EU Wind Power to Have Double Growth Rate in Coming Ten Years

2011-08-09

As the medium- and long-term scenario made public by European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) indicated, the wind power capacity of European Union (EU) countries is expected to grow at least twofold in the coming ten years. The total investment in onshore and offshore wind farms will reach 194 billion euros (about USD277 billion). Following this scenario, the 2020 wind power capacity of EU will be able to reach 581 billion kilowatt (kW), accounting for 15.7% of the total electricity demand. EU wind power production was 182 billion kW in 2010, accounting for 5.5% of the then total electricity demand. It is predicted that the wind power production capacity of EU in 2020 will be as much as the total household electricity consumption of five EU countries: French, German, Poland, Spain and England. In 2030, the wind power production will increase to 1154 billion kW, corresponding to the total electricity consumption of 0.241 billion families of EU and accounting for 28% of the total electricity demand.      
EWEA pointed out that the main reason of the rapid development of EU wind power is that strongly supported by EU energy policy, wind power not only can help EU implement the international agreement of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions but also have advantages to reduce EU’s dependence on expensive fossil fuels, upgrading the economic competitiveness. Currently EU has established the development goal of renewable energy, expecting by 2020, 20% of the electricity consumption will come from renewable energy. EWEA also predicted that the EU countries which have the rapidest growth of the wind power production will be Ireland (52%), Denmark (38%), Portugal (28%), Spain (27%) and Greece (23%).