Europe needs 50bn euros to win green tech race

Europe risks falling behind the US and Asia unless it persuades the private sector to invest €50bn (£46bn) in researching clean energy technologies over the next decade, say EU regulators.

By Rowena MasonPublished: 8:42PM BST 07 Oct 2009
The European Commission yesterday claimed Europe needs more than its current €8bn research funding budget if it is to spend enough on experimental green technology. More than 80pc of this funding is usually spent on agriculture.
Europe has driven the green agenda in terms of tackling climate change, but it risks being leapfrogged by China, India and North America unless there is more investment in early-stage technologies such as carbon capture and storage.
The plea for more money to develop renewable, clean energy sources came as the Crown Estate confirmed it was close to leasing out the Scottish seabed for tidal wave power projects.
Rob Hastings, marine director at the Crown Estate, said tidal licences will be announced by February, but admitted that “there is a need to develop commercial technology”.
The UK state landowner also said it will take at least until 2014 before the third generation of offshore wind turbines begin to be installed.
It is due to award the licences for these projects by the end of this year.
The body, which owns more than half of the UK coastline, estimates that £100bn of private sector funds will be necessary to help meet the country’s target of producing a third of its electricity from renewable energy by 2020.
It also confirmed that the UK’s first plant equipped with carbon capture and storage technology is likely to send emissions by pipe to be buried under the North Sea.
The Government is currently deciding which UK coal-fired plant to give up to £1bn of subsidies in order to trial the untested technology.
If Iberdrola, the owner of Scottish Power, wins the competition, it will pump gas into a disused field owned by Royal Dutch Shell.
If RWE npower or E.ON gets the funding, they will pipe the gas into a depleted field owned by Eni, the Italian oil company.
“There is a desire to store the carbon dioxide offshore,” said Dermot Grimson, a spokesman for the Crown Estate.
“The best places to start, because the geology is understood, are depleted oil and gas fields offshore.”