“uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç

Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), announced at the wind power industry's annual European trade show that work had kicked off that day on an IEA wind energy road map looking towards 2050. Wind is to be the first of a number of energy technology road maps to be completed this year, in time to provide input to the G8 meeting in Copenhagen. The road map is being developed in collaboration with high-level international wind experts from governments, industry, finance, utilities and research, said Tanaka, in March. The industry will have to build 18,000 wind turbines every year to help limit climate change, he added. Under the IEA's "ambitious" scenario for stabilising greenhouse gas emissions at 450 parts per million by 2030, 54% of emissions reductions will be due to renewables generation, 23% to biofuels, 14% to carbon capture and storage (CCS) and 10% from nuclear deployment, said Tanaka. In addition to the new wind capacity, the world would need to build 20 nuclear reactors every year, 15 hydro power plants, 300 concentrating solar power plants, and 30 CCS plants, he said. Arthouros Zervos of EWEA accused the IEA of consistently underestimating wind's potential. The IEA has changed its attitude to renewables and takes them more seriously than it did in the past, he conceded. But questions remain over the ability of nuclear power and CCS to deliver in time. "They are not going to happen," said Zervos. He sees wind making up the deficit.