The EU’s Strategic Energy Technology (SET) plan

The SET-Plan is the technology pillar of the EU's energy and climate policy, a strategic plan to accelerate the development and deployment of cost-effective low carbon technologies. This plan comprises measures relating to planning, implementation, resources and international cooperation in the field of energy technology.

The SET-Plan was adopted by the European Union in 2008, and is a first step to establish an energy technology policy for Europe. It is the principal decision-making support tool for European energy policy, with a goal of:
o Accelerating knowledge development, technology transfer and up-take;
o Maintaining EU industrial leadership on low-carbon energy technologies;
o Fostering science for transforming energy technologies to achieve the 2020 Energy and Climate Change goals;
o Contributing to the worldwide transition to a low carbon economy by 2050.

Implementation of the SET-Plan started with the establishment of the European Industrial Initiatives (EIIs) which bring together industry, the research community, the Member States and the Commission in risk-sharing, public-private partnerships aimed at the rapid development of key energy technologies at European level. In parallel, the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) has been working since 2008 to align the R&D activities of individual research organisations to the needs of the SET-Plan priorities, and to establish a joint programming framework at the EU level. The projected budget for the SET-Plan has been estimated at up to €71.5 billion.

The SET Plan outlines, from a Europe wide perspective, what needs to be done in terms of energy technology development, demonstration and deployment, to achieve the EU’s 2020 energy and emission targets and its vision for where Europe needs to be by 2050.

Activity on the Plan is now gathering considerable pace. The technologies identified as required for 2020 are: 2nd generation biofuels; CO₂ capture, transport and storage; wind, particularly off-shore wind; photovoltaic and concentrated solar power; smart grids; more efficient energy conversion and end-use devices and systems in buildings, transport and industry, for
example poly-generation and fuel cells; and nuclear fission, including long-term waste management solutions.

The technologies currently further away from deployment, but expected to have an important role in the EU meeting its 2050 vision are: energy storage; hydrogen fuel cell vehicles; generation IV nuclear fission; fusion; trans-European energy networks; and new technologies for energy efficiency, including materials, nano-science, information and communication, bioscience and computation. These priorities will be reviewed as necessary in line with
technology developments.

The UK, through the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), is playing a full part in the development of the SET Plan and its new initiatives. In doing so, they will also be looking to others within the UK, in industry and Government, to help take full advantage of the opportunities the Plan is likely to offer.