'Accelerating Wind Energy Development in India and Europe: the Quest for Synergies'

Over fifty European and Indian representatives of banks, wind turbine manufacturers, developers, technology experts and India officials gathered today at the headquarters of the Confederation of Indian Industry in New Delhi, to discuss how to facilitate the development of wind energy in India.

The Round Table centred on analysing the obstacles to and advantages of financing Indian wind energy. A number of different ways to finance wind power were discussed, as well as tariff structures, grid integration, and technology transfer between Europe and India.

"Investors will look at the most appropriate options of low cost financing to get the projects through," said Mr. Subramanian, Secretary of the Ministry for Non Conventional Energy Sources in New Delhi. "If we want to attract investors, we have to establish a great deal of discipline in the wind energy sector."

Speaking at the Round Table, the Head of the European Commission's delegation to India, Ambassador Francisco da Câmara Gomes, referred to the recent visit of EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs as highlighting the potential for EU India collaboration in renewable energy. He continued "the EU-India Wind Energy Network is an excellent illustration of the civil society cooperation that we are proud to support through the ECCP."

The Round Table and Seminar have been organised within the framework of the European Commission funded EU-India Wind Energy Network. "This is one of the first occasions when there has been such effective dialogue and interchange of concerns among so many of the key wind energy sector stakeholders," said Hugo Chandler of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), which is a key actor in the project.

The findings of the Round Table and of the Seminar will feed into the report "Wind Energy Finance: Mobilising European Investment in the Indian Wind Sector," which will be finalised in the Spring of 2007, and widely disseminated.

Following its highly acclaimed launch in India the evening before, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) took the opportunity to launch its Global Wind 2005 Report on the status of the international wind markets.

"The message from the report is clear. Wind energy has become a global business and it is rapidly developing into a mainstream power source in developing and developed countries," said Angelika Pullen GWEC's Policy and Communications Director.

"While the EU is still the leading market in wind energy with 40.5 GW of installed capacity, other continents such as North America and Asia are developing at a staggering rate."