Ignacio Marti has been elected as chairman of the executive committee of the International Energy Agency Wind Energy Group.
Marti, a director of Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, is joined by newly-elected vice chairman Dr Stephan Barth a director of the ForWind Center in Germany and John McCann from Ireland and Brian Smith from the US, both re-elected as vice chairmen.
IEA Wind is a global network of researchers and policy experts that look at how to advance the development of wind energy across the 24 countries that are part of the group.
The experts form 15 working groups, pool research and development, the latest working practices and technologies and conduct deployment research tasks.
Outgoing chairman Jim Ahlgrimm, from the wind and water technologies programme at the US Department of Energy said: “The member countries of the IEA Wind Energy Group are world leaders in wind deployment and represent 85% of the world’s installed wind capacity.
“R&D collaboration among IEA Wind member countries has played a major role in addressing the most difficult to solve wind technology challenges; and collaboration will continue to be important as future challenges are identified and addressed.”
New IEA Wind chairman Ignacio Marti said: “This is a critical time for the development of the global wind industry and I am determined that IEA Wind continues to have a hugely significant role in driving forward its further development.
“Major international collaborative research and development programmes and activities are more essential than ever to advance wind energy’s vital contribution to global energy security.”
Image: German wind farm (Nordex)
