By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Stine Jacobsen
ODENSE, Denmark (Reuters) – Denmark will seek a common EU approach for how to tackle increased Chinese competition in the European wind market, the country’s climate and energy minister said ahead of a meeting on Thursday with the EU Commission and industry leaders.
The European wind turbine market is dominated by local turbine makers Vestas and Siemens Gamesa, but Chinese turbine makers have built momentum in the region recently, adding to concern in the EU industry that it faces an existential threat.
“For me as a Danish minister, and with the role the wind turbine industry has in our country, I’m of course concerned about whether European manufacturers are outperformed by state aid in a way which is unfair,” Denmark’s energy and climate minister Lars Aagaard told Reuters.
He was speaking ahead of a meeting between energy ministers from North Sea countries, the EU Commission, and industry leaders to discuss the current challenges in meeting their ambitious targets.
“It’s important that we get some common European answers, because it is a challenge that will be quite difficult to handle on a national level,” Aagaard said, referring to increased Chinese competition.
In April, the EU said it would investigate subsidies received by Chinese suppliers of wind turbines destined for Europe, a move aimed at protecting domestic firms from cheap clean tech products.
Last year, the North Sea countries pledged to build 120 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and at least 300 GW of offshore wind in the North Sea by 2050, equivalent to around 20,000 offshore wind turbines.
All of Europe today has 35 GW installed offshore capacity, according to data from industry group WindEurope.
Aagaard said it was good to have “ambitious targets as a guiding star” but acknowledged that those targets were set at a time of lower costs for building offshore wind.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Stine Jacobsen; Editing by Toby Chopra)
