Wind Empowerment
Association for the development of locally-built small wind turbines for sustainable rural electrification
Wind Empowerment is a global association for the development of locally-manufactured small wind turbines (SWTs) for sustainable rural electrification. It aims to strengthen the capacity of its members through collaboration and knowledge exchange to promote and support small wind technology as a viable solution for rural electrification.
Wind Empowerment News
WEOnline2020 Conference of the Global Small Wind Network
News from WISIONS posted on October 20th, 2020
The next conference of our partnership network is finally coming soon. The WEOnline2020 Conference will take place now on two weekends in November 2020 (21-22 and 28-29). Despite of the current circumstances the network enables therefore the opportunity for the small wind community to connect and create a space for knowledge exchanges. However, the conference will rather deviate from conventional scientific approaches to a new format. This will take the form of a series of webinar sessions grouped by working groups themes: Education, Technology, Market assessment, Delivery Models and Measurement. Moreover, time will be dedicated to association focused discussions to talk about who we are and reinforce the link between members. One or several “hackathons” could be launched on the first weekend and would run during the in-between week. The results could be presented during the second conference weekend by the different teams. We are looking for hackathons challenges: if you want to propose a challenge, you can do it until November the 8th.
Their discord platform will be the gathering place to chat and take “virtual coffees”, work for hackathons, talk between the sessions, etc.
If you want to stay up to date, subscribe to the we2020 mailing list, visit their website regularly and subscribe to the website news !
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Upcoming Events
The Wind Empowerment 2019-2020 Webinar series will begin soon! Past webinars are available on WE's YouTube channeland on their website.
Introduction
SWTs can offer viable off-grid power solutions where strong wind resources (4–7m/s and higher) are available and evenly distributed throughout the year, or in regions where the combination of small wind technology and solar PV can provide a reliable power supply.
Wind Empowerment was founded in 2011 at the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal. The aim was to bridge the geographical gap between its members by providing a global platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration. It has since consolidated and now represents dozens of member organisations, consisting of wind turbine manufacturers, NGOs, universities, social enterprises, cooperatives, training centres, as well as over 1,000 individual members across the world.Mission & Goals
Wind Empowerment supports the development of locally-built wind turbines for sustainable rural electrification by strengthening the capacity of its members globally through:
- Building and sharing financial and human resource connections
- Performing joint technical research, sharing technical information and collaborating on key vendor relationships
- Strengthening understanding of business and social models for the effective implementation of small wind technology
- Managing projects, offering consultancy services and developing/distributing products in line with the association’s guiding principles
Activities
Wind Empowerment acts as both a central knowledge bank and a facilitator of direct connections between its members (currently 39 organisations).
Conference
Wind Empowerment conferences take place every 2 years and are key in building and maintaining the relationships between individuals and organisations that form the basis of the network. The most recent conference took place in Kayathar and Chennai, India in December 2018. You can find all the outcomes on on Wind Empowerment's Facebook page and on this detailed Review.
The webpage of Wind Empowerment is a rich source of information and serves as an exchange platform for the members, as well as for other people interested in the network and the technology. It covers not only recent news and event information, but also contains a library of resources. In addition, lively dialogue takes place in the discussion forum and the webinars offer background information on relevant current topics.
Six Working Groups (WGs) have been set up to actively address the key barriers facing the development of small wind technology for rural development:
