The potentials, prospects and constraints of renewable energy sources in Europe

Present conditions within the energy market of the European Union are not conducive to a rapid penetration of renewable energy technologies. Many obstacles are, directly or indirectly, due to the low energy density of renewable energy and its high variation in time and space. In many cases, the results are high costs for the provision of useful energy to satisfy the demand. Although the environmental impact of renewable technologies is in many cases not negligible, they are, on average, lower than those of technologies that use fossil fuels. In order to reach global as well as European environmental targets and to provide a long–term sustainability within the energy sector, efforts have to be made to remove the given obstacles to a larger use of renewable energy sources by means of continuous R&D projects and market introduction if appropriate.