Wind sector hits back as €500m a day cost of Iran crisis bites

The chief executive of WindEurope today put a price tag on what the current Middle East crisis is costing Europe – and also what an accelerated shift to renewables could save it.

Speaking in a press conference at the beginning of the WindEurope annual conference in Madrid, Tinne van der Straeten said that according to European Commission figures she had seen, Europe was now paying €500 million a day more than it had been before the crisis to get the same amount of imported fossil fuels.

“It's not our war, but we are facing European consequences,” she said, adding that “these political shocks are probably here to stay”.

However, she then explained that WindEurope had crunched its own numbers and concluded that a greater deployment of renewables, married to an increase in clean energy investment, could “save the European economy 1.6 trillion euros. It's a huge amount – it’s what Europe spends on healthcare every year.”

To help drive this greater deployment and investment in renewables, van der Straeten used the press conference to launch WindEurope’s Madrid Call to Action, a 10-point plan it has sent to EU leaders.

Policy footnote

Former Belgian energy minister van der Straeten said the plan was designed to get policymakers to “treat electrification as a strategic priority, not a policy footnote. It means cutting through complexity and putting European citizens, businesses and industries first. By making sure that homegrown electricity is abundantly available, flows to homes and factories, and is affordable.”

The 10 points of the plan are:

• Fast-track permitting: treat wind as an overriding public interest and apply tacit approval for the next nine months;
• Make the most of wind auctions by awarding at least 80% of wind bids;
• Repower ageing wind farms to tripling their output with fewer turbines;
• Prioritise grid connections for mature, strategic projects and clear out ‘zombie’ projects clogging the queue;
• Scale up grid equipment manufacturing through framework contracts;
• Multiply EU grid funding five-fold and crowd in private finance;
• Put zero VAT on heat pumps and electric vehicles;
• Prioritise electrification in low and medium temperature industrial processes;
• Permanently cut taxes on electricity;
• And simplify state aid for industry switching to renewables via PPAs.

Gain in Spain

Van der Straeten, who has been WindEurope’s CEO since February, also praised Spain for its clean energy progress. The country has proved to be significantly resilient to the Iran crisis because of its high deployment of renewable energy.

“Could there be a more fitting place than Spain to come together,” she said. It's here that people, industries and households are already paying significantly less than they do elsewhere. It's here in Spain that we can show Europe what the future can look like.”

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Van der Straeten also used the press conference to denounce what she saw as smear campaigns designed to derail the progress of wind energy.

“Misinformation now sits at the centre of Europe's energy activities. The facts are very clear, and we all know the facts, but the public debate is not always grounded in these facts – on the contrary, it's increasingly distorted, specifically online.

We see online coordinated narratives that portray wind energy as harmful to communities, the economy, and also nature. It's false narratives that undermine trust... and trust is something we need. We cannot do this energy transition if we do not have trust that we can build on.”

Real world consequences

Van der Straeten said “this is much more than just a social media phenomenon. We see the consequences in our industry every day – real world consequences today across European energy projects where billions of euros are halted or cancelled based on this mis-and disinformation.”

WindEurope’s members have become so alarmed by this misinformation that they asked the organisation to look into it, and in turn it commissioned a study conducted by UK Think Tank CASM Technology.

Speaking at the press conference, CASM Technology founder Carl Miller said “a large and well organised ecosystem of actors is actively undermining Europe’s energy discourse”.

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“It is made up of professionalised anti-wind groups, activists, media outlets and predominantly right-wing politicians. Over the research period of one and a half years, this network produced more than 40,000 posts, generating 6,3 million active engagements and generating tens of millions of views.”

Active actors

CASM Technology’s report details the most active actors in the network as well as the dis- and misinformation narratives most commonly used to discredit wind energy.

It contains various case studies to illustrate the spillover effects from false claims on social media to the real-life impacts on actual wind energy projects. These range from project delays and cancellations to violent attacks on wind farms.

Van der Straeten said “this mis-and disinformation is an integral part of undermining Europe's security and competitiveness” and is “undermining trust and the clarity we need to invest.”

She said Europe had to move “from crisis to confidence” and “rebuild energy confidence so that we can build a secure energy system for ourselves, for our citizens and for our companies.”