Publisher's Note March April 2010

Players in the wind energy business from all over Europe will be meeting in Warsaw, Poland, from 20 till 23 April at the European Wind Energy Conference (EWEC) organised by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). Can wind power generate half of Europe’s electricity by 2050? Climate policies – including financial and regulatory incentives, moving offshore wind to the industrial stage, the development of global markets for wind energy, rotor aerodynamics and wind resource assessment – are among the issues on the agenda at the EWEC 2010 conference.

{access view=!registered}Only logged in users can view the full text of the article.{/access}{access view=registered}The conference will feature over 50 sessions and side events, more than 500 oral and poster presentations and in excess of 2,000 delegates. Over 200 exhibitors will show their products and services at the 5,000m2 exhibition floor.

This is the first time EWEC has been organised in a country in Central Europe, which is seen as the emerging area for the European onshore market. Up till now the event has only been organised in Western European countries. This year’s event is not as big as the ones in Western European countries have been, but I believe it will be no less interesting.

In the traditional wind markets the focus of new installations will be more and more on offshore, and for the onshore market we have to look at new ‘wind’ countries like Poland. Currently, the installed capacity in Poland is approximately 724MW (on 31 December 2009). The Polish government has the ambition to have installed 2,000MW by 2020 and hopes that wind energy will provide 2.3% of the total energy consumption by then. Besides Poland, Bulgaria and Turkey are seen as potential emerging markets for wind energy. For instance, approximately 1,000MW of capacity is planned for Bulgaria in the near future and according to studies the wind resource potential of Bulgaria will be 2,200 to 3,400MW.?Even Russia, which has plenty of fossil fuel sources, has ambitions to install more wind turbines. Currently the installed capacity is around 13MW and according to the programme ‘RusHydro’ the Russians plan to reach 1,600MW installed capacity by 2020. If you want to know more about the new wind countries in Central and Eastern Europe I believe it is worthwhile to pay a visit to EWEC in Warsaw, Poland.

As a preview of what to expect, Windtech International invited the exhibiting companies to tell us what they will have on display during the show, especially their new products. On page 21 you will find an overview of what to expect at EWEC 2010.

Enjoy reading,

Floris Siteur
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