The Foundation of WWEA

The initiative for the first WWEC came from a circle around Hermann Scheer, president of EUROSOLAR; Peter Ahmels, President of BWE; Peter Helms, director of WIP; and Wolfgang Palz, Director of EU Renewable Energy Research Section, and it had a very understandable background. During the 1990s, Germany had become the world’s major wind power nation. Year after year, with 2 000 MW to 3 000 MW new capacity, Germany installed more wind power than any other country in the world. Furthermore, a number of German wind turbine manufacturers had success with their innovative design in the fierce competition with well-established manufacturers, especially from Denmark, and were now ready to present their products for sale on the world markets. As the world’s leading export country, it was obvious that Germany would emphasise itself as a major wind power nation as well.However, it soon turned out, that with rather modest inter-national support, the planned Berlin conference could have hardly been called a world conference. So, I was asked by the organisers if I would involve Folkecenter’s quite comprehensive international network to ensure their support to the WWEC2002.Consequently, I contacted a number of prominent wind pioneers and friends from four continents and invited them to a meeting to support the WWEC2002. Very conveniently, we could arrange the gathering in connection with the annual European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) conference in Copenhagen in 2001; it was the primary occasion for the international wind energy leaders to visit the Danish capital.The preparatory WWEC2002 meeting was held in Copenhagen in banquet facilities of the central railway station. The people present were Everaldo Feitosa, Brazil; Peter Ahmels, Heinrich Bartelt, Stefan Gsänger and Hermann Scheer, Germany; Hermann Oelsner, South Africa; Endre Dingsoer, Norway; Stefan Hantsch,

Austria; Galal Osman, Egypt; Yukimaru Shimizu, Japan; Pavel Stroev, Belarus, and me. We went ahead with an agenda for the meeting on how we could obtain broad support for the first WWEC conference in Berlin.Informally, before the meeting I had asked Prof Everaldo Feitosa from Brazil and Prof Galal Osman from Egypt if they liked the idea of creating a global wind power organisation.During a break later in the afternoon, I stepped out onto the floor and asked all the participants present on the day whether they would endorse the idea to create a world organisation for wind energy. There was immediate consent, none rejected.Dr Hermann Scheer, president of EUROSOLAR, and one of the initiators of the Berlin Conference, had meanwhile arrived to the meeting. His brief comment was “You have to move fast now.” As an experienced politician and activist, he knew too well that there was no time for postponement. It was agreed to continue to discuss the establishment of WWEA during dinner at the Central Station restaurant. 31.3  The Mission

During the dinner, Hermann Scheer was a central figure for the formulation of the mission statement for WWEA. Ten years later, it is still a valid foundation of the mandate and WWEA’s goals. Negotiations on the statutes continued at a gathering the following morning at the Bella Center, a convention hall where the EWEA conference took place. Within a few hours the same circle of wind pioneers of the previous day had a statutory draft finished.It was agreed that the president of EWEA, Klaus Rave, was the first who should receive the decision on creation of WWEA. I was designated as the one to brief Klaus Rave about the new WWEA. I accepted on the condition that in order to emphasise the new global nature of the association, I needed the escort of representatives from at least two continents. Again, Prof Osman Africa and Prof Feitosa did not hesitate.We met Klaus Rave in the lobby. He was clearly shaken by being presented with the just-founded WWEA, as a fait accompli. His comments were brief and mostly about whether it really was

a wise and properly considered decision. It was our frank reply, that wind energy organisations in many countries on four continents, including two of the world’s largest countries, supported the new wind energy association. The members included countries that could look forward to become major wind power nations. Therefore, they had an obvious need for an organisation that would be responsible for their specific interests in the international arena, we told Klaus Rave. 31.4  The AssociationFrom this moment, WWEA was a public reality. Subsequently, we held a quickly called press conference. Some of the founders sat among the audience. Together with Prof Frede Hvelplund, I told the lone representative of the press, Lynn Harrison from Windpower Monthly, that WWEA had been founded during that weekend. Her questions mostly were of the purpose of such an association and what we thought of ourselves, to have the audacity to create a rival association to the European and American wind energy associations.Firstly, we replied to the representative of the media that there was the general freedom to form new organisations, and stressed that non-European and non-American wind energy associations were not represented on the boards and committees of the EWEA nor AWEA, the dominant wind energy organisations. In the international wind energy conferences, organised by the two associations, overseas participants were welcome, but now they required seats in the governing body of a wind energy association. Especially, Hermann Oelsner, a South African wind energy pioneer, and one of the founders of WWEA, emphasised this very clearly and was later quoted for this viewpoint in the wind energy magazines.As WWEA now was a reality, the founders celebrated this fact at an outdoor dinner in a cosy square in central Copenhagen. During the conference days in Copenhagen, the foundation of WWEA became well-known, and several new and important members joined the association. However, already on the second day, one of the European co-founders got cold feet and cancelled the member-ship of his association. Some others denounced the new association as well.