The theme of this year’s Offshore WIND Conference is “Building an industry without borders”. PES looks at how this year’s annual event will focus attention on how thinking and cooperating beyond international borders can help to break down mental and legislative barriers, and help promote the growth of the industry.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), as the world’s population increases, energy demand will rise by 40 per cent in 2040. At the same time the energy industry faces challenges with a changing climate which requires drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. So, it is no surprise that renewable energy will play a very important part of the worldwide energy supply. That’s one of the reasons why on Monday October 12th the 6th annual Offshore WIND Conference (OWC) will take place in Amsterdam RAI.
Although it is nothing new for countries and companies to invest in renewable energy, it seems like this ‘alternative’ form of energy production grows faster than ever. The IEA reported recently that renewable energy could surpass coal, nuclear power, and natural gas as the world’s largest source of electricity within only 15 years. This is in line with the goal of the European Union. The EU set themselves a target of a 20 per cent share of renewable energy in 2020 and according to the European Commission’s biennial progress report; it looks like the EU as a whole is going to achieve this. Wind Energy is one of the most well-known forms of renewable energy. The total worldwide installed wind capacity in 2014 was 7GW, which is expected to grow to as much as 140GW in 2040. The coming years will see the realisation of new projects in many new locations.
China may be considered a conservative country, but in regards to wind power it’s definitely a force to be reckoned with. The government spent more than $80bn in new renewables generating capacity and because of that the country takes a big lead over respectively the EU ($46bn), Japan ($37bn) and the USA ($34bn). The Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, Maria van der Hoeven, told BBC News: “China is now the largest wind power market in the world. They have increased their power generation from renewables from really nothing 10 years ago to 25 per cent now. These are very important signals that China is moving in the right direction.”
During the Offshore WIND Conference 2015 in October at the Amsterdam RAI, the main focus will be what the future will look like, and especially how the latest developments and opportunities can be improved efficiently.
