Category: Wind

Quality assessment of wind turbine blades

Morgan Troedsson, Product Manager, FORCE Technology FORCE Technology is among the leading technological consulting and service providers in Scandinavia as well as internationally. Our target is to sell highly specialized engineering know-how for practical and efficient solutions to the wind energy business area… The solutions enhance customer competitiveness and are based on the customer and… Read more »

Prepared for global growth

Recently lauded for investing $10 million and creating 200 jobs over five years in Elberton, Georgia, Hailo LLC is a success story made real. We caught up with CEO Steffen Kosir to find out a little more about the Germany-based organisation that produces climbing and service lift systems for turbines. PES: What is your on-the-ground… Read more »

Industry Insider

A well-known figure within the sector, Mita-Teknik’s Jean Steen Felber is the first of our Insider interviewees. Here, he gives us an exclusive account of the Danish company and its future ambitions, as well as outlining his own background and goals. PES: Welcome to PES magazine, can you firstly explain a little about your role,… Read more »

Last word

In recent years, the North American wind industry has been somewhat isolated and – dare we say it – a pace behind regions such as Europe. However, this has all now changed, and last year marked a watershed year that catapulted the continent right into the heart of the industry. There have been ups, there… Read more »

The recovery starts here

With investments set to total $145 BILLION by 2017, our domestic industry has just been catapulted into the global big league. We investigate the cash windfall, examine which sectors and ancillary industries will benefit most, and ask if it can even kick-start the entire economy…? While the financial crisis of 2008-2009 and the recession had… Read more »

Great at control

With more than 40 years of experience, and a market-leading position in their field, Mita-Teknik is a Danish family-run business that has gone global, bringing innovative systems and a local approach to the worldwide wind market. Mita-Teknik has been developing control system solutions since 1969 and now employs around 230 people worldwide. With divisions in… Read more »

Midwestern meeting

Transmission is hot topic at wind seminar The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) recently kicked off its Wind Power Transmission Seminar in Indianapolis, Ind. at the hub of one of America’s fastest growing states for wind power. Indiana increased its installed wind power tenfold over the past two years. Meanwhile, wind manufacturing is powering as… Read more »

Making the wind energy world smaller

A valued and regular contributor to PES, Rickmers-Linie provides a worldwide network of liner services for the transportation of breakbulk, heavylift and project cargoes – including, increasingly, wind turbines. We talked to Gerhard Janssen, Director Marketing & Sales about the company’s continued expansion into North America, additions to the fleet, and future growth. PES: Welcome… Read more »

The big debate

Once again, we’ve invited a selection of the continent’s leading wind power ambassadors to debate the issues of the day at length. Their answers may differ, but rest assured that you’re getting the very best analysis that the industry can provide. Contributors David AhlerNational Sales Manager, Semikron Blair LoftisVice President, global director – renewable energy,… Read more »

Aluminum extrusions: enabling stronger more efficient structures in wind turbines

To date in the wind industry, steel and fiberglass structures have been the most commonly used materials. However, extruded aluminum structures offer a huge potential in offering strong but lightweight corrosion-resistant structures, capable of solving some of the wind turbines industries design challenges. As with any material we will first discuss the advantages of the… Read more »

Are tooling assets really worth managing?

The simple answer is yes, argues John Tremblay, Wind Energy Segment Manager for Snap-on Industrial… Conventional wisdom within the wind energy sector says that millions of dollars in tool assets are lost each year. In addition, the hidden or less obvious results of poor tool management may actually have a greater impact on the bottom… Read more »

Community wind power: a vision of the future?

John Mitola, President of community-based development leader Juhl Wind Inc. speaks to PES about the future for both the community-based sector the wider industry. He shares his views on the problems facing wind power, and how community-scale projects can avoid some of the issues hampering future development. One common trait all of us in the… Read more »

Driving offshore

Given the challenges of building a wind farm offshore, and the ongoing difficulties posed by maintaining turbines in the tough marine environments, PES looks at how medium voltage equipment is being adapted and developed to meet increasingly high requirements. Growth of installed wind power capacity by year (figure1) The expected expansion of wind power, along… Read more »

Tentec Announces New Distributor in New Zealand for Bolt Tensioning Equipment

Tentec is pleased to announce the appointment of HTC Specialised Tooling Ltd as a distributor of its bolt tensioning equipment for wind turbines in New Zealand. With its HQ in Auckland, the company supplies a comprehensive range of high-force hydraulic tools and related equipment for sale and hire and also offers maintenance and calibration services…. Read more »

HELUKABEL USA to Showcase Wind Turbine Cable Capabilities at WINDPOWER 2012

HELUKABEL® USA will be attending this year’s WINDPOWER Conference and Exhibition in Atlanta, GA (booth #1837) on June 3 – 6, and showcasing its vast array of high-performance wind cables and accessories that equip the entire turbine from rotor tip to tower base. WINDPOWER 2012 is the largest, annual wind-focused exhibition in the world –… Read more »

Moventas Wins 80m Contract To Supply New 5mw Offshore Wind Gears To Areva

Moventas continues to strengthen its offshore capability with its 5MW medium speed wind gear. In the beginning of May, Moventas delivered two 5MW offshore wind gears to AREVA Wind. The two companies have signed an 80 million euro agreement on future deliveries. After approximately one year of testing, Moventas and AREVA Wind, subsidiary of the… Read more »

AMSC Receives 100 MW Wind Turbine Electrical Control System Order from Inox Wind

AMSC (NASDAQ: AMSC), a global solutions provider serving wind and grid leaders, today announced that Inox Wind Limited, part of India’s Inox Group of Companies, placed a follow-on order for 50 of AMSC’s electrical control systems (ECS) for Inox’s 2 megawatt (MW) wind turbines. AMSC expects to ship all of these systems to Inox in… Read more »

