The European offshore wind sector is clearly “in the driver’s seat” and will remain the world’s leading market for the next decade, says Peter Asmus, the senior analyst for an international market research firm.
Asmus said Monday that a new report by Pike Research shows that although the United States has begun to develop its offshore wind potential, China will be Europe’s main rival in the sector in the next 10 years.
Offshore wind energy in Germany took a huge leap forward today after Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, officially opened the country’s first offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea.
The farm – known as Baltic 1 – is built by Energie Baden-Württemberg (EnBW) and consists of 21 2.3MW turbines which together will be able to power the equivalent of 50,000 households.
Politicians who are reluctant to accept that wind power and other renewables could be the driving force behind Europe achieving a low-carbon future in the next 40 years should read a new report that says the nuclear industry is in decline.
Published by the Worldwatch Institute in Washington D.C. a global environmental research organisation, and with the support of the Greens-EFA party in the European Parliament, the 84-page report noted that annual capacity additions of renewables have been outpacing nuclear start-ups for the past 15 years.
Three important stories involving the further expansion of emissions-free wind power have emerged in the United States recently, and all are generating a lot of media interest.
Perhaps the story most heavily reported involved search engine Google making another €69 million investment in a wind farm in Oregon that is slated to become the biggest wind energy facility in the world.
Offshore wind turbines with much larger blades could cut the cost of generating offshore wind power by 30%, resulting in cheaper electricity, according to a study published by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI).
“There is huge potential for offshore wind to reduce carbon emissions and create economic prosperity, as well as increasing energy security of supply,” the ETI said.
