As a follow up to its Europe 2020 Strategy, the European Commission adopted, on 6th October 2010, the Innovation Union Flagship Initiative.EUREC Agency welcomes some of the ideas raised in the document, such as the need to align rule and timetables of the Member States’ call for proposals, and the need to make excellence a guiding principle for education.However,...
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2030: A binding 45% renewable energy target
Brussels, 24th May 2011. At the occasion of its biannual Policy Conference (EREC 2011), EREC calls for a legally binding renewable energy target of 45% of final energy consumption in the EU by 2030. This appeal comes as a request to ensure that the European Union deliver on its 80-95% greenhouse emissions reduction commitment by...
Call for increase in EU energy R&D budget
SET Plan Financing Communication misses opportunity to call for increase in EU energy R&D budget For a time, it looked like the Commission would ask the Member States to “agree, in the mid-term review of the EU budget (2011-2013), to dedicate additional funding to the support of the SET Plan”, but this aspiration failed to...
EUREC Agency wants SET Plan at heart of EU 2020 Strategy
Responding to the consultation launched by the Commission on its “EU 2020” strategy, which aims to discover priority areas for action at EU level for the new decade, EUREC Agency has made three recommendations.Finding a means to finance the SET Plan is high up the list of priorities, securing a strong worldwide agreement in the...
Professor Eicke Weber on the proposed FIT cuts in Germany
Professor Eicke Weber, director of the FraunhoferISE (a long-standing member of EUREC Agency), has given an interview on SolarPVTV about feed-in tariff cuts in Germany. Fraunhofer ISE has conducted a study called‘Determination ofthe extentof a further reduction in the feed-in tariff for solar electricity in 2010’. In the interview, Prof. Eicke Webersets out the study’s...
Funding for the SET Plan’s European Industrial Initiatives
The solar, wind, electricity grid and CCS European Industrial Initiatives have just been launched at a conference in Madrid. The question of financing the initiatives remains largely unaddressed. Speaking at the ceremony, the Deputy Director General for Scientific Advances of DG Research, Rudolf Strohmeier, said little money would be available at EU level and that...
Open letter to EU Heads of State: fund the SET Plan
EUREC Agency has joined an alliance of associations and companies calling on Heads of State to find funding for the SET Plan.The SET Plan, the Strategic Energy Technology Plan, refers to the EU’s intention to remain a leader in innovative low-carbon technology, including renewable energy.The 3-paragraph letter says, “In order to fulfil its potential and...