The European Commission is taking an active role in steering Member States onto the right path. It requires them to submit action plans by June this year, detailing exactly how they will meet their share of this 20% target.
The Commission also wants to hear what industry thinks. It has funded a project inviting pan-technology renewable trade associations (such as the REA[i] to submit shadow action plans, against which it can judge Government submissions.
The Renewable Energy Association, together with contributions from a steering committee[ii] , prepared a blueprint on which it invited comment. The survey results[iii] show support for the 100+ measures proposed in the industry shadow action plan.
The document will now be completed in March and sent to the European co-ordinators, EREC[iv] , copied to the Department of Energy and Climate Change and put on the REA website.
The first task required of Member States under the Directive, was to say how much of their target would be met domestically, and how much through trading with other countries. These "progress reports" had to be in with the Commission last December.
"There seems to have been a mood change across the Union," said Gaynor Hartnell, Chief Executive of the REA. Where once countries seemed to focus their energies on wriggling out of their obligations, now they are more bullish. Several countries’ forecast documents show a surplus[v].
Our Government has stated the UK is on track to meet the 2020 target domestically, provided energy consumption remains low. No longer is there talk of achieving the last few percentage points from actions taken outside the UK. This is as it should be. With our fantastic renewable resource we should be looking to export, if anything.
However, we are not kidding ourselves that reaching the 15% will be easy. Barriers must be removed and the planning regime improved, grid access made swifter and incentive policies for power, heat and transport must instil investor confidence."
