CTO Assessment - European Commission

CONCLUSIONS OF THE EUROPEAN CONFERENCE “RENEWABLES 2004” - BERLIN
Sharing Skills and Achievements to foster Renewable Energy Development in Europe
The following text is the result of presentations and debates
that took place during the Conference “Renewables 2004”,
within the specific session dedicated to the CTO.
The “European Conference for Renewable Energy – Intelligent
Policy Options” is organised at the end of the Campaign for Take-
Off, the ambitious public awareness campaign launched by the
European Commission in 1999 to foster the development of renewable
energy sources in Europe.
The Campaign for Take-Off sets quite ambitious targets for each
of the renewable energy sectors to serve as benchmarks for decision
makers and planners, to disseminate successful initiatives in
Europe, to spread best-practice and raise critical awareness of
decision makers at local, regional, national and European level.
The Campaign for Take-Off was a co-ordinated tool to implement
recent EU legislation affecting renewable energy development,
such as:
- White Paper “Energy For the Future: Renewable Sources of
Energy”
- Green Paper: Towards a European strategy for the security of
energy supply
- Directive on the Promotion of Electricity produced from Renewable
Energy Sources
- Directive on the energy performance of buildings
- Directive for the Promotion of biofuels’ use for transport
It was designed to act as a catalyst for the development of promising
key sectors in the field of renewable energy sources. At the
end of the Campaign, it is evident that the set objectives were
reached or even surpassed in some sectors (wind, PV), whereas
others are still lagging behind (solar thermal, biomass). Wind, for
example, reached the CTO target of “10,000 MW” already in
2000.
In the context of the Campaign for Take-Off, the activities to be
implemented in these key sectors were, since the beginning, classified
according to: regional level, local, city, isolated or rural areas,
national, industry and island as well as “100 community” types
in three levels - rural, island and city.
125 renewable energy programmes and projects involving more
than 700 partner organisations in the European Union and in
Accession Countries have joined the Campaign for Take-Off as
Renewable Energy Partners in 2000–2003 and thereby expressed
openly their willingness to contribute to its objectives. These lighthouse
initiatives serve as credible pacemakers showing to other
communities the right way towards a sustainable energy future.
Accordingly, the CTO Session at the Berlin conference was structured
as follows:
Panel 1a: Experience in the utilisation of Renewable Energy Sources
in cities – How feasible is it to develop Renewable Energy generation
in an urban environment?
Panel 1b: Renewable Energy Sources deployment at regional and
local level – From dependency to security of supply: How far and
fast can regions improve their energy mix?
Panel 1c: Paving the way towards 100 % Renewable Energy based
communities & islands: utopia or ambitious reality?
In each of these panels, high-level panellists contributed with their
experience and know-how to identify the key-elements for successful
RES implementation in the respective areas. They discussed
the motivations and difficulties encountered in the implementation
of renewable energy projects as well as shared lessons
learnt with the conference delegates.
The discussions clearly showed the importance of the regional and
local level as due to their decentralised nature, many renewable
energy technologies can be particularly well promoted on these
levels.
Furthermore, it was well illustrated that in order to further promote
renewable energy sources and demand-side management,
integrated energy planning incorporating a mix of legal, regulatory,
financial, communication and training measures is crucial.
Apart from environmental considerations, a decentralised sustainable
energy policy can have major impacts on employment,
social cohesion, participation of civil society and economic development.
In islands and remote rural communities, which are often confronted
with high costs or a lack of conventional resources and
the related environmental problems, 100 % RES solutions are
being successfully developed to guarantee security of supply and
contribute to the protection of the environment as well as economic
welfare.
The analysed cases all demonstrate that integrated policies and
concepts aiming at increasing the share of renewable energy
sources in combination with a conscious application of leading
energy efficiency measures in the various end-use sectors are the
most successful. Recent European legislation in the energy field,
such as the Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings,
pushes forward this integrated approach.
Any further action or campaign should therefore reflect this integrated
approach and cover both the demand and supply side. The
newly launched “Public Awareness Campaign for an Energy Sustainable
Europe” will embrace both energy efficiency and renewable
energies and will allow partners to join the common effort of
implementing programmes and initiatives in Europe and beyond.
38 Achivements and lessons