The world's wind energy capacity is projected to double from 2006 to 2010.  In the forefront of this sustainable energy movement is Germany, but Spain is fast gaining ground.

RocSearch, a UK-based research firm, projects that the total capacity of wind energy turbines worldwide will hit nearly 135 gigawatts in 2010, from under 75 GW in 2006.  This jump is due in large part to countries like China (which upped its breeze-driven power by 70% in 2006) and Spain, which has set its sights on deriving 15% of national electricity consumption from wind energy by 2010 (from 6.5% in 2005).

Spain, being part of the European Union and its current wave of nationalistic energy politics, is feeling the gusts of cross-border conglomeration in its wind energy endeavors.

While Spain's wind energy capacity comes in second on the continent to Germany, the Iberian country and its government have the kind of wind in their sails that we haven't seen since the Age of Exploration (fitting this Columbus Day week).  

The government in Madrid is tossing euros at wind projects instead of gold doubloons, with 90% energy tariff discounts for the first 15 years after installation, and 80% from then on.  A bona fide industry has cropped up around the country, with as many as 500 companies and 150 factories producing turbines and their components.

The European Wind Energy Association estimates that the 15% total wind generation goal set for 2010 will translate to some 60,000 jobs.  Would these jobs exist without such hefty tax discounts as the central government is currently offering?  Likely not, but the Spanish, German, and many other national administrations consider the booster shot worth administering given their energy options.

For example, Spanish politicians have announced plans to move away from nuclear energy by shutting down nuclear power plants within 20 years.  That would pull 8 GW of generation from the national grid, ostensibly leaving wind energy and other renewable energy sources to fill the gap.

One Spanish-language financial blog, "El Blog Salmon," refers to lower levels of anti-turbine activism in Spain than in some other, richer, European countries like the UK.

When I spent two weeks in England and Scotland in April, 2006, I focused on renewable energy and what I saw as the UK's advanced approach compared to the United States.  I toured the site of the Beatrice wind farm demonstrator project, established off the Scottish coast so as not to cause "visual pollution."  

There is strong opposition to the way tall wind turbines can change the landscape of the rolling, hilly regions where they are usually placed.  The Spanish call it no en mi patio, which you know as NIMBY or "not in my backyard."  But this kvetching doesn't seem to be as common in the land of El Cid and Pedro Almodóvar as it is in Great "Green" Britain.

After all, Denmark stands between Spain and the United Kingdom in the installed wind capacity rankings, and it's not as if the Danes have a ton of land to spare for wind energy (unless you count Greenland).  The answer may lie offshore, in the waters of the Mediterranean, the North Sea (in Scotland, Denmark and Germany's case), and even off Martha's Vineyard (with apologies to the Kennedys).

Spain's largest utility, Endesa (NYSE:ELE) has ten million domestic customers and almost twice that many when the rest of Europe is included.  The company was the target of a bitter takeover battle, between Germany's E.ON and a consortium of Spanish construction company Acciona and Italian energy firm Enel.

Acciona won out this spring because of the Spanish component they introduced to the Endesa acquisition.  Across Europe, national governments are clinging to the idea of "national champions"-- companies whose very logos represent industrial sovereignty--and spurning the muddled borderless market that the European Union is tending towards.  The Spanish Energy Commission tacked 19 conditions onto the otherwise successful bid for Endesa by E.ON last year.  

After losing its dream of whole ownership of  Endesa, E.ON will still get a chunk of the Spanish market, which will include some of the country's wind energy wattage.  

Energy industry changes have caused 2 GW of Spanish wind energy assets to change hands in the past three years, according to market observers.

Soon, it will be hard to tell one country's leadership from another, if ownership is spread across the continent.  As the EU struggled to find a coherent energy policy, maybe confusion the best they can hope for.

Regards,

Sam Hopkins

"Energy stocks... The only way a human is going to make any money."

-- Matt Simmons, Peak Oil's first and most vocal proponent,
and founder of the country's last pure play energy investment banking firm.

Follow the money trail. Sign up for Energy and Capital now.

Enter Your E-mail Address Below:

By signing up, you'll also get our latest report, The Truth About Oil.

Please inform us of a company who makes the windpower generators. It is my belief we are going to need d.c. power for the future water needs more than a.c. electricity. If you had Hydrogen you have a never ending supply of water. This water shortage is at a crisis now. The next world wars are going to be fought over water and not fuel.
Our company has two processes that makes water as a by product. We have already started to convert RVs to using Hydrogen. In our ammonia production process, each cell produces 1000 gallons of water every 15 minutes. In the most advanced fuel cell we now produce it yeilds 1.9 galons per second that can be condensed and used as water. So you can see why we are in need of windpowered d.c. generators. Thank you.
Billy Hendrix
One final question, do you know any company that can take our company public?
Thanks again.

Watch the lights go out in Spain when the Nuclear plants are closed and the wind stops blowing.
The world is going nuclear ,like it or not. 475 square miles of wind turbines are needed to produce the number of megawats one nuclear reactor produces. No contest