First FP7 calls announced

The European Commission has recently announced the first calls under the 7th framework Programme (FP7). Information on the first FP7 calls can be found on the CORDIS website. On this website you will find three FP7 calls on energy and two FP7 calls on climate change.

FP7 is the main subsidy programme for research and technological development within the EU. FP7 was launched on 1 January this year and will run until 2013. FP7 has a total budget of €50.5 billion for this period. An amount of €2.3 billion will be spent on energy.

EU and USA agreement on energy efficiency of office equipment

The EU and the USA have signed a new agreement to continue innovative and demanding energy efficiency criteria for computers, copiers, printers and computer monitors. The criteria are part of the Energy Star programme for office equipment. The programme will continue for another five years and is expected to save 30 TWh of electricity over the next three years. This is equivalent to the total electricity demand in Hungary.

The agreement on the Energy Star programme was signed by the EU and the USA at the end of last year. Energy Star is a European Commission programme which aims to do something to improve energy efficiency, the security of energy supply and mitigate climate change. According to Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs the agreement with the USA is ‘in line with our commitment to reinforce international cooperation on the energy efficiency of goods traded worldwide’.

In the Commission’s Energy Efficiency Action Plan, improving the energy performance of appliances is one of the top priorities. The Energy Star programme started in 2001. The second period of the programme will last until 2013. The programme provides a label for equipment that complies with the criteria on energy efficiency. The Energy Star label informs and encourages consumers and procurers when buying energy efficient products. The Energy Star programme also provides assistance in how to save energy and money through the proper use of equipment and provides a database that lets consumers pick the most energy efficient models, within the group of Energy Star qualified office equipment.

More information on the programme can be found at: http://www.eu-energystar.org/

EU citizens consider energy research as priority

Six out of every ten EU citizens consider energy related research to be a high priority for the European Union. This is one of the conclusions of a Eurobarometer opinion survey on energy technologies that was published recently by the European Commission.

The Eurobarometer survey questioned Europeans on a range of issues linked to Europe’s energy future. European citizens are aware of many of the major issues in this policy area, such as energy dependency and the energy mix of fossil fuels, renewable sources and nuclear. When today’s challenging issues are considered as a whole, EU citizens consider energy issues to be important, but not at first glance. EU citizens rate energy issues (14%) far below unemployment (64%), crime (36%) and health care systems (30%), which relate more directly to their daily life, economic stability, safety and health.

But as soon as the focus turns to energy issues, Europeans place great importance on reducing energy consumption in their country (54%) and on energy research by the EU (60%). Energy prices are the main factor underlying this perceived importance of energy issues. The survey shows that energy prices are a major concern for Europeans with 33% identifying prices as the first energy-related issue coming to mind and 76% considering that energy prices will double in the next three years.

In relation to the present energy structure in their countries, Europeans are reluctant to accept the use of fossil fuels but are highly favourable of renewable energy. Only 20% of Europeans support the use of nuclear power. When looking three decades ahead, Europeans expect that renewable energy will be used more, in particular solar and wind energy although only 14% of the Europeans surveyed linked renewable energy spontaneously with energy issues and also show a preference for directing the EU’s research funding into developing new energy technologies that are not yet widely used or discovered.

Commission shows need for carbon constrained future

The European Commission has recently published a scientific report which looks at energy consumption up to 2050. This study called ‘World Energy Outlook 2050 (WETO-H2)’ has developed a reference projection of the world energy system and two variant scenarios, a carbon constrained case and a hydrogen case.

The carbon constrained case explores the consequences of more ambitious carbon policies that aim to achieve a long-term stabilisation of the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. In this case, global emissions of CO2 are held stable between 2015 and 2030 (about 40% above the level in 1990). In Europe, the total consumption of energy is almost stable until 2030 under this scenario, but then it will start to increase. Renewable sources provide 22% and nuclear 30% of the European energy demand in 2050, bringing fossil fuel use to less than 50%. About 75% of power generation is based on nuclear and renewable sources under this scenario and half of thermal power generation is in plants with CO2 capture and storage.

The hydrogen scenario is derived from the carbon constrained case, but also assumes a series of technology breakthroughs that increase the cost-effectiveness of hydrogen technologies. The production of hydrogen in Europe increases rapidly after 2030 to reach 120 Mtoe by 2050. Under the scenario hydrogen provides 7% of final energy consumption in Europe in 2030, against 3% in the reference case.

Popularity of biogas increases

More and more countries and entrepreneurs seem to be discovering the attractiveness of biogas as an alternative fuel. Most of the time biogas installations are proving to be financially very feasible. German policy actively encourages the use and production of biogas. In Germany, more and more biogas from corn is being produced and used. In 2006, German biogas electricity capacity increased rapidly. The Swedish government is investing increasingly in the biogas industry and plans to build a large biogas production facility in Goteborg. Dutch and Swedish authorities support the use of biogas, and because of this in both countries more and more public buses are fuelled by biogas.

Minimal impact on sealife from large offshore windfarms

According to a Danish study of the world’s two largest offshore wind farms, the impact of the facilities on birds, fish and mammals is negligible. A thermal animal detection system showed that waterbirds rarely collide with parts of the wind farm. Bird tracking by radar showed that many waterbirds avoid wind farms by changing their flight direction when they are kilometres away from the turbines. The risk of collision of one windfarm is only 40 to 50 birds per year, suggesting that collision rates are likely to be less a problem than often supposed. This is good news for the Danish, who plan to expand wind power facilities to generate 50% of the country’s electricity from wind power by 2025. Most of the wind power capacity will be located offshore.

EPIA: ‘Photovoltaic industry to grow significantly’

The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) predicts that, with favourable policy conditions, the global photovoltaic market will show an average 37% growth per year out to 2010. The first market estimates for 2006 show an annual global market growth between 10 and 15% and the photovoltaic industry is set to remain one of the most dynamic economic sectors globally for some years to come. In 2010, the EPIA estimate that the global annual market for installation of solar electricity technology will be close to 5.6 GWpeak.

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