Vestas calls on the EU leaders to ramp up wind in the European Energy Union

The first blueprint of an EU Energy Union will be presented in early 2015, with the goal of addressing one of Europe’s key challenges: energy security. Vestas believes that wind energy should be an integral part of an Energy Union on par with other solutions to reduce energy imports and increase energy security.

EU economies are heavily exposed to fuel price volatility and vulnerable to supply disruptions. In 2012, energy imports cost EU citizens € 587 billion representing 54 per cent of EU total energy needs. Within the coming years hundreds of GW of large thermal power plants in EU will be due for retirement. Meanwhile, the EU has two other significant challenges ahead; stimulate growth and combat climate change.

• Wind energy can be ramped-up within a short timeframe and provide endless and clean energy:  A 30 turbine wind farm can be manufactured and built in 18 months and bring power to 65,000 European households.
• Wind brings growth and European technology leadership: 250,000 people are today directly working in the European wind industry. Six of the global top 10 wind turbine manufacturers are European.
• Wind energy is affordable: Onshore wind is today approaching the cost of coal. Huge efforts have been made to reduce cost by a combination of performance improvements, cost reduction and maturing the supply chain. This will continue.

“Europe needs an Energy Union that builds on affordable home grown and clean energy sources. Wind is the natural choice. That is why we support the unified European wind industry’s position paper on the Energy Union”, says Vestas CEO Anders Runevad.

See more here.