ODENSE, Denmark, Oct 24 (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.
“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.
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.
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Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Stine Jacobsen; Editing by Toby Chopra
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