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According to a new study, the European Union is not close to reaching its full potential in the exploitation of renewable wind energy.
If a wind turbine were installed on all appropriate sites, research shows that it could provide more than 100 times the wind energy currently produced on land. Calculated at more than 11 million additional wind turbines, this would be enough to power the world by 2050.
"Obviously, we are not saying that we should install turbines in all identified sites," says Benjamin Sovacool, an expert on energy policy at the University of Sussex.
"But the study shows the huge European wind potential that must be exploited if we want to avoid a climate catastrophe."
Today, the European Union is a leader in the production of wind power and together, its onshore and offshore wind turbines account for almost one third of the world's total wind capacity. The European Commission has promised that by 2050, at least 100,000 additional wind turbines will be updated or added.
But new discoveries push the potential ceiling much higher, even excluding offshore wind farms.
Country by country, and using an advanced system of wind atlases, researchers have sought to answer a crucial question: what is the wind potential of Europe?
Taking into account infrastructures, built-up areas and protected areas, the authors found favorable wind conditions on 46% of the European territory. This represents nearly 5 million square kilometers and nearly 500 exajoules of energy, about 70 more than the world will need in 2050.
To be clear, this estimate is vast. The research did not examine site-specific boundaries, public acceptance, or whether the land was privately owned; it only highlighted areas adapted to current wind technology. As such, the authors say that this is only a guide for politics, not a blueprint for development.
Nevertheless, compared to previous estimates, this is one of the most detailed information on Europe's wind potential to date. Using advanced GIS data at the national and sub-national levels, the authors have eliminated other estimates. In 2009, for example, the European Environment Agency calculated a wind energy potential three times smaller.
In addition to improving the resolution, such a significant difference can be related to different definitions of "appropriate ground" or new technology. In the ten years since the release of the previous report, wind capacity in the United States has tripled with falling prices and improved efficiency of wind turbines.
A different study, published last month by German researchers, estimates that wind farms can only be built on about a quarter of European land. This is more like the previous estimates, but taking into account the new wind turbine technology, the researchers calculated a much higher wind power output.
In the end, these studies are all hypothetical and each comes with its limits. Yet, despite the recent interest of the European Union for wind energy, it is clear that the growth margin is even greater.
"Critics will undoubtedly argue that the naturally intermittent wind supply makes onshore wind energy unfit to meet global demand," said Peter Enevoldsen, a wind energy researcher at the University of Toronto. # 39; Aarhus.
"But even ignoring the evolution of wind turbine technology in the decades to come, onshore wind is the least expensive and most mature source of renewable energy."
The results were published in Energy policy.
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