Climate Change
Fighting global warming with non-polluting, sustainable wind power
Climate change, primarily brought on by the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, is one of the greatest issues the we all face. Wind power can play a major role in the solution as it can be rapidly deployed. 43% of all new EU power generating capacity installed in 2008 was wind power, which plays a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The 65 GW of EU wind energy capacity installed by the end of 2008 will avoid the emission of 108 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2 annually – equivalent to taking 55 million cars off the road and equal to 24% of the EU-27’s Kyoto obligation. By 2020, a predicted 180 GW of installed wind power could avoid the emission of 328 Mt of CO2 annually, equal to 44% of the EU’s 20% greenhouse gas reduction target.
Wind power is an important solution to the climate change crisis
As stated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change1, limiting the global average temperature increase to not more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels will require a reduction in global emissions of at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050, which means global greenhouse gas emissions will have to peak by 2015 and decline thereafter. Wind power, as the frontrunner renewable technology, offers emissions-free power and, unlike nuclear and carbon capture and storage (CCS), can be deployed immediately and begin reducing CO2 emissions within the window of opportunity outlined by the IPCC.
Because wind turbines do not consume fuel and their operation and maintenance expenses are low, the marginal cost of wind power is minimal. Therefore, an increase of wind power in the electricity mix means that the most expensive and polluting technologies (oil, coal and gas) are pushed out of the market. For the EU as a whole, it is assumed that each kWh of wind power displaces a kWh created by the energy mix of coal, oil and gas at the time of production. On average in the EU, each GWh produced by wind energy saves approximately 78O tonnes of CO2.
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