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Wind energy is one of the most important renewable energy sources, and if we are to believe a European Wind Energy Agency (EWEA) wind could provide 17% of EU's electricity by 2030. This however would require a serious improvement of wind energy sector in Europe because offshore wind farms are currently meeting just 0.3% of total EU electricity demand. In order to achieve such bold targets wind energy sector must first overcome various challenges such as development of the European offshore grid, receiving lot more political support and also needs to be included in improving member states energetic plans.
EWEA report claims that existing and planned European offshore wind projects will, if implemented, supply 10% of Europe's current electricity needs; this would not only be good from energy but also from ecological point of view because over 200 million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year would be avoided with such a percentage of wind energy in global EU energy demand.
The EWEA also said it had identified more than 100 GW (gigawatts) of offshore-wind power developments planned in 15 EU member states and other European countries, but that offshore wind was currently meeting only 0.3% of total EU electricity demand which is way below EU's wind energy potential.
This report also predicts that by 2030 a total installed offshore wind capacity of 150,000 MW with electricity production of 563 TWh (terawatt hours) could be enough to satisfy between 12.8% and 16.7% of total EU electricity demand. However, in order to achieve these countries will require large annual investments in wind turbines of approximately €16.5 billion (£14.5 billion).
The report also states that offshore wind has the technical potential to power Europe seven times over, producing 25,000 TWh by 2020 and 30,000 TWh by 2030. EWEA estimates that offshore wind can meet 40GW of this by 2020 with an average growth in annual installations of 28% - from 366 MW in 2008 to 6,900 MW in 2020. Market for offshore wind capacity is still far away from replicating that of onshore wind, which grew by an average 32% annually, from 215 MW to 5,749MW, in the 12 year period from 1992 to 2004.
This research was carried out by EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, who stated that the European Commission is committed to do everything it could to support offshore wind developers and ensure the planned projects come to life. As he said: "Harnessing the winds off Europe's coasts - starting with the more than 100 GW of planned projects announced today by EWEA - would provide an answer to the global challenges of climate change, depleting indigenous energy resources, increasing fuel costs and the threat of energy supply disruptions."
Many energy experts believe that future of wind energy sector lies in offshore wind projects, and this EU project could soon tell us were these experts right or not.
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