Powering Europe - European Wind Energy Association

INtrODUctION
In order to achieve EU renewable energy and CO 2 emission
reduction targets, significant amounts of wind energy
need to be integrated into Europe’s electricity system.
This report will analyse the technical, economic
and regulatory issues that need to be addressed in
order to do so through a review of the available literature,
and examine how Europe can move towards
a more secure energy future through increased wind
power production.
The report’s main conclusions are that the capacity
of the European power systems to absorb significant
amounts of wind power is determined more by economics
and regulatory frameworks than by technical
or practical constraints. Larger scale penetration of
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wind power faces barriers not because of the wind’s
variability, but because of inadequate infrastructure
and interconnection coupled with electricity markets
where competition is neither effective nor fair, with
new technologies threatening traditional ways of thinking
and doing. Already today, it is generally considered
that wind energy can meet up to 20% of electricity demand
on a large electricity network without posing any
serious technical or practical problems 1 .
When wind power penetration levels are low, grid operation
will not be affected to any significant extent.
Today wind power supplies more than 5% of overall EU
electricity demand, but there are large regional and
national differences. The control methods and backup
1 See IEA Task 25 final report on “Design and operation of power systems with large amounts of wind power”:
http://ieawind.org/AnnexXXV.html
Powering Europe: wind energy and the electricity grid
Photo: iStock