Interesting. That’s one word we could use to describe the industry in the last few months – booming in one regard, yet plummeting in another. And to get a good idea of what’s going on, you’d have to speak to a wide range of experts from a broad array of sectors… just like we’ve done right here. Enjoy the insight.
“The growth achieved in the last five years has been outstanding and if continued would result in over half of the EU’s electricity coming from renewables by 2030. A long-term stable framework, underpinned by an ambitious 2030 renewable energy target, is clearly the proven way to ensure Europe meets its climate, competitiveness and energy security goals”
Justin Wilkes, EWEA’s Director of Policy, commenting on energy targets
“We’re making the biggest change to electricity markets since privatisation”
Duarte Figuiera, Dept for Energy and Climate Change, UK describing the planned introduction of Feed-in Tariffs in 2014
“Even more connections are needed to integrate renewable energy into the system, and to have a security of supply to avoid the large faults – brownouts – we had in November 2006. Short of them, energy policy goals cannot be reached”
André Merlin, President of MEDGRID, on the possibilities and challenges of future large-scale electricity exchange in the Mediterranean
“Increasing the use of renewables is central to building a new economic model. Over the last five years we have created 300,000 new jobs on our continent by actively developing the renewable energy sector. If we continue at this pace, this could mount to 1.5 million jobs by 2020, locking in a virtuous circle”
José Manuel Durão Barroso, President of the European Commission
“With our roadmap we want to ensure that, for all participants, there should be an interesting discussion on binding targets for renewables by 2030. This should begin now and lead to a decision in two years’ time”
Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger
