Tuesday 8 July 2014
The EU needs to improve its management of spending on renewable energy projects to make the “maximum possible contribution” to achieving its 2020 target.
That’s the conclusion of a report published by the European Court of Auditors (ECA), which looked into whether funds in that period had been allocated to cost-effective, well-prioritised and mature renewable energy generation projects.
The report found that although the projects were ready for implementation when selected and there were no time delays, energy production results were not always achieved or not properly measured.
It stated: "The overall value for money of Cohesion policy funds support to renewable energy generation projects has been limited in helping achieve the EU 2020 renewable energy target because cost-effectiveness has not been the guiding principle in planning and implementing the renewable energy generation projects and cohesion policy funds had a limited EU added value."
Around €4.7 billion (£3.7bn) was allocated for renewable energy by the EU Cohesion policy funds between 2007 and 2013. The EU has set a target to generate 20% of energy from renewable sources by 2020.