A comparative multi-disciplinary policy review in wind energy developments in Europe

Over recent decades, European Union countries have committed to increasing their electricity production from renewable energy sources (RESs). Wind energy plays a significant role in a sustainable future. This paper presents a political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental analysis. Although these countries have made many improvements in their legal frameworks aiming to attract investors and boost the RE sector, there are still challenges. The UK focuses on offshore wind energy, adjusts the economic strategy and changes the legislation context. Germany has the healthiest economic conditions, as it keeps following its initiative to design a new programme for an energy transition from conventional to RESs with emphasis on the onshore. Greece has only a few installations and much room for development but needs to make further changes in the legislation and economy so as to attract more investors in the long term. The purpose of this research is to analyse, highlight and discuss vital aspects of these countries as well as the European environment, with reference to their current wind energy activities. Ultimately, it attempts to give a wider perspective and to serve as a guide for future studies on the wind energy sector.     

Offshore wind power policy and planning in Sweden

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the role of policy support schemes and planning systems for inducing offshore wind power development in Sweden. Specifically, it highlights the different types of economic, political and planning-related conditions that face offshore wind power investors in Sweden, and provides brief comparisons to the corresponding investment conditions in Denmark, Norway and the UK. The analysis shows that in Sweden existing policy incentives are generally too weak to promote a significant development of offshore wind power, and the paper provides a discussion about a number of political and economic aspects on the choice between different support schemes for offshore wind in the country. Swedish permitting and planning procedures, though, appear favorable to such a development, not the least in comparison to the corresponding processes in the other major offshore wind countries in Europe (e.g., the UK). On a general level the paper illustrates that the success and failure stories of national offshore wind policies and institutions cannot be easily transferred across country borders, and the analysis shows that both the political and the legal frameworks governing the investment situation for offshore wind farms in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK differ significantly.     

The UK offshore wind power programme: A sea-change in UK energy policy?

The British offshore windfarm programme presages the emergence of Britain as more of a leader than a laggard in renewables, the latter being the status it has hitherto endured in comparison to countries such as Denmark, Germany and Spain. Britain looks increasingly likely to exceed 20% of electricity being supplied from renewable energy by 2020, provided there continues to be adequate financial incentives for renewable energy. This turnaround is associated with increased British concerns about energy dependence on imported natural gas as well as pressure from EU legislation. However there are many planning pressures that countervail the drive for offshore wind power. British planning policy on offshore wind is distinctive (compared to other EU states) for its pragmatic, ‘criteria based’, approach that appears to favour offshore wind power development. The extent of the British offshore wind power programme is likely to depend heavily on consumer reactions to price increases caused by the offshore wind power programme.     

A review of wind project financing structures in the USA

The rapid pace of wind power development in the USA over the last decade has outstripped the ability of most project developers to provide adequate equity capital and to make efficient use of project‐related tax benefits. In response, the sector has created novel project financing structures that feature varying combinations of equity capital from project developers and third‐party tax‐oriented investors and, in some cases, commercial debt. While their origins stem from variations in the financial capacity and business objectives of wind project developers, as well as the risk tolerances and objectives of equity and debt providers, each structure is, at its core, designed to manage project risk and to allocate federal tax incentives to those entities that can use them most efficiently. This paper surveys the six principal financing structures through which most new utility‐scale wind projects (excluding utility‐owned projects) in the USA have been financed from 1999 to the present. These structures include simple balance sheet finance, several varieties of all‐equity special allocation partnership ‘flip’ structures and two leveraged structures. In addition to describing each structure's mechanics, the paper also discusses its rationale for use, the types of investors that find it appealing and why, and its relative frequency of use in the market. The paper concludes with a generalized summary of how a developer might choose one structure over another. Copyright © 2008 US Government Work.     

