Europe`s onshore and offshore wind energy potential
The exploitation of renewable energy sources can help the European Union meet many of its environmental and energy policy goals, including its obligation to reduce greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol (EC, 2002a) and the aim of securing its energy supply (EC, 2002b; EC, 2005).
As early as 1997, the European Union set an ambitious 2010 indicative target of 12 % for the contribution of renewable energy sources to EU-15 gross inland energy consumption (EC, 1997). In 2001, the EU adopted the Directive on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market, which included a 22.1 % indicative target for the share of EU-15 electricity consumption produced from renewable energy sources by 2010 (EC, 2001).
In January 2008 the European Commission published proposals for a climate change and energy package. In December 2008 the European Parliament and Council reached an agreement on the package that retained the main elements of the Commission's original proposal. The final version of the package adopted by the Council includes national targets to increase the EU average share of renewables to 20 % of final energy consumption by 2020, with at least 10 % of transport energy consumption in each Member State deriving from renewable sources.
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