Acting to meet Europe’s ambitious wind energy goals

Vic Abate , CEO, GE Onshore Wind & GE Chief Technology Officer

Olivier Fontan , President and CEO of LM Wind Power

Jan Kjaersgaard , President & CEO, GE Offshore Wind

Philippe PIRON , President & CEO GE Grid Solutions & Power Conversion

As the CEOs of GE Vernova ’s Wind and Grid related businesses we participated in two important events last week that illustrate the critical role Europe can and must play in supporting efforts to decarbonize our power grid.?

The first was the North Sea Summit in Ostend, Belgium, where the heads of nine states, Ursula von der Leyen , President of the European Commission , and representatives from more than 100 companies came together to discuss the build-up of offshore capacities in the area. The second was Wind Europe, a major industry conference held in Copenhagen that drew over 15,000 participants from across the globe.

The message in both cases was loud and clear: the wind industry is ready to respond to the challenge of bringing online record amounts of clean, #renewableenergy across Europe, but we need clear and bold policy actions to make such efforts possible and economically viable.?Without such actions, our four businesses and the entire wind #supplychain will struggle to have the visibility needed to make investments in the technology, factories, and people that are necessary to rapidly accelerate the growth of wind in #Europe .?However, both industry gatherings gave us the confidence that policy-makers recognize and are pushing for the #energysecurity , environmental, and economic development benefits that bringing online record amounts of wind in Europe can achieve.?

Both events also highlighted the need for a modernized electrical grid. High-voltage direct current (#HVDC ) solutions are crucial for connecting offshore wind farms but without compatible regulation and interoperable technology, it will be difficult to develop an offshore DC #grid to its full potential. There is a clear focus on the role of HVDC for #energysecurity and the requirement to make it interoperable across multi-terminals and multi-vendors. For this to happen, it is crucial to have clear policy, more convergence in terms of requirements from customers, and collaboration among systems providers.

That’s why the policy declaration introduced earlier this week by WindEurope , a leading industry trade group in the region, was so timely.?It summarizes what the industry needs to succeed. The key tenets of that policy proposal are:

• Implementing ambitious industrial policies which do not put Europe at a disadvantage when compared to other regions,
• Restoring investment signals through Electricity Market Reform as recent national interventions in some electricity markets have further increased developers’ costs, driven up financing costs, and deterred investors, and
• Supporting the development of the skills needed as the #offshorewind workforce alone needs to grow from 80,000 today to 250,000 by 2030

This agenda aligns well with GE Vernova’s broader goals in terms of supporting our customers in driving the #energytransition by relentlessly focusing on innovation and #sustainability .

As our GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik has pointed out, we must at once decarbonize and electrify our world.?We need to both keep pace with the global electricity demand projected to grow by 50% in the next 20 years – supplying power to approximately 800 million people without access to reliable and affordable electricity today – while simultaneously decarbonizing the power sector and strengthening its resilience.

Last week demonstrated the key role Europe will play in meeting that dual challenge. If we act now, we can both address the #climatecrisis and provide more sustainable, affordable, and reliable electricity for more people.

#FutureofEnergy #decarbonization #electrification #EnergyPolicy