Tuesday 14 September 2010

More EU 'Windshit'

Courtesy of "The Albion Alliance Presents" (click on 'go to source') and their rolling news service of EU pronouncements  comes news from the European Environmental Agency (EEA) that they have been taking a closer look at Europe's renewable energy plans for 2020.

To digress - and regular readers will know how I love to digress - it is worth noting that:
"Member States are obliged to submit National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs) to the European Commission, outlining how they expect to meet their 2020 renewable target, including the technology mix they intend to use and the trajectory they will follow." (my emphasis)
So much for no loss of sovereignty! Anyway, to continue:

The EEA states that:
"So far, 19 countries have submitted this information: Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom."
Now, according to Christopher Booker - who knows more than a thing or two about matters EU and the industry that is so full of wind, namely the renewables crowd, we need to build one of these whirlygig thingies every day twixt now and 2020 to have any hope of complying with the EU requirement. And to meet Gordon Brown's statement that the UK will build 7,000 offshore and onshore by the target date would mean installing two of these every day! Incidentally I have not seen anything on this by the Coalition, nor their 'Huhne' of an Energy Minister.

Reverting to the EEA pronouncement, if the UK is lagging in the construction of windmills as they surely are and that the submissions so far received by the EEA show that "Electricity will make up 45 % of total renewable energy production, with wind power supplying 41 % of renewable electricity", one immediately has to ask how far advanced down the 'windy road' are the other 18 member states?

Really does make one wonder what planet the EU and our politicians are from - does it not?

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