Second wind.

• Author: Denniston, Derek
• Position: Tapping wind-energy for electricity production

During the last decade, mind energy was synonymous with California, where as recently as 1986 wind turbines in just three mountain passes produced 95 percent of the world's wind-generated electricity. But the Golden State, and the United States with it, stand a good chance of losing the lead in wind energy to a surging European industry in just a few years, according to wind energy experts.

Building on the European Community's commitment to take action against global warming, renewable energy advocates have integrated this energy source into national energy plans across the continent, unleashing a storm of wind turbine installations.

By the end of 1992, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom - Europe's top wind power producers - had installed enough wind turbines to reduce the U.S. share of world wind power generation to 67 percent. The real portent of the change ahead, though, can be seen in the number of turbines being installed or planned. While projected growth of U.S. wind installations has flattened, European countries have enough capacity on schedule to be outproducing the United States by 1996, according to Paul Gipe, the American Wind Energy Association's top industry analyst.

Europe is blessed with ample amounts of what wind energy mavens call "technical potential." Wind blows hardest and steadiest along coastlines and in mountains, and Europe's geography abounds with both. In fact, the European Wind Atlas reports that the continent has more than enough potential wind energy to meet all of the European Community's electricity needs, although almost half of the resource is concentrated in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The European Community intends to tap into that potential. Through a renewable energy program called ALTENER, it has called for 1 percent of projected demand for electricity to be met with 8,000 megawatts of wind power capacity by 2005 (see table).

National Commitments to Wind Power Country Commitment (Installed Capacity) Denmark 1,500 MW by 2005 Netherlands 1,000 MW by 2000 German states: Schelswig Holstein 1,000 MW by 2000 Lower Saxony 1,000 MW by 2005 Italy 300 MW by 2000 Spain 180 MW by 2000 United Kingdom 1,000 MW by 2000(1) European Community 8,000 MW by 2005 (1) U.K. has made this commitment for all forms of renewable energy. Source: Paul Gipe, American Wind Energy Association The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), the Rome-based trade group that represents the industry's interests...