National Renewable Energy Action Plan

In most of the National Renewable Energy Plans (NREAPs), solar thermal was not a priority. Only 8 countries announced significant collector area and growth rates (see news here). solarthermalworld.org asked Xavier Noyon, Secretary General of the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF), about the reasons behind this lack of consideration, and about the actions which have to be taken now.
Photo: ESTIF

Clear-cut concepts and mandatory targets to protect the climate was what the European Commission requested from the 27 EU members as they created their National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs). On 30 June 2010, 23 states delivered their national version – with meagre success for solar thermal technology. Carried out by the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF), an analysis of the presently available NREAPs shows that only the 8 countries displayed in the figure above included significant collector area and growth rates in their plans lasting until 2020.
Source: ESTIF

As heat accounts for almost 50% of the final energy demand in the EU, the use of solar thermal technologies should be considered as a very valuable option for EU member States when drafting the national renewable action plans, resulting from the so-called RES 2020 Directive (2009/28/EC).

This report, published in the framework of the Re-Shaping project, provides an overview of the existing RES support schemes in the 27 EU Member States.

The project RE-Shaping aims to assist Member States in preparing for the implementation of the RES Directive (2009/28/EC) and to guide a European policy for RES in the mid to long term.

In this report, the past and present success of policies for renewable energies are evaluated and recommendations derived to improve future RES support schemes are provided.

Integrated in the European project EMTEU, the European Energy Centre – Centro Studi Galileo Italy has organised in March 2010 two training seminars dedicated to solar energy, one to photovoltaics and another one to solar thermal.

The EMTEU project (Energy Management Technician in Europe) aims to contribute to the creation of a specialised workforce for the renewable energy sector in Europe.

This is a presentation of the Managing Director of the Danish Board of District Heating (DBDH), Mr. Jes B. Christensen on the district heating sector in Denmark.

The presentation gives detailed information on the Danish district heating market in Denmark, since the first years in the 70s until nowadays, with references to the legal framework and the government incentive schemes.

These slides also show how district heating has helped reduce CO2 emissions and make Denmark a key example for energy self-sufficiency in Europe.

The European renewable energy directive states an ambitious national target for Portugal: The southern European country is to reach a renewable energy share of 31 % in its total energy demand for 2020. At the same time, the government has shown a strong commitment to renewable energy technology: It is determined to be among the five leading European countries when it comes to exporting solar and wind technology.

Christine Lins, Secretary General of EREC, made this presentation during a workshop, organised by ESTIF, in Brussels, on the RES Directive implementation.

The presentation provides an overview of the RES Directive and the measures national authorities have to put in place to comply with the legislation, this is, the national renewable energy action plans (NREAPs). Related to this, the presentation also outlines the main objectives of the project REPAP, created to facilitate the process of implementation of the RES Directive on a national level

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Ways into a modern energy industry: This is the title of the German roadmap for all renewable energy technologies published by the German Renewable Energy Federation BEE in mid-December. The document states that Germany's policies will not be sufficient in utilizing the full potential of solar heating and cooling technology by 2020.

Mr Hans van Steen, Head of Unit of DG TREN in the European Commission, made this presentation on the RES Directive during the ESTIF Workshop on the RES Directive Implementation, held in Brussels on 2nd December 2009.