According to a recent press statement, an Extraordinary General Assembly was held at the beginning of the year in which it was decided that EREC would voluntarily dissolve itself. The reasons given for this at the time were high liabilities from its lease obligations on Renewable Energy House where EREC is situated in the centre of Brussels.
Speaking at the time, Rainer Hinrichs-Rahlwes, president of EREC, said, It is therefore particularly regrettable and somewhat ironic that, although the Renewable Energy House itself is running fine and is a testament to the reliability of our technologies, the lease agreement of the building has now turned out to be the cause of the demise of the organisation that the Renewable Energy House was intended to serve.
ERECs demise comes at a time of great sea-change for the renewable energy industry due to increased global competition, stagnation of markets, and a cutback in policy incentives by governments.
The industry is seeing great changes elsewhere. Last month, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association changed completely the make-up of its board of directors. Oliver Schäfer of SunPower Corporation was recently elected as the associations new president at a meeting in Brussels. At the same time, Riccardo Amoroso, Murray Cameron, and Jodie Roussell were appointed as vice-presidents; while Seb Berry, Christian Westermeier, Conrad Burke, and Arnaud Chaperon were elected as directors. It was also announced that secretary general Reinhold Buttgereit intended to step down at the end of March.
Hinrich-Rawles said that EREC had made considerable political achievements in its decade of existence.
He added, Without EREC, there would probably not be a 20% renewable energy target for 2020 and the Renewables Directive would be weaker. EREC has now laid the ground for a positive and constructive debate on a 2030 policy framework including a meaningful and binding target for renewables.
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