Austria: Wind energy moving towards base load generation

 

 

The Austrian member committee recently organised a workshop in Vienna on important new developments in wind energy technology and the contribution that wind is making to electricity generation. In one region of Austria the annual electricity generated by wind energy already exceeds demand.

There were a number of presentations highlighting the economic, regulatory and technical challenges that the wind industry is facing now and in the near future. Discussions revolved around the challenge of integrating high-altitude wind power energy into the transmission grid, the integration of large wind parks directly into the grid and how to expand the transmission grid in order to achieve more flexibility and overcome congestion. There was also much discussion about the development of offshore wind energy and the potential of wind converters which can significantly minimise grid integration costs.

The meeting concluded that for wind energy to play its part in improving performance at high times of usage and participate in ancillary services, then the challenge of making more wind energy available could only be met with better European integration and coordination.

To download the presentations (in German), visit www.wec-austria.at