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Add to Preferred SourcesEU countries are using the low carbon transition to justify new subsidies to the coal industry, instead of investing in clean alternatives.
Six member states have introduced support totaling €875 million a year ($960m) since 2015, according to a report by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). That is in spite of signing up to the Paris climate deal, which signalled a shift away from fossil fuels. The bulk of this is schemes to keep old coal plants online, ostensibly needed as back-up generation for times when variable wind and solar power cannot meet demand. Germany and Poland are among countries planning further such “capacity mechanisms”.
“What we need is really investment in the technologies that will support these [clean energy] systems over the longer term. If we are moving to a 100% renewables, we need storage, we need demand side response measures.They [capacity mechanisms] are favouring incumbents, where there is very little evidence that they provide the best solution to the problem.” report co-author Shelagh Whitley.
For example, the UK system operator paid conventional generators that might have otherwise closed £180 million ($233m) over three years to stay on standby. This reserve was never called on, the Times reported. That scheme is being replaced by another, which critics say delays coal plant decommissioning and discriminates against clean options for managing the grid.
In total, the ODI report identified 65 subsidies worth €6.3 billion a year ($6.9bn) to coal mining and power activities across 10 EU countries. That is likely to be an underestimate, as some data is not available. While there are signs of mining subsidies – the major part – getting phased out, schemes that throw aging coal plants a lifeline are coming into fashion.
Germany is set to pay for 2.7GW of coal capacity to stay on the system until 2021. Poland is gearing up to spend more than €20 billion ($22bn) on a capacity market, with some coal-fired plants expected to bid for payments. The European Commission has warned that backdoor subsidies to coal may constitute illegal state aid – although the competition directorate has already cleared some such schemes.
Source: Climate change news. Read full article here.
10 May, 2017