European utilities are world leaders in renewable energy, new ranking shows

European utilities are among the greenest utilities in the world, according to the latest edition of a global utility ranking published by Energy Intelligence.

Spanish utility Iberdrola and Portuguese utility EDP lead the Top 100 Green Utilities list. In total, 6 of the top 10 companies are European, including Iberdrola, EDP, Enel, DONG Energy, EDF, and E.ON.

Published in EI New Energy, the global Top 100 Green Utilities ranking is based on renewable energy portfolio and greenhouse gas emissions. This year’s edition shows that renewable technologies accounted for a staggering 80% of new generation added by large utilities in 2013, compared with 30% in 2012.

“This ranking confirms European utilities’ role as global leaders on green energy. Indeed, European electricity companies today are instrumental in turning Europe’s low-carbon energy transition into reality. EURELECTRIC and its members are continuously working to ensure that investment in green energy remains attractive and that Europe’s energy system adapts as the share of renewable energy continues to grow,” said EURELECTRIC Secretary General Hans ten Berge.

EI New Energy, a specialist publication covering trends in carbon, renewable energy, and transportation, selected 100 of the largest power generators from around the world, accounting for just over half of global capacity. The ranking evaluated their “greenness” according to carbon dioxide emissions per megawatt hour, volume of renewable energy capacity, and proportion of renewables to total capacity.

Interim report provides first full dataset on energy costs and subsidies for EU28 across power generation technologies

The functioning of energy markets and the size and effect of government interventions has been the subject of debate for years. To date however, a consolidated dataset for government interventions in the power market of the European Union has been missing. This is why the European Commission has commissioned a study that aims at helping to close the knowledge gap by quantifying the extent of public interventions in energy markets in all 28 Member States. Today we present the interim results of the external study on "subsidies and costs of EU energy".

The interim report presented today collects a hitherto not existing set of data on costs and subsidies across the various generation technologies in the electricity sector and across all EU Member States. It represents a first concrete deliverable following the Communication "Delivering the internal electricity market and making the most of public intervention" from November 2013.

Vice-President Günther H. Oettinger responsible for energy said: "Together with the Commission's earlier report on drivers for energy prices, we now have a set of data on subsidies and costs in the field of energy that is more solid and comprehensive than anyone before. We are now better informed about the size of public subsidies in recent years and the costs for power generation across all technologies. But the task is not yet completed. This can only be a first step and there are still gaps in our knowledge. We have to continue to work on filling these gaps. More research is needed, in particular on historical subsidies in the energy market in all EU Member States and the EU overall."

The results show that in 2012, the total value of public interventions in energy (excluding transport) in the EU28 were between €120-140 billion. Unsurprisingly, and given the efforts to expand the share of renewable energy in the EU’s overall energy consumption, the largest amounts of current public support in 2012 went to renewables, in particular to solar (€14.7bn) and onshore wind (€10.1bn), followed by biomass (€8.3bn) and hydropower (€5.2bn). Among conventional power generation technologies, coal received the largest amount in current subsidies in 2012 with €10.1bn, followed by nuclear (€7 bn) and natural gas (about € 5.2 bn). The figures specifying support across technologies do however not reflect the free allocation of emission certificates nor tax support for energy consumption. Including these factors would reduce the gap between support for renewables and other power generation technologies. The study also discusses the order of magnitude of historical interventions, which are considerable for coal and nuclear. Further work is however needed to arrive at more solid estimates of historical subsidies.

The interim report also presents figures on the cost competitiveness of the different power generation technologies. The estimated ranges reflect costs of new power generation without public intervention (levelised costs). Costs for producing one MWh of electricity from coal are in a range around €75. Electricity from onshore wind is generated at only somewhat higher costs. Costs for power from nuclear and natural gas are in comparable ranges around €100/MWh. Solar power costs have fallen considerably since 2008 to about €100-115/MWh depending on the size of installations.

The interim report also presents estimates on external costs across power generation technologies. These are costs that are not reflected in market prices, such as costs of environmental and health impacts and the impact of climate change. The methods for quantifying external costs come with a high degree of uncertainty, and the report only aims to identify orders of magnitude for external costs. It puts the figure of external costs of the EU’s energy mix in 2012 at between €150 and 310 billion.

The interim report can be found at

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/studies/doc/20141013_subsidies_costs_eu_energy.pdf

For further information
http://ec.europa.eu/energy/gas_electricity/internal_market_en.htm

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I bonus per l’energia elettrica e il gas

I bonus, introdotti per legge e gestiti dall’Autorità per l’energia che ne assicura l’operatività con la collaborazione di ANCI e dei comuni, consentono di ottenere uno sconto, al netto delle imposte,  del 20% circa sulla  spesa annua per la luce e del 15% circa per  quella di gas. Nel 2014, il bonus elettrico vale dai 72 ai 156 euro; il bonus gas da 35 a circa 300 euro, il bonus per le apparecchiature salvavita dai 177 ai 639 euro.

Per fare richiesta occorre avere un ISEE di non oltre 7.500 euro/anno oppure di 20mila euro anno con più di tre figli. Le informazioni su come fare richiesta sono disponibili sui siti dell’Autorità www.autorita.energia.it  e dell’ANCI  www.bonusenergia.anci.it  o al numero verde 800.166.654 dello Sportello per il Consumatore di energia.

Bonus sociali energia, solo il 30% delle famiglie disagiate ne fa richiesta.

Negli ultimi cinque anni sono stati assegnati oltre tre milioni di bonus per ridurre la spesa per luce e gas a persone in difficoltà economica, famiglie numerose e malati gravi che necessitano di apparecchiature elettromedicali salvavita. Tuttavia,  secondo  una  recente  indagine  dell’Autorità  per  l’energia,  solo  il  30%  dei potenziali beneficiari richiede i bonus e le percentuali più basse di richieste si riscontrano nelle aree dove è maggiore il livello di indigenza e minore il grado di istruzione.

Nasce da queste evidenze la campagna di comunicazione promossa dalla Presidenza del Consiglio–Dipartimento per l’Informazione e l’Editoria, dal Ministero dello Sviluppo economico e dall’Autorità per l’energia per rafforzare l’informazione agli oltre 3 milioni di potenziali beneficiari. Si tratta di quanti hanno una certificazione ISEE compatibile con quella necessaria per richiedere i bonus, ovvero di persone che in oltre il 70% dei casi sono a rischio povertà e  nel 40% dei casi in stato di povertà assoluta.

Gli spot radio e tv della campagna  verranno diffusi sugli spazi gratuiti a disposizione della Presidenza sulle reti Rai1 per due settimane, dalle 8 alle 18  dal lunedì al venerdì, negli orari di apertura   del   numero   verde   800.166.654   dello   Sportello   per   il   consumatore. Nell’occasione, il call center dello   Sportello - servizio gratuito attivato dall’Autorità e gestito in avvalimento dall’Acquirente Unico-  è stato rafforzato in numero di operatori, per poter far fronte all’atteso incremento di richieste di informazioni.