PES Essential

Last Word

Despite the continued concerns over the visual impact of offshore wind farms, France is still pressing ahead with its ambitious plans for investment in wind energy; controversially proposing sites offshore of the D-Day landing sites. Elsewhere, 2020 renewable energy targets are looking easier for some than others, and new targets for the following decades are already under discussion, as ambitions for a 20MW turbine are realised that could put the new targets within Europe's reach.

"Better to have a big project in the sea, whose visual impact from the coast will be almost nil for places of remembrance, than lots of little wind farm projects on land"

Thierry Masson, General Director in charge of Environmental at the Regional Council

With the number of European wind farms set to grow, a new EU strategy outlines how these installations can operate in economic and environmental harmony. PES presents all the salient points.

The rapid expansion of wind farm installations in the coming years will bring many benefits to society, not least in reducing greenhouse gases. In addition to the reduction of greenhouse gases, wind power helps economies to reduce energy dependency and their exposure to volatile or high fuel and carbon costs. Wind power is also a source of employment creation, technology development, social cohesion and exports.

But, like all developments, this expansion needs to be in balance with other broader social, economic and environmental concerns to ensure it gr

The EU's SEANERGY 2020 project has an overall aim to provide policy, regulatory and planning conditions recommendations that can reduce barriers to the growth of offshore power generation from marine renewable sources. Here we present an extracted comparison of the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) regimes in 17 EU Member States in relation to offshore renewable energy (O-RE) generation.

The project has developed a set of seven criteria to evaluate the different MSP regimes across the 17 EU Member States. These criteria are: 1) policy and legal framework; 2) data and information management; 3) permitting and licensing; 4) consultation 5) sector conflict management; 6) cross-border cooperation; 7) implementation of MSP.

Based on these criteria,

Europe's energy infrastructure must be updated and better connected, for it "pays the price for its outdated and poorly interconnected energy infrastructure," admitted the European Commission recently. In this exclusive report, we look at the plans to build an integrated European energy network, and discuss the potential obstacles.

Let us begin with the words of Günther H. Oettinger, European Commissioner for Energy... "Europe is at an unprecedented crossroads for its energy future. We are currently going through a paradigm shift
in the way we produce, transmit, distribute and trade energy, as we try to reduce
the carbon footprint of the energy sector
as a whole. This shift will increase the
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The big debate

The most talked-about feature in PES Wind returns, with a fresh selection of questions for the industry's most incisive and intelligent commentators. Their answers may differ, but rest assured that you're getting the very best analysis that the industry can provide.

PES: Over the next five years, what increases in the efficiency of wind turbines can we realistically expect?
Marc Schmitz: China produces turbines for a cost price that is 40-50 per cent lower than the cost price for turbines in Europe. Although the quality of these Chinese
turbines is far from European quality levels, this is often compensated for by strong supplier guarantees.

In offshore wind, th

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