European Wind Market Steady For 2009

In 2009, the European market for wind turbines will increase 1 percent over 2008 despite the global economic recession. According to research by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, TX), this year 8,600 megawatts (MW) of new wind energy capacity will be installed in the 27 countries that make up the European Union, the so-called EU-27.

According to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), there was 8,484 MW of new wind capacity installed in 2008, making wind power the largest source of new electricity-generating capacity in the E.U. This year's installations take the E.U.'s cumulative installed capacity to 73,535 MW, up from 2008's cumulative capacity of 64,935 MW.

The EWEA said the forecast is good news in a year in which the financial crisis has affected most industries and in which electricity demand is declining in line with overall economic activity.

"I am pleasantly surprised by the research results," said EWEA chief executive Christian Kjaer. "They show that the underlying demand for wind energy technology is currently strong enough to make up for project delays caused by many banks' continued reluctance to provide project finance. Although the outlook for 2009 is encouraging, the real test of the wind energy sector's ability to withstand the financial crisis will be 2010."

The positive outlook for 2009 was helped by the fact that wind turbine manufacturers had healthy order books prior to the financial crisis, therefore reducing the impact of the recession on the European market for wind turbines. However, 2010 will be a different story. The EWEA expects the financial crisis to have a deeper impact in 2010, unless measures are taken rapidly to increase liquidity in the financial market.

The industry group is urging that the billions of euros provided by governments to European banks through stimulus packages reach the real economy. Looking deeper into the research, the EWEA noted that a difference seems to exist between the more established markets in the old EU-15 member states and the emerging markets of the new EU-12 members. The EU-15 are expected to install a similar number of megawatts in 2009 to the amount they installed in 2008, but the EU-12 have plans to install 150 MW more than the countries installed in 2008–an increase of approximately 35 percent.