Ward Van Hout, a student studying Aerospace Engineering at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, tells EWEA why he is a fan of wind energy and why he adopted a wind turbine as part of EWEA’s 2010 campaign…

EWEA: Why do you support wind energy?

Van Hout: I support wind energy because it is the future. Wind energy will help us to overcome the shortage of fossil fuels. There has been an enormous increase in world population which means a drastic increase in energy consumption. And with this comes more and more pollution, higher CO2 concentrations, etc. An excellent alternative is wind energy. On Earth, sufficient wind is available for our energy needs. Strikingly, there is 200 times more wind energy available than current energy demand. Wind power is solar power, meaning that as long as the sun is giving us heat, we can make use of wind turbines to collect that power. It is clear that wind energy is the driving power of the 21st century – the renewable energy age! continue reading »

Harnessing offshore wind would be cheaper for the U.S. than continuing to drill for oil and gas off the Atlantic coast and it would also create more jobs, according to a new report issued this week.

An analysis by Oceana, an international organisation focused on ocean conservation, also found that a modest investment in offshore wind could supply almost half the current electricity generation on the East Coast.

The report, called “Untapped Wealth: The Potential of Offshore Energy to Deliver Clean, Affordable Energy and Jobs,” noted that the disastrous consequences of the April oil rig explosion and leak in the Gulf of Mexico underscore the high costs of heavy U.S. reliance on fossil fuels. continue reading »

IEA members

New figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA) show that wind energy is covering an impressive slice of the national electricity demand in countries around the world.

No stranger to being top of the wind energy league, in 2009 Denmark still showed the way with wind energy covering 19.3% of the national electricity demand. Coming in a surprise second on the IEA list is Portugal – last year wind covered 15% of the country’s electricity demand.

Portugal’s Iberian neighbour, Spain, falls third with 14.4% of the electricity demand met by wind power. Fourth and fifth position were awarded to Ireland and Germany with 10.5% and 6.5% respectively. continue reading »

Mexico’s government and private investors are working together to set the stage for a rapid and radical increase in the amount of wind power in the country of 111 million people.

According to a recent report in RenewableEnergyWorld, spokesmen for the Mexican wind industry are predicting the still small power-generating sector is aiming to increase by six times its installed capacity by 2014.

Aided by new government incentives, the story notes the wind energy sector could expand within three years its installed capacity — at a cost of about $5 billion — to 3,000 MW from the current 500 MW. continue reading »

In an article published this month in Power and Energy, Christian Kjaer argues that in order to stimulate an internal electricity market in Europe, a ‘fifth freedom’ – the freedom of movement of electricity – needs to be instated quickly. Read the full article by clicking on the link below…

Power and Energy article