Integrating Europe's wind into the grid could save €41.7 billion

EUROPE: Integrating 265GW of wind into Europe’s grids by 2020 would slash €41.7 billion off the cost of electricity each year, according to a major report to be published tomorrow by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).

by Catherine Early 23 November 2010

The report argues that integrating large amounts of fuel and pollution-free wind energy into Europe’s electricity grid has no major technical barriers and would bring major economic benefits. 

For example, a better integrated grid would bring a €1,500 million yearly reduction in total operational costs of power generation due to the increased availability of all generation capacity.

The report shows how Denmark, Germany, Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands have managed their power systems much more flexibly than in the past.

"Powering Europe" is to be announced at the GRIDS 2010 conference in Berlin.

The European Commission last week identified four grid connections necessary to ensure the EU's electricity network is able to transport power produced by wind and other renewable sources.