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- Category: View from Inside
Australia’s Clean Energy Future
Dominique La Fontaine looks at the global energy challenge of our time and the potential role that Australia’s large untapped wind energy resource can play in the clean energy mix. In Australia, climate change is finally being acknowledged by Australian governments, businesses and communities as an issue that needs to be urgently addressed. Perhaps more significantly, the link is now being drawn between Australia’s unrelenting drought and our rising greenhouse gas emissions. Low-emission energy sources are being debated as the only way forward for Australia’s energy future.By Dominique La Fontaine, CEO, Australian Wind Energy Association
- Category: View from Inside
Thinking Outside the Box
The wind industry is currently looking at alternative configurations that could bring about a slow but significant change in direction. It would seem that wind farm developers and town planners alike are looking towards alternative and radical designs to fill the demand at either end of the size spectrum. A possible alternative design could be the vertical axis wind turbine.By Steven Peace, Eurowind Small Turbines Ltd, UK
- Category: View from Inside
Wind Energy in China
As a clean and renewable energy, wind energy has great prospects for exploitation and utilisation, and the technology has been maturing. In recent years, the Chinese wind energy industry has developed rapidly. Wind energy technology and production capability in China have also made great progress. This year, the ‘Renewable Energy Law’ has been enacted, and it will help to promote the development of wind energy in China.By He Dexin, President, Chinese Wind Energy Association
- Category: View from Inside
Wind Energy can Cover 16% of Spanish Electricity Demand in 2011
Wind power is the most developed of all renewable energy technologies in Spain. It is also the one that can and should contribute most towards reaching the national objective of covering 12% of primary energy consumption from renewables by 2011. At present the total wind energy capacity installed in Spain is 8,300MW, the second highest capacity worldwide, after Germany. The main reason for this success has been an appropriate regulatory framework, the availability of resources, and the industrial and technical capacity of the Spanish companies.By Fernando Ferrando President Plataforma Empresarial Eólica
- Category: View from Inside
Driving Forces for Worldwide Implementation of Wind Energy
Wind energy is the most successful of contemporary energy solutions. However, new energy solutions depend on appropriate tariff schemes. They are even more crucial than research and mass production for the massive implementation of wind energy. Three countries with guaranteed prices, Germany, Spain and Denmark, represent over 75% of wind energy generation in Europe. When Denmark suspended its guaranteed price system in 2003, the market for new wind power instantly vanished. In contrast, Austria changed to guaranteed tariff schemes in 2003, and the highest European growth rate was immediately observed. By Preben Maegaard, President, World Wind Energy Association
- Category: View from Inside
Wind for Africa
Is Africa the ‘Dark Continent’ in terms of installed wind power electricity generation and will it remain so? The well-nursed myth from the past that there is no wind in Africa, especially around the equator, is gradually being blown away. Access to basic, clean and affordable energy services is essential for sustainable development and poverty eradication. Community owned wind hybrid systems can be the starting point for achieving the Millennium Development Goals that prioritise water supply, health, connectivity and education needs. Africa has a large potential for grid-connected as well as stand-alone and mini-grid systems.By Hermann Oelsner, President, African Wind Energy Association
