from hydropower.[13]

Lithuania has many yet undeveloped renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, geothermal energy, municipal waste, and biomass. The amount of biomass per capita in Lithuania is one of the highest in the European Union and it is estimated that in 2020 Lithuania will be the first in the EU according to the quantity of available biomass for biofuel production. The projected production of biofuels by 2020 is 0.25 tons per capita.[14]

Portugal[edit]

In 2010, more than 50% of all yearly electricity consumption in Portugal was generated from renewable energy sources.[15] The most important generation sources were hydroelectric (30%) and wind power (18%), with bioenergy (5%) and photovoltaic solar power (0,5%) accounting for the rest. In 2001, the Portuguese government launched a new energy policy instrument – the E4 Programme (Energy Efficiency and Endogenous Energies), consisting of a set of multiple, diversified measures aimed at promoting a consistent, integrated approach to energy supply and demand. By promoting energy efficiency and the use of endogenous (renewable) energy sources, the programme seeks to upgrade the competitiveness of the Portuguese economy and to modernize the country’s social fabric, while simultaneously preserving the environment by reducing gas emissions, especially the CO2 responsible for climatic change. As a result, in the five years between 2005 and 2010, energy production from renewable sources increased 28%.[16]

In January 2014, 91% of the monthly needed Portuguese electricity consumption was generated by renewable sources,[17][18] although the real figure stands at 78%, as 14% was exported .

Portugal has the second largest photovoltaic power station in the world,[19] which was completed in December 2008. The complex, called Amareleja photovoltaic power station, covers an area of 250-hectare. The 46-megawatt solar power plant produces enough electricity for 30,000 homes and saves more than 89,383 tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions. Also in production since January 2007, the Serpa solar power plant with an installed capacity 11MW, covers an area of 60-hectare, produces enough energy for 8,000 homes and saves more than 30,000 tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions. These solar parks are approximately 30 km apart.

Spain[edit]

Spain as a whole has the target of generating 30% of its electricity needs from renewable energy sources by 2010, with half of that amount coming from wind power. In 2006, 20% of the total electricity demand was already produced with renewable energy sources, and in January 2009 the total electricity demand produced with renewable energy sources reached 34.8%.[20]

Some regions of Spain lead Europe in the use of renewable energy technology and plan to reach 100% renewable energy generation in few years. Castilla y León and Galicia, in particular, are near this goal. In 2006 they fulfilled about 70% of their total electricity demand from renewable energy sources.

If nuclear power is also considered CO2 free, two autonomous communities in Spain have already managed to fulfill their total 2006 electricity demand "free" of CO2 emissions: Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha.[21]

In 2005 Spain became the first country in the world to require the installation of photovoltaic electricity generation in new buildings, and the second in the world (after Israel) to require the installation of solar hot water systems.[22]

United Kingdom[edit]

By 2004 4.65% of the UK's electricity requirements were being generated from renewable energy sources (including hydroelectricity), up from 2.55% in 1990. This figure rose to 8.7% by 2011. The total contribution of renewable energy to all energy consumption in the UK was 3.8% in 2011. This comprised 8.7% of electricity, 2.2% of heat and 2.9% of transport fuel coming from renewable sources. UK Government energy policy set a target for renewable electricity to provide 10% of all electricity use by 2010. This target was not met. The UK has agreed to the EU wide renewable energy target of 20% of all energy to come from renewables by 2020, in line with the EU 2009 Renewable Energy Directive. The UK's specific target is to achieve 15% of all energy from renewables. The UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has announced that the UK will attempt to meet this target with 30% renewable electricity, 12% renewable heat and 10% renewable transport fuel. As of 2010[update][needs update], the UK was 25th of the 27 EU Member States in terms of the fraction of energy produced from renewables.

The prospects for renewable energy in Scotland in particular are significant. Scotland has an estimated potential of 36.5 GW of installed capacity from wind and 7.5 GW from tidal power, 25% of the estimated total capacity for the European Union for both, and up to 14 GW of wave power potential, 10% of EU capacity.[23][24] The Scottish Government has a target of generating 50% of Scotland's gross annual consumption of electricity from renewables by 2015, rising to 100% by 2020.[25]

Also the Contracting Parties of the Energy Community, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine implement the Directive 2009/28/EC since September 2012. The shares for the Contracting Parties were calculated based on the EU methodology and reflect an equal level of ambition as the targets fixed for EU Member States. The targets for the share of renewable energy in Contracting Parties in 2020 are the following: Albania 38%, Bosnia and Herzegovina 40%, Kosovo* 25%, Macedonia 28%, Moldova 17%, Montenegro 33%, Serbia 27% and Ukraine 11%. The deadline for transposing the Directive 2009/28/EC and the adoption of the National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) was set for 1 January 2014.

With the Decision 2012/03/MC-EnC and the acceptance of binding targets Contracting Parties can participate in all cooperation mechanisms. This means in particular that statistical transfers of renewable energy for the purposes of target achievement will be possible independently from physical flow of electricity. In addition, the decision lays down a number of adaptations to the rules for statistical transfers and joint support schemes between the Contracting Parties and EU Member States to ensure the original objectives of the RES Directive are preserved.

Renewable energy sources[edit]

Bioenergy[edit]

2009 By the middle of the year Britain's first major bioethanol plant should be completed and should use more than one million tonnes of wheat per year. The plant, in Wilton, northeast England, will be Europe's largest biorefinery, producing around 400 million to 450 million litres of bioethanol a year as well as 350,000 tonnes of animal feed. Currently the largest plant in the UK is a British Sugar facility in eastern England with an annual production capacity of about 70 million litres.[26]

Geothermal[edit]

European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) promotes geothermal energy in the European Union.

GeoEner is the Building and Industrial Geothermal Energy Congress.[27]

Wind power[edit]

Description: Wind turbines are used to generated electricity. Research from a wide variety of sources in various European countries shows that support for wind power is consistently about 80 per cent amongst the general public.[28]

2011 Installed Wind power capacity in the European Union totalled 93,957 megawatts (MW) - enough to supply 6.3% of the EU's electricity. 9,616 MW of wind power was installed in 2011 alone, representing 21.4% of new power capacity. The EU wind industry has had an average annual growth of 15.6% over the last 17 years (1995-2011).[29]

2009 A European Environment Agency report, entitled Europe's onshore and offshore wind energy potential confirms wind energy could power Europe many times over.[30] The report highlights wind power’s potential in 2020 as three times greater than Europe’s expected electricity demand, rising to a factor of seven by 2030.[31] An EWEA report overviewing 2009 data estimated that 230 gigawatts (GW) of wind capacity will be installed in Europe by 2020, consisting of 190 GW onshore and 40 GW offshore. This would produce 14-17% of the EU's electricity, avoiding 333 million tonnes of CO2 per year and saving Europe €28 billion a year in avoided fuel costs.[32]

Solar energy[edit]

Photovoltaic solar power[edit]

Description: PV solar power are solar modules that are used to generate electricity.