Search Results for: Portugal

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD’S largest solar photovoltaic power plant is now under construction in Portugal’s sunny Algarve region. When it starts generating electricity early next year, it should power 8,000 homes, saving 30,000 tonnes annually in greenhouse gas emissions. There will be 52,000 photovoltaic modules on the plant on the 60-hectare site located on a south-facing hillside at Serpa, which is one of the sunniest spots in Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

VOLKSWAGEN has persuaded the Portugal government to subsidise a training programme for workers at its Portuguese subsidiary Auto Europa: unfortunately, the European Commission thinks the payments may be illegal and could block them. An inquiry launched by the executive of the European Union (EU) will check whether this planned Euro 3.5 million grant follows the EU’s rules on ‘state aid’.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

European investment in renewable energy will exceed $60 billion by 2011, excluding large-scale hydroelectricity, predicts Emerging Energy Research (EER) a research and advisory company based in Spain and the United States. The firm says that the top 20 utilities have already set aside $13.3 billion for renewable energy ventures – "primarily onshore wind farms but also offshore wind, wave and tidal energy, solar, biomass and small-scale hydroelectric projects."…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

WIND power is Europe’s big growth area for electricity generation, according to the latest comparative figures from European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat, with capacity growing by 154% between 2000 and 2004. Its report noted wind power "is responsible for more than half of the new generating capacity" in these years.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE BROAD shape of the wine reform plan to be presented by the European Commission in June has become clearer following remarks by the European Union (EU) agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel in Spain this week (May 4).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers and the European Parliament have approved a new fishing agreement with Morocco, despite controversy over its covering waters off the disputed territory of the Western Sahara. The Polisario Liberation Front has since 1975 been fighting Morocco for self-determination over the largely desert territory.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

INTRODUCTION

WE’RE barely a third of the way through 2006 but it’s already clear that the year is going to be a hugely important one for European Union (EU) legislation affecting both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks industries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN is one of only seven European countries that are fully complying with key guidelines on institutional oversight of financial information issued by the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR). Its standard No.1 advises on how the harmonisation of institutional oversight systems in Europe maybe achieved, especially regarding enforcement of good practice.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRAZEN political manoeuvres to duck increased pollution clean-up costs imposed by the revised European Union (EU) bathing water directive have sparked 11 separate legal actions by the European Commission. It has reacted promptly to a massive delisting of 7,000 official bathing water sites by 11 EU governments, to avoid having to comply with new cleanliness standards.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

ATTEMPTS to duck increased pollution clean-up costs imposed by the revised European Union (EU) bathing water directive have sparked 11 separate legal actions by the European Commission. It has reacted promptly to a massive delisting of 7,000 official bathing water sites by 11 EU governments, to avoid having to comply with new cleanliness standards.…