While some EU countries are decommissioning their nuclear power plants, others are seeking to extend the life of existing facilities and develop new ones, in a quest for cheap, low-carbon energy, yet with heightened safety measures. NUGENIA has been set up to bring nuclear power R&D under a single umbrella.

As the European Investment Bank scheme begins selling carbon allowances under the EC NER 300 scheme to fund innovative low-carbon demonstration projects, the low carbon price is already significantly reducing the amount of money that will be available.

The Annual Congress is open to all EERA Members and external stakeholders, representatives from ministries, funding agencies, the European Commission, industry, scientific institutes and universities as well as politicians (national and European) with an interest in energy research.

Two new statistical reports published by the European Wind Energy Association take a close look at the state of wind energy in Europe in 2011. The latest figures published in February by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) show a levelling off in the rate of new wind power installations in the EU compared to recent years, although wind continues to increase its share of the EU’s power generation capacity.

Internationally renowned experts on technology from Europe, India, Japan and the USA gathered during a workshop on "learning curves for policy support" on 8th March in Amsterdam.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) recently published a methodology based on geographical information systems (GIS) that can be used to assess the potential for transformation of single reservoirs and lakes into pumped hydropower energy storage (PHS) facilities.

Gerhard Stryi-Hipp, Head of Energy Policy, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems and President of the European Technology Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling talks to SETIS about the work of the Platform and its Common Vision for the future.

In order to enable a higher penetration of wind and other variable renewables in the electricity system, the flexibility of the latter must be increased. Electricity storage is one of the main avenues to achieve system flexibility, others being improved interconnections, flexible conventional generation plant and demand-side management.

Pumped hydropower storage (PHS) is currently the only widespread electricity storage technology able to the offer large-scale storage that is needed for accommodating renewable electricity under the 2020 EU energy targets.

In this interview Giles Dickson talks to SETIS about industry financing of SET-Plan activities.