Discussing Europe's energy future

Daniel C. Jones

2009 was a big year for Europe's renewable energy industry which saw big investments in clean-tech, plans drawn up for a European super-grid and a pledge from the EU to reduce emissions by 20 percent by the year 2020 (recently upgraded to 30 percent should a similar commitment be shown on a global level).

“Our focus is that by the year 2020, around 1/3 to 40 percent of Europe's electricity supply will come from renewable energy”
-Christine Lins, Secretary General of EREC

I spoke with the Secretary General of the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC), Christine Lins to get her thoughts on the future of the EU's energy plans and the role EREC will play in helping realise emissions targets.

Created in 2000, EREC is an umbrella organisation of the European renewable energy industry and is composed of 11 non-profit associations and federations. EREC represents a turnover of over 45 billion euros and provides jobs to over almost half a million people.

Daniel C. Jones: Nine European nations have now signed up to the idea of a Northern European supergrid. What role will EREC take in this, and what are the implementation challenges?

Christine Lins: Very clearly, the harvesting of the energy from the oceans and mainly the air from the north, there is the announcement of the British government with 32GW in offshore wind and the roadmap or the forecast of EWEA, the European Wind Energy Association, foresees that by 2020 around 40GW of offshore winds will be produced by the European Union. This will require some extension of grids and effectively a Northern European supergrid, something which becomes necessary. EWEA has outlined a vision in a 20-year offshore network development master plans, and there are some issues which of course need detailed focus. On the one hand, we need to closely look at the supply chain in terms of to really get these investments in these turbines installed. Infrastructure investments are absolutely needed in ports, in harbors, in order to bring the wind turbine components in sufficient quantities to the locations of the project.

We need to have further increase of R&D in order to reach economies of scale in the sector of offshore wind. In this field, the support of the EU is absolutely necessary to maintain Europe's technological elite, and in order to improve even turbine design to develop next generation of offshore wind turbines and infrastructure, as I said. And then of course, in order to really harvest the oceans of opportunities, you need to look closely into spatial planning, perform maritime spatial planning and create dedicated areas for offshore wind development and electric interconnectors. So this is something which needs to be tackled on the European level.

DCJ: A number of times you've mentioned the role of offshore wind power, and so do you feel this is the most important source of clean power for Europe's energy future?

CL: The figures of investment in European wind farms alone in 2009 reached 13 billion euros, out of which about 1.5 billion euros was offshore, and that means that 2009 is the 2nd year running that more wind power basically has been installed than any other electric-generating technology. So we clearly see in all the renewables together, they are beyond 60 percent of the new generating capacity.

So we see that also through the fact that renewables projects are often smaller in nature, the markets have also really recognized their potential for sustainable recovery.

Our focus is that by the year 2020, around 1/3 to 40 percent of Europe's electricity supply will come from renewable energy. At the moment, a member states are in the process of submitting or drafting their renewable energy action plans, so basically their national strategies on how they foresee to reach their binding 20 percent renewable energy targets. They will need to be submitted by June of this year, and there we clearly see which member states will battle which technology, but in our forecast, wind is going to be the most important renewable energy, electricity-generating resource in 2020, followed by hydropower, followed by biomass and photovoltaics. And then you also have ocean and marine, and you have concentrated solar cell power plants, which are more suitable for the countries of the south like Spain. So we see a difference in the mix of countries according to their geographic position but also according to the state of development in industry.

As I said before, the UK has announced a 32GW development of offshore wind. There we clearly see that they put a strong focus on this. Other countries are just focusing on other technologies, but clearly - and this is also the beauty of renewables - it is always a question of the mix. So one source alone will not do it; we also always need to look on all of them, on the whole portfolio, and then just look at what in the specific geographic framework makes most sense.

DCJ: You mentioned that by 2020, 40 percent of the EU's power will come from renewable sources, so I'm eager to get your views on the more controversial so-called "transition fuels", such as clean coal and nuclear power, and the role that they will play in cutting emissions until renewables are capable of meeting all of our needs...

CL:This 40 percent objective I mentioned for 2020 is one on the road towards 100 percent renewable power supply, which in our point of view will absolutely be feasible from now to 2050, and so it's obvious that for the time until then, the rest of the electricity mix will come from other sources. What I would just like clearly to point out is that in order to reach our 20 percent (or even 30 percent) greenhouse gas emission reduction objective, 30 percent in case of a new international agreement to which the European Union is committed to, the only way to reach this is really through investments in renewables and energy efficiency, because clean coal, you referred to CCS (carbon capture and sequestration), this is a technology which is under development currently, far too expensive, which will clearly not be ready to reach our emission reductions by 2020 to contribute to the reaching of those.

As far as nuclear is concerned, we see that nowadays there is a lot of insecurity and uncertainty in the market. There is a Finnish reactor which is currently under development but heavily delayed. Costs are exponentially increasing. It looks like the costs might increase; they might be increased by 100 percent of the foreseen costs. There are also some problems reported of new nuclear power plants in France which face delay and which will not put use electricity in - I talk about Flamanville, which will not produce electricity by 2012 only at the earliest of 2014. So much is delayed in this project and also some questions remain when it comes to the economic viability.

So in our point of view, the safest way to ensure that the 2020 emissions reduction target can be achieved is with investments in renewables and energy efficiency.

DCJ: You mention the need for widespread investment, but as things change, there will also be a need for widespread policy change, both on a local, national and international level. Do you agree that a liberal, universal standards-based energy market will be vital to the success of Europe's energy ambitions?

CL: Well, absolutely. There has to be a framework to incorporating all these goals for 2020, we have to hit the 20 percent renewable energy target, which now needs to be implemented. It's an overall target for the whole European Union, broken down into individual national targets, and then of course leaving the freedom and the flexibility to the member states to fulfill this target according to what their scope and objective is.

We clearly need the true liberalization of the electricity market so that renewables can really compete on a fair and transparent electricity market there, and then we need to look out toward the horizon (being 2030 or being 2050) to really make sure that we follow the trajectory that we have started in those to make sure that we honor Europe's position on the global market.

The European renewables industry is in the leading position in most technological areas through the implementation of outstanding and well-shaped policy frameworks, along with strong home markets, this industry should therefore be able to defend this position and even enlarge it in order to play the role in the global arena it really deserves.

DCJ: And finally, providing that we see a similar global commitment from other countries, do you see the EU reaching its target of 30 percent emissions reductions by the year 2020?

CL: Well, I think it's something which is absolutely feasible; if we continue with business as usual, it won't be sufficient.

The European Union has committed to an emission cut of 20 percent by 2020 and committed to increase of this objective to 30 percent in case of a new international agreement. Many of us came back from Copenhagen very disappointed because we expected something more ambitious to happen on a global level. I think it is time for the European Union to lead by example, to commit to a 30 percent emission reduction target or even more.

It is absolutely feasible if both the private and the public sector work together to make a change in our current energy system and not only for the benefit but, as I said before, for the benefit of securing energy supply and also for the benefit of the highly competitive European renewable energy industry.

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Daniel Jones

Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.

“Many of us came back from Copenhagen very disappointed because we expected something more ambitious to happen on a global level”
-Christine Lins, Secretary General of EREC