Offshore wind energy policy for India—Key factors to be considered

Indian Economy is growing at a healthy pace during the last few years. To sustain this growth, power sector needs to build additional generation capacity. However, continued dependence on fossil fuels to power the growth of electricity generation capacity, is hardly sustainable. Renewable Energy source forms a miniscule portion (25 GW,∼12%) of India's overall power generation today (202 GW). The share of wind energy (17 GW) is 67% of the total renewable energy basket. But the contribution from offshore wind farms is non-existent, as all the wind energy generated in India is only through onshore wind farms. India needs a policy framework to encourage the development of offshore wind farms. Several European countries have effective offshore wind energy policies that have helped them to accelerate the growth of their offshore wind energy sector. This paper does an exhaustive literature survey, to identify 21 building blocks of a successful offshore wind energy policy initiative adopted by select European countries, which have been classified under 5 broad categories—Government support, Fiscal and quota based incentives, Availability of local expertise, Capital for investments and Building an enabling ecosystem, which can be leveraged by India to articulate its own offshore wind energy policy.     

Technical aspects of status and expected future trends for wind power in Denmark

The power system of Denmark is characterized by significant incorporation of wind power. Presently, more than 20% of the annual electricity consumption is covered by electricity‐producing wind turbines. The largest increase in grid‐incorporated wind power is expected to come from large (offshore) wind farms operating as large wind power plants with ride‐through solutions, connected to the high‐voltage transmission system and providing ancillary services to the system. In Denmark there are presently two offshore wind farms connected to the transmission system: Horns Rev A (160MW rated power in the western part of the country) and Nysted (165MW rated power at Rødsand in Eastern Denmark). The construction of two more offshore wind farms, totalling 400MW by the years 2008–2010, has been announced. This article presents the status, perspectives and technical challenges for wind power in the power system from the point of view of Energinet.dk, Transmission System Operator of Denmark. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd     

Area price and demand response in a market with 25% wind power

Denmark, east and west of the Great Belt are bidding areas with separate hourly area prices for the Nord Pool power exchange, covering four Nordic countries and parts of Germany. The share of wind power has now increased to 25% on an annual basis in western Denmark. This has a significant impact not only on the electricity wholesale prices, but also on the development of the market. Hourly market data are available from the website of Danish TSO from 1999. In this paper these data are analysed for the period 2004–2010. Electricity generators and customers may respond to hourly price variations, which can improve market efficiency, and a welfare gain is obtained. An important limitation for demand response is events of several consecutive hours with extreme values. The analysis in this paper is a summary and update of some of the issues covered by the EU RESPOND project. It shows that extreme events were few, and the current infrastructure and market organisation have been able to handle the amount of wind power installed so far. This recommends that geographical bidding area for the wholesale electricity market reflects external transmission constraints caused by wind power.     

Hydrogen generation by electrolysis and storage in salt caverns: Potentials,economics and systems aspects with regard to the German energy transition

The Plan-DelyKaD project focused on an in-depth comparison of relevant electrolysis technologies, identified criteria for and selected most relevant salt cavern sites in Germany, studied business case potentials for applying hydrogen taken from storage to different end-users and engaged in identifying the future role of hydrogen from large scale storage in the German energy system. The focus of this paper is on the latter three topics above. The bottom-up investigation of most suitable salt cavern sites was used as input for a model-based analysis of microeconomic and macroeconomic aspects. The results identify dimensions and locations of possible hydrogen storages mostly in Northern Germany with ample potential to support the integration of fluctuating renewable electricity into the German power system. The microeconomic analysis demonstrates that the most promising early business case for hydrogen energy from large scale storage is its application as a fuel for the mobility sector. From a system perspective the analysis reveals that an optimized implementation of hydrogen generation via electrolysis and storage in salt caverns will have a positive impact on the power system in terms of reduced curtailments of wind power plants and lower residual peak loads.     

