Wind energy and economic recovery in Europe
3 November 2020
Source: evwind
October saw the launch of our new report – “Wind energy and economic recovery in Europe”. It shows you can combine European economic recovery with a successful energy transition – specifically, that the expansion of wind energy can help power recovery, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and supporting communities across Europe.
The key messages in the report are that wind already employs 300,000 people across Europe and contributes €37bn to EU GDP each year. If European governments fully implement their National Energy & Climate Plans, then Europe will have 392 GW of wind capacity by 2030, up from 192 GW. And that would take the job count from 300,000 to 450,000. But if Governments don’t implement their NECPs – crucially, if they don’t improve their current approach to permitting – then there will only be 327 GW of wind by 2030. And that would have a really negative impact economically. We’d in fact lose around 20,000 jobs; and communities would lose out too. The report shows how wind pays €5bn worth of taxes each year across Europe and helps local communities through benefit funds and community ownership.
The report also shows that each additional 1 GW of wind contributes €2.5bn to EU GDP. Put another way, each new turbine generates on average €10m worth of economic activity. Here is a link to the full report. And here is the recording of the “Sofa Talk” where we launched it with some leading EU political figures. We’ve also done Sofa Talks in the last month on wind’s relationship with aviation and the military, funding for R&I, and renewable hydrogen. Please find the link to our recordings here.
Looking ahead, on 17 November we’re doing an online event on onshore wind. It’ll plug how Europe plans and needs an even bigger build-out of onshore wind capacity than offshore wind by 2050. And it’ll consider challenges that need to be overcome to deliver that. Be sure to register soon!
On 18-20 November we do our annual End-of-Life Issues & Strategies Seminar (EoLIS). It’ll be a deep dive on repowering, decommissioning, lifetime extension and circularity, with plenty of networking opportunities too – you can sign up here.
On 1-4 December it’s “WindEnergy Hamburg”. The annual WindEurope Conference will run online in the afternoons. And in the mornings, you can watch our WindTV platform where there’ll be videos and interviews with industry leaders and top people from government, finance and elsewhere. There’ll also be an Open Stream which will focus on non-European markets and feature company presentations. We’re sending out the full details on registration, including the online Exhibitors’ Package next week.
On 7-11 December we’ll have this year’s RE-Source event on sourcing of renewables. It’s the world’s largest PPA event. Despite being online this year, it’ll bring together renewable energy suppliers and off-takers and combine as ever the conference with B2B networking. Registration will open soon.
Many thanks for all your input to these events and all of WindEurope’s other ongoing activity. I wish you an enjoyable read.