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Renewable energy in Europe
Not all that glitters is gold, and although the European Union was and is spearheading one of the largest energy reconversions in history to reduce CO2 and improve the environment, in reality, we are not making progress as we should.
Europe pioneered large-scale wind power and solar power. In 2010, despite growing investment from China to bet on the renewableEurope accounted for no less than 45 percent of global investment in renewables.
Sadly, from its peak of $ 131.7 Billion in 2011, European investment has dropped by more than half, to $ 58.5 Billion last year, just 18 percent of the world total. (Figures do not include large hydroelectric projects).
Last year, European investment in "green energy" was the lowest since 2006 (Here is more information from Bloomberg New Energy Finance) but nevertheless, many other countries are increasing their investment and we can see it in the article on renewables in numbers.
The failure of renewables before investors
According to the recently published Recai report (Index of Attractive Countries for Renewable Energies) in recent years blames government cuts in grants and the "failure" of renewables to meet the established objectives and their cost are the most obvious reasons for a decrease in investment and investor interest in Europe.The cuts came largely for cost reasons.
But, let's see investors to which countries they prefer to release the «Money» (Clicking on the image enlarges)
Remember, that Every time subsidies are reduced, discontinued or terminated, then investment in renewable energy projects is diminished. And the countries of the Euro zone are NOT the favorites of investors.
In the following table we can see the index - ranking of the renewable by countries according to their "attraction" to investments.
I think at this point it cannot be assumed that Spain it is doing very well, currently ranked 28 out of a total of 40 countries. In 2015 in position 25 and in 2014 in 22. Spain is, along with the United Kingdom, the country that has lost the most attractive in 2015 for investors in terms of renewable.
According to the report… "The decline in Spain is a vivid illustration of what happens when subsidies disappear, as they did in 2011"
Increased CO2 emissions
Another point to highlight in the face of Europe's energy weakness is the increase in energyCO2 emissions. In the case of Europe, the average does not stop increasing, this year by 0.7%, according to Eurostat in its information note HERE.
If we focus on Spain … . »Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy use due to the burning of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal) increased by 2.3% in Spain in 2015 compared to the previous year, when the average of the EU is an increase of 0.7% ”.
If we add to these indications of dependency that in January the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) indicated in an informative note that … "Spain joins the small but growing list of countries that are lagging behind in binding renewable energy commitments at the community level by 2022"
We must bear in mind that the energy dependence of the EU countries increased, with data corresponding to the year 2014 according to Eurostat, revealing an increase in the energy dependence of the EU with an average of 54.4%, which influences the emissions of CO2. Although, it must be remembered that 9 European countries have already reached their commitment in renewables by 2022, we have a long way to go and currently we are in a situation of "energy weakness" that must be considered as a priority to be resolved by the EU .
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