Yesterday, we published a piece on problems the Columbia River Valley is facing, including having too much wind power and too poor a power grid Today, there's a story from Renewable Energy World about Europe facing a similar dilemma--from the opposite end!
In order to meet a carbon reduction goal for 2020, Europe is hoping to make wind power comprise 20% of its total energy output. Therefore, European leaders have realized the need to radically change its power grid.
The European Wind Energy Association is looking to build large offshore wind power stations to start harvesting all the renewable wind energy blustering over the ocean. But in order to make off shore wind power a success, Europeans are working on creating something called the North Sea grid, carrying wind and water power from Norway to the rest of Europe.
Formed in 2009, the North Sea Countries' Offshore Grid Initiative counts Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom among its members. This intra-Europe push toward building a healthy power grid infrastructure will go a long way toward to making renewable energy a reality in Europe.
Europe's power goal for 2020 is just the first step in its ambitious renewable energy plan. By 2050, Europe hopes to have 50% of its electricity generated by renewable energy sources. Its focus on the power grid can hopefully help it obviate some of the challenges California is facing.
To learn more about industrial power generation, check out Power and Composite Technologies: www.pactinc.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment