Under EC law, the result laid out by a directive is mandatory (e.g. 10% renewables in transport) but member states have leeway in how they will achieve that result. What this means is that each EU state will be required to plan their national future of energy .  

Essentially, this is the first step of the directive: the EU commission will adopt a RAP template by June 30, 2009 and member states will have 12 months to produce their plans.

Minimum requirements  for the RAPs include expected consumption demands for electricity, h+c and transport and the expected contribution of each renewable energy technology to reach their target (e.g. wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels etc.)

In addition will be the support schemes that will leverage the technologies (e.g. financial mechanisms, incentives, tax breaks, quotas, certificates, fines, feed-in tariffs and subsidies etc).

Members must also indicate what ‘joint projects’  they will do with other member state or non-EU states  and what ‘statistical transfers’  they will do to make up their targets, which is essentially pre-arranged transfer of renewable energy ‘credits’ between 2 member states or member and non-EU member.

So what does this all mean, it means if you want to be a player in the renewable energy industry in Europe, the time is right now. The time to influence financial support schemes, find suppliers, co-ordinate backers and make proposals for projects, is here.

The timing of the directive is explicit; it is meant to reinvigorate the European economy and bring employment to a recession hit landscape. The levelling effect of the credit crunch means competitiveness lies once again in innovation.

‘Cash is King’ and the European Future Energy Forum will be the largest meeting of private equity investors, clean tech funds and financial instituitions in the EU market this year and the basis of the largest exhange of renewable knowledge in the EU.

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