(14 October 2014) – The European Commission published a study on Monday (13 October) providing the first full dataset on energy costs and subsidies for the 28 member countries across the different power generation technologies, revealing that a large share of public intervention in the energy sector has been in favour of coal and nuclear energy.
The results show that in 2012, the total value of public intervention in energy in the member countries has been between €120-140 billion.
The report finds that the largest amounts of current public support in 2012 went to renewables, in particular to solar (€14.7bn) and onshore wind (€10.1bn), followed by biomass (€8.3bn) and hydropower (€5.2bn).
Among conventional power generation technologies, coal received the largest amount in current subsidies in 2012, with €10.1bn, followed by nuclear (€7 bn) and natural gas (about € 5.2 bn). The figures specifying support across technologies do however not reflect the free allocation of emission certificates nor tax support for energy consumption. (With EurActiv)