COP18 (05/12/12) – Stefan Gsänger, Secretary General at the World Wind Energy Association talks about the difficulties currently facing the wind industry globally.

He says that the industry is currently in a difficult situation with his organisation’s latest half year figures showing a 10% drop on 2011. He says there is currently more capacity than the market is able to absorb.

He says this is partly due to market uncertainties in some of the industry’s main countries including the US and Spain. He says new markets are developing but that they need time to grow.

He talks about the difficulty of connecting wind to existing grids. He says it is simpler in the developing world where much of these electricity grids are still being built and can be designed to fit renewables, but harder in industrialised countries where the grids are made for more centralised energy systems.