P.N.Rasmussen
According to former Danish prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the offshore wind energy sector could help Europe get back on its feet after the current financial crisis. “If the sector understands their role I’m sure they could take the lead in bringing Europe out of the crisis, as the first mover”, he added in a recent interview with Wind Directions.
He even considered the sector’s biggest challenge in the next few years to be addressing its potential role as “the breaker in the markets going against the [financial] crisis.” As a Dane and a former politician, Rasmussen is no stranger to wind energy. Now, he has consolidated his familiarity with the sector as Chairman of Lindoe Offshore Renewables Centre (LORC), a Danish organisation that tests and demonstrates technologies for harvesting renewable energy offshore.
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Last week the UK and France signed an agreement on nuclear power that could – going by the growing body of evidence on the rising cost of nuclear power – prove to be a huge drain on the public purse in the future. But at the same UK-France summit, a separate agreement was clinched to build an electricity interconnector between the two countries that could see Europe stepping closer to a more energy-secure future.
The interconnector cable, known as the FABLink, will connect France, the Channel Island of Alderney and mainland Britain. Edward Davey, UK Energy Secretary, said he recognises the “importance of further developing new electricity interconnectors between our two countries in order to strengthen further the linking of our grids, improve the security of our energy supplies and facilitate the integration of intermittent energy sources.”
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Wind energy made a splash in many media sources this week with news that the sector continues to grow despite the economic gloom gripping Europe. Here’s a short round-up of what the papers said:
This week the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) released new data showing that the wind energy sector in Europe added 9,616 MW of new wind energy capacity last year – making up over a fifth of total new power installations, the Guardian reported. The EWEA points out that the industry has delivered an average annual growth of almost 16% over the last 17 years, the article adds.
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With more than 450 people dying as of Tuesday because of the freezing temperatures currently sweeping Europe, news reports that Russia has reduced its natural gas supplies to some European countries once again highlights the problems of security of supply of imported fossil fuels.
European policy makers can’t do anything about the punishingly cold polar air that is expected to hover over the region for at least another week, but they can make sure that proposals currently before the European Parliament and Council of Ministers to speed up the permitting, and assist the financing, of grid extensions and upgrades are approved without being watered down. They can also put the right policy framework in place up to and beyond 2020 in order to boost the supply of domestically produced renewable energy.
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Susanne Nies
Some of the windiest conditions – and best electricity generating opportunities – are found out at sea or in remote on-land spots. But if we, as people with cars and boats to transport us, struggle to get to Europe’s more isolated locations, electricity has an even greater battle to travel from some sources to demand.
What is more, electricity faces an uphill struggle to travel between EU countries since there is no single market for electricity in Europe, and very limited infrastructure to carry it across borders. For example, Spain has an interconnection rate of just 3.6%, making it a virtual island.
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