Energy Transparency

Has Germany’s Wind Power Sector Escaped the Grim Fate of Solar PV?

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While Germany’s once soaring photovoltaic sector is going through very hard times – a consequence primarily of cheap Chinese imports – the country’s wind energy sector, also a market leader, has so far managed to stay on its feet. But the industry is not booming like it did just a few years ago and is scaling back its expectations for 2012. Experts in Germany say that the German wind industry should expect even tougher competition coming its way soon, possibly from China.

In Germany one of the country’s solar panel manufacturers after another closed their doors over the past year and a half: Battling with China and other new competitors the world-wide industry created a glut and prices went tumbling down in 2009 and 2010. With them went under what had been several of the choicest success stories of Germany’s post-unification economy, many of them in the former eastern Germany which had benefited immensely from the upstart renewables industry. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 29, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Voices of Wind: GWEA’s Henning Dettmer

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In 1996, when the German Wind Energy Association (GWEA) came to life, the full force of Germany’s onshore wind power amounted to a handful of entrepreneurs experimenting with a budding but imperfect technology.

Today, only 16 years later, onshore wind power constitutes 8 percent of Germany’s energy supply, generating nearly half of the nation’s renewable electricity. More than 24,000 wind turbines dot the German landscape with a capacity of more than 32,000 megawatts. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 26, 2012 at 11:00 AM

The Business of Wind Energy in Europe

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The European Union (EU) has the reputation of a bureaucracy awash in red tape. Yet when it comes to wind power, and above all onshore wind, its policies over the last decade have proven enormously effective getting this precocious branch of business in Europe on its feet – and even booming.

Despite an ongoing economic crisis, Europe’s wind power industry has flourished as few others, not least as a consequence of the EU targets, national action plans, and other framework regulation including carbon pricing. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 23, 2012 at 1:00 PM

The Green Republic? Germany’s Wind Energy Boom

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The German wind industry sits at the heart of a European energy market preparing for a disruptive transformation intended to promote integration and allow the rich wind resource of the North to fuel continent-wide growth, without the risks of nuclear power and reliance on foreign energy producers.

It is a comprehensive, ambitious vision that in Germany alone the environment minister Peter Altmaier has compared in scale to the country’s painful post-Communist reunification. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 8, 2012 at 4:00 PM

Energy Transparency Interview: Morten Albaek on Energy’s Present and Future

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Some of the most influential voices in the clean energy sector gathered recently in New York for the US launch of the Corporate Renewable Energy Index and the Global Consumer Wind Study.

Companies manage what is measured, and increasingly understand their customers and their competitors by leveraging the data sets provided by measurements that in previous business cycles would have been difficult to gather, much less compare. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 5, 2012 at 10:15 AM

Energy Transparency in the US: Changes are Real

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The world of renewable energy has changed rapidly over the past decade, moving from a marginal issue for environmentalists to a core component of both energy policy and the consumer mindset.

The energy business, which relies on lengthy lead times and regulatory certainty, has often been slow to adapt to the changes in the world around it and embrace renewable energy production or sustainability issues. That is no longer the case, as major corporations embrace direct investment in the sector to avoid an energy sector they increasingly see as adding major risk to operational reliability and customers become attuned to their energy choices. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 28, 2012 at 9:30 AM

Wind Energy and the US Consumer

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When it comes to sources of power for products and services, consumers expressed a very strong preference for clean energy over fossil fuels in the Global Consumer Wind Study.

The overwhelming majority (67%) of respondents said that they would prefer to have their electricity sources supplied by renewables, versus 9% for fossil fuels and 8% for nuclear. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 27, 2012 at 2:00 PM

Renewable Energy: Corporates, Financials and Technology Firms Take the Lead

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Companies are at the leading edge of wind globally, not least in the US. Starbucks recently sent a joint letter with 18 other US companies to Congress to request an extension of the Production Tax Credit which has helped grow installed capacity.

Ben & Jerry’s, Clif Bar, Johnson & Johnson, Levi Strauss & Co, The North Face, Sprint, Starbucks, Symantec, Timberland and Yahoo! are just a selection of household corporate names that understand the value of a sustainable wind industry to the consumer and the bottom line. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 25, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Study Results: Make Renewable Energy Investments Now, or Risk Missing the Boat

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Speakers representing a wide range of sectors, from academia to accounting, had similar views with regard to the importance of corporate social responsibility and renewable energy investments: These things matter now and will only become more important to shareholders and consumers in the future.

“In 5 to 10 years, it will be very difficult to sell products made from ‘black’ energy,” predicted Morten Albaek, Chief Marketing Officer for wind turbine manufacturer Vestas. Albaek was announcing the results of two new energy transparency studies being launched at the New York Bloomberg Tower on September 24th. The studies were released in Rio in August and London last week. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 24, 2012 at 10:00 PM

Politics of Wind and the Election

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During this year’s presidential campaign, the renewable energy industry and the tax credits that support it have become a hot political topic.

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney caused a ripple of anxiety in the US wind industry when he said he would not extend the Production Tax Credit that has helped grow the wind industry to 50GW of installed capacity. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 24, 2012 at 3:30 PM
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