October 21, 2009

EUR50 billion investment plans for low carbon technologies


The Commission presented its much-awaited strategy to accelerate the development and deployment of cost-effective low carbon technologies on 7 October. This financing element of the technology pillar (SET-Plan) of EU energy and climate policy, calls for increased efforts to develop the necessary technologies to address climate change, secure EU energy supply and ensure the competitiveness of our economies by 2020.

Together with industry, the Commission has identified six priority energy technology research initiatives in which an estimated additional investment of EUR50 billion (from public and private sectors at national and EU level to European Investment Bank funds) is foreseen over the next 10 years to create jobs:
1) European Wind Initiative. 2020 Target: 20% of EU electricity produced from wind energy; creating 250,000 skilled jobs. Key challenges: reducing costs, increasingly moving to offshore, and resolving grid integration issues. Cost: EUR6 billion.
2) Solar Europe Initiative. Target: generating up to 15% of EU electricity; creating more than 200,000 skilled jobs. Key challenges: helping these technologies become more competitive and gain mass market appeal. Cost: EUR16 billion.
3) European Electricity Grid Initiative. Target: Half of all European networks enabling the seamless integration of renewables and effectively matching supply and demand in an internal energy market. Key challenge: integration of intermittent energy sources and management of suppliers and customers interactions. Cost: EUR2 billion.
4) Sustainable Bio-energy Europe Initiative. Target: 14% of the EU energy mix from cost-competitive sustainable bio-energy; creating 200,000 local jobs. Cost: EUR9 billion. Key challenges: commercialisation of promising technologies, with a view to large-scale, sustainable production and highly efficient combined heat and power from biomass.
5) European CO2 Capture, Transport and Storage. Target: wide commercialisation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, while reducing costs and demonstrating the full CCS chain. Cost: EUR13 billion.
6) Sustainable Nuclear Fission Initiative. Key challenge: developing a new generation of reactor prototypes for long-term sustainability. Cost: EUR7 billion.

Strategy

Posted by iroronan at October 21, 2009 06:47 PM