Daily Management Review

Wind energy will provide 30% of Europe's needs by 2030


10/25/2017


Most wind power plants will be located in France, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. However, the Eastern European countries, with the exception of Estonia, will stay far behind, says Clean Technica.



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pixabay
Wind energy will ensure 30% of Europe's needs by 2030, judging by the data that the European Wind Energy Association showed in two of its reports.

One paper reports that if average volumes of annual wind power plants commissioning amount to 12.6 GW (a record with its 14 GW has already been marked in 2017), their capacity will reach 204 GW by 2020. This will turn wind energy into one of the most demanded sources of clean energy in Europe, giving 16.5% of all its electricity needs.

The other report offers three possible scenarios. the EU achieves its goal in the main scenario: 27 percent of all energy sources will become ‘green’ by 2030. Then, the wind power plants capacity will reach 323 GW. 253 GW of these will come from land-based power plants, and coastal ones will deliver 70 GW. As a whole, the sector will more than double in comparison with the indicator of 2016, and marine wind energy will skyrocket. This is equal to 30% of all electricity needs of the European Union. The project will be invested € 239 billion by 2030, and will create jobs for 569,000 people.

However, this scenario may come true only if opportune laws are adopted, and the energy system is changed significantly. The economy must avoid any serious crises, and the incomes of the union’s countries should remain stable. In addition, the grid has to gradually integrate electricity from renewable sources.

An optimistic scenario suggests that 35% of all energy sources in Europe will be "clean" by 2030. This is possible only if the region’s economic and political situation is maximally favorable. In this case, the wind power’s installed capacity will grow to 397 GW. Denmark, Ireland, Estonia, as well as the Netherlands, will be deriving 50% of all electricity from wind farms. And France, Germany and Great Britain will produce 43 GW, 85 GW and 38 GW of wind energy, respectively.

A pessimistic scenario shows that the European wind farms’ total capacity will reach only 256.4 GW by 2030. However, this will account for 21.6% of all the EU’s electricity and will lower harmful emissions into the atmosphere by 279 megatons.

source: cleantechnica.com