Europe Pushes for Renewable Energy

Romano Prodi has seen the hydrogen-powered light.

In an interview today, Mr. Prodi, the president of the European Commission, described his view of Europe in a post-fossil-fuel era, when homes would generate the power they need from renewable sources like the wind and the sun, store it in hydrogen fuel cells and harness it as needed, replacing all the polluting energy sources in use today.

By PAUL MELLER New York Times

He is not just musing. Speaking for the 15-nation European Union at a conference in Johannesburg over the summer, he said the union had set a goal of obtaining 22 percent of its electricity and 12 percent of all energy from renewable sources by 2010.

Economics and geopolitics are behind the move as much as environmental concerns. Europe depends much more heavily on imported energy than the United States does: around 70 percent of its oil and gas comes from abroad, mainly the Middle East and Russia.

"For us, reducing fossil fuel dependency is a priority," Mr. Prodi said.

The great impediment to wider use of renewable energy has been the difficulty of storing and transporting it for later use, a practical necessity that fossil fuels make relatively simple. Hydrogen may, too, which is why Mr. Prodi takes it so seriously.

Last week, the commission convened the first meeting of a panel of senior executives from European companies with stakes in the matter, like Royal Dutch/Shell, DaimlerChrysler and Rolls-Royce, the aircraft engine maker. The panel will advise the union on the development of hydrogen fuel cells, which promise to be a practical power source for vehicles and fixed use.

The commission, the executive body of the union, has already earmarked more than 2.1 billion euros ($2 billion) for research over the next five years into sustainable energy projects, a 20-fold increase in the last five years (1997-2001). A central focus will be hydrogen fuel cells, a field where the union has lagged the United States and Japan in publicly financed research.

Mr. Prodi said that Europe was poised to leap ahead of its rivals in its overall energy strategy. "Neither the United States nor Japan is clear on its goals," he said, and without clear goals, there is little progress.

Industry agrees. "The European commission is playing a very significant role now in developing hydrogen fuel cells," said Don Huberts, chief executive of Shell Hydrogen, after the advisory panel met last week. "It is providing a framework for the introduction of the new technologies in the E.U. It would be very hard to convert the environmental benefits into consumer benefits without this political leadership."

Herbert Kohler, director of environmental affairs at DaimlerChrysler, said political support was vital. "For the car industry, we can do a lot ourselves, but at a certain point we need fuel — and that means involving others," Mr. Kohler said after the meeting. "We need legislative and financial support to stimulate this sector, and for that we need government involvement."

Researchers have been trying for decades to harness hydrogen as a cheap fuel. Mr. Prodi said that now, for the first time, technological advances "give us the message that we are on the eve of being able to do this cost effectively."

"We are not working on a scientific experiment," he continued. "Science is already on board. We are working for change in the most important pattern of consumption of a contemporary society."

Before assuming the presidency of the European Commission, Mr. Prodi was prime minister of Italy, where he was credited with preparing the country to adopt the euro. In Brussels, he has overseen preparations for the European Union to take in 10 new members in 2004.

The energy project is in the same league as these other big ideas, Mr. Prodi said. "The difference is that with enlargement and with the euro, there is a big bang. Not here. My role here is to kick this process off; others will work on its implementation."

But before Mr. Prodi can fulfill his wider energy ambitions, there are still the union’s existing energy goals to achieve, notably the creation of a liberalized market in energy within the union. Continuing state ownership and support of some major utilities, like Electricité de France, is creating friction with neighboring nations that have privatized faster.

Even old-fashioned energy monopolies like Electricité de France have a role to play in the energy future Mr. Prodi foresees, he said, by helping with the transition.

Mr. Prodi put the cost of converting Europe to a decentralized energy grid based on hydrogen fuel cells placed at or near the point of energy consumption at about five times the cost of installing a mobile-phone network. "The cost is enormous," he said, "but it is not out of reach."

Without involvement of the private sector, the project will not succeed, he said, but companies will become involved in building the new energy network only if there is a strong political will behind them.

What if the looked-for dawn of cheap hydrogen energy never breaks? "Maybe this will fail," Mr. Prodi said. "But then there are no other serious alternatives."

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