Doubts remain over the power of wind

Wind power currently provides less than 3% of the electricity used in Europe. Although this puts it well ahead of the EU target to have 40,000 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity by 2010, doubts remain over wind's ability to make a noticeable dent in European energy imports.

Major installations are limited to seven EU countries, with Germany and Spain taking up three-quarters of the market on their own. The weather and landscape in some member states makes wind an unattractive option. Even where turbines have been installed, fluctuations in daily wind speed can make it difficult to guarantee energy supplies.

Public opinion also wavers on wind power. Environmentalists are torn between promoting a carbon-free renewable energy supply and worrying about the threat turbines pose to wildlife (see right).

Local authorities are reluctant to allow wind farms to be built on popular tourist sites, and the idea of a 100-metre, 100-tonne turbine near the front door is unpopular with citizens.

Offshore wind farms seem a more attractive option. Building turbines out at sea massively reduces landscape problems and also offers a more reliable supply of wind. Until recently the cost of offshore wind power discouraged investment, with the exception of a few sites off the coasts of Denmark and Scotland.

"Offshore is clearly the next step," according to Isabelle Valentiny of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). "The costs are coming down and the technology is now ready. In the next three or four years we will see a boom."

Belgium and the Netherlands are planning offshore farms, while the UK government has opened the door to an expansion of its own sites.

Perhaps the most ambitious project, however, comes from renewables company Airtricity. The Irish organisation has proposed developing a grid of interconnected wind turbines to create Europe's largest offshore wind farm by 2015.

"We became convinced that wind would only be a brief adventure for Europe unless it went offshore," says Airtricity chief executive Eddie O'Conner. "An offshore grid would smooth out the variability of wind and could, ultimately, power all of Europe."

The 'Supergrid' project would start with an offshore farm in the North Sea, explains O'Conner. The Irishman says the UK has expressed strong interest in the idea and he is hopeful of getting a similar reaction from Germany and the Netherlands.

Wind power has always appealed on environmental grounds, says O'Conner, but has benefited more recently from growing fears over the security of imported energy supplies. The Supergrid would also offer an example of Europeans working together for a common energy policy, as suggested by the European Commission earlier this year.

"I am absolutely satisfied that this [a common policy] will happen - there is no alternative."

Member states need to agree common energy projects like the Supergrid not only to secure their own energy supplies, he says, but also to gain a competitive advantage over emerging markets like China. "Every nine weeks China builds a power system the size of Ireland's domestic market," he explains. "That is what we are competing with."

"We are in a very big hole; we must try very hard to dig ourselves out."

A Commission spokesman said Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs was keen to encourage the development of wind power. He was unable to comment on the details of Supergrid itself but said: "Everything that is renewable in principle has our support."

Wind power currently provides less than 3% of the electricity used in Europe. Although this puts it well ahead of the EU target to have 40,000 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity by 2010, doubts remain over wind's ability to make a noticeable dent in European energy imports.