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| TPWind presents an ambitious vision  In its newly released Strategic Research Agenda, the European Wind Energy Technology Platform (TPWind) presents an ambitious vision in which over a quarter of the EU's electricity could be provided by wind in 2030. It describes the research priorities that tie in with this vision, and the financial and human resources these priorities will entail. According to the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA), wind energy could cover 12-14% of the EU's electricity consumption by 2020, with a total installed capacity of 180 GW. This could increase to 22-28% of consumption and 300 GW in 2030. The SRA points out that fulfilling this vision will be a major industrial and technological challenge for Europe, and that public and industry research resources across Europe must be mobilised via the coordination of investment at European and national level. It gives research priorities and actions for the sector to ensure that it develops successfully. Part of the document is devoted to a Market Deployment Strategy, which examines the ways to remove market barriers to large-scale wind energy deployment, such as creating a level playing field for grid access, reducing investment costs and streamlining administrative procedures. The SRA is the most in-depth analysis to date of the research requirements of the wind energy sector, and is based on two years of work and discussions. It is supported by extensive annexes, which are available online. TPWind is coordinated by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). It was set up in 2006 with the support of the European Commission in order to identify research tasks and reduce the social, environmental and technological costs of wind energy. Today, it has 150 wind energy expert members divided into different specialist Working Groups. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Construction News :: home page |