06.09.2013
Technical Research Centre of Finland has released results of a research that reveal new possibilities of wind power in cold areas of the Earth. Recent projections estimate that there could be up to € 75 billion investments into cold areas’ wind power by 2017. This would mean a capacity of 45-50 GW.
The markets have mostly been talking about mainland and offshore power generation. However, the cost of efficient exploitation of cold areas wind power has already begun and promising markets include Scandinavia, Middle Europe and Canada.
Finance crisis has affected negatively on energy investments, but renewable energy is on demand. The most important factor and difficulty in building wind turbines in cold areas are technologies and solutions that prevent ice from slowing down the blades and breaking the machinery. The Technical Research Centre of Finland is leading research to tackle these problems and there are already Finnish companies providing solutions in the field. (Source: www.vtt.fi, 28.5.2013)