EU states failing to support critical renewable energy investment

LONDON, UK: According to a new report published by London Research International (LRI) "The European Renewable Electricity Sector 2009/10: A Country Comparison of Risks and Opportunities", many EU countries are failing to offer adequate financial and institutional support for renewable electricity generation.

Consequently, they are struggling to attract sufficient investment to meet their ambitious EU-mandated 2020 renewable energy (RE) targets. This is despite a considerable rise in public support in the EU for increased RE deployment and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, between 2006 and 2008.

In the UK, planning delays and local opposition are undermining government incentives offered to RE developers. The contribution of RE to final energy consumption in the UK was just 1.5 percent in 2006 (up from 1.3 percent in 2005) which is well below the EU 2020 target of 15 percent.

The UK has a long way to go as confirmed by the recent report from the Committee on Climate Change, led by Lord Turner. Many other EU countries require similarly significant increases in RE production.

Key findings include:
* Spanish and German solar power markets experienced rapid growth in the last year.
* The greatest opportunities for the expansion of renewable electricity generation remain in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Germany.
* The lowest risks to renewable electricity investment are in Austria, Denmark and Germany, followed by the Czech Republic, Finland and Spain.
* Risks are higher in the new EU member states of Romania and Slovakia.
* Belgium, the UK and Italy all require additional investment in power generation, but planning risks and the lack of an attractive incentive scheme are discouraging this.
* Despite having excellent resources for renewable electricity generation, grid access and planning permission risks in Greece and Italy are relatively high and thus growth is slower than in other southern European states such as Spain.
* Apart from large hydro, biomass and onshore wind are the most established technologies for renewable electricity generation.
* Advanced forms of biogas, such as anaerobic digestion (AD), hold the potential to follow biomass as an established generation technology across the EU.
* As advances in solar power technology continue, solar power generation is expected to increase across the EU.