EU nations expect to meet the EU?s renewable energy target

Only six forecast they will not manage to reach their target through domestic action alone, although two of these say that with fresh national initiatives they can meet or exceed their targets. None of the six expect to be more than 1%-point below their target.

Top achievers are Spain, which believes it will reach 22.7% renewables by 2020 – almost 3%-points above its 20% target. Next comes Germany which expects to be 0.7%-points above its 18% target. In addition Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden will exceed their targets.

The six who do not expect to meet their target are Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and Malta, together with Bulgaria and Denmark – two countries which state that with fresh national initiatives they could meet or exceed their targets. Bottom of the league is Italy which, in order to meet its target, foresees importing renewable energy from neighbouring non-EU countries (Albania, Croatia, Serbia and Tunisia).

"Europe has witnessed a sea-change since the 2009 Renewable Energy Directive was agreed as in 2008 many countries were stating that their target would be difficult to meet – now the majority are forecasting that they will meet or exceed their national target” said Justin Wilkes, Policy Director of EWEA. "The forecast documents give a clear signal to the European Commission of where they could facilitate implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive” said Wilkes.

Christine Lins, Secretary General of the European Renewable Energy Council stated, “The clear majority of European Member States recognise the economic, environmental and social benefits of promoting a broad range of renewable energy technologies nationally, as reflected in their forecast documents”.

Wind energy is one of the most promising renewable energy technologies, and is an area in which there have already been many developments and improvements to make electricity generation more effective. Between 1995 and 2005, cumulative wind power capacity in the EU increased by an average of 32% per year.

Developing wind resources offshore is a particular priority of the Community. In Europe, more wind turbines were erected in 2009 than gas, coal and nuclear power stations were built. In Europe, Spain was the leader in installing new wind farms – with a 24% growth compared to 2008.

EWEA is the voice of the wind energy industry, actively promoting the utilisation of wind power in Europe and worldwide. It now has over 600 members from almost 60 countries including manufacturers with a 90% share of the world wind power market, plus component suppliers, research institutes, national wind and renewables associations, developers, electricity providers, finance and insurance companies and consultants.

www.ewea.org/fileadmin/ewea_documents/documents/press_releases/2010/Which_Member_States_will_meet_their_targets.pdf

ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/transparency_platform/transparency_platform_en.htm