Wind energy: Significant growth opportunities could be tapped in emerging markets

Significant growth opportunities and benefits can be expected for wind power in central and eastern Europe – including Romania, Poland and Turkey – EWEA’s freshly launched report available at EWEA’s 2013 Annual Event in Vienna and online, says.

“These emerging markets are not only important in their own right, but they have increased perceived importance given the state of wind energy markets elsewhere in Europe,” Pierre Tardieu from EWEA said on launching the report today.

Inigio Sabater Eizaguirre from Vestas said the fact that Europe is still suffering from the economic crisis is a “big incentive” to look for new markets outside the well-established ones in Europe.

Emerging markets “are experiencing teething problems very similar to what we’ve experienced in the rest of the world,” Sabater Eizaguirre said, adding that these problems are not insurmountable.

However, the region has its own particular problems, including the fact that a pot of EU money – EU Cohesion Funds – worth around €240 million and earmarked for wind energy has not been spent. We need to make sure these funds are used, otherwise these unspent funds are returned to the EU’s biggest contributors like Germany, Tardieu said.

“Cohesion funds are really not known, we need a knowledge transfer from Brussels,” Michael Sponring from PWC, said at a press conference at EWEA 2013.

Sabater Eizaguirre said that local content requirements in emerging countries like Turkey are also a “critical” issue. “If local politicians want affordable energy they should not introduce local content requirements,” he said. Wind energy offers fantastic opportunities for job development, in particular construction, operation and maintenance, he added.

The EWEA report, available now to attendees of EWEA 2013 in Vienna and online, highlighted several key requirements for wind energy developers in emerging markets:

–  Stable national frameworks to support wind (in particular no further retroactive changes which make wind financing very expensive)

–  National frameworks which are compliant with European Commission rules

–  Clarity on the rules over no-go areas like “Natura 2000” zones.

–  Transparency on grid access costs

–  Streamlined administrative procedures.

EWEA’s 2013 Annual Event in Vienna has a focus on emerging markets with a large number of exhibitors and conference attendees from the region. “If you are looking for key business and networking opportunities between more mature and emerging markets then this is the place to be,” Deborah Yates from EWEA said. For more information on how to attend, click here.

 

By Zoë Casey, http://www.ewea.org/blog