Wind industry shows its strength at EWEA 2015 in Paris

Europe’s wind industry came together last week in a show of strength, with more than 6,500 visitors attending the four-day EWEA 2015 event at Porte de Versailles in Paris just days after the city fell victim to the terrorist atrocities that shocked the world.
By Christopher Hopson
Tuesday, November 24 2015
Updated: Tuesday, November 24 2015

A high-level line-up (left to right): EWEA CEO Giles Dickson, Rainer Baake, Marie-Christine Marghem, Ségolène Royal, Markus Tacke and Maros Sefcovic.

Pictures Jason Bickley/Tim Buelens EWEA

EWEA chairman and Siemens Wind Power CEO Markus Tacke set the tone at the event’s opening session, leading a minute's silence before introducing a high-level political line up comprising European Commission vice-president for energy union Maros Sefcovic, French energy minister Ségolène Royal (pictured below), Belgian energy minister Marie-Christine Marghem, and the state secretary at Germany’s federal energy ministry, Rainer Baake.

EWEA itself marked the event by releasing a major new study called Aiming High, which explained how wind could boost the European economy by €13bn ($14bn) over the next 15 years and support 366,000 jobs.

The report points to how wind could overtake natural gas and coal, if member states apply the right level of ambition in their climate and energy policies.

The hot technology trend of the week was undoubtedly the growing momentum behind floating wind, with Recharge’s hugely popular official event dailies breaking news about the 25MW WindFloat Atlantic project off northern Portugal and France’s Ideol signing a deal with China Steel Corporation to jointly develop offshore wind projects off Taiwan.

Not content just to report the news, Recharge helped to advance the floating wind debate at EWEA 2015, bringing together an industry-leading panel to discuss the issue.

Names taking centre stage at the packed Recharge seminar included ex-Siemens technology chief Henrik Stiesdal; Statoil’s Trine Ingebjorg Ulla; Marubeni’s Tomofumi Fukuda; WindFloat’s Dominique Roddier, ORE Catapult’s Cian Conroy, and DNV GL-Energy’s Johan Sandberg.

The Recharge-hosted panel (pictured above) was one of dozens of sessions to offer EWEA 2015 delegates insights from many of the wind industry's leading figures, and others from beyond the sector who will help to shape its fortunes (see pictures below).

Notable visitors to EWEA 2015 included the team running the newly-formed GE Renewable Energy division, fresh from its acquisition of France's Alstom Power, and the focus of considerable interest as the US industrial giant plots its next moves in Europe and in offshore wind, where it is once more poised to become a force.

The Paris event ended with its delegates voting to stage EWEA 2017 in Amsterdam on 28-30 November, 2017.

Picture 1 (left to right). GE Renewable Energy onshore wind CEO Anne McEntee, offshore CEO Anders Soe-Jensen and general manager for Europe Cliff Harris.

Picture 2 Francois Sterin, director of global infrastructure at Google.

Picture 3 Melchior Karigl of the European Investment Bank (left) and Jan Rufer of GE.

Picture 4 The winners of the EWEA 2015 poster competition.