Sound targets or pure madness?

EU targets for renewable energy keep being increased, but they seem to fall out of reach. Emily Smith reports.

EU leaders this year decided that even wealthy countries deserve a second chance.

Ten years ago they promised to get 12% of their energy from renewable sources by 2010, up from 6% when the voluntary target was agreed in 1997. This year, despite the accession of several renewables-heavy eastern European countries, the EU average still hovers around 7%.

Separate but related non-binding targets to increase the use of biofuels and biomass by 2010 have also proved beyond reach.

Rather than hunting for a different way of decreasing dependence on fossil fuel suppliers, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy security, EU governments decided to up the stakes.

At the EU spring summit in March, the target was raised to a 20% energy share for renewables by 2020. The European Commission was asked to turn this into a binding and concrete commitment by proposing legislation before the end of the year.

Having committed itself, in theory at least, to a large increase in renewable energy production, the EU is now looking for ways to make this work in practice. The 20% target is for the EU collectively. Individual member states will have their own targets, still to be decided, for meeting it.

Countries led by Denmark and Germany hope that wind power can help them meet whatever a ‘burden-sharing decision’, due along with the renewables directive on 5 December, says that the 20% target should mean for them.

Denmark is widely credited with pioneering modern wind technology. White wind turbines around the world still share the basic structure and principles of the Danish ‘Gedser’ wind turbine, first seen in 1956 and modified 20 years later.

Germany, where government opposition to nuclear energy remains unshaken, has more installed wind turbines than anywhere else in the world, thanks to a generous national support system.

But wind turbines still make up less than 6% of renewable energy production. Solar power fares even worse, with less than 1% of EU renewable energy coming from solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV) panels.

The UK is becoming increasingly interested in harnessing energy from water. It has just given planning approval for a major wave energy project. This week (1 October), the Sustainable Development Commission reported on the feasibility of generating tidal energy from a barrier in the Severn Estuary.

By far the largest share of the renewables market is taken up by a much less sophisticated energy source. Burning plant and animal matter - also known as biomass - accounts for around 70% of EU renewable energy production.

At its most primitive, biomass means burning wood and other organic waste products on an open fire. Modern technologies, including energy efficient stoves and compression, are being developed to improve the energy density and reduce any detrimental health effects of biomass.

The Commission hopes that pressure to meet the renewables target agreed this year will lead to the development of many new technologies.

The next challenge will be getting renewables onto the market, if and when they become available.

Renewable energy providers in many member states struggle to get access to the grid on the same terms as fossil fuel and nuclear power producers. And no support mechanisms have been devised to keep them there if they do.

Some voices can even be heard questioning how binding a ‘binding’ 20% renewables target should be.

These voices say that, if the purpose behind this target is to fight climate change and reduce the need for oil imports from politically unstable regions, options including improving energy efficiency and promoting nuclear power should be given just as much support.

In this case, plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% - a second target agreed at the March summit - could overshadow the renewables target.

The Commission will spend the next two months looking for ways to stop this year’s spring summit agreements on renewables and greenhouse gas sounding like March madness.

EU targets for renewable energy keep being increased, but they seem to fall out of reach. Emily Smith reports.