By Tuuliki Kasonen, General Manager, Estonian Wind Power Association

Initially planned as a modest information exchange seminar, the Wind Power Conference held in Estonia in the end of October turned into an international wind energy conference. More than 150 people visited the event during the two days dedicated to wind energy in Tallinn. In addition to local participants there were visitors also from Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Belgium and Denmark.

With more than 20 experts giving presentations about social, visual and economical aspects of wind energy the conference culminated with the currently most debated topic in Estonia – why and how much should wind energy be supported. The event was organised in cooperation with the Estonian and Swedish Wind Energy Associations (EWPA & SVIF) and supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

continue reading »

Pamplona in Spain – a town famous for its annual bull run – is home to one of Europe’s foremost wind turbine and renewable energy testing facilities, CENER – the national renewable energy centre.  Last week the EWEA policy team visited the centre to see behind the scenes of testing wind turbines to the limit.

Nestled in the outskirts of Pamplona, CENER’s aim is to test new products and optimise wind turbine and other renewable energy manufacturing procedures. It is made up of huge testing halls. One of these is dedicated to testing turbine blades up to 80m long. Athanasia Arapogianni, EWEA’s research officer, saw a live testing:

“It’s very impressive – they put huge, moving weights on different parts of the blade to simulate the different loads of the wind, bending it in all different directions. It can take up to four months to properly test one blade,” she said.

continue reading »

China is continuing to put increased emphasis on its expanding domestic wind power sector to help provide ever-increasing amounts of emissions-free electricity.

The latest evidence of China’s unrelenting faith in wind power comes in a report that predicts the rapidly-developing Asian nation could have 1,000 GW of installed wind power capacity by 2050.

continue reading »

A leading German newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), has reported on a leaked European Commission document on energy futures for 2050, saying that the European Commission’s calculations could be questionable.

In the leaked document – containing seven energy scenarios for 2050 – only the ‘high renewable energy’ scenario shows electricity prices to rise after 2030. In all the other scenarios electricity prices decrease after 2030.

continue reading »

By Susanne Nies, EURELECTRIC

Renewables will play an increasingly important role in the electricity mix, with their share more than doubling over the next ten years. Indeed, the EU’s goal of reaching 20% renewable energy by 2020 implies that almost 35% of electricity will need to be generated from renewable energy sources (RES).

The take-off of RES is a key investment opportunity. But it also poses unique challenges: variable renewables will have a profound, transformative effect on the electricity system as a whole.

continue reading »