There is a place for romanticism in literature and arts in general, however it has no place in the foreign nor energy policy where realism must prevail. Forcing member states to increase renewable resources’ share in the energy mix while lowering energy consumption is absurd and extremely costly.
The cuts should be by 32.5 percent if compared to 2007 and renewable energy should take 32 percent of the mix. According to many experts, lower energy consumption so sharply in times of an economic growth is impossible. Economic growth has always come hand-in-hand with rising energy consumption.
The Czech Republic, for example, cannot even comply with the required cuts to lower the consumption by 20 percent by 2020. As Deputy Minister René Neděla explained, the Czech Republic has been able to accomplish only one third of the target in the past four years.
Increasing renewable resources’ share in the mix is less challenging but it will cost a fortune. According to ČEZ chief Daniel Beneš, it is going to cost between 280 to 1,250 billion CZK, which is truly eye-popping given that the high estimate roughly equals the Czech state budget.
If we break the number down, every household in the country is going to spend an extra 300,000 CZK for the sake of renewable energy. And it will be missed elsewhere in investments to infrastructure and salaries for nurses and kindergarten teachers, to name just a few.