SOLON receives order for 1.6 MW roof-mounted system in Berlin

SOLON Energy GmbH is building a 1.6 MW photovoltaic system on five roofs of the Berliner Großmarkt wholesale market. For this order by the Berliner Energieagentur (Energy Agency), SOLON is using the three systems SOLON SOLfixx, SOLON SOLbond Seam and SOLON SOlbond Rail. The power plant covering the same surface area as six soccer fields… Read more »

Natural Power achieves EIA success on single largest consent in England and Wales for Vattenfall

Natural Power achieves EIA success on single largest consent in England and Wales, taking their client consented portfolio onshore to over 1GW, with the 299MW Pen Y Cymoedd wind farm, on behalf of Vattenfall May 2012 Leading International renewable energy consultancy group Natural Power completed the full Environmental Impact Assessment, as well as providing technical… Read more »

WINDPOWER 2012 first North American event to be labelled WindMade

Washington/Brussels. The American Wind Energy Association’s WINDPOWER 2012 Conference & Exhibition in Atlanta, June 3-6, will be the first North American event ever to earn WindMade’s designation as 100 percent powered by wind energy. “Wind power already provides approximately 20 percent of electricity in places like Iowa and South Dakota-and now, thanks to WindMade, WINDPOWER… Read more »

Experienced teams more likely to bring funds for offshore wind projects

42% of participants in a survey conducted by Wind Energy Update on offshore wind investment and finance named “experience of the team” as the primary feature to raise capital for current offshore wind projects “Experience of the team” was recently named as the principal trait to accumulate capital for current offshore wind projects as found… Read more »

SGS Attends RenewableUK Global Offshore Wind 2012 in London, UK

On June 13-14, 2012, SGS will be attending the 11th RenewableUK Global Offshore Wind 2012 Conference and Exhibition in London, UK. At stand 545, SGS’s team of experts will demonstrate a wide portfolio of renewable energy services for the entire project life cycle, including but not limited to commissioning, in-service and end of warranty inspections,… Read more »

SOLON sells 10 MW Solar Array in Arizona/US

Duke Energy Renewables Acquires Arizona Solar Farm from SOLON Corporation Duke Energy Renewables has acquired a 10-megawatt (MW) utility-scale solar project near Kingman, Ariz., from SOLON Corp. The Black Mountain Solar Project under construction in Mohave County is expected to achieve commercial operation in October of this year. UniSource Energy Services (UES) will purchase the… Read more »

The Ideal Platform for Project Presentation

Everyone who’s anyone in the renewable energy market will come together again this year at New Energy Partnering Congress. At this high-quality B2B event, utilities, banks, investment firms, pension funds and insurance companies from across Europe will be on the lookout for interesting investment opportunities. Developers will have the chance to make their wind, solar… Read more »

wpd wins French offshore projects

A European consortium including wpd reached an important success as the results of the French offshore tender now have been released: With the wpd projects Courseulles-sur-Mer and Fécamp the bidding consortium including EDF, Alstom, DONG Energy and wpd were able to secure projects on a scale of some 1,000 MW. As a result wpd is… Read more »

Wind energy sector growing over twice as fast as EU economy

The wind energy industry increased its contribution to the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 33% between 2007 and 2010. In 2010, the industry’s growth was twice that of the EU’s GDP overall, with the sector contributing 32 billion Euros to an EU economy in slowdown. Key figures from ‘Green Growth’ report released today by… Read more »

Sinovel Wind Group and Mita-Teknik announces large-scale cooperation at joint press conference on EWEA 2012 in Copenhagen

Sinovel and Mita-Teknik has entered into an agreement under which Sinovel purchases PLCs and software from Mita-Teknik, and the two companies will work together to develop customized control systems to serve their clients worldwide with the best products and solutions. In a close cooperation between the two companies, Sinovel and Mita-Teknik have developed a customized… Read more »

SGS Successfully Completes In-Service Inspection of Dahao and Chaonan Wind Farms in Guangdong, China

SGS is pleased to announce that the company has successfully completed in-service inspection of 50 wind turbines at the Dahao and Chaonan wind farms for China Resources New Energy Group Co., Ltd in Guangdong, China. One of the major concerns in wind farm projects is the reliability of the wind farm turbine, a highly critical… Read more »

SPX HT at EWEA 2012 – hydraulic

SPX Hydraulic Technologies, part of SPX Corporation, is a global manufacturer of high- performance systems in the hydraulic energy and railway sectors, such as high pressure cylinders and jacks, pumps, torque wrenches, bolt-tensioners, nut splitters, work holding and railway track systems. Leading product brands are: – POWER TEAM: Brand solutions including tools, equipments and a… Read more »

20/20 vision for offshore

With strong long term growth forecasted, PES takes a look at what the next 20 years holds for offshore, and the future requirements of an industry on the up. Between 2020 and 2030 a further 110 GW of offshore wind capacity is expected to be added in European waters. 150 GW of wind power would… Read more »

Meeting design challenges in turbines

For the wind industry, aluminium profiles have not been a preferred material so far – steel and Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastics (GRP) are most commonly used. For many design departments, aluminium profiles are either too unknown to incorporate in daily design work, thought to be too weak, too expensive, or too corrosion-sensitive in an untreated… Read more »

Addressing every aspect of offshore

Words: Jan-Hein Reeringh, Damen Shipyards Group As Europe strives to reach its ambitious 2020 renewable energy targets and with the trend for offshore wind farms to move into deeper and more challenging waters further from the shore – using bigger turbines and foundations – Damen Shipyards is making sure it is developing innovative solutions to… Read more »