The financial crisis in Europe is unlikely to derail Brussels' clean power vision.European renewable energy installations hit record levels last year and are likely to grow strongly over the next decade, despite European governments' budget woes. That's the view of a report released last week by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Brussels. The report suggests that the growth won't be slowed by the German parliament's approval on Friday of a reduction in price supports for solar power, or by a similar reduction in solar incentives by Spain last year.
Solar companies in Germany had warned that the proposed reductions in incentives would hurt the solar industry there, but the lead author of the new report, Arnulf Jäger-Waldau, a Joint Research Centre senior scientist, downplays their warnings. "The solar lobby was very efficient in drawing a dramatic picture that's clearly overstated," he says. While German solar panel manufacturers could face challenges, he says, installers will still make a decent profit.
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Author: Peter Fairley
