Catching Wind of Europe’s Turbines

Almost a year ago on October 28th, wind power sources provided 24.6% of total electricity generated in the EU, powering nearly 200 million households. While the number was undoubtedly boosted by a storm that weekend, it marks the progress of the European Council’s climate goals, planing to reduce EU-wide emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, part of which involves filling at least 20% of energy needs with renewables by 2020. 

Consequently, offshore wind energy is now cheaper than nuclear energy in the UK. Wind often provides Denmark with more than 100% of its energy (109% that weekend), and Germany more than half. Scotland, inline with its 2020 carbon neutrality goals, made news opening the first floating wind farm (video here). And this is really just the start; Danish wind giant Ørsted Energy has plans to build a 1200 Megawatt (MW) farm in the UK by 2020 and 1368 MW - to be the next largest offshore wind farm - by 2022. 

Germany has championed wind energy more than any other nation in Europe, ranking third worldwide behind China and the US. On October 28th, German citizens received free energy. Prices turned negative for the entire day when output reached 39,409 MW. Germany broke another record by building the world’s tallest wind turbine, stretching 809 feet from base to blade-tip. Height has functional value here; higher altitudes mean stronger, more stable and more consistent wind speeds, producing more energy and fewer generation gaps. 

A few other, shorter turbines were built around it, all of which harness a new power storage technology. They have water tanks built into their base, such that when excess power is generated, water can be pumped from a reservoir uphill into tanks. In low supply/high demand instances, this water can be released to spin even more turbines for extra power, marking an innovative approach to the intermittency problem. 

European wind energy proponents had a lot to celebrate in October. And with these new water-storage turbines, Germany is cementing itself as wind capital of Europe. While it is still far from challenging the US or China for wind dominance, Germany’s unflinching innovation and focus might make it a contender soon enough.