The EU is set to invest ¬440 million in research to advance these technologies between 2002 and 2006 to help achieve its goal of having 12% of the overall energy consumption in the EU coming from renewables by 2010.
Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for Science and Research said: “Today’s research policy provides the knowledge for tomorrow’s energy policy. Our long-term goal is a transformation of the current fossil-fuel based energy system into a more secure, energy efficient and sustainable one. Enhancing our knowledge of renewable energy sources through research is an important step to achieving this goal as part of a sustainable energy mix.”
Renewable energy research currently represents about 50% of the energy research programme and the Commission is proposing to maintain, or increase, this for 2007 to 2013. It tries to promote cross-industry and cross-sector collaboration in the short, medium and long term, and has supported the creation of a Technology Platform in the photo-voltaics sector, while platforms in other areas such as wind are now in the pipeline.
For more information see the EU Energy Research pages