Years-long wait for permits blocking European wind farms, industry says

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Hundreds of gigawatts of wind energy projects are waiting for permits to connect to Europe's power grid, a backlog that threatens to slow the shift to green energy, industry association WindEurope said on Friday.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Gaining access to the power grid is now the biggest hurdle to Europe's expansion of renewable energy, WindEurope said.

With Europe's power networks upgraded too slowly to absorb more capacity, and sluggish grid-permitting procedures in many countries, some projects face waiting times of up to nine years to receive a permit.

"The system is clogged up - and holding back hundreds of gigawatts of wind farms," WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson said.

BY THE NUMBERS

European wind energy projects with a total of more than 500 gigawatts of potential capacity are waiting for an answer to their requests for grid connections, across countries including France, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Spain, the data published on Friday showed.

Italy and the UK each have more than 100 GW of potential projects awaiting grid connection assessments.

The EU has a target to derive 42.5% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. That implies expanding wind power capacity to 425 GW by 2030, up from 220 GW today.

WHAT'S NEXT

The queue of wind projects is at various stages and not all are likely to be built. For example, some are competing against one another for subsidies, WindEurope said.

Part of the problem is that projects are assessed on a "first come, first served" basis when they apply, meaning the most mature projects - those most likely to go ahead - cannot jump the queue.

Europe's energy industry has urged governments to spur investments in expanding grids to prepare for a bigger influx of renewable power, and filter applications so that projects that are ready to launch receive permits fast.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett in Brussels; Editing by Matthew Lewis)