New plan drawn up to boost renewable energy

Date: 28/10/1999

By Renée Cordes

ENERGY Commissioner Loyola de Palacio will next week urge member states to set national targets for domestic electricity consumption from solar and other kinds of renewable energy.

She will, however, stop short of recommending specific national percentages - an approach which has run into fierce opposition from EU governments in the past.

The Commissioner's move comes after energy ministers urged the institution to draw up new proposals for legislation to boost the renewables industry earlier this year. This is regarded as crucial to help the Union meet the pledges it made at the Kyoto climate change conference in 1997 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The draft plan, which is due to be discussed by the full Commission next Wednesday (3 November), envisages national targets which would contribute towards the Union's overall objective of doubling the share of renewable energy to 12&percent; of total EU energy use by 2010, as called for by the previous Commission.

In a White Paper unveiled at the end of 1997, former Energy Commissioner Christos Papoutsis suggested a number of measures to help achieve this goal, such as creating a favourable regulatory framework and increased funding for renewable energy both at the national and EU level. But his proposals were scuppered by a dispute over how renewable energy should be subsidised.

The draft measure now on the table drawn up by his successor urges governments to publish reports setting national targets every year. These reports should “identify the national objective for future levels of consumption of electricity from renewable energy sources” on an annual basis for the next ten years.

De Palacio's proposal would allow member states to pay direct subsidies to domestic producers of electricity generated by renewable sources, without having to extend similar benefits to foreign firms. However, these subsidy schemes could no longer be limited to national companies once the level of renewable-generated electricity benefiting from direct price support reached 5&percent; of domestic consumption or by 2010, depending which came first.

This is aimed at ensuring that measures designed to boost renewable energy do not conflict with those targeted at ensuring a properly functioning single electricity market. In the long run, it would also wipe out the controversial German feed-in law, which requires utilities to buy up to 5&percent; of their electricity from renewable sources at fixed high prices.

The draft proposal has, however, already come under fire in some quarters. Aides to De Palacio admit it might have to be amended

in light of comments from the Commission's environment directorate-general and 'green' campaigners have attacked the plan on two fronts.

They argue that any legislative measure seeking to promote renewables is useless without quantitative national targets. “Without these targets, there is no incentive to really implement any concrete and realistic measures for renewables,” said Michael Raquet of Greenpeace. He added that if the latest draft was adopted by the Commission, it would “just kill renewables”.

While welcoming the move to encourage member states to subsidise renewables, environmental campaigners also claim the measure could mean less support in the long run for renewable energies which may not yet be commercially viable.