With China and the US striving to dominate the world’s future clean-tech markets, European politicians have developed a renewed appetite for protectionism and Europe’s wind power industry is poised to harvest this drive. To recap: Europe was scarred when the global financial crisis – alongside bad business choices driven by the gold rush mood of the first feed-in tariffs – saw the solar photovoltaic supply chain move to China. When EU policymakers realised in the summer of 2022 that the US planned to subsidise clean technologies at scale, panic set in. The EU’s Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) – the bloc’s paltry protectionist response, not backed by much money – is due to be voted on by the European Parliament on 23 April. The law now lists a whopping 18 technology categories where the EU wants to produce 40% of annual deployment needs by 2030, but this ambition is neither serious nor realistic. These include traditional technologies like solar and wind, but also a swathe of nuclear categories, as well as “wind propulsion and electric propulsion.” The NZIA is more of a shotgun than a scalpel, more bazooka than targeted measure. Given the EU’s limited fiscal headway – Europe is embracing a return to more austere budgets as we speak – a certain prioritisation is in order. Europe’s wind power industry has successfully convinced policymakers to treat it like a beloved only child. Commission boss Ursula von der Leyen called it a “European success story” in her annual address to the EU. “The future of our clean-tech industry has to be made in Europe,” she stressed. Appetite for protectionism, indeed. |