Experts from the energy industry in power generation, energy-intensive industry, and policy agreed the current EU strategy to promote renewable energy development needs rethinking. The experts were on a roundtable to discuss the three pillars of EU energy policies on sustainability, security of supply, and energy efficiency during the State of the Union conference in Florence, organized by the European University Institute.
"If we want to unlock finance for clean energy, we need long, loud and legal signals. The European Trading System is not providing loud signals. Energy policy is not loud enough, and it's also not legal enough," said Ignacio Perez-Arriaga, Professor of the BP Chair on Sustainable Development at Comillas University.
Fernand Felzinger, President of IFIEC Europe representing the industrial view, said that current EU policy on renewable energy development does not include all the costs associated with it for backup power and grid investment, and because it is where subsidies are emphasized, crowds out investment for any other energy sources. "We need a clear assessment of the cost of the various options and that someone is assessing which ones are the more cost efficient."
Nani Becalli-Falco, former CEO of GE Europe, said that Europe needs an "organic" policy to promote the development of technologies that will stem the large losses in electricity transmission and production, and stimulates construction of smaller power generation units closer to consumption to also stanch these losses.
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