Wind energy should be an integral part of the new EU Energy Union on par with other solutions to reduce energy imports and increase energy security, says Vestas.
“Europe needs an Energy Union that builds on affordable home grown and clean energy sources. Wind is the natural choice. That is why we support the unified European wind industry’s position paper on the Energy Union”, says Vestas CEO Anders Runevad.
The first blueprint of an EU Energy Union will be presented in early 2015. The goal of this is to address energy security in EU.
EU is aggressively pursuing renewable energy. In the coming years hundreds of GW of large thermal power plants in EU will be due for retirement.
In addition to addressing the energy crisis, EU also aims to stimulate growth and combat climate change with renewable.
Wind contributes to around 250,000 jobs in the region. Six of the global top 10 wind turbine manufacturers are European.
According to Vestas, wind energy can be ramped-up within a short timeframe and provide endless and clean energy: A 30 turbine wind farm can be manufactured and built in 18 months and bring power to 65,000 European households.
Wind energy is approaching cost parity with coal. Huge efforts have been made to reduce cost by a combination of performance improvements, cost reduction and maturing the supply chain. Vestas expects this to continue.
Rajani Baburajan
editor@greentechlead.com