This weekend EWEA’s very own Sarah Azau ran a half-marathon in Brussels raising money for Renewable World – a charity that supports the development of renewable energy projects in some of the world’s poorest countries – we caught up with her the day after the race…
How did the race go and how do you feel today?
It went well and I am really happy with my time – I completed the 20 km course in 1 hour 38 minutes. But it was a tough race; I ran quicker than I normally do so at times I really had to will myself to keep going. Plus with 30,000 runners you spend a lot of time trying to overtake people, which can be a bit frustrating! However, the great support of the crowd and, above all, the knowledge that I was running to support the fantastic work of Renewable World really spurred me on.
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The German government took a landmark decision this morning by deciding to phase out the use of nuclear power by 2022. The move stands to put Germany – a country where about a quarter of electricity needs were met by nuclear before March this year – on a path to massively increasing renewable energies and overhauling its grid infrastructure to meet its future electricity needs.
Eight of the 17 nuclear plants will be permanently switched off by the end of this year – seven of these are already disconnected from the grid for safety inspections following the Fukushima melt-down. The Financial Times Deutschland reported that Germany remains self-sufficient in electricity even without these reactors.
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Rick Needham, Google
Google Inc. is living up to its reputation as an environmentally-conscious company determined to take its part in a green energy revolution by providing €39 million to help finance a massive wind farm in southern California.
Rick Needham, Google’s Director of Green Business Operations, said this week that the search engine company has now invested more than €284 million in wind power and other renewables. He was speaking at the WINDPOWER 2011 Conference & Exhibition in California, organised by the American Wind Energy Association.
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It’s good to see the International Energy Agency (IEA) agreeing with EWEA. And that’s exactly what they do in their latest report. ‘Harnessing Variable Renewables’ points out that so-called “variable” energy sources such as wind can be managed with an intelligent, joined-up grid and a functioning electricity market. In fact, the more flexible the power system, the bigger the role renewables can play, the report says.
It also shows that the larger the ‘balancing area’ – that is, the area for which power demand is matched to production – the more any ups and downs in power supply from variable sources are smoothed out. Another point EWEA has often made.
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The European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) has called for a binding target to reach a 45% share of renewable energy in the overall energy mix by 2030, building on the EU’s current targets to reach 20% by 2020.
Today’s call, made at Europe’s Renewable Energy Policy Conference in Brussels, comes as political momentum is steaming ahead for a post-2020 renewable energy target.
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