STRASBOURG - Renewable energies are crucial for the coming energy decade. However, the grid systems in Europe are not at all prepared. A pilot island project and originally German technology could be the solution - we just need to buy it back from Japan. Brussels. Sourcing 20% of the EU’s energy from renewable sources and lowering emissions by 20% by 2020 - the EU has the most ambitious energy goals in the world. To achieve this, the use of conventional fuels needs to be reduced. Additionally more and more nuclear power plants will go offline; EU pollution rules will also lead to the reduction of coal-fired power plants.  What are the energy sources of the future? Sun, wind, biomass. In brief: renewable energies are without a doubt the new power sources for European societies and their economies.
But ambitious green objectives demand ambitious innovations. The bad news is: For the last 50 years Europeans have missed to develop large scale energy storage devices suitable for renewable technologies.  What we therefore need is a new age of energy technology. The good news is Germany has already jumped on the bandwagon. German scientists have developed a new kind of energy storage: large scale batteries which are capable of stocking enormous amounts of energy, coming from wind or sun radiation. These batteries include the software which controls the flow of power. At the same time they are so lightweight that the individual consumer can easily carry the batteries with him. Therefore everybody can reach energy independence in all areas of life: outdoors, at home, in the office, and on the go. Imagine going camping in the middle of nowhere, working, cooking, even driving, for days and without a power outlet in sight. With the help of this technology, a clean, secure and economical energy supply could be guaranteed.

Trying to prove that with the help of this technology renewable energy could completely replace conventional power sources, a German company recently simulated the energy generation and consumption of the Azorean island of Graciosa. This includes measuring in detail the power needs of the island’s 4500 inhabitants as well as the availability of wind and sun radiation. Before the end of 2010 the island will be equipped with large scale batteries which make it not only completely independent from outside energy sources but also totally CO2-free. All this using only renewable energy.
Next to being climate friendly this technology has another advantage: the user is absolutely independent from conventional power sources. This is remarkable, especially when you think about the gas crisis last year which left Slovakia and Bulgaria in the dark during winter due to tension between Russia and the Ukraine. Unfortunately this innovative technology has been sold to a Japanese company. To equip Europe with this new technology now, the Union has to buy it back from this far Eastern country. A scrap of comfort: Germany is still the only country with the “know how” to integrate these batteries into our grids. The problem about today’s European energy grids: the potential for Europe’s energy to be met by wind and solar radiation is limited by the changing consistency and intensity of these sources. Sun and wind energy supplies are geographically unevenly distributed. For instance, the best wind energy potential lies in the north of Europe during winter, sun radiation however is strongest in the Mediterranean regions of the EU in summer. To sum up: introducing huge loads of irregular and decentralised renewable energy into the current European electricity grids would lead to overloading, instability, and even blackouts. It is a shame that Europe is to date unable to meet its own power needs by itself, although there could be enough renewable energy in the EU for it to be independent from external sources. Evidently the European Union did not think about the technological demands when declaring its green energy goals. But if we do not invest in the required innovations now, the EU’s green climate saving efforts will take on an air of hypocritical populism. However, the new battery and the island experiment clearly show: saving the climate is easy - with the right technology.