The future is for renewables and innovative energy solutions. Even the CEO of Chevron now recognises it publicly in large ads in the Financial Times. Wind is showing the route away from the fossil fuel trap, and is fast becoming a major power player in today’s energy markets. Offshore wind is a central part of this future. The reward for going offshore is a greater and more constant wind resource and the potential for constructing wind power plants in sizes and with characteristics comparable to conventional power plants.

Dominique La Fontaine looks at the global energy challenge of our time and the potential role that Australia’s large untapped wind energy resource can play in the clean energy mix. In Australia, climate change is finally being acknowledged by Australian governments, businesses and communities as an issue that needs to be urgently addressed. Perhaps more significantly, the link is now being drawn between Australia’s unrelenting drought and our rising greenhouse gas emissions. Low-emission energy sources are being debated as the only way forward for Australia’s energy future.

As a clean and renewable energy, wind energy has great prospects for exploitation and utilisation, and the technology has been maturing. In recent years, the Chinese wind energy industry has developed rapidly. Wind energy technology and production capability in China have also made great progress. This year, the ‘Renewable Energy Law’ has been enacted, and it will help to promote the development of wind energy in China.