Attention: Chinese wind power manufacturers! We know that you are eyeing the West. Speaking last week to a house full of Chinese business and trade journalists at The Switch media business luncheon in Beijing, Celia Sun from MAKE consulting company listed a few approaches and risks you may want to consider when entering new markets.

According to MAKE’s Chief Representative in China, regulatory and technical barriers in mature markets may become a hindrance to the overseas business development plans of Chinese companies. To a large extent, this is true. However, as we at The Switch know very well, some of the Chinese wind turbines are already ‘powered by’ Western technologies, such as The Switch’s permanent-magnet generators and full-power converters.

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“Industry observers predict China will be a net importer of rare earth materials by the year 2015. These observers believe China will not be able to supply even their own rare earth requirements for Clean Energy. Non-Chinese participants need to realize that all the stakeholders outside of China need to cooperate with one another to create those supply chains that can be globally competitive and diverse”, said Keith Delaney, Executive Director of REITA, Rare Earth Industry and Technology Association.

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For the third time, The Switch took part in the EWEA wind power exhibition which brought over 8000 professionals last week to Brussels, Belgium. True to The Switch permanent magnet generator technology solutions, we discussed our offering with many of our booth visitors, and, once again, it became obvious that permanent magnet generator technology has really become the preferred choice for the wind power industry.

And if EWEA 2011 was the global water cooler of our industry, our revolutionary power train solution, FusionDrive™, successfully launched last September at the Husum Wind Energy 2010 with Moventas, seems to have become a top trending topic.

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Competition in the global wind market has never been greater. Therefore, the Danish wind industry is aware that new technology development is more important than ever. Also at the governmental level, there is a common interest to secure Danish workplaces and Danish exports.

After last year’s shocking staff reductions at Vestas, the Danish government presented a proposal for a future New Energy policy that represents a long trail towards 2050 and comes with a number of concrete initiatives for 2020. The proposals have been received with praise in the wind industry.

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