Transmission Stalls European Offshore Wind Power

[wtmusic]

"One of the problems is the lack of incentive for grid operators, which in Germany are also the power generators, to open their doors to competitors. And while this problem isn’t unique to Germany, the country, together with France, has moved slowly in establishing true network competition. European Wind Energy Association chief executive Christian Kjaer has publicly criticized politicians for not treating electricity transmission networks as what he calls their right name -- 'natural monopolies.'

Even though two of Germany’s biggest energy companies, E.on and Vattenfall, are among the biggest investors in the Alpha Ventus venture, they and other energy generators in the country still view wind as a risky investment compared with their highly profitable nuclear and coal-fired electricity operations. The construction of a wind farm, for instance, can easily consume between €500 million and €1 billon, not to mention the high costs of maintaining facilities at sea, according to the German Wind Energy Association (BWE).

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Sven Teske, a renewable energy expert with Greenpeace in Germany, said Germany’s grids 'are already falling behind' and have 'very little free capacity' and warned that without super grid infrastructure, the country’s newly built wind farms could have a short life."

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/04/transmission-stalls-european-offshore-wind-power?cmpid=WNL-Friday-April2-2010