Conference told that risky investment in energy 'must stop'

Risky investment in energy "must stop", a high-level conference in Brussels has heard.

The Friends of Europe policy summit on Wednesday heard that a comparison could be drawn between the energy sector and the current economic downturn.

Christian Kjaer, CEO of the European Wind Energy Association, said, "The financial crisis was brought on by too many [people] investing too much of their wealth in risky assets.

"In the energy sector, we have been doing much the same for decades. We have invested too much of our wealth in risky technologies with low capital cost and high and unpredictable fuel and operating cost."

He pointed out that, according to commission figures, the EU is home to 0.8 per cent of the world's proven oil reserves, two per cent of proven gas reserves and 1.9 per cent of global coal reserves.

"Out of the reserves it has, 80 per cent is coal. Europe has no significant resources and the ones we have are extremely dirty," he told the conference," he said.

"In this carbon and fuel constrained world, Europe has a considerable competitive disadvantage when it comes to conventional energy resources."

He said that from a European security of supply perspective, both Russia and Ukraine "have the power to leave Europe in the dark".

"So we are stuck with a European supply structure exposed to all kinds of risk that our energy models still deny the existence of," he said.

"Meanwhile, Europe's existing power plants are ageing and 50 per cent of all the power generating capacity operating in the EU today needs to be replaced over the coming 15 years."

Kjaer was speaking in a session on how technological developments are set to revolutionise the image of sustainable energy.

Speaking at the same conference, UK ALDE MEP Chris Davies said that the growth of carbon capture systems had been held up by several factors, including pricing and an "absence of regulation."

Have your say...

Please enter your comments below.

Name

Your e-mail address

Listen to audio version

Please type in the letters or numbers shown above (case sensitive)