Alternative energy: EU Power Sector Amiable, But Wind Chiefs Under no Illusions - by Diarmaid Williams

Alternative energy and  interconnection capacity

Joking with someone in the GE Power and Water Renewable Energy team at the European Wind Energy Association event in Barcelona this week, I asked her if those on the conventional power side and those on her own unit sat at opposite ends of the GE HQ cafeteria in Schenctady, New York. Her answer reinforced a consensus I hear a lot in energy sectors.
 
She reassured me that there was a collegiate atmosphere, with no "them and us" mentality. In fact many of the people involved had served in both the renewables and fossil fuel power businesses. Somewhat disappointed that the air in that part of upstate New York wasn’t thick with intrigue inspired by competitive world views, I expressed my surprise.

She was quick to tell me something that somewhat explained the fraternal nature of the company’s inter-departmental relations, something easily forgotten amid the propaganda and politicking that confuses the overall power generation picture at times; “We are going to need all power sources to play a part, it’s not just any one technology,” she said.

Europe’s wind energy officials in Spain this week weren’t quite so generous about the other power-amiable generators outside their own orbit, but there was realism evident in key note speeches and debates about wind technology’s limitations and what it needed to do in order to be fully credible as a means of driving Europe’s economy and energy future.

The EWEA’s Poul La Cour prize-winner for 2014, Eddie O’Connor, placed emphasis on the fact that without greater lobbying for an expansion of the bloc’s interconnection capacity, the sector’s progress in Europe is going to be severely handicapped. He added that “by and large most states in Europe have insufficient interconnection.”

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