Newsarchive - WindEurope

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Wind industry & Government commit to boosting offshore wind and jobs in Poland

09/28/2021

On 15 September 2021 Poland signed its first Offshore Wind Sector Deal. This Government-industry collaboration aims to establish a leading offshore wind industry in Poland. Under the Sector Deal the industry commits to the creation of up to 60,000 direct and indirect jobs in Poland’s wind industry by 2040. The Government in turn reinforces Poland’s ambitions to accelerate the energy transition with renewables by launching a new auction system and carrying out competitive auctions for offshore wind from 2025.

Spanish measures on electricity undermine EU Green Deal

09/28/2021

The Spanish Government has introduced a new charge on wind farms and other non-polluting power plants to “compensate” for the higher revenue they say they’re earning as a result of higher wholesale electricity prices. They argue that high gas prices have driven up electricity prices, that wind farms don’t have to buy gas so they’re earning “windfall profits”.

Turkey reaches 10 GW wind energy milestone

09/13/2021

Turkey has rapidly developed into a leading market for wind energy. The country lately celebrated an important milestone: it reached a cumulative wind energy capacity of 10,000 MW. Turkey’s large territory and excellent wind speeds offer ideal conditions for wind energy production. Over the past decade the country has developed a strong wind energy supply chain.

Offshore wind continues to break new boundaries

08/31/2021

Offshore wind continues to break new boundaries. Europe has 120 offshore wind farms already. The EU wants much more and sees offshore wind producing around 20% of our power by 2050. The first 6 months of this year have seen some significant developments which give confidence that this can be achieved.

New German Government must make wind energy a top priority again

08/27/2021

On 26 September Germany will elect a new Parliament. The election will mark the end of the 16-year reign of Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). Regardless of the outcome of the election, WindEurope, the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) and VDMA Power Systems call on the new Federal Government to acknowledge the central role of wind energy as the backbone of the German energy system and to remove the existing obstacles to wind energy expansion.

Spanish offshore wind reaches key milestone

08/10/2021

Spain is a European leader in wind energy. But it is yet to enter into commercial offshore wind development. The Spanish Government now closed the consultation for Spain’s first Offshore Wind Roadmap, a key milestone on the way towards Spain’s first commercial offshore wind farms.

Europe must get its State aid rules right to have any chance of delivering climate neutrality

08/10/2021

The European Commission is revising its 2014 State aid guidelines for environment and energy. These guidelines define what national Government can and cannot do to support climate and energy projects, notably in wind energy. The first draft of the post-2021 rules promotes a technology-neutral approach to allocating public support – based on CO2 abatement potential. The lack of clarity on the specific framework for renewables risks slowing their roll-out which is a pre-condition to delivering climate neutrality. The public consultation on the draft provisions has just closed with final rules coming into force in January 2022.

Building on Europe’s experience to make offshore wind an American success story

08/05/2021

On 29 July WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson was invited to give a testimony in front of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Energy, the Environment and Cyber. He provided lessons the USA could draw from Europe’s success in developing offshore wind. Offshore wind has become a large European industry, contributing to economic growth and decarbonisation. It can do the same for the US.

Austria aims to have 100% renewable electricity by 2030

07/27/2021

The Austrian National Parliament has voted in favour of the country’s new Renewable Expansion Law (EAG). The law sets a 100% renewable electricity consumption goal by 2030 for Austria – up from 75% right now.

Greek plans to suspend grid connection regime for combined renewable power plants cause concern

07/21/2021

The Greek Government plans to change the grid connection procedure for combined renewable power plants. Combined renewable power plants are facilities that combine electricity generation from different renewable sources, such as wind and solar energy and/or combine renewables with storage technologies.

Big-scale floating wind is kicking off in France

07/20/2021

France has closed the world’s first-ever auction for a commercial-sized floating offshore wind farm. The future wind farm will be located in the Atlantic Ocean south of Brittany and will have a capacity of 250MW. France will then auction two other floating projects of a similar size over the next year. These will be in the in the Mediterranean Sea which also has good conditions for floating wind.

It’s official: The EU Commission wants 30 GW a year of new wind up to 2030

07/15/2021

The European Commission has tabled the Fit-for-55 package, a series of legislative proposals to deliver the EU’s increased climate target of 55% emissions reduction by 2030. The package includes a higher renewables target and new rules to support the expansion of renewables. It further strengthens the Emissions Trading System to drive the electrification of the whole energy system. It is a good package.

Italy needs an ambitious Simplification Decree to speed up permitting

07/06/2021

SolarPower Europe, WindEurope, ANEV, ANIE Rinnovabili, Elettricità Futura and Italia Solare have called on the Italian Government to adopt an ambitious Simplification Decree to speed up the deployment of renewables in the country.

Decision to extend EU steel safeguard will worsen pressure on costs

07/02/2021

The European Commission has officially extended the steel safeguard measures for a further three years. The decision will add to cost pressures for wind turbine and component manufacturers.

France can lead on delivering the Green Deal by embracing wind

07/01/2021

The EU has committed to climate neutrality by 2050, an objective endorsed by Heads of State and Government and now formally enshrined in the Climate Law. France will be key to delivering this and is planning accordingly. Its Programmation pluriannuelle de l’énergie, plans to increase the share of renewable energies to 33% of final energy consumption in 2030.

Wind industry calls for Europe-wide ban on landfilling turbine blades

06/16/2021

Today WindEurope called for a Europe-wide landfill ban on decommissioned wind turbine blades by 2025. Europe’s wind industry actively commits to re-use, recycle, or recover 100% of decommissioned blades. This comes after several industry-leading companies announced ambitious plans for blade recycling and recovery. A landfill ban would further accelerate the development of sustainable recycling technologies for composite materials.

