The conference will be chaired by EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.

EWEC 2008 will play a key role in providing input to the forthcoming legislation on renewables. The importance of wind energy – as the most developed renewable energy source – to achieving the 20% target cannot be underestimated. If wind power is to provide 12% of electricity by 2020, a range of barriers will have to be comprehensively addressed by all stakeholders. These include infrastructure constraints, costs, off shore developments, legislative and administrative burdens, research and innovation, public acceptance and supply chain issues.

There are big steps to be taken, and they cannot be taken alone. Such obstacles cannot be overcome by isolated actions or individual actors, but must be tackled by working together – across state boundaries, sectoral divisions and political ideologies. The target has been set: now the time has come for concerted action.

 - Arthouros Zervos, President, European Wind Energy Association (EWEA)