EWEA - The European Wind Energy Association

The TradeWind project addressed one of the most challenging issues facing wind energy: its maximal and reliable integration in trans-European power markets.

The project was aimed at facilitating the dismantling of barriers to the large-scale integration of wind energy in European power systems, on transnational and European levels, and to formulate recommendations for policy development, market rules and interconnector allocation methods to support wind power integration. The scoped area was the EU-27, and included the synchronous zones UCTE, Nordel, GB and Ireland.

TradeWind was implemented by a consortium led by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). It was composed of leading European specialists in wind power integration, power systems and power market analysis.

The TradeWind website is accessible at this link: www.trade-wind.eu.

TradeWind was supported by Intelligent Energy Europe

“Creating Markets for Renewable Energy Technologies – EU technology marketing campaign” (RESTMAC) is an EU funded project under FP6. The project aims at developing and implementing a targeted technology marketing campaign on selected renewable energy technologies in areas inside and outside the EU. This will mainly be done by the organisation of trade missions and technology workshops. Trade missions to China and other emerging wind energy markets will be organised, as well as a workshop on wind energy in the Baltic States, Hungary and Poland. This workshop will be held in Warsaw in September 2007.

Co-funded by the European Commission, the EU-India Wind Energy Network, has been established under the EU-India Economic Cross Cultural Programme, and is being implemented by a consortium led by the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands.

The aim of the network is to enable direct partnerships between various wind energy actors and players in Europe and India in order to ensure sustainable and economically competitive development of the wind energy sector in India and the world. Indian industry stands to gain improved technological collaboration, cheaper capital and outsourcing opportunities, while European industry will have improved access to the Indian market and the exciting returns it offers. EIWEN aims at creating opportunities for SME collaboration, platforms on financial intermediation and know-how exchange, missions to Europe and India, and workshops.

The main objective of the RE-Xpansion project was to evaluate the various support schemes for RES, including the impacts of such schemes on the development of renewable technologies. Thus, the project intended to provide valuable background information in the form of economic analysis in assisting the European Commission in its evaluation process.

The expansion of RES-E in Europe will entirely depend on the conditions in place at national level and EU level. As the EU gradually moves towards the creation of an Internal Market for RES-E, the need for harmonisation and removal of barriers to trade becomes increasingly evident. Unless stable conditions for investments exist it will be impossible to meet the ambitious EU goals. RE-Xpansion attempted to bridge the gap between the theoretical economic analysis of possible European-wide systems, the regulatory framework and active renewable energy industry actors.

One of the greatest challenges is increasing the amount of RES-E while increasing its compatibility with an emerging Internal Electricity Market characterised by market failures, oligopolistic behaviour.

The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), funded by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Transport and Energy (DG TREN), publishes “Wind Energy - The Facts”, a detailed overview of the wind energy sector. The 330 page, five-volume report provides a comprehensive overview of wind energy’s past, present and future in the EU-25 covering: technology, costs and prices, industry and employment, environment, market development and R&D.