* A further advantage of wind power is the speed of projecting and installation. Another is that their manufacturing is less sensitive to resource limitations than say photovoltaic solar cells: what they require in large amounts is steel, what may cause (not insurmountable) problems is supply of semiconductors for power electronics. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
- all mainstream political parties have been supportive of wind power in Portugal. The rationale for Portugal is very convincing (they are further away from their Kyoto targets than any other EU country, they import 85% of their primary energy, they ennjoy strong wind resources and vast areas of barren land).
- The support framework for wind energy has always been positive but was greatly improved by a new law passed in January of February 2005 that greatly removed long-term tariff uncertainty. Not sure whether the new government was already in office at the time.
- The new government has launched a tender process last fall to allocate additional generation licences. If anything, the complex and senseless rules of the tender have added confusion and limited attractiveness of the country for a number of industry players. Not really good governance.
To sum up, although Portugal has made good progress, it will be difficult to reach their stated objective of 3,750MW (mostly due to, as is the case in many countries, limitations in the transmission networks.)
Not sure that the cost of transmission upgrades is reflected in Jérôme's statistics, nor the recent 20%-odd increase in turbine prices (expected to continue at a similar rate this year).
However, I concur that wind power (when installed at windy sites, that is not in Germany) is not obviously more expensive than other technologies, especially when taking into account externalities and recent incresae in cost of fossil fuels. 'La fin désastreuse a répondu aux moyens indignes' Germain Tillion
The support framework for wind energy has always been positive but was greatly improved by a new law passed in January of February 2005 that greatly removed long-term tariff uncertainty. Not sure whether the new government was already in office at the time.
You are right - elections were held 20 February 2005, the law was enacted 16 February. (This was one of the points where I wanted to check on my memory before posting my pre-empted diary. )
it will be difficult to reach their stated objective of 3,750MW
Hm. I don't know about what plans are there to address the grid capacity problems, but the goal was raised by the new government first to 4,400 MW then to 5,100 MW (by 2010) - 1000 MW is built end of 2005, another 2,300 MW awarded, and your criticism concerns the tendering of a further 1800 MW in two tranches. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
However, the E-112 is indeed rather big - it was the first built of the 5-MW class, intended mainly for off-shore farms. Currently, this class has two other (also German) entrants: the Multibrid M-5000 and the REpower 5M, both rated at exactly 5 MW. Industry leader Vestas is also developing such a machine, the V120, for 4.5 MW.
Actually, these numbers wouldn't look that dramatic if one remembers that single 3-4 MW test units were built in the eighties and early nineties in Germany, the USA and Sweden. However, those had many serious problems - for example Germany's GROVIAN was heavily damaged by a storm. But for example the first E-112 (which I pictured) runs without major problems for three and a half years now. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
