Vestas

	V80-20MW, Horns Reef, Denmark. By courtesy of Vestas

The battle against global warming has become a popular cause worldwide. On the basis of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it seems plausible that the planet has in fact become warmer – and that much of the blame for this should be laid squarely at the door of humangenerated emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2). But opinions still vary over consequences and solutions.

Value for money

The Stern Report and the second part of the IPCC report have attracted a good deal of attention as regards the consequences. New concepts such as “climate disaster” and “climate refugees” have become everyday expressions. At the same time, critical voices – such as that of Bjørn Lomborg, the Danish statistician and author of The Sceptical Environmentalist – are calling for restraint and cautioning politicians against making incorrect decisions construed from overemotionally charged arguments. In fact, Bjørn Lomborg has become the spokesman for the view that there are other global problems, including malaria, AIDS and malnutrition, which should be addressed first because cost–benefit analyses suggest they offer better value for money.

No matter where you stand on the climate debate, wind is difficult solution to ignore because, not only does it offer significant reductions in CO2 emissions, but it does so in a cost-efficient manner.

From being a grass-roots’ technology just a few years ago, wind power – with Vestas at the helm – has developed into a fully fledged energy source which, in addition to its obvious environmental advantages, is now able to compete financially on equal terms with conventional fuels such as oil, coal and gas.

The world, including large multinational players on the energy market, is now very aware of the wind power potential – in 2006, total installed capacity worldwide grew by 25%. At the end of last year, 74,306 MW of wind power had been installed, generating on average 152 billion kWh a year – or sufficient power to supply 37 million European homes with electricity. Just as interesting, however, is the fact that, according to the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA), these turbines will cut CO2 emissions by 150 million tons, thus making a significant contribution to reducing global warming. As a concrete example, during its projected service life of 20 yeas, a single Vestas V90-3.0 offshore turbine will save 210,000 tons of CO2 emissions compared to the emissions caused by a modern coal-fired power station generating the same amount of energy.

Competitive technology

Technological developments in the field of wind energy have meant modern wind plants now are often chosen on the basis of financial considerations. Last year, an analysis by Emerging Energy Research concluded, amongst other things, that even without including the costs linked to CO2 emissions, electricity generated by land-based wind power plants in Europe would cost only marginally more than if it was generated by a new coal-fired power station – and no more than from a new gas-fired plant.

Compared to the realistic value on CO2 emissions of 30 Euros per ton, electricity from a modern land-based Vestas wind turbine would be cheaper than electricity generated using conventional coal, coal gasification and new gas. There is no longer any foundation for rejecting wind power on a commercial basis. Another great advantage of wind power is that a complete wind power plant has a ramp-up time that is appreciably shorter than that required to establish corresponding capacity using coal, oil, gas or nuclear power.

Stability of Supply

As global reserves of fossil fuels continue to shrink (and become concentrated in fewer and increasingly unstable parts of the world), supply reliability is becoming an ever-more relevant factor. In this context, the World Energy Council wrote in the Survey of Energy Resources (2004) that by exploiting merely 10% of the technical potential of the global wind resources, the world’s energy consumption could be covered many times over.

The writing is very clearly on the wall and the world needs efficient solutions which, in an economically responsible manner, can help deal with the serious climate challenges and the explosively developing demand for energy. The most sensible approach is to look to the energy source blowing outside the window. The wind is always there. And it is free.

In 2006,Vestas erected wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 4,239 MW. Over their 20-year designed service lives, these turbines will:

• generate 223 million MWh of clean, sustainable energy

• cover the annual electricity requirements of 54.4 million average European households.

W: www.vestas.com