{"id":19018,"date":"2014-01-24T03:06:36","date_gmt":"2014-01-24T01:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?guid=929e6165bef06357298f917abb0a3cc4"},"modified":"2014-01-23T16:36:14","modified_gmt":"2014-01-23T14:36:14","slug":"efficiency-renewables-make-europe-competitive-eu-study-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/efficiency-renewables-make-europe-competitive-eu-study-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Efficiency and renewables make Europe competitive, EU study says"},"content":{"rendered":"

EXCLUSIVE \/ European industry has maintained its global market position thanks to relatively low energy intensity levels and high renewables penetration, according to a study into the continent\u2019s competitiveness due to be released by the European Commission as part of its clean energy package today (22 January).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Renewable energies \u201chelp reduce fuel import costs and contribute to improving the energy trade balance,\u201d says the report by the EU\u2019s economic and financial affairs directorate (DG Ecfin), which EurActiv has seen.<\/p>\n

Energies derived from replenishable sources such as the wind and sun also \u201cprovide opportunities in terms of industrial equipment and trade flows,\u201d and \u201ccontribute to reducing our energy dependence,\u201d the paper says.<\/p>\n

In 2010, renewable energy used in electricity generation avoided \u20ac10.2 billion of imported fuel costs, \u20ac2.2bn of which came from wind alone.<\/p>\n

Overall, renewables covered almost the entirety of expenditure from support schemes, and avoided \u20ac30 billion of fuel imports that year. But such savings were \u201cstill too low\u201d, the report says, apparently indicating a need for further renewable energy deployment.<\/p>\n

Josche Muth, the secretary-general of the European Renewable Energy Council, an industry association, said that, there was a \u201ccomplete disconnect\u201d between such glowing analyses and the austere policy announcements expected today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a binding renewable energy target of 30% or 35% for member states, we would see lower costs for energy intensive industries, more jobs and less fossil fuel imports,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless, we are going down the opposite line.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 2030 climate and energy package due to be released today is expected to aim at a 27% share of the energy market for renewables by 2030. But this will not be binding on member states, and is in line with business-as-usual trends.<\/p>\n

The proposal appears at odds with a widely leaked version of the impact assessment accompanying the 2030 package which found that ambitious renewables and energy efficiency targets could create half a million jobs in Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Energy prices<\/strong><\/p>\n

A separate paper on energy costs prepared by the Commission\u2019s energy directorate, which will also be released today, reportedly says that Europe\u2019s industrial electricity price is twice that in the US and 20% higher than in China \u2013 and that the figure is widening.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the Ecfin paper finds that Europe has higher real energy prices than its competitors, and that renewable generation increases consumer electricity bills.<\/p>\n

Support for renewable electricity generation makes up 7.2% of end-user electricity prices for industry and 5.4% for households.<\/p>\n

But this is considered less of a factor in electricity prices by Ecfin than Europe\u2019s heavy reliance on energy imports \u2013 for 54% of its fuel in 2011 \u2013 and the index-linking of the majority of gas contracts to oil prices, a phenomenon that has often left them as \u2018stranded assets\u2019 that are too expensive to operate.<\/p>\n

“Half of [the] natural gas supply in the EU is still indexed to oil,” the report says.<\/p>\n

Fossil fuel import dependency remains the main driver of price increases but their high price has to some extent spurred energy efficiency improvements in Europe, the report finds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a global context, the EU manufacturing sector exhibits a low level of energy costs relative to both output and value added,\u201d it says. \u201cThis positive outcome is mostly explained by the low energy intensity of the sector. The EU manufacturing sector has so far responded to energy price increases through sustained energy intensity improvements, thus maintaining its relatively favourable position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pause in energy efficiency<\/strong><\/p>\n

The expansion of shale gas production in the US is described as a \u201cspectacular development\u201d which has reduced the EU-US energy trade balance in GDP terms. But it has only had a \u201climited\u201d impact on the EU-US goods trade balance.<\/p>\n

However the paper cautions that high energy prices for EU industries should remain a policy concern because \u201cenergy efficiency improvements may slow down in the EU and speed up in the US due to diminishing low cost options, and increased policy effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the EU will today announce a pause in new energy efficiency legislation until after a June review of the Energy Efficiency Directive, and a \u2018pledge and review\u2019 system for future EU climate measures that may well see Brussels lose its power to initiate some policies.<\/p>\n

Claude Turmes, a Green MEP from Luxembourg who has helped draft some of the EU’s energy laws, said this was ironic. \u201cThere is no relation between the Commission\u2019s analyses and the energy efficiency and renewables policies being announced today,\u201d Turmes said. \u201cThe architecture of the Energy Efficiency Directive was not even analysed in the paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ingrid Holmes, the associate director of the environmental NGO E3G agreed. \u201cThe Commission\u2019s analysis shows that prioritising energy efficiency is the best way to protect energy intensive industry from energy price rises,” she said. “I am at a loss to understand why the Commission has failed to reflect this in its communication. Low ambition on energy efficiency will erode rather than build upon the great success of European industry in decoupling profits from energy prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carbon prices<\/strong><\/p>\n

One other climate mitigation measure, carbon prices, are \u201cnot found to have any statistical significant impact on electricity retail prices,\u201d by the Ecfin paper although energy intensive industries and the employers\u2019 confederation, BusinessEurope, last year ran successful campaigns arguing that it did.<\/p>\n

One study<\/a> by the European Aluminium Association (EAA) last November argued that \u201ca significant part of the increase [in energy prices] is attributable to EU climate and energy regulations and national implementation of EU targets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result, the EAA said, was uncompetitive pricing in Europe\u2019s electricity markets and \u201cmassive production losses\u201d due to carbon-leakage, or the relocation of industry to regions with laxer climate laws.<\/p>\n

But the EU study says that the carbon price \u2013 currently around \u20ac5 a tonne of carbon \u2013 is far too low to have such an effect. It also “fails to provide a strong price signal for consumption behaviour and for investments in clean production technologies,\u201d the paper finds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EXCLUSIVE \/ European industry h…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5627],"supplier":[6412,2317,6413,5585],"class_list":["post-19018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-energy","supplier-european-aluminium","supplier-european-commission","supplier-european-renewable-energy-council","supplier-european-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19018"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=19018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}