EU Considers Energy Policy

The European Commission has started debate on a new decade of energy policy.

The 27-nation bloc has previously determined obtain 20 percent of all energy from renewable sources by 202, with the same deadline for cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent. The baseline is 1990 levels. 

The EU's Energy Council met last Friday in Brussels. Commissioner Gunther Oettinger commented: “There is a strong need for security of investment in the energy sector, for increased market integration of renewables and for better coordination at European level of national interventions in the electricity market. Member States and market players are equally involved, and I encourage them to create the conditions enabling consumers to benefit fully from liberalised and competitive energy markets.”

Meanwhile Reuters reports that a major study on the energy market finds a potential shortfall in the financing required to modernize networks and ensure supply.

"Without the motor of growth, the traditional draw on the balance sheets of Europe's major utilities to finance energy build can no longer be relied upon," international energy consultancy IHS CERA said in its report, The Energy Investment Imperative.

The report estimated that about €750 billion will be needed over the next decade for power generation, €90 billion for transmission lines and approximately €150 billion for new gas supply and transmission capacity.