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The future for wind energy in Europe

The political framework and technological development is key for wind energy to be successful in Europe. HeavyLift.News found that the main message in a wide-ranging, high-level panel discussion at the WindEurope Conference & Exhibition this morning in Amsterdam.

The session, which addressed the near future for wind energy in Europe and future business models, was chaired by Dagmara Koska, Member of Cabinet of Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, European Commission.

The panelists for the session included Gerassimos Thomas Deputy Director General for Energy, European Commission, Luca Bettonte, CEO, ERG Spa, Georgios Papadimitriou, Head Renewable Energies for Rest of Europe and North Africa, ENEL Green Power, João Manso Neto, CEO, EDPR Pete McCabe, President and CEO Onshore Wind, GE Renewable Energy, and Ditlev Engel CEO, DNV GL – Energy

The wind energy success in Europe will depend on political frameworks and technological developments. Electricity demand might stand still and even decrease over the next decades, due to national and European energy efficiency measures. Electrification is thus a key element to keeping the demand high and represents a beneficial solution in terms of de-carbonisation of the transport and heating sectors. Signs for this are already in the works in The Netherlands where the Government is making the replacement from Gas heating to electrification easier, driven bij de decreasing maning of natural gas in the country.

Storage of energy is also a key component of the energy transition. The cost of batteries is rapidly decreasing and this technology, along with the developments in capacitors storage technology, can support wind energy deployment by providing grid services and smoothing wind energy variations over time. Additional flexibility coming from demand side management and electric vehicles – and smart heating systems – can further contribute to the integration of wind power in the grid.

For the industry to continue its trends of growth and cost reduction, however, Europe needs additional capacity volumes – including repowering – and visibility in the medium-to-long term. And both national and European political and legislative frameworks will continue to play a fundamental role in supporting this shift towards a greener economy. Regional cooperation plays a key role, too, especially given the fact that renewable energy targets are defined as EU-wide and there are no longer any national binding targets in place.

Market design rules must be fit for renewables and, in particular, for wind energy. The panelists stated that there must be a level playing field that enforces the polluter-pays principle and ensures that costs related to externalities can be carried by the polluters. Secondly, we need solid revenue stabilization mechanisms and we need to attribute them in a competitive way to make sure we support further cost reductions. PPAs are an alternative and growing means of stabilizing revenues, but in order to unleash their full potential in Europe, regulatory barriers must be removed.

On the other hand we see that the heavy lift and project cargo industry has been adapting the Wind energy as well and some companies are offering complete project logistics management where IT technology to keep track with the demand to get the goods right on time to the varies jobsites.
The future for the Heavy Lift and Project Transport and Logistics is looking good as long as the price per KW is controlled and going further downwards. This in turn will stimulate new projects.

 

www.windeurope.org

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