Solar power heats up EU’s renewable target

But solar power alone will not be enough if 20% of Europe’s energy is to come from renewable sources by 2020. Judith Crosbie reports.

When EU leaders agreed in March to meet a 20% target of renewable energy by 2020, wind, solar and hydroelectric power were among the ideas put forward for reaching that target.

Solar power is already a feature of the drive to feed renewable energy into electricity grids. A system known as Concentrating Solar Power, which uses mirrors to concentrate the solar radiation hitting the earth, has already been in operation in California for some years, with European projects now being developed. In March, Europe’s first commercial concentrating solar power plant opened near Seville, Spain, which involves producing electricity with 624 large movable mirrors called heliostats. The project, which has been part-funded by EU money, will supply electricity to 180,000 homes when it is completed in 2013.

Another project near Granada, Spain, currently under construction, uses liquid salt heat storage that will allow electricity to be generated for seven hours after the sun has gone down.

A third project in southern Spain, near Écija, will use a heated salt as its working fluid, stored in the molten state for power generation at any time.

Plans are also under way to link up solar energy projects based in southern Europe with other parts of the Mediterranean region, such as Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan and Israel.

But while there is potential for solar power to meet some of the needs required under the pledge to reach the 20% target of renewable energy by 2020, some experts believe solar power can only generate a small percentage of this.

"This target will have to serve the needs of 450 million people across Europe. It’s not about a windmill here or there, it’s about industrial development on a big scale," says Stephan Singer, head of energy policy at WWF’s Brussels office.

"Solar power will not be the biggest deliverer for achieving these economies of scale, given the capacity, production ability and the base-load energy. For running steel plants, running trains and heavy industry, the power needed can only really be met by off-shore wind," Singer adds.

The construction of a huge off-shore wind grid from Ireland down to Portugal could be linked up in southern Europe with solar projects, but the overall contribution for Europe’s future renewable energy needs will come from wind energy, he says.

Solar energy will continue to develop as a way for individual households to meet their heating needs.

Solar panels installed on household rooftops using sunlight to heat water or for cooling, currently accounts for around 90% of the EU’s solar capacity.

Raffaele Piria, policy director of the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation, says there is enormous potential to expand the share of energy from solar thermal, given that Austria had installed 300,000 m2 of solar panels in 2006, more than France (200,000m2), Italy (200,000m2) and Spain (175,000m2). If all EU member states increased their use of solar thermal energy it would increase this energy source nearly ten-fold. "We would have a mass market [for this technology] which would lower prices," says Piria.

He adds that solar panels with an area of 4-6m2 can generate 70% of the average heating requirements for hot water for an average family house, while to generate 100% of hot water needs and 10-20% of space heating needs takes an area of 10-20m2. "That fits on a rooftop," says Piria.

One of the issues that the European Commission is currently examining is setting incentives at EU level for the installation of such solar panels. Government subsidies to offset the costs of installing these panels vary greatly across Europe - and even within some countries. In Belgium the amount of money varies depending on which local authority you live in, says Singer.

But solar power alone will not be enough if 20% of Europe’s energy is to come from renewable sources by 2020. Judith Crosbie reports.