Sir, Regarding ‘Cyber-attacks now the most feared EU energy threat‘: Recent comments by European Commission officials concerning ‘cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure’ are superficial and fail to address key issues. Furthermore, discussions on this subject seem to occur only when budget allocations are being made. In 2003 PWR produced a report on this subject (Vulnerabilities of [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Smart grids could save Europe €52bn‘: The linking of ‘smart grids’ and ‘energy saving’ is often done by those with an interest in selling equipment that ranges from remote-controlled meters (the people that design these are smart, the meters themselves are pretty dumb) through to capital equipment for power networks (similar comments on [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Bulgaria surrenders to ‘South Stream’ pipeline‘: It seems like a very bad idea to put all your eggs in one basket. Both the Nabucco and South Stream gas pipelines are already at the mercy of the Russians even before they start: so when they are pumping and the infrastructure moves towards relying on [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Carbon capture and storage‘: I find the whole saga of the CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) issue entirely distasteful. The oil industry magnates and the coal industry giants must be laughing all the way to the bank and their shareholders must be agreeing with them that they can make a huge killing with [...]

Sir, It is understandable that our elected representatives in the form of the Environment Council may wish to undertake more studies on moving to a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions. After all, this is a momentous step. PWR has some very good news in this regard, which will also delight BusinessEurope. Towards the end of [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Oettinger values EU 2020 energy goals at €1 trln‘: Readers will have noticed that in nature round numbers tend to be the exception rather than the rule (think of pi or e). However, in politics, the reverse seems to be the case as shown by Mr Oettinger’s €1 trln needed to overhaul energy [...]

Sir, The recent report produced by the National Technical University of Athens – ‘Energy Trends to 2030′ and profiled in your august organ included a comment by Mr. Kjaer of the EWEA along the lines that he thought the estimate for 2030 for wind was unrealistic. There is a rather interesting back story to this. [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Commissioner: Farm aid should be a third of EU budget‘: I was one of the contributors to the recent Centre for European Policy Studies report ‘For a Future Sustainable Competitive and Greener EU Budget’. The report came out in favour of restructuring the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) whilst predicting that such restructuring would [...]

Sir, As ministers from across the EU-27 meet for the Informal Energy Council on 6-7 September, the oil refining industry urges them to recognise refining as an essential element of energy infrastructure and ensure that the Communication on Energy infrastructure includes oil pipelines and refining as a vital part of the supply chain for refined [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU sees solar power imported from Sahara in five years‘: Desertec is a German idea. It has mostly German companies taking part and thus it is hardly surprising that a German politician – albeit one that now happens to be a commissioner – supports it. The concerns with respect to using power links [...]