Hungary looks to wind energy to meet Kyoto targets

There are currently only 10 wind turbines operating in Hungary but this will change over the next 2 years as Germany’s Voltwerk will build 25 wind turbines in southern Hungary by 2008, and Irish firm, Eurogreen Energy, is also investing HUF 30 billion (EUR 120 million) in building a 300-hectare wind farm near Bakony, of 36 turbines generating 108MW of electricity.

“The power from these turbines will go into the national grid and will provide enough electricity for around 70-80,000 homes,” said Jim Galvin, Eurogreen’s managing director. (30 Irish companies employ 600 local employees in Hungary, with combined annual revenues of more than €62 million.) Eurogreen is a joint venture between 2 firms from Bandon, Co. Cork SWS Properties , and Fleming Construction , one of the Irish Times Top 1000 companies.

Voltwerk describe themselves as an experienced company in the field of renewable energy project development. They calim to have also proven their strength in financial engineering and the distribution of green value funds. They are a subsidiary of the German Conergy Group that specialise in Solar and Photovoltaic systems with offices in Australia, Mexico and the USA. The American office of Conergy has joined the Bill Clinton Global Initiative and Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) in supporting a project to provide solar power in African rural villages.

“By the end of 2004, 600 wind turbines had already received their environmental licences,” said ministry spokeswoman Judit Tóth. “In 2003, 3.5% of our energy requirements came from renewable energy. The target for 2010 is 4.5%.”

Hungary’s other major potential energy source, its thermal waters, look set to remain largely untapped.

“Hungary geothermic potential is more than 150% the average of other countries,” said Tóth. “In spite of this, for technical and economic reasons, there is no possibility of using this source.”

Despite the lack of a large-scale exploitation of the waters, there is at least one company that provides a small-scale solution. Stiebel Eltron sells a unit that can be sunk into the ground beneath a home to take advantage of the high temperatures to provide hot water and heating


All this is modestly good news for Hungary’s drive to meet the Kyoto requirements – a cut of greenhouse gas emission by 6% by 2012 compared to 1985-1987 levels - and for alternative energy sources in the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute, renewable energy experts say that other problems must be solved.

“The main problem with wind energy is the capacity of the network to absorb more energy from renewable sources, which do not produce on a continuous basis,” said József Szlezák, of Szentendre’s Regional Environmental Centre (REC). “The owners of the transmission network, mainly foreign companies, haven’t been obliged to upgrade facilities to make it able to receive the electricity from renewable energy generators.” This is the major problem that has emerged in the UK and is halting the development of remote, land and sea wind farms and has been highlighted by Hugh Sherman in a recent paper …see more.

“What we need from the government is a strategic approach that takes into account problems and shortcomings,” Szlezák says.... which might also be said of the UK with their mis - managed energy policy and endlessly optimistic views about "renewable energy".

According to Szlezák, who runs the CEERES project to promote renewable energy across Central and Eastern Europe, the government will this year attempt to come up with this strategy but as it will cost a lot of money nobody is holding their breath.

Despite this, Szlezák’s REC colleague, Dr Zsuzsanna Iványi, acting head of the Climate Change Programme, said Hungary is on course to meet its very modest Kyoto requirements.