Erich Enikl works in the Moschkogel alpine wind farm in Styria, Austria in turbine maintenance. Today, as part of the Global Wind Day “wind energy stories” series, he tells us about his passion for wind energy.

When did you first become passionate about wind energy?

My first encounter with a – very small – wind turbine was in 1988, but it wasn’t until 2005/6 that, with the installation of the wind farm on the Moschkogel mountain, wind energy took off for me. I did not miss a single step of the installation – from road building, to the production of the foundations, to the cabling. The fascination for me was how much one could achieve with these big turbines with sophisticated technology. The wind park is situated at an altitude of 1,500 metres in the mountains and is accessible only by very steep roads. The five Enercon turbines were installed in May and June 2006. After an incredibly long and hard winter, I needed four days to move the metre high snow from the roads. The technician then managed in a relatively short time to adjust the turbines to these extreme conditions.

How much sense does a wind park make in the mountains?

We are producing energy mainly in the winter months, when consumption is high. Heating, illuminating flats and towns, the operation of lifts for snow machines – all of this needs electricity. These few turbines can provide the entire yearly energy needs of the local system operator.

Was the natural environment affected by the wind farm?

An interesting story was posted on the Guardian yesterday, saying that the UK government needs a “plan B” on nuclear power because of the danger that new reactors will not be built in time to avoid energy shortages.

Many of the UK’s ageing reactors will be decommissioned and there is no clear strategy for their replacement, the paper says.

“The ambitions of the UK’s nuclear industry have been dealt significant blows in recent months: the Horizon consortium fell apart…Cumbria’s councillors rejected the building of a long-term waste repository over there. EDF Energy, the French national energy company that will lead the building of the first plant, is in a stand-off with ministers over demands for higher prices for its energy, and work on the first potential reactor is likely to face further opposition, endangering the government’s timetable for new plants,” writes Fiona Harvey in the Guardian.

The European Parliament’s Environment Committee yesterday voted in favour of a proposal that will help to fix Europe’s ailing Emissions Trading System (ETS). The proposal could see surplus “permits to pollute” withheld from the market – a move which should push the carbon price up, providing polluting industries with an incentive to move away from fossil fuels.

“This is a good political signal showing that the EU still supports its carbon pricing policy. The ETS was designed to reduce emissions and level the playing field between fossil fuels and renewable electricity generation so that polluting technologies could finally be priced at their true cost to society. It has so far failed to reach these aims and today’s vote is a first step to fixing this,” Rémi Gruet, Senior Regulatory Affairs Advisor at EWEA, explained.

The current carbon price hovers around the €5 per tonne mark, but the current ETS – launched in 2008 – was designed around a carbon price of at least €25 per tonne. Since, the economic crisis has had the general effect of reducing carbon emissions meaning that thousands of carbon permits have been washing around the market at prices so low they no longer provide a reason to shift away from carbon-intensive processes.

Wind energy has made the headlines across the globe in recent days, with perhaps the world’s most powerful man, US President Barack Obama, calling for “even more” wind energy.

“Last year, wind energy added nearly half of all new power capacity in America. So let’s generate even more,” he said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, according to CNN.

2012 was wind energy’s strongest year in the US yet with 13 GW added, bringing the total to 60 GW – enough power for around 15 million homes.

But the US was not alone in experiencing a strong wind energy year in 2012. Globally, 44,711 MW were added to the world’s wind energy fleet, up from 41,000 MW the previous year. From both 2010-11 and 2011-12, the total cumulative capacity increased by 20%.

“More than 45 GW of new wind turbines arrived in 2012, with China and the US leading the way with 13 GW each, while Germany, India and the UK were next with about 2 GW apiece,” the Guardian reported.

“While China paused for breath, both the US and European markets had exceptionally strong years,” Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) said.

Fatih Birol and Pat Rabbitte at the EWEA 2013 press conference

With the highest-level movers and shakers of the wind energy world, and greatly influential politicians and analysts including International Energy Agency Chief Economist Fatih Birol, EWEA’s 2013 Annual Event hit the renewable energy headlines this year.

It was the event at which Birol called fossil fuel subsidies “public enemy number one”, while Christian Kjaer EWEA’s CEO drew attention to the €470 billion the EU paid for fossil fuel imports last year, and the time when industry CEOs were honest about the impact of the financial and economic crisis on their company’s fortunes.

Speaking from Vienna, Pat Rabbitte, Irish Energy Minister, called for a fresh EU renewable energy target to replace the current one which expires in 2020 of 45% by 2030 – and so did Anni Podimata, Vice President of the European Parliament. Austrian Environment Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich said that his country aims to be 100% energy self-sufficient by 2050, while Hasan Murat Mercan, Turkey’s Deputy Energy Minister, spoke of high wind energy ambitions and a rapidly growing sector.