The importance and the policy impacts of post-contractual opportunism and competition in the English and Welsh non-fossil fuel obligation

The non-fossil fuel obligation (NFFO), which consisted in a competitive auction for the deployment of renewable electricity, was the main policy for almost a decade in England and Wales. Once also used in Ireland and France, it has recently been abandoned in all countries. Many critics of the NFFO have focused on its inability to develop a national industry and promote a climate of stability among investors. This paper focuses on the incentives faced by developers bidding for a NFFO contract and shows that the low deployment rate under this scheme is likely to have been a predictable outcome of how the policy was structured and implemented rather than an unfortunate accident. The importance of the NFFO goes beyond the lack of an intense deployment of renewable electricity generation observed in the years in which the policy was on place. In fact, the NFFO has contributed to: promoting hostility against wind farms; creating false expectations of a price competitive renewable electricity sector; creating a playing field giving advantages to big players; preventing the creation of a wide renewable lobby coalition and the effective solution of planning constraints encountered by several renewable developers.     

Review of wind power tariff policies in China

In the past 20 years, China has paid significant attention to wind power. Onshore wind power in China has experienced tremendous growth since 2005, and offshore wind power development has been on-going since 2009. In 2010, with a total installed wind power capacity of 41.8 GW, China surpassed the U.S. as the country with the biggest wind power capacity in the world. By comparing the wind power situations of three typical countries, Germany, Spain, and Denmark, this paper provides a comprehensive evaluation and insights into the prospects of China’s wind power development. The analysis is carried out in four aspects including technology, wind resources, administration and time/space frame. We conclude that both German and Spanish have been growing rapidly in onshore capacity since policy improvements were made. In Denmark, large financial subsidies flow to foreign markets with power exports, creating inverse cost-benefit ratios. Incentives are in place for German and Danish offshore wind power, while China will have to remove institutional barriers to enable a leap in wind power development. In China, cross-subsidies are provided from thermal power (coal-fired power generation) in order to limit thermal power while encouraging wind power. However, the mass installation of wind power capacity completely relies on power subsidies. Furthermore, our study illustrates that capacity growth should not be the only consideration for wind power development. It is more important to do a comprehensive evaluation of multi-sectorial efforts in order to achieve long-term development.     

世界风力发电现状与前景预测

全球可再生能源发电装机容量中风电占有压倒性优势,今后可望成为欧洲、亚洲、北美的主要电力来源.2011年中国以62GW的累计装机容量蝉联世界第一,按照我国“十二五”规划目标,预计到2015年风电装机容量将达到1×108kW,年发电量1900×108kW·h.GWEC和Greenpeace预测,今后20年风力发电将成为世界主力电源,2030年装机容量有可能达到23×108kW,可供应世界电力需求的22％.欧美正大力开发海上风电产业.欧洲是世界海上风电发展的先驱和产业中心,欧洲企业不仅拥有自己的核心技术,而且还向世界各地输出技术,今后欧洲海上风力发电将急速增长.美国采取与英国、德国等欧洲厂家相同的战略,大力发展海上风力发电.我国海上风电产业刚刚起步,预计2015年海上风电装机500×104kW.日本学者大岛教授推算了不同电源的发电成本:包括政府财政补贴,运行年限30年的核电站发电成本为12.06日元/(kW·h);按标准设备利用率,风力发电成本11.30日元/(kW·h),与核电相比已经有竞争力.假设风况好时设备利用率达到35％,发电成本为7.95日元/(kW·h),比核电低得多.     

Wind power as a clean-energy contributor

Modern and sophisticated wind generators rated at up to 5 MW are in use on- and offshore in many European and other countries. They are made by a large and financially strong industry. In 2006, there were 1672 wind turbines in use in the UK, making up 2.5% of UK's electricity-generating capacity but producing under 1% of its electricity. The UK uses only about 1% of its wind power potential. Making use of more wind will involve developing new materials, new techniques and new mathematical modelling methods. The machines will need to be more reliable and robust, and will require a more flexible electricity system to feed into. In the longer term, there may be bigger machines of up to 10 MW, perhaps used in tandem with advanced electricity-storage technology. The growth of a European rather than UK power grid may allow renewables, including wind, to play a larger role.     

