INNOVATION & TECH

Untangling a perfect storm of compacted crises: The role of wind energy in alleviating the energy crisis.By Benson John MSc CEng MIMeche, Senior Consultant - R&D Tax Incentives

The UK is highly dependent on natural gas. Although this stems from good intentions, it has unfortunately exacerbated the crisis that was borne off the pandemic and a certain ‘special military operation’ that has gone out of control. As natural gas accounts for 40% of the UKs electricity, this has put our energy supply and its suppliers under intense pressure as winter fast approaches. With fuel poverty looming due to the consistent raising of the energy price cap, coupled by pressure on UK’s natural gas sources, the spotlight on the renewables sector gets brighter.

How is the renewables sector, particularly wind energy poised to take this immense task on, or at least ease the load on our primary energy sources? The problem with wind and other renewable sources is that, they are not constant. Although the opportunity to accelerate the switch to renewables is there for the taking, there is an impending and low-lying issue of ‘wind drought’ that has taken over Europe. Large areas of mainland Europe have experience a drop in wind speeds in the last year as compared to preceding years’ (between 1991 to 2020) taken as reference. The 2021 drop in wind speed has particularly hit the Northern European countries harder, especially ones that rely heavily on wind energy – Denmark which relies on wind energy for 44% of its energy, and Ireland, 31%. With wind speeds becoming increasingly unpredictable, there is a marked impact on the costs of wind energy. There is now greater demand for high-efficiency wind technologies, with the opportunity for innovation in this sector rife. In addition, a recent analysis from specialist energy market researchers has revealed that opportunities in offshore wind have compounded with 135 Giga-Watts of new capacity available for developers. Challenges and unknowns are strife in the wind energy sector, however technological innovations combined with market intelligence that provides key performance and operational cost indicators such as wind farm transaction databases, coverage of wind farms and the tracking of available government awards of financial support will all feed into the drive to enable wind energy technology and directly alleviate concerns over energy futures.

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