The wind industry has faced a difficult few years, but now is the time to look forward. Just ahead of the EWEA 2014 Annual Event in Barcelona, Wind Power Monthly TV hosted a webcast to discuss the topic that will headline EWEA 2014 next week – what are you doing to get back to business?
Listeners to the webcast were asked: what strategies for survival are the most effective/important for the European wind business? With 38% of the result, technology – investing in the product – came out on top.
Jan Rabe, head of strategy at Siemens Wind Power who participated in the webcast, concurred adding that for him, it is also important to establish economies of scale. Pierre Tardieu, Regulatory Affairs Advisor at EWEA, also highlighted the need for technological progress. Technology enables Europe to stay on top of the global market for wind power, he said.
“We [Europe] are net exporters of wind energy technology, the wind industry is really contributing to the European economy,” Tardieu added.
Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy Council, said that the technology “has to be the best it can be”, but that diversification in to other markets like in Africa, Asia and Latin America is also very important.
With 24% of the vote, listeners to the webcast identified new markets as the second most important strategy after technology. Creating economies of scale, meanwhile, took 21% of the vote. Less popular options were consolidation (changing the size of the company up or down) with 11% of the vote, and diversification into other energies/vertical integration with 10% of the vote.
If you’re keen to learn more about these and other strategies for survival, then register to attend the “industry leaders’ debate: what are you doing to get back to business” on Tuesday 11 March at EWEA 2014 in Barcelona.
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