In order to fight climate change, improve energy security, enhance Europe’s competitiveness, and maintain our technological leadership, the European wind industry – together with the European Commission and Member States – has developed a 10-year research and development programme. PES brings you the exclusive highlights of this recently-published study.
With a €6bn budget, approximately half of which will be provided by the industry, the so-called European Wind Initiative’s objectives are:
• To maintain Europe’s technology leadership in both onshore and offshore wind power
• To make onshore wind the most competitive energy source by 2020, with offshore following by 2030
• To enable wind energy to supply 20 per cent of Europe’s
electricity in 2020, 33 per cent in 2030, and 50 per cent in 2050.
To achieve these objectives, the European Wind Initiative prioritises the following technology areas: new turbines and components, offshore technology, grid integration, resource assessment and spatial planning.
Key activities in wind energy research are:
• Improving the design and layout of wind farms
• Increasing reliability, accessibility and efficiency of wind turbines
• Optimising the maintenance, assembly and installation of offshore turbines and their substructures
• Demonstrating large wind turbine prototypes and large, interconnected offshore wind farms
• New methods of grid management to allow high levels of wind power in the electricity system
• Development of spatial planning standards at EU level.
