DEVELOPMENT CONCEPTS OF WIND TECHNOLOGY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Wind energy has created an important new market. The total installed European capacity 5 years ago was limited to a few hundred MW while at the end of this year 1995, it will exceed 2000 MW. At the same time quality was dramatically improved: the specific energy harvested by the best machines increased over the last ten years from 1000 kWh m2 a"1 to about 1700 kWh m-1 a-1. In Europe operating turbines produced on average 1700 kWh per kW in 1994 against only 580 kWh per kW in 1986. Prices on the other hand have come down and are currently slipping below 900ECU/kW for turn key installations. Germany has the largest installed capacity due to favourable federal regulation of the supply tariffs for renewable electricity to the grids. Germany also leads technological innovation in wind energy. Europe is strongly involved in the exploitation of wind energy overseas as well, e.g. in India, China, Egypt. The European Commission occupies a leading position in technological development. The most visible initiative at present is the WEGA programme - the development, togeiher with Europe's leading wind industry players, of a new generation of turbines in the MW range. By the year 1997 different European manufacturers will have introduced almost a dozen new MW machine types to the international market, half of them rated at 1,5 MW.