Romania launches Code of Good Practice to support further wind energy build-out

06/11/2021

On 26 May the Romanian Wind Energy Association launched a Code of Good Practice for Renewable Energy in Romania. WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson spoke at the launch event alongside Romania’s Energy State Secretary, George Niculescu, the Energy and Competition Regulators, the TSO and the Chair of the Energy Committee of the Romanian Parliament.

Wind-based electrification will drive Europe to net zero

06/09/2021

Electrification is the most cost-effective way to decarbonise Europe’s economy according to a report from ETIPWind and WindEurope out today. Wind energy will lead the process: the EU sees it being half of Europe’s electricity by 2050. With the right investments in grids and technology, the combined rate of direct and indirect electrification will be 75% of Europe’s energy demand. And with further cost reductions in wind energy, a net-zero energy system will cost no more than our energy system costs today.

Proposed new Spanish measure against wind farms is plain wrong

06/03/2021

The Spanish Government yesterday presented a new measure that, if approved, would impact the revenue of certain wind farms, which according to the Government, unduly benefit from rising carbon prices.

Upscaling Europe’s port infrastructure critical for offshore wind development

05/28/2021

Ports are key to offshore wind development. To deliver the offshore wind expansion set out in the EU’s Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy, Europe’s ports must expand and add new infrastructure. In a new report, WindEurope estimates that €6.5bn of investment in port infrastructure will be needed by 2030. The European Commission should develop a Ports Strategy and recognise the societal and ecological value of ports.

More research into innovative materials and recycling key to delivering 2050 climate neutrality with wind

05/25/2021

On 4 May, the European Technology and Innovation Platform on Wind Energy (ETIPWind) with the support of WindEurope gathered cross-sectoral experts – from the wind energy sector, composite, copper, cement, rare earth industries and the European Commission – to tackle the development of new materials used in wind turbines and turbine recycling.

European Commission approves new German renewables law but sets unhelpful precedent by allowing short-term cuts in auction volumes

05/10/2021

Last week the European Commission approved the latest amendments to the German Renewable Energy Act. This means Germany can now publish the results of its last onshore wind auction, and work on the relevant wind farms can start. But the Commission have set an unhelpful precedent by approving a new mechanism in the Act which allows the German energy regulator to arbitrarily reduce auction volumes if they’re worried an auction may be undersubscribed.

Latvia has a lot of wind energy potential – it’s time to start using it

05/04/2021

On 29 April WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson spoke at “WindWorks. Powering Latvia’s energy future” organised by the Latvian Wind Energy Association (LWEA), the Danish Embassy in Latvia and business technology platform BiSMART. Other speakers included the President of Latvia Egils Levits, EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson, Danish Energy Minister Dan Jørgensen and Latvian Minister for Economics J?nis Vitenbergs.

Money pouring into wind energy despite COVID, but are there enough projects out there?

04/14/2021

Europe invested €43bn in new wind farms in 2020, the second highest annual amount on record. The investments cover 20 GW of new capacity that will be built in the coming years, 13 GW of it in the EU. But this is much less than what Europe needs to deliver its 2030 climate and energy goals. The EU needs to build 27 GW of new wind energy a year to deliver its new 55% emission reduction target. The main problem is the slow rate of permitting of new wind farms. The money’s out there, but not enough new projects are coming through.

Large Purchase Power Agreements show European industry wants renewables

04/07/2021

Daimler and Statkraft have signed a renewable Purchase Power Agreement (PPA) to use wind and solar energy to power Mercedes factories, 24/7.

Improving data exchange between wind farms and the power system is central to a cost-effective energy transition

03/30/2021

With increasing shares of distributed energy, seamless data exchange between power generation assets and grid operators is central to a cost effective management of the energy system. Clear guidance at EU level and consistent implementation at national level can reduce system operation costs. And they can make the EU power system more secure and reliable. In a new paper WindEurope recommends establishing a formal collaboration at EU level to address the technical challenges and ensure that countries are implementing efficient practices.

Six measures for more onshore wind in Germany

03/19/2021

Germany’s new Renewable Energy Law (EEG2021) fails to address the two biggest challenges facing onshore wind development in Germany: permitting and repowering. Together with the German wind energy associations, WindEurope has outlined six measures Germany could and should take now to improve things.

Innovations in floating wind technologies key to futher cost reductions

03/16/2021

Floating offshore wind is maturing and has performed significant cost reductions over the past years. The technology allows Europe to unlock its full offshore wind potential and enables more countries to benefit from offshore wind in reaching their green transition objectives. Research and innovation remain key to the future competitiveness of floating offshore wind: the wind industry is for example working on new improvements to mooring and anchoring technologies.

Are the offshore winds of change coming to the Black Sea too ?

03/02/2021

The publication of the European Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy last November 2020 has been followed by a number of new Government commitments for the development of offshore wind, including Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Greece and Spain. The EU Strategy envisages offshore wind development in all European Seas and promises the creation of regional cooperation groups in all sea-basins.

Wind is not growing fast enough for EU economy to go climate-neutral

02/26/2021

Europe installed 14.7 GW of new wind energy in 2020. 80% of this was onshore wind. Europe now has 220 GW of total wind energy capacity. But Europe is not building enough new wind to deliver the Green Deal and climate neutrality: the EU is set to build 15 GW per year over the next 5 years – it needs 27 GW per year to deliver the 55% emissions reductions by 2030. Permitting remains the main problem. Energy intensive industries aiming to decarbonise their activities are concerned.