Renewable energy report not ready yet

Malta has not yet compiled the report forecasting its 2020 renewable energy targets even though this had to be sent to Brussels last month.

A government spokesman admitted Malta was late in compiling the report although work was in progress and the document should be submitted within two weeks.

"The document involved a difficult and time-consuming exercise aimed at predicting the effect of various forms of renewable energy on overall consumption for the next 10 years," the spokesman said.

Justifying the delay, the spokesman pointed out that "a large number of member states have not yet submitted the energy forecast document".

The Times is informed that, so far, 15 of the 27 member states met the deadline and submitted their report, giving reliable predictions of the share of renewables in their energy mix.

According to the Renewables Directive, member states should have submitted their forecasts by the end of 2009.

So far, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden have complied.

The forecast documents are intended to provide member states' preliminary views on the renewable energy they expected to produce domestically as well as export or import by 2020.

After submitting the document, member states are obliged to provide the European Commission with a more detailed plan, called the National Renewable Energy Action Plan, outlining the concrete measures being taken to meet individual national targets. The deadline for this plan is the end of June.

So far, Malta is the only EU member state totally dependent on fossil fuels to produce its energy requirements. According to a deal struck in Brussels some months ago, the island will have to produce at least 10 per cent of its energy needs by 2020 from renewable energy. The government has already embarked on various plans to start producing cleaner energy.

Major projects include the development of three wind farms, one offshore and two land based, and an interconnection-cable linking Malta to the European electricity grid in Sicily.

Prior to joining the EU in 2004, Malta had promised Brussels that, by 2010, it would be in a position to produce five per cent of all its electricity needs and 1.25 per cent of all the fuel used in transport through renewable sources.

However, just a year before the end of this first deadline, Malta remains far from achieving these targets and the Commission is aware the island will not be honouring its commitments.

A spokesman said last month that in its progress report on the electricity and transport renewables targets for 2010, the Commission noted that Malta was still at zero per cent renewable electricity and unlikely to reach its five-per-cent target by the end of this year.

He said Brussels had already written to the Maltese authorities on the issue "and it seems clear the 2010 electricity target will not be met".

At the same time, the Commission was aware the government was concentrating on reaching the 2020 targets and its insisted Malta would this time have to stick to its commitment.