The chief executives of 10 energy companies accounting for half of
Europe
's
electricity production capacity issued a joint call Friday to end subsidies to
wind and solar power, saying the mechanisms have led to whopping bills for
households and businesses and could cause continent-wide blackouts.
Speaking at a news conference in
Brussels
, the
CEOs also urged European Union authorities to set up a system that would
compensate electricity companies that agree to maintain spare capacity on
standby--a practice that helps increase the security of
Europe
's
highly interconnected power grid.
The informal group, which includes utilities such as
Germany
's
E.ON AG (EOAN.XE),
France
's GDF
Suez SA (GSZ.FR) and
Italy
's Eni
SpA (E), blamed the trend on policies introduced at the turn of the century,
when most European governments sought to promote renewable energy.
The criticism from
Europe
's commercial power producers
isn't new. The industry has long been critical of the continent's shift to
renewable energy because it threatens their core nuclear and coal-based power
production.
Europe
's economic woes, however,
have sharpened the debate, as companies and private citizens alike complain
about the rising cost of power.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s,
Germany
,
France
,
Italy
and
some other EU countries subsidized solar and wind power in an effort to
minimize the bloc's reliance on imported fossil fuels and reduce power prices.
"We've failed on all accounts: Europe is threatened by a blackout like in
New York few years ago, prices are shooting up higher, and our carbon emissions
keep increasing," said GDF Suez CEO Gerard Mestrallet ahead of the news
conference.
The European Commission, the bloc's executive body, is scheduled to discuss the
issue next week.
Under the subsidy mechanisms, wind and solar power producers benefit from
priority access to the grid and enjoy guaranteed prices. In
France
, for
instance, even as wholesale prices hover around EUR40 ($54) a megawatt,
windmill electricity goes at a minimum of EUR83 a megawatt, regardless of
demand. The difference is charged to customers.
The system certainly lured investors into wind and solar power projects.
Germany
now
has 60 gigawatts of wind and solar capacity--about 25% of the country's total
power-generation capacity.
Members of the CEO group said the subsidy mechanisms became deeply flawed in
2008, when the financial crisis hit and many European countries descended into
economic recession. Although demand for electricity stalled or fell in some
countries, pushing down wholesale electricity prices, investors kept plowing
money into new wind and solar power capacity thanks to the guaranteed tariffs
for renewables.
Meanwhile, electricity prices continued rising. On average, after-tax power
prices rose 17% for households and 21% for businesses in
Europe
over
the past four years, according to Eurostat data.
To cope with overcapacity, utilities decommissioned or mothballed some of their
fossil-fuel power plants that had become unprofitable to operate. Over the past
four years, 51 GW of gas-fired capacities have been idled across
Europe
, Mr.
Mestrallet said.
"That's like wiping out half of
France
's
power-generation capacity, or those of
Belgium
, the
Czech
Republic
and
Portugal
combined," he said.
Analysts say the trend is dangerous because, unlike renewable wind and solar
sources, which are intermittent, gas-fired plants are a key element to
improving the reliability of the grid because they can be turned on or off at
short notice. Some fear that
Europe
is
now ill-equipped to weather a cold spell.
"The importance of renewables has become a threat to the continent's
supply safety," Colette Lewiner, an energy analyst at Capgemini
consultancy, warned in a report released this week. "There could indeed be a
blackout."