Tuesday 12 February 2013
Breath of Fresh Air – E.ON Target Scandinavia with Wind Power Proposals
Domestic and commercial energy supplier E.ON has announced the next step in its long-term development plan to produce green energy for Europe, by extending its wind power generation facilities in Norway and Sweden.
E.ON's proposals illustrate the German-based energy giant desire to build upon its wind power generation capacity in Norway and Sweden by hundreds of megawatts before the end of the decade.
Low development costs, sparser population density and - most importantly - high wind speeds have caught the eye of E.ON, where these factors mean they can create larger projects for less outlay than Germany, the UK and the rest of continental Europe.
“Norway has a huge untapped potential,” said Mark Porter, the northern Europe onshore wind power director. “It’s a new market that has many cost-efficient projects. We plan to complete a handful before 2020 though not all nine farms will make it.”
Porter's plans for Norway alone would see an increase of over 1,500 MW of additional power created - alongside other projects, Norwea (The national wind energy association of Norway), anticipates the country to be capable of producing up to 3,500 MW. A drastic increase to the countries current capabilities which, as of December 20th 2012, stand at a comparatively-meagre 620 MW.
Sweden would also see a huge investment as part of E.ON's plans. Soedra Midsjoebanken will become the home of one of the world's largest sea farms with a capacity of 700w. The economic incentive for the Scandinavian country is substantial, also, with plans to export energy produced there to Germany, Poland and the Baltic.
“Sweden has great offshore potential, competitive with Germany and the U.K., but first new physical cables are needed and it’ll likely be the back end of this decade before we can harness the potential,” Porter said yesterday from Malmoe.
According to Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, “Renewable energy will thus account for more than two-thirds of Norway’s energy consumption in 2020″.
