EWEA Communications Director Julian Scola
Julian Scola, EWEA’s Communication Director, is attending the American Wind Energy Association’s Windpower event in Atlanta…in this blog he reports the latest wind energy news from the US…
American jobs and manufacturing is the rallying cry of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) in its efforts to get the vital ‘Production Tax Credit’ extended.
The PTC is the main Federal support for wind energy and runs out at the end of the year. The uncertainty has already led to job losses and projects being shelved.
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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.
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Wind energy can create economic activity and jobs, while saving money – that’s one of the conclusions Christian Kjaer, CEO of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), reaches in an opinion article published today in advance of the beginning of the European Council informal growth summit.
Kjaer also said in the Windpower Monthly article that wind energy could be the ideal catalyst to create jobs while reducing Europe’s energy imports.
Noting that European leaders will bring their differences to the table 23 May to discuss how to achieve growth while addressing massive budgetary challenges, Kjaer said every EU citizen is currently paying more than €700 for energy imports.
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“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.
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Kite-surfing off the coast of Brazil
With a 63% increase in installed wind capacity last year, Brazil continues turning to the emissions-free generating technology to help the nation diversify its power mix and satisfy a growing electricity demand.
Recent evidence of this rapid expansion occurred just last week when Alstom was awarded a contract worth an estimated €130 million to supply and install turbines at four wind farms in the southern part of the nation.
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