European Union News - Energy

According to the European Commission the sustainability of biofuels needs to be checked by Member States or through voluntary schemes. The Commission recognised seven such voluntary schemes within the highest sustainability standards in the world. With these schemes, biofuels can represent an environmentally-friendly replacement of fossil fuels.

The Industry, Research and Energy Committee at the European Parliament approved by a large majority to ban energy market manipulation. With the new rules, the consumers will be more protected.

GREEN EMOTION is an initiative which has as main goal to get electric vehicles onto the roads in all over Europe. This is a pan-European research effort that it is funded in part with €24 million from the European Commission.

In a report approved in the plenary session, MEPs asked to get “EU” status on Energy infrastructure projects. In addition, they also asked to finance them through a EU project bonds. Among the projects suggested as a priority, those which connects energy islands with the rest of the grid, reducing network losses and single supplier dependency and integrating renewable energy sources into the network.

The proposed acquisition of a controlling stake in Compañía Española de Petróleos S.A (CEPSA), a Spanish integrated oil and energy company, by International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) of Abu Dhabi has been cleared by the European Commission.

According to Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, household electricity prices rose by 5.1% between the second half of 2009 and the second half of 2010, after a fall of 2.3% between the second half of 2008 and 2009. On the household gas prices, there were increased by 7.7% in the EU between the second half of 2009 and 2010, after a fall of 15.5% between the second half of 2008 and 2009.

The project for a Directive on energy efficiency proposed by the European Commission on 22 June presents re measures which would boost energy saving and help EU reach 2020 goal of 20% reduction.

This Strategy adopted at the Environment Council held in Luxembourg on June 21st 2011 is considered by EU ministers as a key instrument to enable the EU to reach its overall 2020 headline target. Ministers also underlined that further discussion over the actions to ensure the effective and coherent implementation of the Strategy should still be put in place.

A team of EU-funded researchers is leading the development of a unique type of sustainable zinc-based rechargeable battery for electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid EVs (HEVs). This resulting battery device will have the energy and power density necessary to compete with alternative battery technologies in the HEV and EV markets. Furthermore, the project will also construct prototype battery units for industry standard testing.