North American Windpower: EWEA: Central, Eastern Europe To See Dramatic Wind Energy Growth

by NAW Staff on Tuesday 05 February 2013

Wind power in central and eastern Europe will become a significant source of electricity production by 2020, provided that there is a stable legal framework in each country, finds a new report released by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).

According to the report, 12 newer European Union member states in central and eastern Europe plan to increase their wind power capacity from the 6.4 GW installed at the end of 2012 to 16 GW by 2020. Turkey is planning an even more dramatic increase, from 2.3 GW in 2012 to 20 GW by 2023.

"Wind energy in central and eastern Europe, including Turkey, will substantially reduce the fossil-fuel dependency of the power sectors,” notes Christian Kjaer, CEO of EWEA. "But some countries - such as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria - are without stable renewable energy legislation, and investors and banks will withdraw unless governments put in place long-term renewable energy policies."

Poland and Romania almost doubled their annual installed wind power capacity in 2012. At the end of last year, Poland had 2.5 GW, Romania had 1.9 GW and Bulgaria had 700 MW of wind power capacity installed.

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