Brussels, 06/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - "Give us some wings for wind energy!" exclaimed the Dutch minister of the economy, Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, opening the seminar last week in Egmond aan Zee (Netherlands) on "offshore" wind energy. Organised by the Dutch presidency, the event brought business leaders, scientists and some ministers from EU Member States together, given the potential of this potential source of power on the coast. A declaration was adopted calling on the Transport/Energy/Telecommunications Council on 29 November to deal with the questions involved in producing wind energy.
Alluding to the old-fashioned nature of fossil fuels, their harmful impact on climate change and the increase in world energy demand, Mr Brinkhorst underlined the need for a new energy mix and greater domestic production. He also asserted that Europe possessed a significant wind power potential. He indicated that the 25 Member States already had installations capable of producing 26,000 megawatts but noted that these installations were mainly on the mainland. Acknowledging the high hopes in offshore wind energy, the minister affirmed that they were still at the "preparatory phase", despite 550 megawatts already produced at sea by Denmark, the United Kingdom and Ireland, countries, which according to Brinkhorst, should serve as an example to their partners. In this respect, he announced that the Netherlands would be marching in step with these countries by 2008.
Despite his enthusiasm, Laurens Jan Brinkhorst did not fail to mention the problems involved in "offshore" wind energy development. He declared that this development could only be done on a large scale. He explained that wind energy costs are already higher than for energy from combustible fuels and that the problem is that wind energy costs can only be brought down via experimentation and that this could only be done by building expensive wind parks. The minister explained that this was why the private sector, administrators from the energy networks and the public had a responsibility, "society must realise that wind energy is not a 'free lunch' and that its development will no be possible unless consumers are able to estimate its real value".