The renewable energy potential within Europe’s borders would actually be almost capable of satisfying current electrical energy demand. Wind energy is already close to being economically competitive and exhibits a huge technical potential throughout the continent. Due to high population densities, however, any major expansion of wind capacities within the European Union would be confronted with far greater impediments than those encountered in deserts, steppes, tundra, and other regions largely devoid of human settlement.

For example, the available wind energy potentials on land sites in Germany are theoretically adequate for replacing 17% of existing electricity generation, yet implementation is becoming increasingly more expensive, since the most favourable sites are already being employed. The use of local photovoltaic (PV) installations appears very costly at current prices. An additional major energy source of the future will be offshore wind power, the potential of which is frequently underestimated. It would generally be advisable to exploit the wind resources of all Eu member states. Remarkably, however, areas with the greatest wind potential such as Great Britain and neighbouring Norway have achieved only modest growth in the past [IEA 03] [WpM 03]. Even if capacities were appreciably expanded, the effects of fluctuating output could be accommodated by existing power stations in those countries for many years up to relatively high proportions of the total electricity production, as is already being experienced in Denmark, Germany and Spain. As long as the total contribution from wind energy lies below 20%, no insurmountable problems may be anticipated (s. e. g. [Gie 00]). If the power industry is dominated by storage hydropower plants, such as in the case of Norway, even greater contributions of wind energy may be easily tolerated. Yet exceeding inherent system limitations would ultimately necessitate major grid reinforcement to smooth regional fluctuations, thereby combining the characteristics of production within different regions, supplanting the low capacities generally encountered in thinly populated regions, and consequently allowing a much greater contribution of renewable energies to be achieved.

Until neighbouring countries become interested in exchanging significant amounts of wind electricity to achieve the mutual benefits of smoother temporal characteristics, and until the huge potentials in distant foreign countries are tapped, however, the contribution of wind power in countries such as Germany, which is already approaching its installation limits, cannot be expected to grow significantly.

The most interesting additional resources are therefore the huge potentials of wind and solar energy beyond the borders of the EU. Both can complement varying seasonal capacities elsewhere. In the case of wind power, for instance, the coastal regions of Morocco and Mauritania are particularly advantageous due to their summer peaks in production, which are the reverse of seasonal conditions in Europe. Solar electricity from concentrating parabolic arrays could likewise complement the output of wind farms in Germany, both inland and offshore. Since electricity demand is growing more rapidly in Morocco than in EU countries, wide-area utility services could be initiated using environmentally benign technologies for local generation [DOE 02]. The immediate EU neighbour Spain is likewise experiencing above-average growth of electricity consumption and would thus be the predestined partner for initiating transnational trade in renewable energies. Even after the costs and losses of currently available transmission equipment had been deducted, wind and solar electricity could be conveyed in a cost-effective manner over distances of more than 5000 km to central Europe. The price of wind power would be significantly lower than if produced e. g. in Germany at typical generation sites, while the price of concentrated solar electricity generation could still be competitive with domestic inland wind power if the entire range of German wind sites were being employed. In addition, a supply system extending beyond the EU would permit a full renewable energy supply to be realized for the EU and its cooperating partners. By embarking onto such a large-scale renewable energy strategy, a new form of economic cooperation with developing nations could be achieved to the advantage of all parties (s. also [Czi 99] and [BBB+ 03]).