Ep261: How Wind Energy Overtook Nuclear

Henrik Andersen, CEO of Vestas, joins Michael on Cleaning Up

Inside a Vestas wind turbine. Image: Vestas.

Today, wind power accounts for just under 10% of all electricity globally, around the same as solar, and recently overtaking nuclear power. 20 years ago, the figure was under 1%.

In that time, the sector’s leadership has moved from Europe to the US to Asia, but one specialist European manufacturer has stayed in the leading group throughout: Vestas — a member of the global wind energy aristocracy.

This week on Cleaning Up, Michael Liebreich is joined by Henrik Andersen, CEO of Vestas, to discuss the extraordinary growth in the wind energy industry, the challenges it faces with rising interest rates and geopolitical hostilities, and where the wind energy industry goes from here.

Together they do some myth-busting and answer:

• If wind energy is so great, why does it need subsidies?

• Is wind pointless because it’s intermittent?

• Are turbines killing all the birds?

• Is it really clean if it’s made using coal?

• What happens to the turbines at the end of their lives?

Watch the full episode now on YouTube, or find it on your favourite podcast platform.