Sustainable Energy Law Notebook

The European Union (EU) provides diverse financing instruments in favour of sustainable energy. Some might even say that too many instruments exist and that they miss track. Similarly, different sources of information exist, targetting different categories of actors. Fair enough, here is a rapid overview of the available sources of EU funding : EU Solidarity Fund European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; European Investment Bank; European Investment Fund; EU funding programmes. Among the EU funding programmes , the following ones are of particular relevance for sustainable energy (which does not mean that I suceeded in being exhaustive!): Structural and Cohesion Fund European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development -(EAFRD) European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) II (2007-2013) as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and incorporating SAVE, ALTENER and STEER Marco Polo II Programme Eco-Innovation , also part of...

I would like to give here another example of the current international competition in the making of tomorrow's green industry . The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) a total of $8.6 million under the Recovery Act . Four separate projects will be conducted at Berkeley Lab: development of materials able to absorb carbon dioxide emitted from power plants . As described by one of the project leader, this project ' would be the next generation of materials to use in carbon capture and storage (CCS). The current capture process uses huge amounts of energy - roughly 30 percent of the power generated by a power plant. We're hoping we can get it down to 10 percent '; use of common soil bacterium to generate biofuels . The project aims to ' replace gasoline and other petroleum-derived fuels with transportation fuels derived from the solar energy stored in plant biomass. The goal ... is to genetically engine...

On 12 May 2010, a proposal for an American Power Act (APA) has been introduced by two renowned U.S. Senators, John Kerry and Joe Liberman . The bill has as purpose to " secure the energy future of the United States, to provide incentives for the domestic production of clean energy technology, to achieve meaningful pollution reductions, to create jobs, and for other purposes ." The arguments put forward vy Senator Kerry basically 5, or as he puts, 5 "principles": " Consumers will come out on top " by redistributing revenues not spent on U.S. deficit to consumers; developing domestic energy generation, or " We need energy made in America "; invest in innovative energy technologies (all energy sources concerned) for allowing the US to " regain its competitive edge and lead the global clean energy economy ;" adopt an appropriate approach to the three main pollution sectors (power plants, heavy industry and transportation) in matter of car...