Europe's renewable energy industry, once the sole world leader, is under increasing pressure from competitors from Asia.
Finn Strom Madsen is the top innovation official at Vestas, the world's leading wind power company. Nearly 38,000 Vestas turbines are installed all over the world and the Danish company puts a new one in place every three hours.
Despite the strong numbers, Vestas can't afford to be complacent.
In China, a country that had little renewable industry only a few years ago, competitors are mushrooming.
"Over the past few years, no less than 70 new wind turbine makers formed in China and seven in South Korea," Madsen said last week at the European Patent Forum 2010 in Madrid, a conference focusing on renewable energy innovation organized by the European Patent Office, the European Commission and the Spanish EU presidency.
China last year became the world's largest producer of wind turbines and solar photovoltaic cells.
The country's investments in renewable energy increased to $11.5 billion in 2009 — up from $163 million in 2002. They are forecast to grow to more than $40 billion in 2015.
And it's not only money: Beijing has drafted ambitious clean energy targets and is supporting its green industry with verve.
"China has the world's most modern environmental policy — at least on paper," Katharina Krell, an innovation expert at Greenovate, said at the Madrid conference.
While Europe's wind power companies are still ahead of their Asian competitors, the Chinese solar photovoltaic companies have jumped to the No. 1 spot, followed by companies from Japan, with the Europeans only in third place, Krell said.
German technology giant Siemens, which has a world-leading offshore wind portfolio, is nevertheless confident that it can sustain its market edge.
"It's true that Asia is challenging us but competition is also not to be seen as a bad thing," said Klaus Willnow, a top innovation official at Siemens. "I see it also as a good thing. Competition drives the business."
Madsen says the European renewable energy giants need to bet big now to stay ahead.
"We need to keep on investing, we need to keep on protecting our intellectual property rights and we need to globalize our inventions."
He added the European renewable energy market is almost saturated. His company banks on growth in the United States, India and China, where Vestas wants to beat the new competitors in their own backyard.
"The demand for European technology is as big as it has ever been," he said.
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