Offshore wind energy in the world context

The interest for the exploitation of the offshore wind energy is growing in Europe, where man land use is very high resulting in strong limitation to the installation of onshore wind farms. The today offshore operating wind power is 12 MW, with two wind farms in Denmark and one in Netherlands; it starts to be significant (0.6%) in terms of the onshore power, 2000 MW in Europe.In the world the onshore installed wind power is exceeding 4000 MW, but not so much up to now has been done on the offshore area outside Europe.The European four years experience on the prototypical offshore wind farms looks significantly promising and suggests to promote a similar approach in many densely populated coastal countries in the world with high electricity demand.Results of studies are presented on the offshore wind potential in the European countries and of the tentative evaluation for the Mediterranean basin, and the seas of USA and China. A review is made of the offshore applications, particularly for the Nothern European seas.Economy and environmental trends are illustrated in parallel to those of maturing offshore technology. It is suggested to prepare an action plan to promote the development of the offshore applications in the world context.     

Why offshore wind energy?

At the beginning of 2010, only 2000 wind megawatts had been installed offshore. Although the first offshore wind farm experiment took place in 1990, most of the facilities built up to now have been pilot projects. Then, offshore wind power can be considered as an incipient market. However, just at this moment, the growth of this technology finally seems to be happening, being several countries at the top of its development (the United Kingdom, Denmark, Holland, Sweden and Germany). This current situation, the raw materials problems and the general commitments to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases are leading to predict a promising future for this technology. This paper deals with a brief revision of the state of the art of offshore wind power, followed by a critical discussion about the causes of the recently growth that is currently happening. The discussion is based on the comparison of offshore wind energy with other renewable energies (like onshore wind, marine hydrodynamics, hydraulic, solar, etc.) and even with conventional power.     

ENDOW (efficient development of offshore wind farms): modelling wake and boundary layer interactions

While experience gained through the offshore wind energy projects currently operating is valuable, a major uncertainty in estimating power production lies in the prediction of the dynamic links between the atmosphere and wind turbines in offshore regimes. The objective of the ENDOW project was to evaluate, enhance and interface wake and boundary layer models for utilization offshore. The project resulted in a significant advance in the state of the art in both wake and marine boundary layer models, leading to improved prediction of wind speed and turbulence profiles within large offshore wind farms. Use of new databases from existing offshore wind farms and detailed wake profiles collected using sodar provided a unique opportunity to undertake the first comprehensive evaluation of wake models in the offshore environment. The results of wake model performance in different wind speed, stability and roughness conditions relative to observations provided criteria for their improvement. Mesoscale model simulations were used to evaluate the impact of thermal flows, roughness and topography on offshore wind speeds. The model hierarchy developed under ENDOW forms the basis of design tools for use by wind energy developers and turbine manufacturers to optimize power output from offshore wind farms through minimized wake effects and optimal grid connections. The design tools are being built onto existing regional‐scale models and wind farm design software which was developed with EU funding and is in use currently by wind energy developers. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimizing hybrid offshore wind farms for cost-competitive hydrogen production in Germany

Nearly 96% of the world's current hydrogen production comes from fossil-fuel-based sources, contributing to global greenhouse gas emissions. Hydrogen is often discussed as a critical lever in decarbonizing future power systems. Producing hydrogen using unsold offshore wind electricity may offer a low-carbon production pathway and emerging business model. This study investigates whether participating in an ancillary service market is cost competitive for offshore wind-based hydrogen production. It also determines the optimal size of a hydrogen electrolyser relative to an offshore wind farm. Two flexibility strategies for offshore wind farms are developed in this study: an optimal bidding strategy into ancillary service markets for offshore wind farms that build hydrogen production facilities and optimal sizing of Power-to-Hydrogen (PtH) facilities at wind farms. Using empirical European power market and wind generation data, the study finds that offshore-wind based hydrogen must participate in ancillary service markets to generate net positive revenues at current levels of wind generation to become cost competitive in Germany. The estimated carbon abatement cost of “green” hydrogen ranges between 187 EUR/tonCO₂e and 265 EUR/tonCO₂e. Allowing hydrogen producers to receive similar subsidies as offshore wind farms that produce only electricity could facilitate further cost reduction. Utilizing excess and intermittent offshore wind highlights one possible pathway that could achieve increasing returns on greenhouse gas emission reductions due to technological learning in hydrogen production, even under conditions where low power prices make offshore wind less competitive in the European electricity market.     

