Renewable Energy & Sustainability Heroes by GineersNow Engineering GineersNow Engineering Magazine Issue No. 017, Ren | Page 34

Participants of the 1st World Community Power Conference in Fukushima, November 2016
adopted its first renewable energy law, in early
2005, laying the basis for an unprecedented
wind boom. Today, 13 years later, China is
the undisputed world market leader with an
installed wind capacity approaching 200’000
MW by end of this year!
The creation of IRENA
Already in the first years, WWEA supported the
initiative to create an International Renewable
Energy Agency – as we saw the strong need
to have a global and government based voice
for renewable energy. During the founding
phase, there was huge resistance against this
initiative, from almost everywhere. However,
today, IRENA is a well established organisation
with 150 member states, and represents the
case of renewable energy officially at all major
international meetings, including the climate
change process.
Moving renewables into the center
of the international debate
More than a decade ago, renewable energy
played practically no role on the international
agenda, especially not at the UN Climate
Change Conferences although it was already
obvious that only with renewables, a solution
to climate change would be possible. Together
with our partners from the International
Renewable Energy Alliance, we presented
the potentials of renewable energy to all UN
Climate Change Conferences. It was a long
process, but we succeeded more and more.
Setting up the Global100%RE campaign as
a broad network had deep impact on many
stakeholders and eventually paved the way for
the Paris Agreement.
Present work
WWEA has today members from more than a
hundred countries and board members from all
continents and hence is directly and indirectly
involved in countless activities around the
globe in order to promote wind power as part
of the future renewable energy supply.
Policy advice
WWEA will continue working on the global level
but also advising individual countries, like most
recently in the case of Russia. This country
used to be leading in wind power in the middle
of the last century but lost almost entirely its
expertise in the sector. Only very recently, the
Russian government and also investors have
started to seriously look into wind power.
WWEA is advising the government of Russia to
develop a comprehensive wind power strategy.
Why should Russia one day not become the
renewable powerhouse of the world, producing
“wind gas” in huge wind farms and sending this
gas to Europe and Asia, using the existing gas
pipeline infrastructure?
A focus on Community Power
Next to technology related work and a
special section on small wind as well as
a Legal Working Group, WWEA is giving
special attention to community energy – local