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 »
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 »
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 »
Known globally as an oil and gas giant, Oklahoma is rapidly diversifying its power portfolio and is quickly becoming known as one of the wind industry’s main markets in North America. With over 3,000 MW of wind generation currently in operation or under construction, the state is fast becoming one of the wind energy leaders… Read more »
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 »
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 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 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 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 (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 »
Siemens has received an order for a total of 50 wind turbines with a combined capacity of 115 megawatts (MW) for the El Arrayán wind power plant in Chile. This wind project will be developed as a joint venture between Pattern Energy and AEI. Furthermore, the mining division of Antofagasta plc, which is the parent… Read more »
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, 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
During the the last few months the Evance R9000 small wind turbine has undergone further tests which have confirmed its energy generation has increased by over 4% to 9,167kWh at a wind speed of 5 metres per second. The R9000 5kW turbine was one of the first small wind turbines to be fully certified under… Read more »
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 »
The global wind industry will install more than 46 GW of new wind energy capacity in 2012, according to a five-year industry forecast published today by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) at the EWEA 2012 Conference at Bella Center in Copenhagen. By the end of 2016, total global wind power capacity will be just… Read more »
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 »
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 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 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 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
The initial draft of the European Commission working paper is finally here, having been recently ratified in Brussels. And while the finer points that are to be rolled-out are yet to be determined (following the Copenhagen and Cancun meetings), the broad brushstrokes are in place. Here we present an exclusive Q&A from the Commission’s Ad… Read more »
Onshore and offshore wind farms may represent the vast majority of wind produced energy, but a number of initiatives around the world are examining the potential of high-altitude solutions to global energy concerns. PES takes a look at the innovative ideas… The problem of sustainable energy generation is one of the most urgent challenges that… Read more »
Interesting. That’s one word we could use to describe the industry in the last few months – booming in one regard, yet plummeting in another. And to get a good idea of what’s going on, you’d have to speak to a wide range of experts from a broad array of sectors… just like we’ve done… Read more »
As the credit crunch in Europe morphs into a sovereign debt crisis and on to full-blown currency crisis, it is easy to believe that the continent is something of a black hole when it comes to employment opportunities. But it’s not all doom and gloom and there’s life in the European jobs market in the… Read more »
Can embracing social media revolutionise our chances of success? Our industry is already convinced, of course – we view wind power as the panacea to saving the world. Yet in reality, the public support of ‘clean’ energy is not as absolute as the industry may hope for. One of the reasons that may cause this… Read more »
Alexander Hill, Energy Business Development Manager at Critical Software Technologies, discusses the importance of a standards-led, safety critical culture within the wind industry. Safety critical systems are entrusted to perform crucial tasks, ones that cannot be allowed to fail. They are systems that are essential to our modern life yet rarely contemplated by the people… Read more »
As Head of Centre for DUWET (Danish University Wind Energy Training), Steen Mortensen is at the cutting edge of the industry, and has seen it evolve from a nascent concern into a booming international powerhouse. We speak to the visionary trainer about skills gaps, the coming generation and the influence of wind associations on the… Read more »
The February 2012 issue of Renewable Energy Technology magazine features an SGS article entitled “Ensuring Reliable Operations of Wind Turbines,” written by Olaf Robenek and Nils Dreischerf, wind turbine inspectors from SGS. The article explains the significance of regular in-service inspections conducted by a reliable third-party company, to minimize the risks of costly downtime and… Read more »