France officially joined the offshore wind power sector on Tuesday with an announcement by President Nicolas Sarkozy that the government would initially invest more than €10 billion on sea-based wind farms off northern France.

About 10,000 jobs will be created in the French offshore wind energy sector, Sarkozy said, adding the first 600 wind turbines are to be installed in five areas off Normandy, Brittany and Loire-Atlantique.

“Our aim is to have an outstanding national sector emerge to build the means to produce these offshore wind turbines and to look towards exporting them,” Sarkozy was quoted as saying. continue reading »

Wind power in Turkey should benefit from a 72-point plan announced by the government that is designed to increase the nation’s competitiveness in global markets.

Turkey’s Industry and Commerce Minister Nihat Ergün announced the “Industry Strategy Document and Action Plan”, which includes the establishment of giant ports, logistics bases and railways, at a conference on Wednesday, according to the Anatolia News Agency.

“In an effort to improve energy efficiency, the plan foresees the establishment of methods to utilise the country’s potential in energy resources, including hydroelectricity, wind, geothermal, solar and biomass,” the story added. “The government will encourage the use of products that rely on alternative energy resources.” continue reading »

By Justin Wilkes

All 27 National Renewable Energy Action Plans have now been submitted to the European Commission. We at EWEA have done an analysis of the plans.  As expected they show that the EU as a whole will exceed its target of 20% of energy from renewables by 2020.

Taking all 27 National Renewable Energy Action Plans together we see that EU countries expect to meet 20.7% of their energy consumption from renewables.

This would mean that 34% of all electricity in the EU in 2020 would come from renewables – 14% from wind energy alone: making wind Europe’s leading renewable energy source. continue reading »

Scotland continues promoting its very aggressive pro-wind position as a way of driving increased energy security, a green economy and mitigating climate change.

The latest development occurred last week when First Minister Alex Salmond and more than 30 senior energy industry leaders met in Aberdeen to talk about the oil and gas industries and the renewable power sector collaborating to advance Scotland’s transition to a low carbon economy.

“Scotland already, per head of population, has ten-times the renewable energy of England but as the industry moves offshore we have even more potential,” Salmond told the summit Friday. continue reading »

Nations can experience tremendous renewable energy investment growth over the next decade by adopting enhanced energy and climate policies, according to a new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The 77-page report found investments in wind power and other renewable energy assets in G-20 countries are projected to reach $189 billion by 2020 if governments implement no additional policies.

Financing increases to $212 billion if the G-20 countries enact the pledges they made shortly after the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen last December. continue reading »