Renewables target on course

The European Union (EU) will not only meet its goal of producing 20 per cent of its energy from renewables by 2020, it will slightly exceed it, according to a new report from the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).

The EWEA analysis shows that EU member states are on course to achieve more than 20 per cent renewable energy by 2020, with 21 member states meeting or exceeding their national targets. The top 21 comprises 13 member states predicting they will meet their target and eight forecasting they will exceed their target.

Only six forecast they will not manage to reach their target, although two of these say that with fresh national initiatives they can meet or exceed them. None of the six expect to be more than one percentage point below their target.

The top achiever is Spain, which believes it will reach 22.7 per cent renewables by 2020 - almost three percentage points above its 20 per cent target. Next comes Germany, which expects to be 0.7 percentage points above its 18 per cent target. In addition, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden will exceed their targets.

The six that do not expect to meet their target are Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and Malta, together with Bulgaria and Denmark - two countries that state with fresh national initiatives they could meet or exceed their targets.

Bottom of the league is Italy, which, in order to meet its target, foresees importing renewable energy from neighbouring non-EU countries Albania, Croatia, Serbia and Tunisia.

Further data can be found here.