What Today's Euro Elections Mean for Energy (Forbes)

[bananas]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christophercoats/2012/05/06/what-todays-euro-elections-mean-for-energy/

Christopher Coats, 5/06/2012
What Today's Euro Elections Mean for Energy

As this blog outlined last week, the French election was sure to have an impact on energy development issues far beyond Paris, both in terms of European funding institutions and nuclear support. As we inch past midnight in Europe and the polls show that President Nicolas Sarkozy is no longer,it’s worth looking at what a François Hollande administration is going to mean for energy efforts across Southern Europe.

For one, Hollande has made it clear that he will reverse Sarkozy’s support for nuclear energy expansion, pledging to close older facilities and sidestep the outgoing president’s promise to extend plant life from 40 to 60 years. In a country that depends on nuclear for 75 percent of its energy needs, Hollande’s approach is sure to demand some serious political will, especially to get anywhere near his stated goal of reducing dependence on the sector to 50 percent within the next 13 years. The loss of Sarkozy’s support in France marks another blow for European nuclear energy, including the shelving of a campaign to reintroduce the sector to Italy after a two-decade ban. Presented by Silvio Berlusconi as a pillar of his energy policy, Italy’s nuclear return was abandoned after Japan’s Fukushima reminded Italians of why they ditched it in the first place – Chernobyl.

However, Sarkozy’s loss this weekend wasn’t the only contest going on in Europe and in terms of energy development and investment, it’s probably not the most important. Over in Athens, the long standing conservative New Democracy Party and the main socialist party, Pasok were both punished by voters for their role in austerity measures meant to satisfy bailout requirements. In their place, Greek voters offered support for various parties that have opposed advice and austerity demands from Brussels and Berlin, inviting worries that the country could soon see cracks emerge in their current lending agreements and future bailout options.

In terms of energy development, this resistance to European Union involvement and further funding schemes could threaten the country’s signature project of their renewable future – the sprawling Helios solar farm – a 20 billion euro effort aimed at creating 10GW by the end of the decade. Pitched by outgoing Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos last month as a pioneering source of energy and revenue for the debt-addled country, the Helios project was supposed to be an economic lifeline, especially if they could realize the possibility of plugging German consumers into the grid. However, with new leadership intent on curbing further EU involvement in the country, getting a hold of structural funds proposed by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso might be a little more difficult than project advocates had hoped.

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[JDPriestly]

1. Odd reasoning. It would seem to me that, in fact, the change in the Greek

government might give Greece a stronger hand in negotiating the price of its solar energy. The energy investment is not a giveaway to Greece by Northern Europeans. Greece has the sun. Countries like Germany don't have it nearly as much. The solar energy installation is in the interest of the wetter, colder climes in Europe. That generally means Northern Europe. The change in the Greek government could raise the value of the energy produced -- especially in terms of repaying Greek debt.