This week’s briefs

These news briefs should be of interest to EiD readers.

• Britain and the EU renewable energy target

The Independent newspaper reports that, according to Eurostat, Britain is the third lowest producer of renewable energy in the EU, and is far below its sustainable energy targets for 2020, a recent study has shown. Britain is lagging far behind other EU countries with just 4.2 per cent of its energy derived from green sources, according to Eurostat, only Luxembourg (3.1 per cent) and Malta (1.4 per cent) are performing worse. Britain has increased its contributions from 1.2 per cent to 4.2 per cent over the 8 years in question, leaving an improbable 11.8 per cent gap to make up before 2020, Eurostat reports.

• EU Concludes French Feed-in Tariffs for Wind Energy Permissible

Paul Gipe writes on his website that the European Commission has decided that the French system of feed-in tariffs for wind energy on land is not excluded under prohibitions against “state aid,” and is therefore permitted under European Union (EU) regulations.

The long-awaited decision couldn’t come at a better time. Though the decision is consistent with past EU rulings on feed-in tariffs, recent comments by the Commission’s Directorate General for Competition against feed-in tariffs (FITs) has signaled a return to FIT bashing by the Commission’s powerful bureaucrats. This had put the decision on French wind FITs in doubt.

The positive outcome in this case demonstrates that not only are feed-in tariffs for wind energy permissible, but—by extension–wind tariffs differentiated by wind turbine performance are also permissible.

For more on this story, go to the website.

• Overcoming the split incentive barrier in the building sector workshop

The EC Joint Research Centre’s workshop on split incentives was organised in the framework the Energy Efficiency Directive and, in particular, article 19 on “other measures to promote energy efficiency”. The aim of the workshop was to exchange information about the extent at which split incentives act as a barrier to energy efficiency investments in the building sector as well as investigate current solutions, their effectiveness and ways forward. The workshop was organised in 4 sessions focusing on the social housing, private residential and commercial sectors. Practices from Italy, the Netherlands, the UK, Denmark, Sweden and the US were presented and a panel discussion between representatives from groups of landlords, tenants, social housing and ESCOs was held.

The presentations from that workshop are available here.

• eceee industrial Summer Study

Please mark it in your calendar to attend the upcoming Summer Study, June 2-5^th, in Papendal, Arnhem, the Netherlands. The theme is “Retool for a Competitive and Sustainable Industry.” It covers all types of industry, from manufacturing and food processing to heavy process industry, and it covers large companies as well as SMEs. There are six themes for the 2014 Summer Study:

– Programmes to promote industrial energy efficiency

– Sustainable production design and supply chain initiatives

– Matching policies and drivers: Policies and directives to drive industrial efficiency

– Undertaking high impact actions: The role of technology and systems optimisation

– The role of energy management systems, education, outreach and training

– Business models to improve industrial efficiency, global perspective.

You can come and help EiD do some blogging and tweeting since Rod will be one of the panel leaders. Industrial energy efficiency is starting to get the attention from policymakers that it should have had years ago. The new Energy Efficiency Directive is a major step forward. The Summer Study will be an ideal opportunity to come and discuss the topic in a convivial and relaxed atmosphere.

More information on the Summer Study is available on the eceee website.