By Jessica Anania
The countdown to Global Wind Day marks more than just a wait for a fun-filled day spent outside discovering wind energy. It is also a chance for the public, politicians, and industry officials to discuss wind energy and its benefits, sharing ideas, exchanging opinions, and deepening their knowledge and understanding along the way.
Across Europe, wind farms are open, wind energy is the theme of festivals and wind energy information points will be set up across the continent from Lisbon to Warsaw.
In Denmark, Folkemødet, an annual political conference of over 30,000 participants and 1,300 events spanning four days, coincides with Global Wind Day.
“For the Danish Wind Industry Association (DWIA), Folkemødet was the obvious place to incorporate Global Wind Day due to the nature of Folkemødet and the philosophy of Global Wind Day, where it is about bringing knowledge of wind to the public,” stated Anders Mika Dalegaard, Head of Events at DWIA.
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With Global Wind Day 2013 taking place this weekend, we’re continuing the ‘wind energy stories’ series as Robert van Waarden travels to Thailand to explore low-wind solutions.
“I know that 70% of the area in the world has a low wind speed. I thought, if we want to promote the wind machine, 70% is a lot of the world,” Dr. Roy said.
Dr. Wirachai Roynarin or (Dr. Roy as he is more commonly known), is a Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at RMUTT in Bangkok and owner of Prapai Technologies, a company that specialises in low wind-speed turbines. He grew up in a small farming family, where he learned to respect the land, before going to England to study. He returned to Thailand believing he could help his country and he set his sights on the wind.
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Wind energy doesn’t usually see much support from UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph, but this weekend the paper published a story based on National Grid (the UK’s electricity grid operator) evidence proving that wind farms do not need fossil fuel back-up for when the weather is calm.
“The National Grid has studied what actually happens in practice, with explosive, if surprising, results,” the paper said. “Between April 2011 and September 2012…wind produced some 23,700 gigawatt hours (GWh) of power. Only 22 GWh of power from fossil fuels was needed to fill the gaps when the wind didn’t blow. That’s less than a thousandth of the turbines’ output – and, as it happens, less than a tenth of what was needed to back up conventional power stations.”
That statement highlights another perhaps little known fact – fossil fuel power stations do need back-up. A fossil fuelled power station needs to shut down for repairs or maintenance taking many gigawatts of power offline with it.
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Lord Sugar
The UK government will vote today on the ‘Energy Bill’ – measures to decide how the UK will structure its energy sector in the future, including a possible 2030 decarbonisation target. The target has been backed by an alliance of 55 energy companies, trade unions, environmental and faith groups – including SSE, RES, Vestas, EDP, Repower, Scottish Renewables and Renewable UK – and, last week UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Edward Davey called on the EU to set an emissions reduction target of 50% by 2030.
Leading business figure and member of the UK House of Lords, Lord Sugar, also backs a decarbonisation target. He said in a letter (‘cutting our carbon would help UK business’, 2 June) published in the Financial Times that “renewables companies have shown they are ready to invest in Britain, but they need to see a commitment from this government that they are serious. To create jobs here, they need real certainty – and that will require a proper “decarbonisation” target in the forthcoming energy bill,” he said.
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Global Wind Day – you may have heard of it, or you may be one of the 21,000 people who have “liked” Global Wind Day’s facebook page, but what is it all about? It’s a day for taking the energy debate – switching to renewables from fossil fuels, supporting wind power – out of the realm of policy and in to the real world. In short, Global Wind Day is the international annual day for discovering wind power.
How does a wind turbine work? How much power does the wind farm located near me produce? Why should I support wind power over fossil fuels? These are the types of questions and more that you could find the answer to on Global Wind Day.
How? By attending one of the many events – from wind farm open days to exhibitions and fairs – across the globe, by taking part in our call to G8 leaders to switch to renewables and phase out support for fossil fuels, or by simply browsing our global wind energy FAQs and our Europe wind energy factsheet.
A snapshot of Global Wind Day activities – Brussels and Spain
From next Monday 3 June to 15 June, winners and runners up in the Global Wind Day photo competition will have their photos displayed in the European Parliament. Here is a snapshot of the exhibited photos…
Meanwhile, in Spain from 3-15 June you might notice the special Global Wind Day lottery tickets. Some five million special tickets will be printed, in association with ONCE – the Spanish association for blind people, and the lottery will be drawn on Global Wind Day itself.
