Antinuclear

The Framework Strategy broadly sets out five interrelated policies, and the steps to achieve its policy goals, including new legislation to redesign and overhaul the electricity market, substantially developing regional cooperation and an integrated market, and with a stronger regulated framework.

Among the measures designed to engender a unified, clean and sustainable European energy sector, the Commission has revealed that it will propose a new Renewable Energy Package in 2016-2017 to include a new policy for sustainable biomass and biofuels, as well as legislation to ensure that the 2030EU target of at least 27 percent of EU energy to come from renewables is met cost-effectively.

In a Communication to the European Parliament, the European Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the European Investment Bank, the Commission noted that the European Union is committed to becoming the world leader in renewable energy.

However, the document also concedes that to achieve the 27 percent target new challenges must be addressed including developing appropriate energy markets and transmission and distribution infrastructure.

“Existing legislation and new market rules need to be fully implemented, enabling the roll-out of new technologies smart grids and demand response for an efficient energy transition,” the Commission says, adding that renewable production needs to be supported through market-based schemes that address market failures, ensure cost effectiveness and avoid over-compensation or distortion………

Summing up, Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), observed that the EU’s draft Energy Union document shows the intention to switch the EU’s electricity supply system to a “flexible, smart low-carbon grid.”

Black says: “The EU’s draft international climate pledge doesn’t contain any surprises — essentially it is taking what EU governments decided to do back in October and putting that package of measures and targets forward into the UN climate convention.

“The Energy Union proposals are a bit more interesting and show that in principle the EU doesn’t want to continue with an electricity system dominated by fossil fuels, but switch to the kind of flexible smart low-carbon grid being pioneered in Germany, which should lead to a cheaper and more secure system that’s less dependent on Russia.” http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2015/02/european-commission-unveils-draft-energy-strategy