By Thomas Miner
January 18, 2011 – The World Wildlife Fund, Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas, and others are supporting the creation of a new industry certification, dubbed “WindMade,” which will be affixed to products made using wind power as a way to drive consumer knowledge of wind energy and accelerate industry development.
While a technical group representing the industry has not yet decided the details of how the label would work, they do know that producers would have to pass a test confirming their use of wind power to manufacture product.
The major selling point of the new label will be the possibility of manufacturers earning a price premium over competing products. The group believes that products with the “WindMade” label will have the ability to charge a price premium for their products versus competing products, much like certified organic foods have been able to do versus conventional foods.
Vestas CEO Ditlev Engel told Reuters: “We hope that this will create a strong element of consumer pull, which will accelerate the pace of wind energy development globally.”
How the label works in reality is yet to be seen. Will consumers get on board and reward products for using wind energy, or are they out of bandwidth to decipher yet another ecolabel adorning their favorite products?