EU wind growing despite potential subsidy cuts

• 12 years ago (2012-02-07)
• Junior Isles

Europe 1061 Renewables 751

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The European Union installed 9616 MW of wind energy in 2011, or 21 per cent of its new power capacity, the European Wind Energy Association has said.

Investment totalled €12.6 billion ($16.4 billion), similar to 2010 levels, the Brussels-based lobby group said. Germany installed more than a fifth of the bloc's new turbines, followed by the UK with 13 per cent, and then Spain and Italy with 11 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.

“Despite the economic crisis gripping Europe, the wind industry is still installing solid levels of new capacity,” EWEA Policy Director Justin Wilkes said in a statement. “It is critical to send positive signals to investors by European governments maintaining stable policies to support renewables.”

The EU is chasing a target of getting 20 per cent of all energy for power, heating and transport from renewable sources by 2020. This target is looming while governments across the bloc are cutting energy subsidies to reduce budget deficits. Spain last month halted its generous subsidies for renewable energy projects, while in the UK some Conservative politicians are campaigning against underwriting wind power.

“It is unwise to make consumers pay, through taxpayer subsidy, for inefficient and intermittent energy production,” the MPs said in a letter. “We ask the government to dramatically cut the subsidy for onshore wind and spread the savings made between other types of reliable renewable energy production and energy efficiency measures.”

The EU has a total of 93 957 MW of installed wind power capacity, roughly 10.5 per cent of the bloc's total power generation installations, according to EWEA. Because wind is intermittent, in a typical year, that capacity would produce 6.3 per cent of the EU's electricity, the group said.