Hungary - Wind power woefully behind European average

Hungary has continued to expand its network of wind turbines but still lags far behind the European average in harnessing wind energy, national daily Magyar Hirlap said on Monday. The country's first wind farm, a Hungarian-Spanish joint venture comprising 12 turbines with a total capacity of 24 MW, went online near the village of Mosonszolnok, NW Hungary, a few weeks ago with capacity to generate 52,000 MWh of electricity annually.

Before it was built, individual wind turbines dotted the country - there were just 38 with an aggregate nominal capacity of over 60 MW. With the latest addition, wind energy will provide just 0.02% of Hungarian electricity consumption, said the paper. Of the similar-sized European nations, Portugal's wind power amounts to 1,022 MW while Austrian wind farms have a capacity of 819 MW.