Two important documents set out a future for wind that is challenging and exciting. The first is called “Going for Green Growth” by the EU Ministerial Green Growth Group which comprises of European cabinet ministers responsible for energy and climate change. In it they set out a collective vision for a low carbon economy. Green Growth

Why now? Because this week saw the start of the European Green Growth Summit in Brussels. Officials from 13 EU countries including the UK, France, Germany and Spain authored and co-signed a pamphlet calling for “ambitious and immediate EU low carbon action”.

The Future is Wind

There are three key and urgent EU priority actions:

1. Agree an EU 2030 energy and climate policy framework,

2. Reform the EU’s Emissions Trading System and

3. Put forward an emission reduction proposal in autumn 2014.

The plan is to use next year’s influential Ban Ki-Moon Climate Summit as a springboard towards nothing less than “the world’s first truly global climate deal in 2015”. Pretty ambitious!

Dong

Danish Dong Energy Wind Power chief executive Samuel Leupold (pictured above) said the current EU 2020 energy policy framework has been:

“The foundation for industrialising and maturing offshore wind until now”. To continue this journey, it will be essential that European policy makers take a long-term perspective and make the critical decisions for a robust policy framework towards 2030.”

Ed-Davey-DECC-credit-RWE

UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey (pictured), who helped establish the Ministerial Green Growth Group, said:

“Only by acting together and by showing leadership can we deliver the significant economic benefits that we have today shown is possible in tackling climate change.”

The document is, unusually for many EU documents, clear and concise. It lists 10 policy statements setting out the need to tackle climate change, set clear price signals to unlock private capital for investment and integrate European low carbon markets.

IEA_logo

The second document is the latest Wind Power Technology Roadmap: Roadmap

Because wind seems to be almost a regular item in the news you might be forgiven for thinking that wind power makes up a large percentage of global energy. Not so! Wind power generates only 2.6 percent of the world’s electricity. But the Roadmap anticipates that that percentage will grow significantly over the next few decades.

In this latest Roadmap produced by the International Energy Agency the organization has increased its estimates from its previous report in 2009 —  which said global wind power would reach 12 percent of global electricity generation by 2050 — to say that wind power could generate as much as 18 percent of global electricity by 2050.

Wind_Roadmap_2013

Here’s an important  quote from the document:

“Recent improvement in wind power technologies as well as the changing global energy context explain the higher long-term target. Turbines are getting higher, stronger and lighter, while masts and blades are growing even faster than rated capacity, allowing turbines to capture lower-speed winds and produce more regular output. This facilitates installation in places beyond the best windy spots on mountain ridges or seashores as well as integration into power systems despite the variability of winds.”

Last year, the IEA said that were $78 billion worth of investments in wind energy. That predict that that will increase to $150 billion per year by 2050. Also, and probably unsurprisingly, China is also expected to lead the way as the top producer of wind power by 2020/2025 in front of OECD Europe and the  United States.

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