16 percent of electricity in Europe – and when the wind blows hard, up to a third: European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson calls wind power a “European success story”. However, as an afterthought, the continuation of this success story currently faces difficulties: slow and complicated approval procedures, lack of well-trained workers and increasing “international competition”.
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“Scandalously high subsidies”
No one at the top of the European Commission leaves any doubt about who this competition means. After China pushed European manufacturers to the sidelines and into bankruptcy in the production of solar systems, it is now also shaking up the wind energy market. 85 percent of installed systems still come from Europe, but producers in China are catching up quickly.
“Very slow”
Brussels’ response is called the “wind energy package” and is intended to support wind turbine manufacturers and their operators. To achieve the objectives that the EU has set for the production of renewable energy, approval procedures must be accelerated, because, as the European Commission admits, they are “very slow”.
Ten year wait
On average, a wind turbine takes seven years to operate on land and ten years at sea. The EU aims to support its Member States with approval, but also monitor more closely that projects do not suffer delays.
At the same time, they want to slow down the Chinese’s success by monitoring their wind energy industry for dumping prices and “scandalously high subsidies” and taking countermeasures.
Bottleneck in federal states
Do these measures really help? Martin Jaksch, spokesman for Austrian wind energy companies, is skeptical: “Approvals are a matter for each state, the EU can only intervene to a certain extent.” The support system for wind energy is now well positioned in Austria, but when it comes to approvals there is “a bottleneck in the federal states” and “consent in communities” is lacking. IG Windkraft admits that the EU and its package have “good objectives”, but “there is a lack of implementation”.