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EWEA events, News

Outgoing EWEA CEO gives hard-hitting interview for EWEA 2013 preview

15.01.2013

With only weeks to go before EWEA 2013 in Vienna, media coverage is ramping up. Over 100 journalists will attend the event. Television crews will be roving the Messe Wien. In anticipation of Europe’s premier wind energy industrial event, a comprehensive preview of EWEA 2013 has been carried out by Recharge magazine.


The preview features a hard-hitting interview with outgoing EWEA CEO Christian Kjaer. He does not mince his words when he says “backloading will buy time, but they need to get the ETS into surgery as fast as possible, or it’s going to die”, on being asked about reform of the European emissions trading system. He also addresses 2030 emissions targets and the case for wind energy in terms of the contribution it can make towards power supplies and carbon reduction.

Recharge looks at the main focus of EWEA 2013 – “capitalising on opportunities”. While the coming years present many opportunities, such as the emerging markets to the east of Europe, challenges exist. The global downturn and Eurozone crisis has made life difficult for many industries, wind included, but its leaders remain optimistic.

“Wind is becoming ever more competitive, and if we face these challenges head-on together, the prospects are excellent for the future of the European wind market”, says Anna Stanford, public affairs manager at the RES Group, who will lead a discussion on the social acceptance of wind turbines at EWEA 2013.

The preview notes that keynote speakers at EWEA 2013 include Reinhold Mitterlehner, Federal Minister of Economy, Family and Youth, Austria, Taner Yildiz, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Anni Podimata, Vice-President of the European Parliament and Ireland’s energy minister, Pat Rabbitte, who has pledged to make advancing grid development and the internal energy market a priority of Ireland’s six-month presidency of the Council of the EU. “Without physical connections between markets, there can’t really be a proper single market,” he warns. “If transmission system developers do not see any certainty post-2020, then there is a real danger that they will delay making investment decisions.”

Rabbitte has promised to share the energy objectives of the Irish presidency in his keynote speech at EWEA 2013. The coming issue of Wind Directions, to be launched on the opening day of EWEA 2013, features an interview with Minister Rabbitte.

EWEA has also covered EWEA 2013 topics in Wind Directions – see this in-depth article with event Chair Francesco Starace, CEO of Enel Green Power.

For more information on EWEA 2013, visit www.ewea.org/annual2013/

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