When we look 10 or 20 years ahead, we're talking about a 40 percent increase in demand for electricity. If we're talking about finding clean energy from nature, the answer is blowing in the wind. CGTN BizTalk meets Henrik Andersen, CEO of the Danish energy giant Vestas.

"Even if you're not a climate believer, you can invest properly in some of the energy sources at a price that doesn't increase your cost… If you're wrong, you've still done the right things for the generations to come," the CEO told CGTN. 

Wind power is a huge industry both in scale and its facilities, and Vestas is the world's largest wind turbine supplier in the industry. In 2018, it generated 20.3 percent of the total wind turbines capacity of 50,617 megawatts, according to the annual Global Wind Market Development report, released by the Global Wind Energy Council. 

Data from the World Wind Energy Association shows that China is the largest wind power market globally and has become the first country with an installed wind power capacity of more than 200 gigawatts. The Danish company installed China's earliest wind turbines in 1986 and launched its largest production base for wind power equipment in the mid-2000s.

Now, the company has four factories in China that not only supply the China market but also other regions. "Factories are very close to our suppliers. It gives us speed and agility to follow the market trends no matter where we are," Thomas Keller, the company's China President said.

However, overall foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) only make up five percent of this very large market. Andersen believes China's market structure would not change in the short term, while the shift to a new parity system might foster long-term thinking. 

Aside from becoming bigger and taller, wind turbines are also evolving through digitalization. Modern wind farms generally are sited in remote locations, but digitalization allows turbines to be remotely monitored and maintained; operations data can then be fed into the smart grid.  

Vestas' converter factory in Tianjin, for example, is at the forefront of the company's digitalization drive. Its CEO believes digitization helps customers manage assets and predict returns. "So, you can actually be part of increasing your return on your own assets by using some of the digital solutions in place in the future," he said. 

This is just a snippet of CGTN's conversation with Henrik Andersen, CEO of Vestas. BizTalk is a 30-minute business interview show that airs on Saturdays from 4:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. BJT and rebroadcasts throughout the weekend. The show is also posted on social media platforms, including Facebook and YouTube.