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While there’s a lot of talk within the European Union about the need to develop large scale renewable energy infrastructures to lessen reliance on foreign fossil fuels, progress continues to move at a snail’s pace.
Among the disappointments was the EU’s failure as a whole to reach its 2010 targets for renewable energy in the electricity and transport industries.
The EU reached just over 18 percent for the electricity share of renewable energy in 2010 rather than the predicted target of 21 percent. For the transport industry, the EU reached 5.1 percent instead of 5.75 percent.
Fueling the transport industry with renewable energy is a vital priority. Energy consumption in this industry currently depends almost exclusively on imported fossil fuels, and contributes to “the insecurity of Europe’s energy supply,” says the European Energy Commission.
The concern is over recent estimates which suggest that the EU will only achieve half of its targeted energy efficiency improvements by 2020.
Gunther Oettinger, European commissioner responsible for energy, said in a March speech to the European Parliament that, “Despite progress, our estimates show that we need a further decisive and coordinated action on energy efficiency without which the EU will not meet its objective of 20 percent energy savings by 2020.”
Setbacks to reaching planned energy efficiency targets have included many regulatory and market failures.
While the energy efficiency sector has gained more exposure over the last few years, it’s still not sufficiently high on many national policy agendas. Usually, the policies are worded too softly to address all challenges and in many cases, there is poor policy coordination, according to the European Energy Commission.
Another problem lies in the residential and commercial building industries. There is still a low awareness of the benefits of implementing energy efficient technologies, and an underutilization of the available funds to cover the initial costs for building and renovations. Also of issue is workers’ lack of skill in relation to renewable and energy efficient technologies.
Mr. Oettinger suggested a number of progressive measures in his speech, including:
- A requirement for public sector organizations to double the proportion of buildings that they renovate each year, and to follow high standards of energy efficiency every time they buy goods and services.
- A requirement of removing inefficient appliances from the market.
- A right for consumers to have bills that give them up-to-date information on their energy consumption, and obtain real time information from the smart meters that will be installed in their homes and buildings.
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Policy direction has been set in place where by September 2012, members of the European Union will have to produce an implementation plan and timetable for the rollout of smart metering systems.
The European Commission estimates that “smart electricity grids should reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the European Union by nine percent, and the annual household energy consumption by 10 percent.”
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