In today’s Guardian, Simon Jenkins takes issue with the UK government’s support of wind energy. Yet his arguments are one-sided to say the least. He writes that “Meeting the current EU renewables directive, largely from wind, would cost some £15bn a year, or £670 a household”.

Currently, each EU citizen pays considerably more than that – over €700 a year – to import oil and gas from the likes of Russia and Algeria. And the price of imports is constantly changing, mostly in an upwards direction. Wind energy is a domestic European resource which is free once the turbines are up, and which saves money on fuel imports – €5.7 billion were saved thanks to wind energy last year.

Taamir Fareed

Many of those at EWEA 2012 in April will have seen – or taken part in – the Free movement of electricity quiz at the EWEA stand. The winner of the Amazon Kindle has now been announced: it is Taamir Fareed, who works for a private equity fund which invests in wind energy, and is also a board member of the Finnish Wind Energy Association.

Other quiz winners got a mini-turbine. Overall, nearly 200 people took the quiz during the four-day event.

“I was born and studied in Bremerhaven, but when I left in 1996, there were no career opportunities there”, says Ronny Meyer.

BY the mid-1990s, the shipping and fishing industries that had traditionally dominated north-west Germany, where Bremerhaven is situated were dying, and there was felt to be no future.

“The unemployment rate was very high and anyone who had studied was leaving the city”, says Meyer.

It sounds almost too good to be true, but Europe could save €20 billion on fuel costs, improve its air quality and create up to 1.5 million new jobs, according to a new report. How? By moving to a higher climate target for 2020.

The European Commission report looked at the impact of moving to a target for a 30% cut in greenhouse gas emissions. Due to the financial crisis and industry slow-down, the current target – for a 20% cut – has become easy to reach.

Danish Energy Minister Martin Lidegaard

Modernising Europe’s energy infrastructure is “vital” for achieving Europe’s climate and energy targets, Danish Minister Lidegaard told Wind Directions magazine recently.

Huge investments of up to €200 billion by 2020 are needed, but they will contribute to a stable energy supply, a competitive internal market for electricity and help fight climate change, as well as creating jobs, the Climate and Energy Minister said.