AWEA 2011: what to expect?

This week is a little different. We’ve taken a trip across the Atlantic, to report direct from Windpower Expo in California.

With the US domestic market still showing strong signs of growth, an opportunity to gauge the state of the North American wind energy market was too tempting an offer to overlook. And with good reason.

After all, while Europe steams ahead in taking wind energy offshore, the US retains its position as the most established onshore market in the world.

So why attend? Well, for the exhibitors and delegates, it’s a chance to come together under one (giant…) roof and tout their wares, talk up the latest service innovations and flex some corporate muscle.

For the media, it’s a chance once more to sift through the sales and marketing hype (200 press releases received in 7 days and we’re still counting…) and unearth what the industry is really talking about.

But I think there’s another reason why this year the event has proved more popular than ever.

To belong, to connect and to feel an all-important sense of community. As a disparate and widely dispersed group of professionals, it’s all too easy to forget why we’re doing this. And to forget both the challenges and troubles that working in this sector brings.

At the conference this week, it’s a chance to set these worries to one side, to reconnect and to remember that we’re not in this on our own. Drop me a note if you’d like to meet up.