Progress or hot air: Is Europe on track to meet its wind energy targets?

euronews (in English)

European producers are racing against the clock to build enough wind farms to meet the EU's renewable energy targets by 2030. Euronews correspondent Andrea Bolitho speaks to the European manufacturers leading the charge for Business Planet.

Transcript

00:00 Last year saw a record number of wind farms built in Europe, but it`s still way short

00:07 of what`s needed to meet the EU`s green energy targets.

00:10 It`s a very ambitious target. Last year, if I record correctly, we counted 17 gigawatt

00:16 which has been installed in Europe. So, if you just count what we have installed today

00:20 until the end of the decade to reach the target, we need 31 gigawatt every year in average.

00:26 They want us to build twice as many new wind farms as what we`re building today. Now, we

00:31 can do that, but we`re facing competition now from Chinese wind turbine manufacturers.

00:37 Hello, and welcome to "Business Planet." ZF Wind Power in Northern Belgium is a world

00:44 leader in the manufacture of gearboxes, the heart of a wind turbine. But as demand rises,

00:51 can production keep pace? Let`s find out.

00:55 Demands are getting bigger, and so are gearboxes and powertrains, and the equipment needed

01:01 to test them too.

01:02 I joined ZF Wind Power CEO Felix Henssela in the factory in Lommel.

01:08 What you see here on the test break is a 7.2 megawatt machine, and we are also testing

01:13 it by 7.2 megawatt with full torque and full vibration and full load.

01:18 Where the clock is ticking, the EU`s launched the wind power package to accelerate the wind

01:23 industry buildout.

01:25 Felix Henssela says while doubling next year is unrealistic, some factories are actually

01:32 underused, meaning room for rapid growth once the orders come in.

01:36 There is already capacity available in the market which we could use to ramp up. It is

01:42 ambitious, but in general, also not impossible to reach it. But we need to start now. We

01:47 have all the tools in hand now, even with the wind power package which has been released

01:52 last year from the European Union and all the member states agreed on it.

01:55 Is it frustrating that it`s just come now at the end of 2023?

02:00 The real frustrating thing is that wars need to be happened to make them aware. This is

02:05 a point which is frustrating. The speed afterwards, I have to say I`m quite proud of the European

02:10 Union. I`ve never seen such a speed before.

02:13 ZF Wind Power makes powertrains for Vestas, the world`s leading wind turbine manufacturer.

02:19 I caught up with Group`s senior vice president Morten Dehelm in Denmark, who says Europe

02:24 needs to simplify bureaucracy or it`ll run out of time.

02:29 We can take in Europe, for example, between seven and 10 years from, you know, policymakers

02:35 decide to go ahead with a wind power project until it actually starts producing electricity

02:41 to the grid. So, you know, we have this, we can call it the say-do gap.

02:47 Wind power is 19 percent of the electricity Europe consumes, enough to cover Portugal`s

02:52 entire electricity use. The target is 30 percent by 2030.

02:58 Twenty-six EU countries have now signed up to the wind charter, committing to the actions

03:03 outlined in the wind power package. These include streamlining permitting rules, improving

03:09 auctions by indexing prices and reducing the problems caused by rising inflation, and investment

03:16 in ports and the grid.

03:18 For industry body, Wind Europe based in Brussels, this is welcome news.

03:24 Crucially, it`s getting easier to get permits for new wind farms. It was very difficult.

03:30 It was very legal and bureaucratic. The European Union`s now brought in new rules to simplify

03:36 the permitting. In Germany and in Spain, last year, they awarded 70 percent more permits

03:44 for onshore wind than they had done in the previous year. But we`re facing competition

03:48 now from Chinese wind turbine manufacturers.

03:52 How fierce is the competition?

03:54 Very fierce. They are coming in, offering lower prices than what we offer. They know

04:00 what we offer and they undercut us. And they offer very generous financing terms. They

04:05 say you do not need to pay us for three years, deferred payment. We`re not allowed to offer

04:10 that.

04:11 And China is also worryingly strong in terms of critical raw materials.

04:18 Today, we depend on China for rare earths that are in the permanent magnets in many

04:24 of our wind turbines. The EU wants to reduce our dependency on China, diversify the supply.

04:31 The industry wants that as well. And we`re working with the EU to try and make that happen,

04:35 source these materials from other countries, even expand the European supply chain for

04:40 these materials.

04:42 Time is of the essence if Europe`s wind industry is to realize its full potential, not only

04:48 in terms of the energy produced by the wind, but keeping control of its supply chain and

04:53 manufacturing.

04:54 See you next time on "Business Planet."

04:56 (upbeat music)

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