European Union News - Energy

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) highlighted that the debate on the overall cost of electricity from intermittent renewable energy sources must be completely transparent and the data publicly available. At the same time, Eurostat published that in 2011, energy from renewable sources was estimated to have contributed 13.0% of gross final energy consumption in the EU.

A team of researchers have created a virtual prototype of the combined power plant developed by the Combined Power Plant 2 Project, that has already shown that it is technologically possible to let each individual producer feed their electricity into the grid and have the grid remain stable during this process.

The European Commission presented the four year H2SusBuild project that aims at developing an energy self-sustainable and zero-CO2-emission building by integrating a hybrid energy system, where the storage of hydrogen provides the energy supply in instances where renewable sources are lacking.

Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, stressed that efficiency is crucial not only for achieving our energy security and climate goals, also to give a real boost to the economy by bringing important savings and job creation, in addition to environmental benefits, during her speech in a conference held that focused on the role of efficient buildings, vehicles and equipment as an essential driver to economic success.

The Joint Research Centre announced that nine EU-based companies have been recognised for their energy-saving efforts, thanks to the installation of energy-efficient lighting technologies. The majority of energy saving was due to introduction of the new T5 efficient fluorescent lighting, among other measures, which replaces conventional magnetic ballasts with electronic ballasts.

The Council adopted the regulation on guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure following an agreement reached with the European Parliament. The regulation gives priority to twelve strategic trans-European energy corridors and areas. The European Commission welcomed Council adoption of the Energy Infrastructure Regulation because it foresees a new more transparent and accelerated permit granting procedure which generally will not exceed 3 years and 6 months.

The European Commission announced the allocation of €200 million to the Neighbourhood Investment Facility with the objective of leveraging investments from EU development banks. The planned investments will target energy and transport projects establishing infrastructure interconnections between the EU and neighbouring countries.