JOULE/THERMIE - 51 projects for renewable energies
The European Commission has awarded grants to 51 research projects in the area of renewable energies following a call for proposals published in January 1996 under the Community's specific RTD programme in the field of non-nuclear energy (JOULE/THERMIE). The call, which focused specifically on renewable sources of energy, attracted some 121 proposals. These were evaluated by the Commission with assistance from independent experts. The very focused nature of the call, as well as the various information activities organized in each Member State, led to a significant improvement in both the relevance and quality of the proposals submitted. This is demonstrated by the high success rate: one in every 2.4 proposals accepted instead of one in five as in previous calls. The call was part of an action plan in favour of renewable energies announced by Mrs. Edith Cresson, Commissioner responsible for science, training and youth, in November 1995, and was aimed specifically at increasing the part of renewable energy projects in the programme. The 51 projects selected following the call will benefit from Community financing of ECU 39.1 million. They fall into the following three areas of the JOULE/THERMIE work programme: - Area 3.2 Photovoltaics (31 projects); - Area 3.4 Wind (10 projects); - Area 3.5 Biomass (10 projects). Following this call, resources allocated to renewable energies under the JOULE section of the programme will reach ECU 140.3 million. This represents 57% of the total resources of the programme - very close to the target set (58.6%) in the Council Decision.