The International Network
for Sustainable Energy

Updated: February, 2011

Paving the Way for 2020: National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) by 30 June 2010, evaluation by December 2010.
As part of the European Commission (EC)’s effort to implement the Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC), the EU-27 Member States were obliged to submit a National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) by June 30, 2010. Then the EC evaluates the NREAP's, and the completion of implementation had to be done by the EU Member States by 25th December 2010.
The Plans were prepared in accordance with the template published by the Commission. The Plans should include detailed roadmaps of how each Member State expects to reach its legally binding 2020 target for the share of renewable energy in their final energy consumption. Member States must set out the sectoral targets, the technology mix they expect to use, the trajectory they will follow and the measures and reforms they will undertake to overcome the barriers to developing renewable energy.
The Plans are published on the EU's website in the original language, allowing public scrutiny. The Commission evaluate them, assessing their completeness and credibility. In parallel, the plans are to be translated into English and added to the web site. In addition, the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands was contracted by the European Environment Agency to create an external database and quantitative report of the reports.

The National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) are available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/transparency_platform/action_plan_en.htm
The Report by ECN is available at: http://www.ecn.nl/nreap.

National Industry Roadmaps
A project, REPAP2020: “Renewable Energy Policy Action Paving the Way towards 2020”, combined the efforts of Parliamentarians and of the renewable-energy industry to move forward to meet the national binding targets of the renewable energy share in each EU country.
The targets are set by the so called “RES Directive”: The Directive on the Promotion of the use of Energy from Renewable Sources (2009/28/EC). The aim is to increase the share of renewable energy sources in the European final energy consumption to 20% by 2020, from around 8.5% in 2005.
The Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) funded project has empowered national industry associations to come up with their individual national industry RES Roadmap's to influence the drafting phase of the NREAP's. The National RES Industry Roadmaps from the EU countries except from Ireland, Estonia and Denmark. See: the road maps in original languages and summaries in English.

Evaluation of the project is presented by EUFORES and EREC in Brussels on March 15, 2011.

Download the industry roadmap's on the REPAP2020 website. Direct link is: http://www.repap2020.eu/23.0.html



INFORSE-Europe's Recommendations
Therefore, INFORSE-Europe has the proposals for implementation of the directive in progressive and sustainable ways. The proposals include recommendations for fulfilling of targets, for calculations, for administrative issues, for information and training, for network access, and for sustainability of biomass. Read: INFORSE-Europe recommendations - April 2010 (pdf 240 kB).

Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC
With targets for all EU countries for 2020, and a large number of guiding principles, the "Directive 2009/28/EC of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and amending and subsequently repealing Directives 2001/77/EC and 2003/30/EC", is now the main directive for promotion of renewable energy in the EU. It was agreed in all relevant aspects in December 2008 as part of the EU climate & energy package, read here at EU policy.

INFORSE-Europe sees the ambitious implementation of the renewable energy directive as important for the necessary increases in renewable energy use in the EU, but we advocate at least 25% renewable energy by 2020 as part of a sustainable development while the average of the targets in the directive are 20%.

INFORSE-Europe is developing proposals for implementation of the directive, including training requirements and sustainability of biomass. See it on this page here.

Main Elements of the Renewable Energy Directive
The directive sets national targets for renewable energy for the 27 EU countries, adding up to a 20% EU-average renewable-energy target for 2020. Each national target is about 13% above the renewable energy use of the country in 2005.

The targets are taken as a fraction of the final energy, while energy energy mixes of countries are mostly compared with figures for primary energy. With the use of final energy as basis instead of primary energy, energy that feeds directly into the system close to the final demand (such as solar energy and wind power) is valuated higher than energies that have high losses in the conversion from primary to final energy (such as fuels for thermal power plants). The use of final energy also makes it easier to reach the target, as it is easier to reach 20% of final energy than 20% of primary energy with the current renewable energy technologies.

The targets have some potential loopholes. The main possible loophole is with renewable energy production outside EU, where the renewable energy production outside the EU can be sent to an EU country and non-renewable electricity could be sent in the other direction at other times during a year.

There is a special target of 10% renewable energy in transport. The target can be reached with biofuels that meets a number of sustainability targets, with electricity, as well as with other energy carriers such as hydrogen.

Electricity is included in the target for renewables in transports with the average, national renewable electricity fraction, or with the EU average (the countries can choose); but for road vehicles (not railways), the use of electricity is counted with the weight of 2.5. So in a country where 40% of the electricity comes from renewables, electricity in road transport is counted with a weight of 2.5 * 0.4 = 1. Unfortunately, electric railways are not favored in this way, in the example above their electricity in only included with a weight of 0.4. The EU Commission may present by the end of 2011 a proposal for permitting a higher share of renewables in electricity for vehicles, eventually also for trains. Also a proposal for calculating the contribution of renewable hydrogen is planned for the end of 2011.

A number of criteria for sustainability of biofuels is included, but social criteria are currently addressed only subject to reporting. The effects on the ground of the other sustainability criteria for biofuels depend strongly on implementation. Therefore, INFORSE-Europe has proposed guidelines for implementation of the renewable transport target and the sustainability criteria for biofuels to make the biofuel use more sustainable in December 2009. Read: INFORSE on Biofuels ´09 (pdf file 61kB). INFORSE-Europe has also proposed a moratorium for import of unsustainable biofuels in December 2008. Read: INFORSE on Biofuels '08 (pdf file 29 kB).

Requirements for information and training will push the countries to build capacities to implement renewable energy. INFORSE-Europe has made proposals for implementation of the training provisions of the Directive in December 2009. Read INFORSE on RES training (pdf file 123 kB).

There are efficiency requirements of biomass boilers (85% for domestic biomass boilers) that will increase performance of this equipment.

Heat pumps are included with the ambient energy that they collect. For electric heat pumps this is too favorable, as the electricity that they consume is usually much more polluting than the gas that they typically replace. There is also a minimum efficiency requirement for electric heat pumps that is easy to fulfill for most heat pumps (it requires that the heat output from a heat pumps is at least 15% higher than the primary energy needed to produce the electricity that it consumes, using the national average for electricity generation)

Countries must set minimum levels of renewables in buildings, but the minimum can be zero, if a country decides so. Minimum levels of renewables in buildings can push local renewables if they are implemented ambitiously by countries, as we have seen in Spain.

Status of Implementation
The Directive 2009/28/EC was officially, finally agreed on 23 April, 2009 and was published on 5 June, 2009 in the official journal.

The Commission adopted a template for the national action plans, June 30, 2009, (decision 2009/548/EC), read it here at EUR-lex.

The EU countries shall communicate by 31 December, 2009 their estimated excess or lack of renewable energy to meet its targets and they shall develop a National Action Plan until 30 June, 2010.

Read the full Directive's text here.

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