Going with the wind !!

Thought Leadership | Anand Rao | December 21, 2009 at 7:33 am

I have always been fascinated with the way businesses are held these days and the impact they create in the society. Business people all over the world are discovering extraordinary opportunities generated by protecting the nature and more so trying to meet the triple bottom line. In this economic downturn, when every action of the crisis affects every individual and their businesses, people start looking for a great economy and are willing to pay any price to get closer to it. What matters in such situations are the right strategy, success and moreover the right attitude to excel for the betterment of the business and the society at large.

Remember the world-wide concern about climate change that resulted in the agreements of Rio de Janeiro (1992), Kyoto (1997), Marrakech (2001), and more recently the Copenhagen deal (2009) aiming to decrease the global greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy is at the forefront of most countries and considered as a long-term alternative to fossil fuel resources, contributing to the security of energy supply. Since the last decades, the interest and political support for electricity generation from renewable sources has much increased.

Wind power is, together with biomass, the fastest growing renewable energy technology today. Wind is competitive, and companies have reduced the cost of wind power significantly, making it financially sound to increase their modern energy’s share of the world’s energy mix. Wind has jumped ahead of other green energy sources because of innovations in turbine technology. Another reason wind surged to the forefront is because many states passed standards that require that a percentage of the state’s electricity to be made from renewable energy sources. Most countries have defined a goal of putting wind power at the top of the global energy agenda. Electricity from modern energy by 2020 is becoming a reality, and the UN 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen will further consolidate strong growth outlook. Today, the world wind turbine market is dominated by 10 major companies which control almost 100% of the market: Vestas (34%), Gamesa (18%), Enercon (15%), GE Wind (11%), Siemens (6%), Suzlon (4%), REpower (3%), Mitsubishi (2%), Ecotècnia (2%) and Nordex (2%). In 2009, the top 10 countries of world contribute more than 90 percent to the annual wind energy with US, China and India looking to drive the wind energy industry in future.

Wind energy technology is developing fast; turbines are becoming cheaper and more powerful, bringing the cost of renewably-generated electricity down. Improvements in wind energy technology mean that the trends which have led to the dramatic fall in the cost of wind energy are set to continue. My vision is that everyone will have a small turbine on the roof of their house the way we had TV antennas in the past. Meeting the triple bottom line in these businesses is both an opportunity and a way of living in a green world. What matters in this industry today is the way production is carried out in a cost-effective manner and with the best of efficient technology.

Views expressed in this article are completely my personal views based on my research work in this area.