Wind power sweeps over party lines, says industry

Wind power is catching on and blowing across political lines — or at least that's what the wind energy industry hopes. 

The Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) annual conference and exhibition kicked off on Oct. 23 in Calgary and will run until the 25th. The gathering is considered the single biggest wind energy event in Canada, according to Robert Hornung, the association's president. 

There are about 1,300 attendees and 130 exhibitors.

Wind a partisan issue

"The challenge always is how can we grow our market that much further," Hornung said. "Wind has been the largest source of new electricity generation in Canada for the last decade. And we want to see that trend continue going forward."

He said Canada is the ninth largest wind energy producer in the world and the industry has seen tremendous growth from what he's seen in the last 15 years.

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Hornung said there's always a danger that wind can become a partisan issue, where people with different political stripes might take different views on the role of renewable energy. In the U.S., he said those types of partisan views are declining.

'We can work with all parties'

"Clean energy overall, is something that everyone can get behind," he said. "We just want to continue to foster that because we think as long as we can present ourselves as a nonpartisan issue, we can work with all parties, then to move forward and grow this industry."

Hornung said CanwWEA sees a similar trend in Canada — looking at the Saskatchewan Party and Alberta NDP, Hornung argues the ideological opposites are both strong wind energy supporters. 

Jason Saine, a state representative from North Carolina spoke at the conference, telling the audience about why conservatives can get behind wind energy.

We love innovation. Low cost, and clean — we love non-pollutants.- Jason Saine

"We love innovation," Saine said. "Low cost, and clean — we love non-pollutants."

He says the trick is to talk dollar and the clean energy technology makes sense to conservative voters.

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With files from Andrew Brown