WINDENERGY MAGAZINE 02 2018

EUROPEAN MARKET OUTLOOK
WINDDAYS 2018
GILES DICKSON,
CEO WINDEUROPE
‘STABILIZING
REVENUE FROM
WIND IS ESSENTIAL’
The Netherlands and other countries must resist the temptation to invest only in the most sexy
innovative technologies for wind energy, according to Giles Dickson, ceo of WindEurope, who will
be one of the speakers at this year’s Dutch WindDays. There is still a lot of scope for enhancing
existing technologies, which is just as important.
CHRISTIAN JONGENEEL
energy development. Governments are moving
from subsidies to auctions to drive down costs.
Recently we have seen auctions where no subsidy
was required at all. That was certainly spectacular,
but it is important to note that zero cannot be the
norm. Only some developers in some countries
can afford this, specifically in Germany and The
Netherlands, because of their low capital costs and
stable regulation.’
In other words, government spending on wind
energy infrastructure is not about to dwindle
down. It will lower by itself, in any case, because a
lot of money still goes to older facilities, that required
higher subsidies. When these are phased out
the effective subsidy per GW naturally diminishes.
Actually, WindEurope’s annual report already
shows this trend of lowering costs. Although 2017
was a record breaking year for investments that
were announced in terms of capacity for future
projects (11.5 GW) the total investment was
19% lower than in the previous year,
when 10.3 GW reached its final investment
decision. Striking, too, was the
60% drop in investments in offshore
wind, which had been rising for five
years in a row. In contrast, onshore
wind rebounded from a slowdown
the year before.
installing ever larger facilities in the North Sea,
moreover, sparks the imagination. ‘We certainly
will need even larger turbines that can cope
with higher wind speeds’, Dickson acknowledges.
‘Floating offshore wind farms are an interesting
development, and everything that has to do with
storage deserves attention. However, we must resist
the temptation to invest only in the most sexy
Wind energy will remain the
dominant sustainable power
source of the future
innovative technologies for wind energy. There is
a lot of existing technology that deserves attention,
such as better components for wind turbines,
which should lead to lower maintenance cost.’
Even with these caveats the prospects
for wind energy are sunny. As
governments realise that
wind turbines are cheaper
than for instance pv installations,
wind energy
will remain the dominant
sustainable power
source of the future.
The installed base of wind energy is growing at an
unprecedented pace in Europe. By 2030 it is expected
to have surpassed gas powered plants as the
major source of electricity, supplying up to a quarter
of demand. So, there is reason to be optimistic
about the sector. At the same time it is important
not to get carried away by the thrills of success.
There is still a lot of work to do – and nothing will
happen by itself.
‘A binding EU wide target is on its way’, Giles Dickson
says. ‘This will force countries to articulate their
plans. It really is a key moment. Some countries are
underperforming. Eleven countries don’t invest at
all, even though the potential is huge.’
We must resist the temptation
to invest only in the most sexy
innovative technologies for
wind energy
adjusting demand to production will be more and
more common. Still, response capacity will need
to rise from 20 GW nowadays to 100 GW in 2030,
Dickson reckons.
According to WindEurope’s report
on 2017 a record of 15.6 GW in new
wind power installations came into
operation in that year. This brings the
installed base to 168.7 GW, almost one
third of which is Germany’s. Although
it is not among the eleven laggards, The
Netherlands are not a front runner when it
comes to wind energy. The country only contributed
0.5% of European capacity growth in 2017.
Cumulative it is 2.5%, putting The Netherlands in
the tenth position of total installed capacity. When
relating generating capacity to power consumption
The Netherlands drops one place, leaving it below
the European average. Denmark tops that scale
with 44.4% of annual electricity demand covered
by wind.
INNOVATION
‘People, especially in The Netherlands,
are inclined to look mainly at
offshore wind for growth’, Dickson
comments. ‘However, most growth is
onshore and this will remain so. Witness
for instance the recent commitments Akzo,
Philips and Google amongst others made in The
Netherlands to onshore wind for powering
their operations.’
Nevertheless, a focus on offshore wind
is understandable in a country with
a high population density, resulting
in frequent protests against new
projects. The challenges of
This matters, because capacity and distribution
play an important role in integrating wind energy
into the grid. Locally, the availability of wind
energy may be volatile, but there’s always wind
somewhere. With trading capacity moving closer
to the time of production – up to fifteen minutes –
COSTS
One of the factors that needs to be addressed in
order to sustain growth is to offer a steady
financial outlook to investors, Dickson says:
‘It is absolutely essential to stabilize
revenue from wind
Photo by WindEurope / Bickley
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