Expanding offshore wind into emerging markets, such as Asia and the Americas, will be a top priority for the World Forum Offshore Wind, according to the new organisation’s chief executive.
“We felt that there might be a lack of communication and collaboration right now between established European markets and new markets,” Gunnar Herzig told reNEWS. “We would like to bridge that gap.”
The WFO was launched last month as the world’s first industry group with a pure-play focus on offshore wind, not limited to an individual country or region.
Four of its nine founding member companies are German, though Herzig said the WFO was keen to add new participants.
“Ideally we want to find more international members, so we were therefore very happy that Suzlon from India and Northland Power from Canada joined us,” he said. “We don’t want to focus strictly on Europe, let alone Germany.”
Indeed, the WFO has chosen to host its first major annual conference on 5-6 March in Taipei. One large conference would subsequently be held each year, with smaller roundtable events to be held at different locations throughout the year, too.
Herzig hinted that the US could host the WFO’s second big annual shindig in 2020. “We feel that there are so many events going on in places like the UK and Germany that it could be interesting to look at somewhere like California maybe or even Texas,” he said.
The 10th and only non-corporate founder of the WFO is the US Business Network for Offshore Wind, which has over 200 corporate members. “They’re involvement works perfectly for both of us because they would like to connect their members with players around the world,” Herzig said.
“They will promote our events in the US and help us to become more well known there.”
Other founding members include German companies Eom Climate & Renewables, Innogy, EEW Special Pipe Constructions and Marsh, plus Belgium’s DEME, Holland’s Green Giraffe and UK law firm Watson Farley & Williams.