Renewable energy seems to growing at break-neck pace throughout the world, and particularly in Europe, but a new report shows the European Union (EU) falling far short of its goal to use renewable energy for 12% of its energy needs by the end of 2010. As of the end of 2006, the EU is at 6.92% renewable energy, having posted an impressive 0.46% gain relative to 2005, but similar gains in the coming years would only get the EU to about 9% renewable energy.
The report estimates that at best, the EU could reach 10% renewable energy by 2010. Meanwhile, the EU has set an additional goal of achieving 20% renewable energy by 2020. Read More
One reason for the shortfall is that the growth in renewable energy is struggling to compete with a growth in energy demand: while EU renewable energy use grew by the energy equivalent of 8.5 million metric tons of oil (Mtoe), EU energy consumption grew by 5.5 Mtoe. That represents a very respectable 7.5% growth in renewable energy in one year, countered by a 0.3% growth in total energy use. That led Jean-Louis Bal, EU’s director of Renewable Energies and Energy Networks and Markets, to declare that “the efforts being made for (renewable energy) development … are not accompanied by any real effort to conserve energy.”
The renewable energy growth is also very uneven across the EU, with Germany providing 43% of the growth in 2006. The EU is also struggling with below-normal hydropower production because of drought. All of which suggests that the United States has plenty in common with its European cousins. See pages 71-76 (PDF pages 73-78) of the report, which is published in both English and French (PDF 866 KB).
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