In the last month of its Presidency of the European Council, Spain organised a high‐level conference in Madrid to discuss progress made on the EU’s ambitious Energy Technology Plan, the SET Plan. The main focus of the conference was the formal launch of the four European Industrial Initiatives (EII) that have demonstrated the maturity of their implementation plans and industrial commitment. These initiatives will focus on electricity networks, solar energy (both photovoltaic and solar thermal), wind energy and carbon capture and storage (CCS), all with the aim of coordinating technology research initiatives at EU‐level. The conference stressed the importance of the SET plan in meeting the EU’s climate change goals, and the need for greater coordination of public and private funding and other resources in the four initiatives.
Speeding up research in low‐carbon technologies is considered key to dealing with the twin challenges of climate change and energy‐supply security, but the EU is still lagging behind when it comes to significant R&D budgets in comparison to other international players. Therefore, last year the European Commission (EC) issued a Communication on “Investing in the development of low‐carbon technologies (SET plan)” together with a technology roadmap in an attempt to accelerate the development of a low‐carbon economy by improving the collaboration between the EU and the Member States with regard to R&D. These roadmaps could be considered as “wish lists” as the bulk of the funds required (estimated 50 bn EUR) will have to come from the private sector and from Member States, with a contribution coming from the EU budget.
Under the Solar Europe Industry Initiative, research will be related to technology competitiveness and ensuring large‐scale penetration in urban areas, as well as grid integration. Furthermore the initiative will focus on the development and improvement of thermal energy storage and improving the environmental footprint, by reducing the cooling water consumption through innovative cycles. The European Commission has estimated that up to €16 billion will be allocated to investment in solar energy.
The EC has calculated that €6 billion will be needed for the European Wind Initiative for the next 10 years. The aim of the initiative is on the one hand to facilitate grid integration and on the other to make wind energy competitive with conventional sources of power so that no less than 20% of power consumed in the EU comes from wind energy by 2020. It will also look into offshore technology. The initiative aims to increase public and private investments in wind energy R&D spending.
The European Carbon Capture, Transport and Storage Initiative is designed to enable commercial viability (i.e. cost effective deployment of CCS by 2020,) and to kick‐start wide‐spread deployment so that it can be applied in all carbon‐ intensive industrial sectors. The role of the CCS EII is to drive and accelerate the required changes in policy, technology and financing at all levels of governance to ensure delivery in an efficient and timely manner. The initiative has a projected funding of €13 billion up to 2020.
The European Electricity Grid Initiative (EEGI) earmarked a total investment of €2 billion to ensure that by 2020, half of the EU’s grid infrastructure operates on a smart grid basis and is ready for renewables integration. The recently elected EURELECTRIC DSO Directors’ Gathering* sees Research and Development (R&D) as priority.
Other initiatives that are planned under the SET plan deal with nuclear energy, bio‐energy, fuel cells and hydrogen, and smart cities.
