By Tuuliki Kasonen, General Manager of Estonian Wind Power Association
Ever heard of people saying “life is nowadays happening online”? Well, that’s where the Global Wind Day took place in Estonia this year. The key activities were fun video clips going viral in social media combined with an online interview where people were able to ask everything about wind energy. We handed out flower seeds at the Ehituse ABC (Building ABC) stores but for that single physical action that took place in four cities we also had a home-made video of how to plant those seeds. continue reading »
By Angelika Pullen, Communications Director, GWEC
A consumer label for wind power called WindMade could soon be coming to the market, to show consumers which companies and products use wind energy. This is an idea that was first announced in January this year, and after many months of hard work and anticipation, new details were made public on Global Wind Day (15 June).
During a media briefing in New York City, the WindMade consortium, which consists of Vestas, GWEC, WWF, Bloomberg, LEGO and the UN Global Compact, presented the first proposed technical standard for the WindMade label for companies. This standard contains the main requirements that a company has to fulfil in order to apply for using the label. continue reading »
A 45% renewable energy target for 2030 would create the future policy-stability the green energy sector the needs, was one of the main messages emerging from last night’s public debate on EU energy policy post-2020.
New energy policies must be drawn-up today, and not in 2020 when the current targets expire, Josche Muth, Secretary General of the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) said at the debate organised by the European Wind Energy Association. The call was backed by Claude Turmes, MEP, who said that renewables are becoming a mainstream source of electricity faster than was forseen. continue reading »
A colourful display of flowing, tasselled lanterns, undulating kites that look like clouds racing across the sky, and an airy gymnastic performance to match, is taking place in the heart of Brussels’ EU quarter today.
The context is Global Wind Day – 15 June – when all around the world events are taking place in honour of the power that resides in the wind – power that creates electricity and can bring us a greener future free from dependence on polluting and expensive fossil fuels. continue reading »
Bereft of any conventional energy sources, Portugal turned to its winds and rivers. Today, it gets more of its electricity from wind energy (14.8%) than anywhere except Denmark.
At the end of 2010, there were 3,898 MW of wind energy capacity installed in Portugal – all onshore, and mostly in the mountainous, sparsely populated north-east.
Fuel imports once made up around half of Portugal’s trade deficit. From around 2000, the country decided to focus more on indigenous, renewable sources of energy to reduce that deficit.
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