European Wind Energy Conference opens in Brussels

European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs took part in a major international conference on wind energy held between 31 March and 3 April in Brussels. The Commissioner chaired the opening session where together with high-level speakers from the Member States and the European Parliament he discussed the role wind energy will have in achieving the EU's target of reaching its 20% renewable energy (RES) target by 2020.

"In the fight against climate change renewable energy sources are going to play a key role. Reaching the 20% RES target for EU by 2020 will require a substantial contribution from wind energy", the Commissioner said.

The European Wind Energy Conference (EWEC) is organised by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) and is among the most important of its kind, bringing together policy-makers, industry representatives, researchers, project developers and other stakeholders from around the world to discuss topics related to wind energy.

The Commission hopes to increase the share of the wind energy in the EU energy structure to 12% by 2020, up from just 4% which it has today. The European Wind Energy Association believes the target is achievable and can be even increased to 14% provided the EU responds to major challenges which the sector faces now. Among these challenges the Association mentions reduction of administrative barriers, access of the wind energy producers to European electricity grids, as well as institutional and public support for the development of the sector.

As indicated by Arthouros Zervos, the president of the European Wind Energy Asso ciation, different countries in Europe and worldwide face different trends in wind energy, with Spain, Italy, France, China or the US seeing considerable development of the sector while UK, Germany or Portugal experiencing a slowdown last year.

The European Commission and the European Wind Energy Association believe that development of the wind energy sector will bring four main benefits to the European Union, including more economic growth, stimulated by increasing investments and cheaper energy; clean environment; energy independence; and hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

The first session of the conference was also opened with a concert of wind instruments, which became a symbolic parallel to the development of wind energy in the EU.

Source