英国电力改革20年引发的思考

1990年4月开始的英国电力体制改革是按照新自由主义理论来设计的,其主要内容是:所有权从国家向私人投资者转变;雇员向继承企业的转移;引入竞争性市场;形成独立管制系统。世界银行1992年政策报告介绍了美、英等国的电力体制改革经验之后,对发展中国家的电力改革提出了5项原则规定,这些规定实际上要求发展中国家按照美、英等国的电力体制改革模式进行改革。对于中国电力体制改革是否应采用英美的单一购买机制模式存在着争议。美国加州2000年采用单一购买机制模式进行的电力改革酿成了电力危机。英国经调查研究,决定从2001年3月起用新电力交易制度替代强制电力库,形成了英国电力体制改革的第二波。这使人们认识到,在英国已被认为不可行的单一购买机制不能继续照抄照搬。最近20年,世界能源发生了变化。英国原来发起的竞争性电力体制改革只能适应以化石能源发电为主的市场,为了应对气候变化,要实行节能减排,发展低碳能源发电,为此英国正在酝酿第三波新的电力体制改革。回顾英国20年的电力体制改革,我们应思考:为什么英国在20年里不断地调查研究,不断地创新电力体制改革模式?而我们在这20年里只是跟着英国亦步亦趋,不能创新电力体制改革模式呢?     

Offshore wind power in the US: Regulatory issues and models for regulation

The first offshore wind farm became operational in 1991 in Vindeby, Denmark. By 2008, large offshore wind farms had been built in Denmark, the UK, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Sweden with a total capacity of 1200 MW. Offshore wind farms have the potential to generate a significant fraction of US electrical consumption, but the US currently lacks offshore wind farms and is still developing a regulatory system. At the state level only Texas has a leasing system for offshore wind. Since all offshore land is the property of the state and cannot be legally developed without a lease from the government, these absences have stalled development. We review and compare regulatory and leasing systems developed in Europe and the US to inform a discussion of the major issues associated with the development of an offshore leasing and regulatory system. We focus on the tradeoffs between encouraging a sustainable energy source and ensuring environmental protection and public compensation. We conclude that there are likely multiple effective methods of regulation.     

Pros and cons of exposing renewables to electricity market risks—A comparison of the market integration approaches in Germany,Spain, and the UK

The article examines how renewable electricity (RES-E) producers are integrated into the electricity market under the support legislations and regulatory frameworks of Germany, Spain, and the UK. Focus is on wind power, which faces the highest market integration challenge of all RES-E. The analysis shows that the three countries follow contrasting approaches of exposing RES-E producers to the market risks of forward electricity markets, balancing markets and system planning requirements. Risk exposure is highest in the UK and lowest in Germany. From a policy maker's perspective, there is a trade-off between a “high risk” and a “low risk” approach. When RES-E face high market risks, a higher level of financial support is required to stimulate RES-E development than in a low risk environment, but the exposure to market risks may also give an incentive to make efficient use of the respective market, thus limiting the indirect costs to society. The special characteristics of wind energy, however, put natural limits to the response of wind power plants to market prices and locational price signals and will increasingly influence electricity markets and grid infrastructure. These interdependencies should be recognised in the design of RES-E policies and market regulations.     

Powering Cuba: A model for private investment in wind power in Cuba

With a reliable business environment for private investors, developing countries could reduce their dependence on oil and also lower the overall costs for electricity production by the increased use of wind generated electricity without resulting in a financial burden for the countries. Based on the results of a global strategic study on sustainable energy policy concepts (SEPCo) conducted by ISES, Dorothee Reinmuller and Dieter Seifried, describe a regulatory system and a feasibility study on how the Cuban government could develop wind power with neither cost nor risk being imposed on the Cuban economy.