Policy and Regulatory Outlook Towards AWE Deployment

Abstract

Airborne Wind Europe and its members have stepped up activities towards policy makers on the European, national and regional level in order to raise awareness for the need of AWE-specific policy and regulation. This includes targeted approaches towards the European Commission, Members of the European Parliament, members of national parliaments, ministries, energy associations, regulators, etc. Moreover, the sector has elaborated a number of policy papers, for instance

• the White Paper on the AWE sector in general
• the White Paper on Airspace Integration
• position papers on inclusion of AWE in certain national laws like the German EEG
• the identification of the potential of AWE sites
• the call for a European Strategy on Airborne Wind Energy and
• the inclusion of AWE in National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), especially with respect to the newly defined 5% target for innovative renewable energy technologies by 2030 (EU RED III).

Together with the efforts and advancements of the AWE technology developers with regards to improving and commercializing their systems, the AWE community has become increasingly outspoken on the urgency to support the AWE sector in terms of R&D funding programs, AWE-specific remuneration schemes and adequate regulation. The AWE sector can scale up fast due to the possibility to mass produce the systems (with minimized environmental impacts [5]) and to install them both in a centralised and a distributed way. Therefore, AWE’s disruptive nature will allow it to get on a very steep deployment curve – once the initial policy and regulatory barriers have been overcome. This presentation will recap the AWE sector’s strategy and explain the various activities underpinning it, provide an update on the deployment roadmap in the short, medium and long-term. The presentation is thus targeting policy and industrial decision makers to provide them with a comprehensive picture of the current status and future outlook of the AWE sector.