The International Resource Journal: Irish Wind Energy Association

Irish Wind Energy Association
================================================================================
admin on 06 August, 2009 02:13:00
 
“There’s been an awful lot of work and debate over the last four or
five years in Ireland about what our energy policy for 2020 would be and we have
come up with a fairly sound policy which has been broadly agreed and
well-debated” Irish Wind Energy Association CEO Michael Walsh says.
“What we really think is important now is to take certain steps to
implement that and deliver on that. It’s not a time to be debating where
we should be in 2020, it’s time to go and follow through on what
we’ve already debated and make it happen. Now it’s time to begin
looking at where we see ourselves going after 2020, perhaps where we will be by
2030.”
The Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) began as a charity “to promote
the industry in Ireland and it was a sort of a voluntary basis for public
awareness and education and those sorts of activities” Walsh says.
“As the sector became much more active and we began getting much more
involved in commercial activities we set up a company to manage them.”
Today the IWEA offers clear information on what their activities are, many of
which target policy development, governmental proposals and, stemming back to
their charitable beginnings, raising awareness of wind power potential in
Ireland.
Their charitable and commercial arms complement each other well in this.
“On a day to day basis we run these as one but there are certain areas
within public awareness for example where the charity would be used” Walsh
says.
So how does the IWEA go about the monumental task of encouraging, shaping and
aiding the development and education of wind power in Ireland as we rapidly
approach 2020?
THE FLOW OF INFORMATION
The IWEA appreciates that communication is key, particularly when you are
consulting with such a wide range of unique member companies, individuals and
government too. They endeavour to reach a broad spectrum and refrain from firing
out “rash or short-term policy.”
“Instead we try to think further and work with communities to look for
exactly what it is that our members are interested in. We try to do this is such
a way that everything is clear and well-documented so we know exactly what our
positions on issues are” Walsh explains.
“We’re not thinking on our feet. We’re very clear on what it
is we’re looking to do and what the important objectives are amongst our
members.”
Walsh is equally clear on how they go about doing so.
“We have a good idea of who our key stakeholders are; who the people that
we need to influence are. And we probably have six or seven main ones which we
interact quite frequently with and they would include the system operators, the
network owners and the regulators – people at those companies are the real
main policy-makers in the area” he says.
Yet the IWEA remain flexible in their approach and open to the information their
partners might provide for them.
“If they have different or conflicting ideas coming out then we try and
understand what they might be so we can try to counteract those or see if
there’s something there which we haven’t thought of but might need
to work on” Walsh says.
It is clear that the flow of communications both to and from the association is
an essential balance to strike.
“We also do various other things too. We work with the media to try and
get our message out there more which just creates an environment where people
care more amenable to work towards our policy decisions” Walsh says.
“About two weeks ago we released a report on the potential job’s
creation within the Irish wind industry and that’s quite useful in making
the case for what the benefits are going forward with our policy position and
quantifying it. Rather than saying “look, this industry can create loads
of jobs” we actually flesh it out by saying how many jobs, what sort of
jobs they might be and things like that.”
FOCUSES FOR 2009
Amongst their various involvements this year, the IWEA have considered the
importance of public awareness and understanding.
“It’s very important. We did a look at the start of the year at what
things we needed to be working on and getting more general awareness and
community acceptance is one of the key things we identified. Micro-generation is
obviously one of the things that there is an awful lot of interest in developing
to we’ve actually gone and tried to understand what is required and put
that together” Walsh says.
“A lot of people are really struggling to get to grips with what paper
work they need to do, who needs to do what, and who to contact over
opportunities so we’ve tried to put together a one-stop-shop.”
The IWEA have agreed to partner with The Green Schools Program in order to help
schools achieve the various flag awards on offer.
“A lot of schools are keen to get these flags so we’re going to show
them and say “well here’s some things that you can do. Maybe
there’s a wind farm in Mayo that’s keen to get visitors so we can
set that up and you can get the green flag.” It gives us access to a large
section of the community but it also allows us to do something constructive and
let people get involved” Walsh explains.
Another subject of note is the recent offshore wind farm developments made in
Ireland, particularly around the east coast.
“The east coast is the area most-suitable for wide-scale development and
there are a couple of projects looking off the west coast as well but
that’s a different environment for development with slightly wilder seas.
At the moment there’s plans for over 2GW of offshore wind in Ireland so
there’s really a lot of potential. There’s a few policy issues which
are just getting the finishing touches done at the moment” Walsh says.
The IWEA’s interest in the development of new technologies taking place
amongst their members offers another avenue of great potential for Ireland and
beyond.
“We’ve got a lot of members that are getting involved in new
technology and I think the real opportunity for us here in Ireland is that if we
can get these things working and implemented here it can give these companies a
lot of opportunities to go and develop business abroad” he says.
Whether it is IWEA members, potential partnerships, schools, government or the
individual interested member of the public, the IWEA are poised to provide the
information and assistance needed by each party.
“What we try and do is to improve that communication and say “these
are the sort of things that can be done and this is the sort of company that can
do it” and to try to actually facilitate the ideas  to move development
forward” Walsh says in example.
With the IWEA providing the “one-stop shop” for Ireland’s wind
energy information, issues and answers, the country looks set for a very
exciting 2020 and beyond.