Wind Power

The threat of cyber attacks on the wind industry’s remote control systems for turbines and other equipment is all too real and it is growing by the day, with potentially disastrous consequences for companies which do not understand the dangers they face. As the industry becomes increasingly reliant on remote systems to control the operations of offshore wind farms, the so-called ‘attack surface’ g...

Last year Europe as a whole commissioned 19.1GW of new wind power capacity (16.7GW for EU-27 member states), according to WindEurope, up 4% (40% for the EU-27 states) from the previous year. That takes Europe’s operational wind power capacity past the 250GW mark but still falls well short of what’s needed to hit climate and energy goals. From the perennial problem of long waits for permits and gri...

Speaking ahead of the start of the WindEurope conference in Copenhagen next Tuesday (25 April) Sven Utermöhlen - chair of the trade group and chief executive of offshore wind for RWE - discusses the EU’s package of measures to stimulate the wind industry. Last month, the European Commission proposed a package of measures which, if enacted, could help boost the fortunes of the wind industry in memb...

Elizabeth Klein, the new chief at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), discusses the route ahead for offshore wind in the US. Klein was appointed as the new director of BOEM in January and has been a member of Biden’s administration since it took office, initially serving as senior counsellor to US secretary of the interior Deb Haaland. She has also served two previous presidents and was...

Turbine blades represent up to a third of the cost of a wind turbine but they do not yet benefit from the sophistication of sensor technology which exists in its other components, so are they the poor relation? The evidence is that, as blades get larger, issues such as leading edge erosion – and its cumulative effect on annual energy production – will get worse and other types of repairs more freq...

Experts from the Renewable Hydrogen Coalition, DNV and Bellona discuss green hydrogen’s potential as a component of the renewable energy transition. Green hydrogen has the potential to decarbonize the industry sectors that will be hardest to electrify in the coming energy transition to a renewables based energy system. But what is the best way to achieve that goal? What obstacles lie in its way? A...

Anders Nielsen, chief technology officer for the turbine manufacturer Vestas, discusses why the race for the biggest turbine has to stop. In the seventh episode of the Wind Power podcast, Ian Griggs, deputy editor of Windpower Monthly, had a wide-ranging discussion with Nielsen about the current health of the turbine industry. Subjects on the agenda included how keep the whole wind industry supply...

In the sixth episode of the Wind Power podcast, Claire Warren, editor of Windpower Monthly, is joined by Jonathan Cole, CEO of Corio Generation, Vicky O'Connor, technical manager for development in Europe at Northland Power, and Pablo Necochea, lead advisor for the floating segment at Vestas. Floating offshore wind offers enormous potential for countries, particularly those whose coastal wate...

In the fifth episode of the Wind Power podcast, Ian Griggs, deputy editor of Windpower Monthly, had a wide-ranging conversation with Backwell which included how the wind industry should respond to the ongoing energy crisis. Also up for discussion was the subject of how to attract and retain the expanded – and skilled - workforce the industry desperately needs in order to achieve ambitious deployme...

Industry specialists discuss how a raft of new policy measures from the German government could ramp up its onshore wind industry. The German government looks set to pass a range of measures which could drastically cut permitting times for new onshore wind farms and repowering existing ones. There are also plans to restructure its grid. Slashing permitting times for new onshore wind farms from the...

The US offshore wind industry has reached a pivotal moment, with a favourable policy announcement from the Biden administration which could transform the fortunes of its nascent supply chain. Everything from a skilled workforce to meet the growing needs of the industry, through to critical infrastructure and the construction of wind turbine installation vessels could be enhanced by the measures –...

The tragic war in Ukraine has claimed thousands of lives, driven millions from their homes and destroyed vital infrastructure. But amid the daily cost in human suffering, there is also a feeling in Europe that the war has achieved what the slower moving crisis of climate change could not, by galvanising policymakers towards a swifter transition to renewable energy. But is this a moment in time? Or...

We are at a pivotal moment for European wind power. The climate crisis and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have left no one in any doubt about the need to roll out renewable energy as fast as possible. The EU wants to end Russian energy imports by 2030 and expand wind energy from 190GW today to 480GW by 2030. But is it a realistic goal, given the challenges facing the wind industry?  Giles Dicks...