The development of renewable energy - particularly wind, water, solar and biomass energies - is one of the main aims of the European Commission's energy policy. The European Commission's White Paper for promoting a Community Strategy sets out a strategy to double the share of renewable energies in gross domestic energy consumption in the European Union by 2010 from the present 6 to 12%.

Catalonia has been a pioneer in the creation of businesses that are making deep inroads into developing the renewable energy sector. One of the most illustrative examples is the company Ecotecnia.

This pioneering and innovative spirit, together with the specific weight that renewable energies carry at present in Catalonia and in Spain, mean that there is a large domestic market for renewable energies that has an enormous potential for growth. With regard to this issue, the 2006-2015 Energy Guideline Plan anticipates that Catalonia will:

• Increase the amount of renewable energy generated from 736 ktep in 2003 to 2,689 ktep in 2015.
• Boost wind power production by 3000 MW by 2015.
• Install at least 22 MWp of photovoltaic solar energy in public buildings by 2010.
• Consume 700,000 T/year of biofuels by 2015, a 15% increase in comparison to 2003.  

As far as infrastructures are concerned, the following should be highlighted: the Energy Park, which will bring together educational institutions, R&D centres and businesses from the sector in an area of 150,000 square metres; and, the ITER project, which is an international initiative for the development of nuclear fusion.

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