Debunking wind energy’s biggest disinformation myths
Wind energy is a European success story. In 1883 the Austrian Josef Friedländer installed the world’s first electricity-generating turbine in Vienna. Today Europe’s wind industry supplies hundreds of millions of Europeans with clean electricity. Nearly 400,000 Europeans are employed in the sector. Wind energy adds around €60bn of economic activity to Europe’s GDP every year.
The European Union sees wind as a central technology to boost competitiveness, energy security and fight climate change. It wants to double its electricity demand by 2050. And it wants wind to supply 50% of the EU’s electricity, up from 19% today. The public overwhelmingly supports this. 85% of EU citizens agree that the EU should invest massively in renewables such as wind and solar power.
Malign actors are working very hard to undermine the value generated by European wind. Dis- and misinformation campaigns spread on social media and beyond misrepresent wind energy’s good impact on our economy, nature and society.
Wind and local communities (GWI)
Wind and the environment (GM)
Economic impact of wind
Wind energy is affordable
Thanks to continued innovations, the price of wind has fallen by more than 50% since 2010. Wind is now among the cheapest sources of electricity in Europe. And prices will continue to fall.
Source: Ørsted, Bloomberg New Energy Finance
Wind energy is not the reason for Europe’s energy crisis
Solar and wind now supply around 30% of Europe’s electricity needs, up from 10% in 2013. Yet despite these capacity additions of cheap electricity, Europe has been facing an energy crisis. In past years, energy prices were extremely volatile, reaching record highs. Some actors have blamed this problem on the expansion of renewable energies.
The real reason for the crisis is Europe’s high dependence on expensive foreign fossil fuel imports. In early 2022 the EU spent around $15bn per month on Russian fossil fuel imports, supplying much of the EU’s gas needs. When Russia limited its supply to Europe in the wake of its full-scale Ukraine invasion, prices skyrocketed across the continent.
The growing share of renewables has offset some of the damage caused by the over-reliance on fossil imports. IEA estimates that EU electricity consumers saved €100bn between 2021 and 2023 thanks to electricity generation from newly installed solar PV and wind, replacing an estimated 230 TWh of expensive fossil fuel generation. And in Germany, where Europe’s biggest wind fleet is located, onshore wind alone lowered average electricity prices by one-third in 2024.
While the EU is reducing its dependence on Russian fossils, it is still greatly dependent on other expensive foreign fossil imports. The EU imports more than 50% of its energy needs, most of it in the form of fossil fuels. This continues to put a great burden on energy bills.
The more renewable energy we have in our system, the lower our energy prices will become. Rystad estimated that Europe could save €76bn per year on fossil fuel imports if 2030 wind expansion targets were met.
We can build up a reliable electricity system around wind energy
Wind farms do not always run at full capacity as the wind is not always blowing. Some have used this as an argument to claim that we cannot rely on this form of energy generation. That’s not true.
As turbines keep innovating, wind capacity factors have risen substantially. New onshore wind farms now operate at a capacity factor of 30-45% and new offshore wind farms at 50%+.
But even modern turbines don’t always run at full capacity. Who provides electricity when the wind is not blowing? Solar is a great addition to wind. The two sources complement each other both from a day and season perspective.
Expanding the grid infrastructure further improves the reliability of a renewables-based electricity system. Grids allow us to send electricity from renewable electricity surplus locations to locations faced with scarcity. The more integrated renewable capacities we have spread across Europe, the more reliable our system becomes.
Electricity storage solutions can compensate for most of the remaining demand not covered by wind and solar. Applications like batteries and pumped hydro storage have a proven track record of reliably stabilising grids. The graph below highlights how batteries are already playing an essential role in California’s grid by replacing fossil fuels during periods of renewable energy scarcity.
Source: California Independent System Operator via Grid Status, New York Times
Wind is winning despite subsidies – not because of them
The EU’s economies are spending a lot of money on energy imports, most of them fossil fuels. For example, in 2021 they spent €300bn. And in 2022 they spent around €600bn because of cost increases related to the energy crisis.
Europe is gradually adding renewable capacities to replace these fossil fuel imports with cheaper domestic energy sources. But it’s not happening fast enough. While electricity is becoming increasingly renewable, Europe’s electrification share has stagnated in the past years. This means that fossil energy dependence persists in non-electrified sectors which make up around 75% of the energy mix.
Fossil fuel subsidies are one of the reasons why we’re not decarbonising quickly enough. In 2023 fossil fuel subsidies amounted to €110bn in the EU. These subsidies undermine the business case for making the needed upfront investments to build more renewables. Instead, we should be subsidising renewables to boost energy security. And make sure the massive value we invest in energy stays in European economies. However, in 2023 renewable subsidies were around half of fossil subsidies in the EU, €60bn.
Source: European Commission
