Within Europe as well as globally wind and solar energy are acknowledged as the key renewable energy sources for supplying our future demand for energy, done with proven and cost-effective conversion technologies that serve for the provision of electricity. Whilst solar power at small- as well as at utility-scale has increased steadily and widespread across Europe, the picture of wind power development is more diverse and inhomogeneous geographically. Specifically in the south-eastern part of Europe – namely in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania – actual developments have been lacking far behind earlier expectations.

The aim of the research project supported by the European Climate Foundation was to shed light on the applicable potentials for wind power development in Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. In task 1 the Austrian Institute of Technology carried out a GIS-based analysis of the technical potential for wind power production in Hungary. In task 2 REKK, using the EPMM model, estimated the economic impacts of varying wind capacities.

Results show that:

• Hungary has good potential for wind energy production. Taking into account land use constraints, the calculated technical wind potential is around 100 GW.
• The economic wind energy potential (16 GW) is also many times higher than the current target of 1 GW by 2030.
• A larger domestic wind portfolio would have a positive impact on electricity prices.
• Importantly for investors, wind power is not expected to have a cannibalisation effect (unlike solar power).