Energy Policy, Vol.35, No.12, 6546-6548, 2007
Climate change drives wind turbines
The development and prospects for wind power resources, technologies, investment, financing and banking, incentive policies, and operation and maintenance have become popular issues in wind power industry. An exhibition in May 2007 in Milan, Italy (EWEC 2007), with 229 stands on wind power technologies and techniques coinciding with the Conference, confirmed the popularity of these issues. Governments, International organisations, NGOs, universities, research institutions, and private sector are all paying attention to these issues. Developing countries, China and India in particular, are playing an increasingly important role in developing wind power. The EWEC 2007 confirmed that wind energy will make a substantial contribution to achieving the European Council's recently adopted target: 20% of EU energy consumption coming from renewables by 2020. The Chinese government also announced its new wind power development target: additional installation of new capacity of 5 GW in 2010 and 30 GW in 2020. It is evident that more and more wind turbines in both developed and developing countries will be driven by climate change. (C) 2007 OECD/IEA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.