Ten Years of successful promotion of wind power worldwide

This year, the World Wind Energy Association celebrates its tenth Anniversary. Ten years ago, in July 2001, delegates from all over the world decided in Copenhagen to create an association that represents the interest of the wind sector on the global level. WWEA’s work contributed substantially to the strong growth of wind power worldwide, leading to a more than 10fold increase from 18 Gigawatt (end of 2000) to 215 GW (June 2011) of installed capacity. In the same time, WWEA saw strong growth as well and has today more than 500 members in 100 countries – with WWEA’s members associations representing more than 50’000 members.

On the occasion of its 10th Anniversary, WWEA presents its history and achievements in a special publication "10 Years of the World Wind Energy Association – Uniting the World of Wind Energy Since 2001". The publication looks back at 10 years of history and presents WWEA’s main achievements, the highlights of ten World Wind Energy Conferences, and all the winners of the World Wind Energy Award. It also gives information about the core people within WWEA, WWEA’s members as well as WWEA’s closest partner organizations.

Dr. He Dexin, President of WWEA: "We are proud that we can look back today at such a rich history, in such a relatively short period of time. Thanks to a very good cooperation of people and organizations from all over the world, we have been able to achieve a lot, for the benefit of an accelerated deployment of wind power all over the world. WWEA has become a truly worldwide association, with equal representation from so many countries. Based on our spirit of mutual understanding, respect and cooperation, WWEA will see achieve more success in the future, for a renewable energy future in all parts of the world and for all humans."

Dr. Anil Kane, WWEA President from 2005 to 2011: "WWEA has brought the scientific minds of the people on the same platform repeatedly for exchange of ideas and finding out hurdles with a view to get solutions. Various governments and non-government organizations have been approaching WWEA for consul-tations, advices and help to tackle their local problems. These advices and consultations have helped many countries for creating legislations and laws for encouragement of Renewable Energy.

Dr. Preben Maegaard, WWEA Founding President from 2001 to 2005: "At the 10 years anniversary it is evident that WWEA has proven to be extremely vigorous and a recognized leader in the world."

Stefan Gsänger, WWEA Secretary General: "A lot has been accomplished by WWEA on the political level, for the worldwide success of wind power and all the renewables. For me personally, WWEA’s highlights are:

– the WWEC2004 in China and the following wind boom making the country the number one wind nation of the world;

– the first North American feed-in law in Ontario and the great push for community power that our WWEC2008 in Kingston has created;

– and the foundation of the International Renewable Energy Agency IRENA which has only started to have huge impact on global governance systems."

The publication "10 Years of the World Wind Energy Association – Uniting the World of Wind Energy Since 2001" can be accessed on the WWEA website: www.wwindea.org/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=330&Itemid=41

A pdf version can be downloaded from: http://wwindea.org/home/images/stories/publications/10_years_of_the_wwea_web.pdf