Could Eastern Europe blow away established wind rivals?

Eastern Europe is fast emerging as an attractive location for wind energy investors increasingly concerned about returns from more established markets in the West.

A combination of good wind resources, generous subsidy schemes improving energy infrastructure, and limited local opposition will ensure that the Eastern European wind energy industry will enjoy significantly faster growth than more established markets such as Germany and Spain over the coming years, according to industry experts.
While several high profile wind investors such as BP have already switched their attentions from Western Europe to more profitable projects in the US, experts are now convinced that some firms could also begin to migrate east.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, Fraser McLachlan, chief executive of wind project insurer GCube, which just secured the contract to insure Europe’s largest planned wind farm in Romania, said that the company had identified Eastern Europe as a huge potential growth area.

“We are very excited by Eastern Europe at the moment,” he said. “Places such as Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic all have attractive [subsidy] tariffs, improving infrastructure and good wind regimes, plus the governments are hungry for these projects to happen.”

Business Green