Europe says yes to 45% RES!
Welcome to the April edition of our newsletter, coming to you on the heels of a big success for our energy and climate security: the EU have reached a provisional deal on Europe’s 2030 renewables targetprovisional deal on Europe’s 2030 renewables target: a 42.5% binding renewable target, plus 2.5% indicative target.
As many of you will know, SolarPower Europe have been working hard to achieve this elevated renewable energy target, through our #Yesto45RES campaign and rigorous advocacy work over the past 2 years.
We are delighted to see this raised ambition, which is absolutely necessary for achieving our climate goals and working towards a 100% renewable, fossil-free energy system by 2040.
Compared to the lower 40% target that was on the table, 45% renewables will:
- reduce EU CO2 emissions by 500 tonnes every year
- save €200 billion on gas import costs
- halve the amount of gas imports Europe needs
This success set a nice tone ahead of our Annual General Meeting which took place at SolarPower Europe offices in Brussels earlier this week. During the meeting we held elections to appoint key members of the board, including the President, two Vice-President positions, and two members of the Board of Directors.
Congratulations to our President Aristotelis Chantavas, two Vice Presidents Jochen Hauff, Baywa r.e., and Alexandra Sombsthay, Akuo energy, and members of our Board of Directors, Stefanie Alexander, RWE Renewables, and Jörg Ebel, IBC Solar.
We look forward to working together with these energy transition leaders to deliver a Europe that is built for the future, built for the people and built for solar!
“European solar is entering a new era. Solar is more in demand than ever, and citizens and policymakers are counting on us to deliver climate neutrality and energy security. It's a great honour to be re-elected as President of SolarPower Europe, and to be able to continue building the solar foundation of the new European energy system.”
Aristotelis Chantavas, President, SolarPower Europe
In addition to these wonderful bits of news, March was a bright month for a multitude of other reasons:
- Europe’s leading CEO’s joined us at our offices in Brussels to exchange with European Commission Vice Presidents, Commissioners and Director Generals on a range of solar topics.
- We held our biggest and best SolarPower Summit to date! Watch the video here and find photos here.
- The European Commission published its proposal to reform the EU Electricity Market Design Reform, and the Net-Zero Industry Act.
- We received some very generous donations from our members to the Solar Supports Ukraine fundraiser. Please consider donating here.
Looking towards spring we would like to invite you to our webinar on Solar, Biodiversity and Land-Use on 20 April and our Solar Cities workshop on 24 April, make sure to register here.
Walburga Hemetsberger
CEO, SolarPower Europe
ENERPARC AG
