WindEnergy Hamburg 2026 live

Ian Griggs (0:04)

Hello, I'm Ian Griggs, editor of Windpower Monthly. Welcome to a special edition of the Windpower podcast, recorded live from the conference floor of the WindEnergy Hamburg Conference. I spoke to delegates about what they've learned from the conference so far and why they decided to join the wind industry in the first place.

So please could you tell us your name, your job title and the company you work for?

Joyce Lee (0:32)

Sure. My name is Joyce Lee. I work at the Global Wind Energy Council or GWEC, and I work as the director of programs and partnerships.

Ian Griggs (0:39)

Fantastic to meet you, Joyce. Please tell us what you have learned from the WindEnergy Hamburg Conference so far and please don't hold back.

Joyce Lee (0:48)

Well, look, a lot has been said in these panels around the need for demand signals to help to improve supply chain scale up, the need for cost efficiencies with the industry working together in a more coordinated way, two-sided CFDs and so on. But I think one of my big takeaways from this conference is we need more women speakers to come deliver these insights, deliver the intelligence and demonstrate that the wind sector is not just the faces that we see dominating the seven stages across the conference, but that really there's a lot of smart, insightful, brilliant women leaders that we have working in our industry today across the whole value chain, from the O&M phase to the finance and legal phases. And we need these voices to come out and demonstrate how diverse and what a compelling value proposition the wind sector offers to societies, because that diversity is there, but we're not seeing it brought out on stages here.

Ian Griggs (1:45)

Joyce, I couldn't agree more, as a journalist, we're seeing exactly the same thing. Let me just follow up with one last thing. So tell us why you got into the wind industry in the first place. What was your motivation?

Joyce Lee (2:04)

I'm a recovering consultant and I've never looked back. Every day is fun. Every day feels like I'm creating something meaningful and delivering value to the world around us.

Ian Griggs (2:15)

Joyce, thank you so much for talking to us. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Please could you tell me your name, your job title and the company you work for.

Tom (2:28)

My name is Tom. I'm from China.

Our company name is Xin Hong Manufacturing Equipment Company. We are located in Dalian, which is a very beautiful city.

Ian Griggs (2:38)

What's your actual job? What do you do?

Tom (2:40)

I'm a sales director. We do the tower flanges for the wind turbines.

Ian Griggs (2:46)

Okay, fantastic. And tell me, what's the most important thing you've learned from the WindEnergy Hamburg Conference so far?

Tom (2:53)

I mean, this market is getting tougher and tougher as time grows. So the government is more strict, and also some policy will make it tougher to get Western and Eastern to unite.

But now, as we get into this business for a while, we pivot our business from China domestic market to European market five years ago. So we grow business with Vestas, Semescom, Esa, General Electric. This is our major customers. We build a long-term relationship, which is, I think, the most important is to cooperate. I see more and more Chinese customers come here, which will cause panic, because a lot of OEMs come here.

I think sometimes we will find a better way to just collaborate, not to kill each other.

Ian Griggs (3:52)

I couldn't agree more. That's a really good take.

Finally, can I just ask you, Tom, why did you join the wind industry in the first place? You could have probably done all kinds of other things. Why did you join this industry?

Tom (4:03)

At the first place, we were trying to do something meaningful. Actually, in China, we are a big country with large populations. When we study at the primary schools, we learn about the coal, the oil. You can't get it back. Yes.

When I got the job offer in our company, it's a renewable energy.

And you can see China is doing a great job in the last few years. Now, the renewable energy, the solar energy and the wind energy occupies the percentage. Already, the past is traditional.

Ian Griggs (4:43)

Yeah.

Tom (4:44)

So I think it benefits everyone. Yeah.

Ian Griggs (4:47)

Thank you so much for talking to us. Thank you.

Anik (4:49)

Yeah.

Tom (4:50)

It's nice talking to you.

Ian Griggs (4:57)

First of all, please could you tell me your name, what you're studying and where you're studying it.