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Wind Energy News Blog: Europe's Wind Energy Future Changed Today
BRUSSELS, December 9 / -- For the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), the Renewable Energy Directive, agreed today, confirms Europe as the leader of the energy revolution the world needs. The target means that more than one third of EU electricity must come from renewables in 2020 and wind energy will be the biggest contributor. Moreover, the directive addresses existing barriers that prevent Europe from fully exploiting its largest domestic energy resource.
"Today tomorrow changed. The European Parliament and the Council have agreed the world's most important energy law" stated Christian Kjaer, EWEA Chief Executive. "Europe has turned away from transferring ever larger amounts of European citizens' wealth to a handful of fuel-exporting nations, opting instead to put the money to work at home and exploit our abundant domestic renewable energy resources."
For the first time, each Member State has a legally binding renewables target for 2020 along with a clear trajectory to follow. By June 2010 the Member States will draw up National Action Plans detailing the ways in which they are to meet their 2020 targets, which will then be submitted to the Commission for assessment. They will report on how they are doing every two years. These measures will lead to real progress in the 27 countries.
"The grid and administrative barriers whose shadows loom long over wind energy project developers will finally be tackled throughout Europe thanks to the directive. Furthermore, Member States will be able to work together to meet their targets under stable market conditions, which will give investments in the wind energy sector a boost. One can only hope that the EU governments show the same degree of cohesion, commitment and clarity during the global climate negotiations in Poznan over the coming days," said Kjaer. The directive means that more than one-third of the EU's electricity will come from renewable energy in 2020 - up from 15% in 2005. By 2020, wind energy is expected to have overtaken hydropower as the EU's largest source of renewable electricity.
Today, Europe responded to the global energy and climate crisis by adopting a strategy to further develop, deploy and export renewable energy technology to a carbon- and fuel-constrained world. The decision will also help the EU face the current economic turmoil, as wind energy provides jobs, reduce electricity costs, energy independence, imports and fuel price risks. It is a truly historic day. Agreement between the European Parliament and the 27 EU Member States was reached this morning following a meeting of Energy Ministers yesterday.
Wind Energy News Blog: Wind Energy Industry Calls For Ambitious Targets
Wind energy is on track to saving 10 billion tons of CO2 by 2020, according to a coalition of wind energy companies, associations and NGOs launching a global campaign at the COP14 climate summit in the Polish city of Poznan today.
With the Wind Power Works campaign www.windpowerworks.net), the wind industry will demonstrate to global decision makers that wind energy is the leading power generation technology with the ability to achieve substantial cuts in CO2 emissions in the crucial timeframe up to 2020. By this time, global emissions need to peak and start to decline if we are to avoid the most disastrous effects of climate change.
“Already today, wind energy is working in over 70 countries around the world, saving hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 emissions and delivering clean, reliable energy. However, for wind energy to meet its full potential we need ambitious and legally binding emissions reduction targets and expanded carbon market mechanisms to facilitate the broadest dissemination of wind power. Wind is the leading electricity generation technology that can deliver major emissions reductions in the critical timeframe up to 2020,” said GWEC’s Secretary General Steve Sawyer.
In its recently published ‘Wind Energy Outlook 2008’, GWEC set out a scenario under which wind energy could provide 12% of global electricity needs and save 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 every year by 2020. This would add up to 10 billion tonnes of CO2 mitigated by wind power within this time frame.
“Wind energy has a massive potential to deliver cost effective, reliable and clean energy virtually anywhere in the world, but in order to realise this, we need the political will by governments to reduce emissions to a sustainable level,” said Peter Brun, Senior Vice President of Government Relations of Vestas Wind Systems, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer. “We are here in Poznań to call on global leaders to match their words with action, and to make them realize that existing mature technology can play a significant role in the CO2 abatement solution in the short term.”
