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eU: electricity Directive
66 Renewable Energy Sources in Figures
Expansion of renewables-based electricity generation in
the European internal electricity market
In October 2001, Directive 2001/77/EC on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable
energy sources in the internal electricity market entered into force. The Community’s
goal was to increase the share due to renewable sources to a total of 21 % of electricity generation
in 2010.
The European Commission’s progress report COM(2011) 31 of 31.1.2011 1) for the period
2006 – 2008, “Renewable energy: Progress towards the target for 2020”, provides information
that the renewable energy sector has continued to grow steadily. As a result, the renewables
share of final energy consumption was as high as 10.3 % (2006: 8.8 %) in 2008. Continuous
growth was confirmed in the three sectors electricity, transport and heat/cold. However,
since no Eurostat data for 2009 and 2010 were available at the time the report was prepared,
it was not yet possible to determine whether the indicative targets set out in the Electricity
Directive 2001/77/EC would be achieved. Having regard to the National Renewable Energy
Action Plans (NREAP), the European Commission estimates that the percentages for 2010
could be 19.4 % in the electricity sector, 5 % in the transport and 12.5 % in the heating sector.
Thus it is probable that the EU will fall short of its target of a 21 % share of electricity
consumption for renewables [117], [118].
In 2008 Hungary and Germany were the only EU states that had already achieved or exceeded
their national indicative targets. In its NREAP for 2010, Germany expects a figure of 17.4 %
and is thus well above the indicative target in the Electricity Directive (2010: 12.5 %).
The national indicative targets are within reach for another 5 to 10 countries, but only Denmark,
Ireland, Lithuania and Portugal have stated in their NREAPs that they intend to exceed
them [118].
Today renewable energy sources are a key element of the EU’s energy strategy. The foundations
for the EU’s renewable energy policy were laid in 1997 with the Community strategy set
out in the white paper “Energy for the Future: Renewable Energy Sources”. This set out to increase
the renewables share of gross domestic consumption to 12 % by 2010. Until 2008, however,
the expansion of renewable energy was only embedded in a loose legal framework. The
Electricity Directive 2001/77/EC and the Biofuels Directive 2003/30/EC merely specified nonbinding
indicative guide values. By contrast, the new EU Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion
of the use of energy from renewable sources created a strong and stable legal framework
for the expansion of renewable energy in the EU (see also pages 57 – 61).
1) Under article 3 paragraph 4 of Directive 2001/77/ec, the commission is required to publish every two years a report assessing
the Member States’ progress towards achieving their national indicative targets in the field of renewable energy sources.