Every day newspapers are full of the latest Eurozone crisis. In 2010, Tom Murley from private equity firm HgCapital described the economy to Wind Directions as having had the equivalent of “open-heart surgery”. Today, he says: “Depending on what happens with the Eurozone we may be wheeling the economy back into surgery again.”
The offshore wind energy industry is particularly vulnerable to the current squeeze. Banks are now having to pay more for the long-term loans the sector requires, so they are becoming more reluctant to offer them.
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Tapping into the vast potential of America’s wind power and solar industries while also increasing the nation’s traditional domestic energy supplies formed a major part of US President Barack Obama’s annual State of the Union address last week.
Before an estimated television audience of 38 million viewers, Obama said the country could develop a lasting economy by building on energy, manufacturing, job skills and a renewal of American values.
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By EWEA Communication Director Julian Scola
In recent months there have been many media articles claiming that wind energy is more expensive and less reliable than other power sources, and that it receives heavy government subsidies. Such claims damage the perception of this cheap and clean form of energy.
The reality is that wind energy, and renewables in general, are successful because investors see that onshore wind is increasingly competitive with new gas and coal and is cheaper than nuclear, in an environment in which governments have made commitments to reducing carbon emissions, and where the public wants a safer, cleaner world without constant fluctuations in energy prices. Current data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance says that “funding of green energy projects rose by 5% last year” to $260bn worldwide. Another Bloomberg quote says “the best wind farms in the world already produce power as economically as coal, gas and nuclear generators; the average wind farm will be fully competitive by 2016”.
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By Tuuliki Kasonen, General Manager, Estonian Wind Power Association
Offshore wind energy is an innovative new industry, which by creating thousands of jobs and intensive investments gives Europe a necessary impulse for economic growth. It can also provide the missing pieces in the energy and climate puzzle that Europe needs to solve urgently. What I brought home from EWEA OFFSHORE 2011 – the world’s largest offshore wind energy event – was the feeling that the next decade will be crucial for bringing down the costs and filling some gaps to make this type of energy production a really competitive one.
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The US wind power industry begins 2012 waiting to see if American politicians will decide early in a national election year to extend the Production Tax Credit (PTC) which is worth billions in wind energy investments and tens of thousands of new jobs.
According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), policy makers should quickly extend the PTC, which is the US wind power sector’s main policy incentive, in order to replace the industry’s boom and bust cycles with long-term certainty.
Lobbying for a multi-year extension to the PTC, which is currently to expire by the end of 2012, AWEA noted a new government incentive would allow the industry to continue creating employment opportunities and generating economic growth despite the ongoing financial crisis.
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