At the press conference, 3TIER, an independent provider of global renewable energy assessment and forecasting, unveiled a 5 kilometer resolution global wind map. The map is based on a new 3TIER dataset, which is the most accurate, consistent and comprehensive dataset ever created of global wind resources and their spatial and temporal variability.
“Lack of information about the wind resource is one of the biggest barriers to global adoption of wind energy – not the technological ability to harness it,” explained Ken Westrick, CEO of 3TIER. “This map is intended to accelerate the adoption of wind energy development by identifying the value of the wind resource at any location around the world. It will allow developers, financiers and governments to identify the best regions in the world for wind energy development.”
Between COP14 and the COP15 climate change negotiations in December 2009 in Copenhagen, the Wind Power Works coalition will promote aggressive emissions reductions targets and a rapid deployment of wind energy around the world.
The Wind Power Works campaign is global, and includes a monthly series of 12 case studies of wind power in action The first case study is the wind farm at Lake Ostrowo near Wolin in Poland, which demonstrates the investment incentives created by the Kyoto Protocol’s flexible mechanisms.
Wind Energy News Blog: Cavico moves into Wind Energy with Vietnamese project
HANOI, VIETNAM: Cavico Transportation, a subsidiary of infrastructure development company Cavico Corp., has received permission from Lam Dong province's People Committee to build a wind farm in the Vietnamese province. The wind farm will mark Cavico's entrance into the wind energy industry.Cavico received approval from Lam Dong officials to study and evaluate areas in the province for possible wind farms in October. The studies will be used as part of the wind power planning. The company's research indicated that the coastal areas of southern and south-central Vietnam show promise for wind energy.
Cavico is studying the construction of a 30 MW wind farm which will connect to the national grid upon completion. The feasibility study at the site is expected to be completed over a period of one year, and will involve the collection of wind data and analysis to determine the scope and size of the project's wind turbines. Cavico will begin constructing roads and other infrastructure before completing the study.
Cavico Executive Vice president Hung Manh Tran said, "We are very pleased to announce our entry into the wind energy market. We believe it is the best time to enter this market because the Vietnamese government encourages investment and construction of clean energy projects and also considers providing special assistance and incentives on similar projects. Vietnam has more than 2,025 miles (3,258 km) of coastline, which is very promising for wind energy development."
"This is the first wind farm project in the central western region of Vietnam. This environment-friendly project will be a great contribution in addressing the electricity shortage problems faced by Vietnam." According to the Asian Development Banks, Vietnam's demand for electricity is growing at a rate of 16 percent each year.
Wind Energy News Blog: Pakistan's First Wind Power Project Starts Operation
KARACHI, Dec 08, 2008, Zorlu Energy Group is a Turkish company that has successfully completed the erection of the first wind turbine farm in Pakistan on Dec 3, with a capacity of 1.2 MW in Jhampir, Sindh.
After the completion of first phase by Jan 2009, the wind energy project will provide electricity to 60,000 households. The wind energy plant will reach a capacity of 50 MW in the second phase with plans to increase the capacity up to 300 MW.
Zorlu will then be providing wind power electricity comparable to the generation capacity of the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) in Pakistan. The project will provide totally green, renewable and indigenous resource.
Zorlu Energy signed an agreement with the Pakistani Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) in 2006 to establish a wind farm in Pakistan. In consideration of the current power crunch the country is facing the alternate energy resources are to be exploited to attain sustainable growth.
Arif Elahi, Director General BOI, Karachi said that as part of its first phase ZEPL has commissioned one wind energy turbine with a capacity of 1.2 MW and the other four turbines will be commissioned by the end of December 2008, hence providing 6 MW of energy for the first phase.
The second phase will include installation of 29 wind farm turbines with a capacity of 44 MW that is expected to be completed till December 2009. The wind power generated from the first phase would be evacuated to the Jhampir Grid Station by HESCO. All the wind energy equipment for the first phase of 6 MW including the wind towers, rotors, transformers and other auxiliary wind equipment has been transported to the site.
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