In an editorial published by Recharge, Morten Albæk, Senior Vice-President of marketing at Vestas, argues that claims made by anti-wind campaigners can verge on the ridiculous, but they are powerful. Wind power, meanwhile, is not doing enough to promote its positive message…

Birds are 19,200 times more likely to die from flying into a building than into a wind turbine (according to the US Forest Service.) So calling wind turbines devastating to wildlife is equivalent to describing ordinary houses as mass killing machines. Ironically, 10% of all bird species are threatened by climate change (according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.)

Unfortunately, this is a well-kept secret. Not least due to our industry’s failure to adequately convey even the most appealing truths to the public.

Public and political support for wind energy is being increasingly eroded by media-savvy and politically influential groups that often demonstrate a brazen disregard for fact-based information. This is a growing business risk.

Headlines in the German media have said recently that Germany’s offshore wind sector could be facing support cuts, on top of suffering from the already costly grid connection delays. So what is the future of German offshore wind power? We spoke to Andreas Wagner, CEO of the Offshore Wind Foundation (Stiftung Offshore-Windenergie) and part of the team negotiating with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to try and find out…

 EWEA Germany’s Environment Minister Peter Altmaier has proposed to substantially change the law for financial support for renewable energy in Germany. Could the offshore wind industry be affected by the same retroactive changes we’ve seen in other EU countries?

Wagner On 21 March, Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed all options to change the EEG-law [the current law supporting renewable energy – ed] with the Prime Ministers of the 16 German Länder. As a result of this so-called ‘energy summit’, we will definitely not face retroactive changes for projects for which legally binding contracts have been signed. I doubt if other changes in the EEG will or can be made before the German federal elections in September.

EWEA What were the arguments raised with Chancellor Merkel?

With Global Wind Day just over two months away, the Austrian Wind Energy Association has decided to place a mini wind turbine right in the centre of Vienna. Lukas Pawek, coordinator of Global Wind Day in Austria, explains why…

This week the Austrian Wind Energy Association placed a small wind turbine in the centre of Vienna adorned in art by local graffiti artist Tim Stehle. This event is the official start of the first “Austrian Wind Art Contest”, aiming at promoting Global Wind Day on 15 June. It’s easy to join the contest: just upload a picture before 15 August of your wind art at: www.tagdeswindes.at/kunst, and you could win one of nine prizes from an electric bike to an Apple iPad. A jury of art-cooperatives and wind power companies will select and award the prizes.

Overall, 70% of EU citizens think renewable energy should be prioritised as an energy option for the next 30 years, a Eurobarometer has found. The survey, “attitudes of Europeans towards air quality” published earlier this year found that the 70% compares to just 9% for unconventional fossil fuels like shale gas, and 8% for conventional fossil fuels.

In all 27 EU Member States, “renewable energy sources in the most mentioned priority for energy options in the next 30 years,” the survey says.

The share of people favouring renewables over other sources rises to 82% in Portugal and 81% in Austria, Spain, Germany and Denmark. In only two EU countries did fewer than half of all respondents favour renewables – Bulgaria (45%) and Romania (49%), but in both countries renewables were still by far the most popular option.

If all the costs of fossil fuel power generation were detailed in German power bills they would exceed the costs of renewable energy “by a wide margin”, a study by Greenpeace Energy Germany and the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) says.

Currently German power bills clearly outline the cost of the EEG – the support that is channelled to renewable energy and charged to the consumer as a levy – but the costs of conventional fuels are hidden. “State incentives for nuclear and coal are sometimes part of rules that increase the price of power and sometimes part of government budgets. In both cases consumers cannot directly see the full cost in their power bills,” the report says.

In 2012 the EEG levy cost the consumer €c3.59 per KWh, while the report estimates that if there were a similar levy for fossil fuels it would cost €c10.2 per KWh – almost three times as high as the EEG.