P.N.Rasmussen
According to former Danish prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the offshore wind energy sector could help Europe get back on its feet after the current financial crisis. “If the sector understands their role I’m sure they could take the lead in bringing Europe out of the crisis, as the first mover”, he added in a recent interview with Wind Directions.
He even considered the sector’s biggest challenge in the next few years to be addressing its potential role as “the breaker in the markets going against the [financial] crisis.” As a Dane and a former politician, Rasmussen is no stranger to wind energy. Now, he has consolidated his familiarity with the sector as Chairman of Lindoe Offshore Renewables Centre (LORC), a Danish organisation that tests and demonstrates technologies for harvesting renewable energy offshore.
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Susanne Nies
Some of the windiest conditions – and best electricity generating opportunities – are found out at sea or in remote on-land spots. But if we, as people with cars and boats to transport us, struggle to get to Europe’s more isolated locations, electricity has an even greater battle to travel from some sources to demand.
What is more, electricity faces an uphill struggle to travel between EU countries since there is no single market for electricity in Europe, and very limited infrastructure to carry it across borders. For example, Spain has an interconnection rate of just 3.6%, making it a virtual island.
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Every day newspapers are full of the latest Eurozone crisis. In 2010, Tom Murley from private equity firm HgCapital described the economy to Wind Directions as having had the equivalent of “open-heart surgery”. Today, he says: “Depending on what happens with the Eurozone we may be wheeling the economy back into surgery again.”
The offshore wind energy industry is particularly vulnerable to the current squeeze. Banks are now having to pay more for the long-term loans the sector requires, so they are becoming more reluctant to offer them.
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In Mozambique, nine people in ten have no access to electricity. Yet the village of Mipandi now has electric light for the first time thanks a wind-based micro-grid blue-print set up by EWEA’s chosen charity, Renewable World with local partners, The Clean Energy Initiative (TCEI).
“In Mozambique, the expansion of clean and sustainable energy – such as micro wind power – offer clear advantages in addressing climate change and energy poverty”, says Jason Morenikeji from TCEI. He adds that Mozambique has 2,800km of coast-line, many inland lakes and highland which contribute to its localised wind patterns.
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