Only five EU member states are planning to buy renewable
energy from other countries, while the EU as a whole is on track to exceed its
20% collective target, the European Commission said yesterday (11 March).
Background
The EU's
renewable energy directive set national targets for renewables inorder to
reach a20% share in the EU's overall energy mixby 2020.
To ensure that the goals are reached, the directive set
"indicative trajectories" -intermediate targets -for each
member state.
Countries are
obliged to draw up national renewable energy action plans by the end of June 2010,
setting out measures on how they intend to keep up with their trajectories.
The directive also offers member states the option to use
'statistical transfers' to sell excess renewable credits to another country to
contribute towards their targets. But they can only do this if they meet their
own intermediate targets.
Six months
before handing in their national action plans, member states were due to submit
to the European Commission forecast reports, estimating their potential excess
production or demand for renewable sources in addition to domestic sources.
Italy will have the biggest shortage of domestically
produced renewable energies, the Commission said in a summary of the forecast
documents submitted by member states under the renewables directive. The
country will have to buy around 1.2 Mtoe from other countries in order to meet
its binding target, it stated.
Belgium, Denmark, Luxemburg and Malta were the other EU
countries which expected to fall short of their targets with domestic
production only.
By contrast, ten member states predict a surplus in 2020,
which they could transfer to another member state, the Commission said. This
would amount to about 2% of the total renewables required in 2020.
Spain and Germany plan the largest absolute amounts of
surplus renewable energy on top of their binding commitments. Consequently,
Germany expects to hit 18.7% instead of 18%, and Spain 22.7% instead of 20%.
In consequence, the EU as a whole is set to reach a 20.3%
share of renewable energies in 2020, slightly exceeding its 20% target, the
Commission said.
"These forecasts show that member states take renewable
energy very seriously and are really dedicated to push their domestic
production," said Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger. "It is an
incentive to invest in green technology and the production of renewable
energy," he added.
But a Commission spokesperson stressed that the results are
"very preliminary", and more details would become available when
member states submit their national renewable energy action plans by the end of
June. These will have to set out what measures the countries plan to put in
place in order to meet their targets and stand the Commission's scrutiny in
terms of their credibility.
In fact, the forecast documents were merely required to
estimate the potential demand for renewable energy other than domestic
production by 2020 and resulting need for the use of cooperation mechanisms. In
the absence of a common template, additional information submitted varies widely
between member states.
The renewables directive allows member states to meet their
renewable energy targets by a combination of domestic production, statistical
transfers of renewable energy from other member states or joint projects with
either EU or third countries. Eleven member states said they would consider
making use of joint projects, while seven also indicated their interest in
statistical transfers.
France, Italy, Spain and Greece said they would be
particularly interested in developing renewable energy in third countries in
the context of the Mediterranean Solar Plan or in the Western Balkan countries,
according to the Commission. Italy for instance intends to bridge the gap
between domestic production and its targets by building constructing
interconnections with Switzerland, Albania, Montenegro and Tunisia, its
document shows.
Some also identified specific technologies that they would
like to cooperate on, such as wind for Germany, Estonia and Ireland, hydro for
Romania and Bulgaria or biomass for Latvia.
(from EurActiv)