Think Tank

EU launches €9 billion energy infrastructure plan

The EU executive has announced its first ever plan to use €9.1 billion from the EU's 2014-2020 budget to help upgrade Europe's energy infrastructure, according to strategic climate and energy needs.

The money will be available under the proposed EU budget for 2014-2020 in the form of newly-minted project bonds, grants and loan guarantees, according to the plan, unveiled in October.

The grants will be awarded to a select group of "common interest" projects which will benefit from a fast-track permit granting procedure.

Projects eligible for EU funding - such as the Southern Gas Corridor to bring gas from the Caspian basin to Europe - could then receive between 50-80 per cent of their funding from the EU

The key to building a wind farm is industrialisation: projects should be scalable and commercially viable from the bottom up. It follows that perhaps the most crucial consideration in an offshore development, solid foundations can literally make or break a project We take a look at all the critical components to present an unmissable ‘user guide' for developers.

With any developing industry comes innovation, whether they are product, service or supply chain related. The same can certainly be said for the offshore wind industry with the introduction of entirely new concepts or ones that are adapted, from the oil and gas industry for example, to better suit a requirement.

Fixed foundations for offshore wind turbines have been designe

For the wind industry, aluminium profiles have not been a preferred material so far - steel and Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastics (GRP) are most commonly used. For many design departments, aluminium profiles are either too unknown to incorporate in daily design work, thought to be too weak, too expensive, or too corrosion-sensitive in an untreated condition to be applied to harsh environments. However, experience shows that aluminium profiles have the potential to contribute to solving some of the turbine industry's major product design challenges...

First, we need to recap our knowledge about the material, profile design, the advantages, and the dos and don'ts.

Advantages
Some typical advantages of alum

Onshore and offshore wind farms may represent the vast majority of wind produced energy, but a number of initiatives around the world are examining the potential of high-altitude solutions to global energy concerns. PES takes a look at the innovative ideas...

The problem of sustainable energy generation is one of the most urgent challenges that mankind is facing today. On the one hand, the world energy consumption is continuously growing, mainly due to the development of non-OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, and an increase of about 45 - 50 per cent in energy consumption, with respect to the actual value, is estimated for the year 2030.

On the other hand, the problems related to the actual and projected

Can embracing social media revolutionise our chances of success?

Our industry is already convinced, of course - we view wind power as the panacea to saving the world. Yet in reality, the public support of ‘clean' energy is not as absolute as the industry may hope for. One of the reasons that may cause this gap between theory and practice is the fact that common knowledge of wind energy production is rather limited.

The majority of the public understands the dangers of environmental pollution and, thus, supports any initiatives to prevent or at least minimise it. The problem is that while most people comprehend what renewable energy means in theory, they know very little about the process involved in it

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