The EU elections and climate change
The EU elections and climate change - Part 2
The EU is now committed to obtaining 20% of its total energy from renewables by 2020. The current level is about 8.5%, three quarters of which comes from hydro-electricity and biomass. Expanding this to 20% in 11 years is possible – indeed essential.
Meeting the target would help control climate change, and also greatly increase EU energy security and create many new jobs and industries. But the target will only be met if there is a focus on renewable gas as well as electricity, a reduction in land-use planning delays, a rapid expansion of the electricity grid (both on and offshore), and increased regulatory stability.
The EU has set the targets, but most of the policy levers on energy remain at member state level. Yet the EU does have money. Renewables will in the future provide cheaper (and more secure) energy than fossil fuels. But billions of euros are still needed in investment in the transition to a low carbon economy. If it is serious about meeting the Renewables Directive targets - and the other 2020 targets agreed in the climate package in December 2008 - the Commission must prioritise investment in low carbon technologies and practices. A better Europe-wide grid is important to cover intermittent energy sources such as wind (since it is likely that there will usually be enough wind blowing somewhere in Europe). So the Trans-European-Network for Energy (TEN-E) Programme should be accelerated.
About three quarters of renewable energy today is renewably- generated electricity. But only a fifth of EU energy consumption is electricity (though this will rise as transport becomes increasingly electric.); the rest is for heat and for transport. The Renewables Directive target is for energy, not electricity, so it is essential to consider renewable heat and transport fuel as well. This doesn't mean neglecting renewable electricity, but it does mean a determined focus on heat.
Biogas
Biogas can be fed into the gas grid, mixed with natural gas, and used in exactly the same way. Biogas is already being injected into the gas grid in France, Germany and Austria - and also New York. The most established way to produce biogas is an Anaerobic Digester (AD). AD involves putting organic waste (sewage, manure, food waste etc) into a container, where it is kept without oxygen at a high temperature (around 40 degrees centigrade) and becomes gas and solid compost. AD is currently used in many sewage works and some waste treatment plants, though the biogas, absurdly, is often flared. The compost, if it is made from from waste or animal manure, can be used on fields or gardens, and is an excellent fertiliser. If based on human sewage, there is no practical reason why it cannot be used as fertiliser, but public opposition would be strong (even though human sewage has always been used as manure and is still widely used in the developing world). So the solid compost from sewage AD could be incinerated (to generate electricity) or buried. energy crops.
Because it uses the existing gas grid, biogas significantly reduces the infrastructure cost of renewables development. And the EU has other Directives on reducing waste going to landfill, and on improving water quality. A major expansion of biogas would help meet these Directives, so the additional costs of complying with the Renewables Directive would be very significantly reduced. The UK National Grid company has estimated that biogas could meet 10% of total UK energy demand by 2020 (2/3 of the UK share of the renewables target). This would cost £30 billion. But £20 billion of this is on new waste infrastructure which needs to be built anyway, so the net cost is £10 billion.
Biomass
Biomass is potentially very good, but should be used to provide heat as well as power, and be grown in a low-intensity way. Growing it using a lot of pesticides and non-organic fertiliser can lead to biomass having little or no climate impact advantage over a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station. For example, using short rotation coppice chips to generate electricity can produce 85% less emissions per unit of energy than a CCGT, whereas using straw can produce 35% more. Subsidy to intensive agriculture accounts for roughly 85% of all CAP spending. The Agenda 2000 paper 'A CAP for the future', announced by the EU as a means of making the CAP sustainable, does not mention climate change.
The renewable that must be rapidly expanded to meet the 2020 target is wind. The main obstacle to onshore wind development is land-use planning, in which the EU has no role. For offshore, however, the main barrier is cost, including the cost of grid connection. A grid covering the North Sea would be expensive, but would have enormous climate, energy security and economic advantages. This should be funded through the Trans-European Network for Energy.