WindEurope Bulletin July 2017

CEO Foreword

Dear member,

What a pleasure it was to welcome so many of you to the WindEurope Open Day and Summer Reception last week. Thank you very much for coming. I hope you agree that, despite the unseasonal weather, it was a most enjoyable day – sincere thanks to you, our members, for making it such a memorable occasion.

As we look forward to our summer holidays, it’s perhaps time to take stock of the last few months.

It’s been a significant time for the wind industry, with the “zero-subsidy” offshore tender in Germany, further significant cost reductions in onshore with the tendersQ in German and Spain, the return of Spain to the market after a four-year gap, significant progress towards the new support mechanisms in France – and the start of negotiations in the European Parliament and Council of Ministers on the EU’s Clean Energy Package.

As the voice of the wind industry, we’ve been pushing the interests of wind in the corridors of power both in Brussels and beyond. We’ve met all the key Members of the European Parliament who are involved in the negotiations on the Clean Energy Package. We’ve engaged heavily with national governments too, including Ministerial-level meetings with the Germans, Belgians, Swedes and Lithuanians. And we continue to interact daily with key officials in the European Commission.

Progress on the Clean Energy Package in the European Parliament is broadly positive. There is a good chance the relevant committee will support a higher target than the “at least 27%” the Commission proposed – perhaps 35%. The Parliament also looks likely to endorse the good things we like in the Commission’s proposals, including the idea of phasing out capacity payments for coal plants. The negotiations are going more slowly in the Council but will pick up in the second half of the year. Many EU Member States will resist the idea of a higher target. And the proposal to retain priority despatch and access for existing renewables may come under pressure too – so we have some serious work ahead.

Separately we are making progress on our key priority for the year of promoting the decarbonisation of transport and heating. There’s a growing realisation across Europe that the electrification of heating and transport – with clean energy – will be a cornerstone of the energy transition. WindEurope has been at the centre of those driving this agenda: we ran an event on it in the European Parliament, we did a joint workshop with Hydrogen Europe to work out how to advance electrolysis, and we launched a new Electrification Alliance with Eurelectric and others.

We’ve further extended our outreach to other industrial sectors. We’ve formed a new coalition with the chemicals industry on corporate renewable PPAs. We’re working with oil and gas companies to end capacity payments for coal. And our position as a “mainstream” part of the energy system and wider economy was recognised when we spoke on the opening panel of the European Business Summit.

At the same time we’ve further extended the products and services we offer. Our new Daily Wind Power Numbers platform has been a major success. And our first in-depth report on wind financing attracted significant interest. Initiatives like this help us strengthen our membership base – we’re pleased to have welcomed over 40 new members since January.

On events, many of you will have taken part in Offshore Wind 2017 last month in London. It attracted 6,500 participants and over 400 exhibitors. The highlights included the publication of a new report showing the huge potential of offshore wind across Europe. And the signing of a joint commitment by 25 CEOs and the 3 governments taking part (Germany, Belgium and Denmark) to significant build-out of offshore volumes in the 2020s.

We’re now working hard on preparations for RE-Source 2017, our corporate PPA event in October, as well as our annual event in Amsterdam at the end of November.

Finally, our Annual General Assembly met on 29 June and elected two new Board members – Eneco and Innogy. Congratulations to them!

Enjoy the summer!

 

News

The world’s largest offshore wind energy event

Offshore Wind Energy 2017, the world’s largest dedicated offshore wind event, is now behind us – and it was a success. We had over 6,500 participants, including 400+ exhibitors and 150+ speakers across more than 30 sessions and more than 160 posters.

The event, a collaboration with RenewableUK, marked the high point this year in WindEurope’s offshore wind advocacy and operational activity.
In terms of advocacy, we used the theme of the event, “Securing the volumes to power our future,” as a platform to communicate to governments the need for a clear plan for how much new offshore they intend to deploy beyond 2020. We called on European governments to collectively ensure there is 60 GW, or at least 4 GW per year, of new deployment in the decade between 2020 and 2030.

We were successful in communicating this by getting commitments from the Governments of Germany, Belgium and Denmark, who signed a Joint Statement to further the deployment of offshore wind energy in Europe, together with 26 CEOs of our member companies.

The call for volumes represented only a fraction of the potential of offshore wind energy in Europe. According to the new resource assessment WindEurope commissioned from BVG Associates, offshore wind could in theory generate between 2,600 TWh and 6,000 TWh per year at a competitive cost – €65/MWh or below, including grid connection and using the technologies that will have developed by 2030. This economically attractive resource potential would represent between 80% and 180% of the EU’s total electricity demand.

