Plans to levy a charge of up to 11% of revenue on Spanish wind energy producers have been condemned by the industry there and are described as being “the final blow for wind energy” by President of the Spanish Wind Energy Association (AEE) Rocio Sicre. Media reports have said that the production of nuclear, hydroelectric and thermoelectric energy would be charged a lower 4 %, with an additional tax of 10 euros per megawatt for nuclear and 15 euros per megawatt for hydroelectric.

EWEA CEO Christian Kjaer has said that ““I am appalled by the proposal of the Spanish Government to introduce a discriminatory tax on wind power generation. Such a tax would destroy Spanish jobs, undermine world-class Spanish wind energy companies and set a very bad precedent for Governments in Europe and beyond. As such it poses a threat to the world-leading European wind industry.”

Last month wind power in Spain reached new heights. This extract from the Spanish wind energy association’s (AEE) blog ‘somos eolicos’ highlights what happened…

On 18 April wind power in Spain reached a new record by producing 317 GW hours of electricity and beating the previous record of 315 GWh recorded on 9 November 2010, according to Red Eléctrica de España (REE). Moveover, during the morning of 19 April, wind power beat previous records by covering  61.06 % of Spain’s electricity demand.

This is an excerpt of a post by Heikki Willstedt, director of energy policy, AEE. To read the full post (in Spanish) click here.

Oil has reached €90 a barrel and, when the embargo on Iran becomes effective, there are analysts who predict it will rise to €100 a barrel. Energy imports cost more in Spain than they do in emerging countries, so we cannot improve either our competitiveness or our trade balance deficit. In Spain there are no indigenous oil resources, but we do have the wind to generate electricity. A Spanish wind turbine of 2 MW generates the energy equivalent to 7,000 barrels a year. Wind is the Spanish oil.

The International Monetary Fund defines an oil shock as a 26% or more increase in the price of oil. We have had three: 2008, 2010 and 2011.  The current price of oil price in Euros is at a historic high. Just remember that in July 2008 a barrel of oil reached €84 a barrel. We are now 7% above the previous peak price.

EWEA’s campaign to support the development of wind energy across Europe reached a new high this week: over 1,000 turbines have now been adopted by citizens across Europe.

Campaign leader, Elke Zander, was at the European Maritime days event in Gijon, Northern Spain last week where her campaign received a positive welcome. “It is very encouraging to see people are interested to learn about our campaign and are keen to adopt turbines to support it,” she said.

Spain is also still the winner when it comes to the total number of turbines adopted, with 188 turbines already claimed, but Global Wind Day – the next big event – could well change that.

Zander is now looking forward to Global Wind Day on 15 June, designed to spread the message about the benefits of wind energy all over the world. Events will take place throughout the globe and EWEA is certain to make a big splash in Brussels by putting up a wind turbine blade on Rond Point Schuman from 1-15 June.

To adopt a turbine and find out more about the campaign, click here.
To find out what’s going on near you for Global Wind Day, click here.

EWEA’s campaign to get every turbine in Europe adopted is racing ahead with more than 800 turbines now adopted. A record 142 turbines have been adopted in one of wind energy’s pioneering countries – Spain, while another of Europe’s wind energy giants – Denmark – trails far behind with just 20 adoptions.

No other countries have yet reached the 100 turbine mark, but the UK is not too far off with a total of 89 turbines adopted.

The northern-most turbines to be adopted are on the Faroe Islands, while a handful of turbines have been adopted in southern Europe, in regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

The voting contest is also hoting up with one turbine in Belgium receiving a massive 121 votes. This turbine in Lanaken, eastern Belgium, produces 4,600 MW of electricity, saving 2,631 tonnes of CO2 a year.

Have you adopted a turbine yet? Click here to see more.