CTO Assessment - European Commission

The 6 th RTD Framework Programme
of Research and Technological
Development (2002-2006) adopted
in 2002 allocates 810 million Euros
to technological progress in the field
of new and renewable energy sources
and energy efficiency across the European
Union and the Accession
Countries;
ALTENER was a Community
programme that focused exclusively
on the promotion of renewable energy
sources. It was part of the Energy
Framework Programme, being until
this moment a strong instrument to
support and monitor the Community.
Strategy on RES and, consequently
its Campaign for Take-Off. Support
to the Campaign under ALTENER
provided funding for the promotional
actions (advertising support for the
Campaign for Take-Off, developing
project implementation plans,
identifying candidates for specific
actions such as the "100 communities",
developing specific marketing ...).
The Intelligent Energy for Europe
(2003 – 2006) multi-annual energy
program that entered into force in
August 2003 and that is intended to
support the European Union’s policies
in the field of energy as laid down in
the different legislative documents
such as the White Paper on Transport
and other related Community
legislation.
The CTO was designed to act as a
catalyst for the development of promising
key sectors in the field of renewable
energy sources: solar, wind
and biomass technologies. The signal
was meant to be a growing use of renewables,
drawing attention to investment,
innovation and sustainable
labour market perspectives. In order
to translate this signal to market actors
in tangible objectives, the following
targets were set for each key sector:
1,000,000 kW p
photovoltaic
systems.
15 million m 2 of solar thermal
collectors.
10,000 MW of wind turbine generators.
10,000 MW th
of combined heat and
power biomass installations.
1,000,000 dwellings heated by biomass
1,000 MW of biogas installations.
5 million tonnes of liquid biofuels.
These targets proposed to be attained
by 2003 correspond to a limited share
(between 15% and 25%) of the overall
2010 objective put forth in the
White Paper for the sector in question.
This share takes into account the
1999 status of development of the
particular sector, the highest percentage
(25%) for example, being set for
wind energy.
In the context of the CTO, the activities
to be implemented in these key
sectors, were, since the beginning of
the Campaign, 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, islands
and city.
For each type of territory an estimation
of the capacity to be installed has
been made and the indicative costs
of each application in the territory
concerned have been estimated. These
costs included the average unit cost
during the period of the Campaign
and the total investment needed.
It was estimated that the renewables
capacity promoted in the Campaign
required investment funding of
around Euro 30 billion with some
75-80% coming from private sources.
Therefore strong commitment from industry
and other potential investors
was crucial to the Campaign.
In 1999, the European Commission
established the scope and the implementation
rules for the CTO introducing
the comments and contributions
received from the Council and the
European Parliament. The Campaign
for Take-Off was decided to be a
means to raise interest among industry,
investors and the public, as well
as to be a visible vehicle to enable
the uptake of RES in Europe. The
Campaign investment opportunities
were highlighted by promotional activities,
completed with public funding,
both organized in a way to focus
on the key sectors in order to increase
the impact and visibility of the concerted
efforts.
At the same time the cooperation with
the Member States’s action is seen to
be a crucial point for the success of
the campaign. Therefore the coordination
between the EU, national and
local levels of implementation of the
RES objectives, in particular the relevant
programmes and projects at
these levels, are seen to be part of the
Community-wide Campaign for Take-
Off and can therefore benefit in practice
from the various promotional activities.
By this the CTO intended to
6
The Campaign