EGP’s central role in European wind energy

Although the economy is going through difficult times, wind power keeps growing at a fast pace.

With its 3,313.3 MW of capacity, EGP plays a central role in this sector, and is set to participate to its future growing trend.

“We are seeing that wind energy is regularly contributing to electricity portfolios in many parts of the world, as regards not only energy production, but also ancillary services that are presently being provided in the field of thermal generation”, said Enel Green Power’s CEO Francesco Starace in a recent interview with EWEA’s Recharge magazine.

Although the economy is going through a difficult time, wind keeps growing at a fast pace. According to EWEA, future growth perspectives are also promising: in 2020 wind energy industry will contribute almost three times as much to the GNP and new jobs in this sector will increase by over 200 percent, that is, 520,000 in 2020 and possibly 795,000 in 2030

Nevertheless, “in order to achieve the objectives set for 2020, EU Member States will have to provide effective and secure policies aimed at developing renewable sources”, warned Starace.

With its 3,313.3 MW of installed capacity, Enel Green Power has already confirmed its leadership within the European wind industry, and is set to participate in the growing trend of this sector.

By 2016, almost half of the energy produced by Enel Green Power will come from wind farms, under the strategic plan 2012-2016, and during these four years 57 percent of EGP’s total investments will be made in the wind sector.

Over the last few months, EGP has grid-connected several plants: the 28 MW Bagaladi Motta Montebello facility in Calabria, having a capacity of; the 18 MW Agreda, in Spain; three new wind farms in Romania, Elcomex EOL (Zephir I), Targusor (Zephir II) and Gebelesis, whose total capacity amounts to 206 MW and whose production, once working at full rate, will be about 560 million kWh per year.

Besides putting new plants into service, EGP makes investments aimed at seeking the best solutions to enhance the efficiency of this technology. For instance, by performing forecasting studies to gather additional information on winds, or installing small wind systems, which can harness energy from slow winds, blowing at about 2 metres per second.