On the operational side of WindEurope’s work, we released two landmark statements from increasingly important sectors within offshore wind energy: Floating offshore wind and ports. The former released its vision statement focusing on its viability ready to be rolled out on an industrial scale. The latter communicated their work in WindEurope to position themselves as a valuable part of the offshore wind supply chain.

We are now preparing our upcoming Conference and Exhibition event on 28-30 November in Amsterdam to continue this important work. We look forward to seeing you there.

 

ETIPWind visit ZF Wind Power in Lommel and discuss policy with European Commission’s Christopher Jones

ZF Wind Power factory in Lommel hosting the ETIPWind Advisory Group with representatives DONG ENERGY WIND POWER, Enercon, ENEL Green Power, E.ON Climate & Renewables, Iberdrola Renovables, JDR Cable Systems, MHI Vestas Offshore, Nordex, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Vestas.

On 21 June 2017 the technology officers from the leading wind energy companies that make up the ETIPWind Advisory Group came to Belgium for a visit to ZF Wind Power’s gearbox manufacturing operations in Lommel. This was followed by a high-level policy discussion in Brussels with Christopher Jones, the European Commission’s Deputy Director General for Energy. They presented the sector’s Research & Innovation (R&I) priorities to Mr Jones and stressed the importance of continuous R&I support to the industry as a whole and onshore wind in particular, identifying Energy Management Systems, ancillary services, standardisation and digitalisation as key R&I priorities for the wind industry.

WindEurope unites with clean Heating and Transport advocates to promote renewables based electrification

On the closing day of the EU Sustainable Energy Week, WindEurope launched The Electrification Alliance in partnership with Eurelectric, the European Copper Institute, SolarPower Europe, Avere (electric vehicles) the European Heat Pump Association and the Europe Climate Foundation.

This cross-sector group committed to working together to promote the use of electricity towards an efficient and decarbonised European energy system. In addition to driving the energy efficiency and lowering the emissions of Heating and Transport, electrification can bring significant benefits to the energy system by, for example, harnessing the potential of electric vehicle batteries to store excess wind energy production.

While Europe is doing a reasonable job at increasing the share of renewables in power (29%) RES shares are still low in heating (18%) and transport (6%). To address this, partners will work together on promoting measures including a rapid rollout of e-mobility recharging infrastructure and the deployment of smart grid technologies, and demand response.

WindEurope stressed at the launch event that the group would make proposals in areas where the Clean Energy Package proposed by the European Commission in November 2016 is lacking. This includes ensuring that new legislation on renewables will drive the uptake of renewable electricity in transport. That will require significant improvements in the tracking of green electricity thanks to guarantees of origin and renewable Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).

Another important topic raised at the event was the coherence of electrification policies with Europe’s energy efficiency efforts. Coalition partners stressed that the efficiency of renewable electricity should be properly factored in the ongoing debate on energy efficiency legislation.

The successful launch will now give way to detailed work with the coalition partners on amendments to the Clean Energy Package and other legislation covering issues such as vehicle emissions. This alliance is part of WindEurope’s work stream on the decarbonisation of heating and transport, which also includes close cooperation with the Hydrogen sector. Renewable hydrogen also has significant potential to power fuel-cell electric vehicles, and provide heat and power in residential buildings, replacing fossil fuels across the energy system.

 

Events

RE-Source 2017: The corporate PPA event connecting renewable energy buyers and sellers

When: 11 October 2017
Where: Wiltcher’s Steigenberger, Brussels

Europe’s leading event on corporate sourcing of renewable energy.

This event will bring together a range of multinational corporations, renewable energy developers and senior decision-makers to raise awareness, exchange information and facilitate connections in order to rapidly increase the procurement of renewable power.

For more information on this exciting event and the topics covered, visit resource-event.eu.

Find out more about RE-Source 2017

WindEurope Conference and Exhibition 2017

When: 28 – 30 November 2017
Where: Amsterdam

Join over 8,000 wind industry players in Amsterdam for WindEurope’s internationally famous conference and exhibition.

The conference programme will feature 35 sessions on 8 topics:

• Market developments
• Resource assessment
• Turbine technology
• Supply chain, O&M & logistics
• Health & safety
• Integrating wind power into the electricity market
• Environmental impacts & social acceptance
• Finance

Book your exhibition stand today

Global Wind Summit 2018

When: 25 – 28 September 2018
Where: Hamburg

Over 35,000 people will attend the largest wind event in the world. Don’t miss the global on- and off-shore expo!

Early registration is recommended!

Book your stand

The 8th Colloque National Eolien in France

When: 19 – 20 September 2017
Where: Paris

Energie Eolienne is organising the 8th Colloque National Eolien. The theme of this year’s event is “Concrete solutions for the France of tomorrow.”

Book your stand