WAB (association)
| WAB eV | |
|---|---|
|
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| purpose | Wind energy industry association |
| Chair: | Irina Lucke (Chair), Jens Assheuer (Deputy Chair) |
| Establishment date: | 2002 |
| Number of members: | about 300 |
| Seat : | Bremerhaven |
| Website: | www.wab.net |
The WAB eV association represents the interests of the wind energy industry in northwest Germany and is the nationwide contact for the offshore wind industry. The association includes companies and institutes from the offshore wind industry. The WAB office is based in Bremerhaven . The board is responsible for the strategic direction of the association.
Tasks and activities
The association's work consists of the promotion of cooperation, internationalization, innovation and qualification within the wind industry. The WAB takes a position on legislative initiatives and represents the interests of members in relation to politics.
The association helps its members by organizing international study trips, trade fair visits and joint stands at national and international trade fairs. The WAB promotes qualification in the wind industry by offering workshops and seminars. Together with the ForWind research center , it organizes the advanced course “Wind Energy Technology and Management” as well as the world's first part-time “Offshore Wind Course”. The WAB encourages cooperation within the wind energy industry.
The association also organizes the international WINDFORCE Conference in Bremerhaven once a year and the WINDFORCE Baltic Sea every two years . As part of the WINDFORCE Conference, WAB publishes the current industry figures at a press conference.
The association regularly publishes a free newsletter with information on wind energy in the northwest and offshore wind energy worldwide.
The association has various working groups. These are partly divided into further specialist groups.
history
The association was founded in 2002 under the name Offshore Windenergie-Agentur Bremerhaven / Bremen eV by 18 members. The number of members grew to over 200 by 2007. A separate project company was founded in 2009 with the company germanwind GmbH . Over time, the network grew to around 400 members at the end of 2012. WAB now represents companies far beyond the north-west region. In order to emphasize this supra-regional focus, the members decided at the annual general meeting to delete the addition “Bremerhaven / Bremen” from the name. WAB had an office in Berlin until 2018.
State funding
The WAB was funded by the state of Bremen from 2002 to 2013 with a total of around 2.155 million euros and also received EU funding of 855,000 euros in the same period.