The European Union is in the process of drafting legislation that would encourage renewable energy, but it appears the UK is attempting to water down the effort.

According to Claude Turmes, a member of the European Parliament representing Luxembourg, Britain is trying to obstruct the EU's efforts to increase renewable energy so that the UK can protect traditional energy suppliers along with their coal, gas and nuclear power plants. Turmes is the architect of the EU renewable energy initiative. He told the Guardian, "This would take us backwards and would weaken the possibilities of connecting renewable energy to the grid. A government that says it wants to promote renewables cannot go for other policies behind the scenes."

The energy initiative supports the EU's goals to rely on renewable energy for 20 percent of Europe's needs by 2020. The nations making up the European Union will be required to provide priority access to their power grids for renewable energy sources. But the U.K. wants to make that requirement optional. Turmes has argued that such a change would undermine the initiative — the current plan is based on successful policies that have been put into place in Germany, Spain and Denmark. He says that the requirement will help countries "kick dirty energy sources like coal off the grid."

This question actually directly addresses a key issue facing renewable energy in Britain: there are very connections to the national grid that renewable energy sources can access. Currently, 9.3 GW of power — in the form of completed wind farms in Scotland — is waiting for a connection to the national grid. The wind farms are standing idle in the meanwhile. The British government has justified their actions with the argument that it is concerned about relying heavily on renewable sources of electricity which operate intermittently. Giving priority access to renewable energy sources would make it more difficult to access back-up systems.

The EU's energy initiative looks very promising in the long run. Even if the legislation is amended in Britain's favor, there is little question of it becoming law. And no matter the priority the U.K. gives to offering access to their national power grid for renewable energy sources, the nation will still be required to generate 15 percent of its energy from clean sources by 2020. It may not be the ideal adoption that Turmes envisioned, but the U.K. will be adopting a significant amount of renewable energy.

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