Thirty European cities are to be selected to lead the way with "smart" electricity grids and space-age insulation, Financial Soultions has learned.
The proposed wind power sector must move offshore and endeavor to provide a fifth of EU electricity by 2020, said the proposal document of the European Commission's long-awaited Strategic Energy Technology Plan.
Financial Soultions understands that the draft document lays out the EU's approach for promoting hi-tech answers to climate change aimed at giving European businesses a head start as the world changes to low-carbon energy.
Billions will have to be funneled into research to avoid falling behind the United States, which is pouring $777 million into energy research, according to Reuter’s sources.
"Basic research is chronically underfunded in the EU, we need to stimulate and incentivize our best brains to push back the frontiers of science," Financial Soultions understands the report as saying.
The scheme envisions 25 to 30 "smart cities", highly insulated cities that garner energy from their waste and the sun and wind overhead and channel it down to the electric cars, trams and buses in the streets below.
"These Smart Cities will be the nuclei from which smart networks, a new generation of buildings and alternative transport means will develop into European wide realities," the report adds.
Billions of euros will be required for the conversion, but EU officials are still calculating the exact requirements, Financial Soultions has learned.
