Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, has pledged to make the European Union global leader in
renewables. This requires ambitious deployment, technological leadership and a revised market design
that rewards flexibility and accommodates large-scale integration of renewables.
With the right policies, the world-leading wind energy industry can and will continue to deliver jobs,
growth, cost-effective decarbonisation and energy security while driving innovation and opening new
export markets.
Increase the level of the renewable energy target for 2030 to at least 30%.
1) Employment
In Europe, over 300,000 people work in the wind energy sector today.
2) Manufacturing growth
In 2014, the wind energy industry increased its turnover to more than €67bn. Constructing wind turbines
uses over 1m tonnes of steel every year in Europe and also supports other downstream industries, such
as concrete and ports.
3) Cost-effective decarbonisation
Today, onshore wind power is the cheapest form of new power generation in Europe and in many parts
of the world (EC, 2015 and BNEF, 2015). While fossil fuels get more volatile, onshore wind power will
reduce costs even further.
Large investments in offshore wind, whose costs could be below €80/MWh by 2025, would help
decarbonise the energy sector at a cost €4bn lower than a nuclear scenario.
4) Energy security and independence
Wind power meets more than 11% of EU electricity consumption today. According to WindEurope’s
central scenario this share will double to 23% in 2030 and wind power will save more than €9.7bn in fuel
costs by 2030 while decreasing dependence on fuel imports from outside the EU.
5) Global leadership For long, Europe has been the world leader in wind energy. In 2014, 40% of capacity installed worldwide
came from European wind turbine OEMs.
But whereas key international competitors have raised their ambition and made concrete market volume
commitments for wind for the period beyond 2020, the European markets are characterised by declining
policy ambition and increased uncertainty.
Last year, renewable investments in Europe fell by 21%. As things stand Europe will not be number one
in renewables. Without additional policy ambition, EU companies risk losing their lead over competitors
with a negative impact on jobs and growth.
The EU’s policies including ETS structural reform and an emphasis on the polluter pays principle should
reflect renewed ambition on renewables deployment.
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LEGEND:
NEW
new Article proposed by WindEurope
Blue text
new legal text proposed by WindEurope
Black text
existing legal text under Directive 2009/28/EC
[…]
comments by WindEurope
NEW
Article (...): National indicative benchmarks for the fulfilment of the
mandatory European target for the use of energy from renewable sources
1. The Commission shall ensure that the share of energy from renewable sources in the EU gross final
consumption of energy in 2030 is at least [30%] and is delivered through the joint contributions of
Member States.
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