European Union May get One-Fifth of its Electricity From Wind Farms

According to many sources, it now seems that offshore wind farms could make up about 17 percent of the electricity demand for the European Union by 2030. This means that the total installed capacity of offshore wind farms could jump up to 150 gigawatts before 2030 from the the small 1.5 gigawatts that it is currently at.

This would be good news for the European Union. Right now the share of the European Union energy consumption, that must come from renewable energy, has to be more than double to 20 percent on average by 2020. This is due to the new law from the bloc. Of course, renewable sources do include biomass and solar power.

Of course, the European Union has a long way to go to meet its goal. As of now offshore wind power currently meets no more than 0.3 percent of the electricity demands for all of the European Union. The renewable energy push may be able to get a boost from separate European Union legislation aimed at making the use of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, more costly.

Some of the new legislations that could help to boost renewable energy includes tougher caps on emissions on European industries. This big push for more renewable energy is coming from the growing concerns over climate change. If the European Union is able to get 13 to 17 percent of their power from offshore wind farms by 2030, then it could actually cut down on 290 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. That allowance would help make a difference in climate change, but countries are not satisfied by stopping there and promise to do what they can to make a difference in the world today.