Exclusive Articles
Wind expansion UK
PES talks with Billy Stevenson, Managing Director, Deutsche Windtechnik Ltd, to find out about the growth in wind power in the UK and the prospects for the future. PES: Welcome to PES Wind magazine. Thanks for talking with us. Would you like to begin by explaining a little about the background of your organisation and… Read more »
Making thin film PV profitable
What’s the key to profitable high volume manufacturing? In almost any industry, two of the vital ingredients are reproducibility and controllability. Michael van der Gugten, Sales and Marketing Executive, Smit Thermal Solutions, explains to PES why it’s no different for thin film solar Reproducibility, controllability and a high-volume mind-set Smit Thermal Solutions provides thermal equipment… Read more »
A bird’s eye view
The latest UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) technology allows swift, thorough inspections to assess turbines. Drones can be used either as part of routine reporting or for detailed inspections in preparations for rope access teams. This has many significant health and safety benefits for the technical teams in terms of assuring all anchor points are secure and preparing in… Read more »
Financing for wind farms: making consistent use of empirical values
Words: Thomas Arnold and Thomas Zirngibl, TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH The recently revised TR6 Technical Guideline of the German Public Association of the Renewable Energy Sector (Fördergesellschaft Windenergie (FGW)) is designed to ensure the provision of reliable yield forecasts. Wind reports based on the Guideline play a critical role for producing reliable estimates of… Read more »
Safety above and beyond
PES talks to Rick Huntley, Director of Safety and Compliance, at Sentinel Aviation and discovers exactly how important safety is in this company. Two of the directors are ex-military and bring this added experience. He also explains that this relatively new industry is already entering a cut throat price war due to the number of… Read more »
Onshore wind is a huge success in Scotland
Words: Lindsay Roberts, Senior Policy Manager, Scottish Renewables Renewable energy is now our largest source of power and with over 5.5GW installed onshore, wind provides the lion’s share of that capacity. Can the Scottish and UK Governments work with industry and regulators to remove a series of barriers as suggested in a report by Everoze… Read more »
Dutch recipe for success in offshore wind
The Dutch Government’s offshore wind energy programme is making significant waves in the energy sector, after Dong Energy bid a record-low price for the contract to build and operate the first two projects offered in the country’s five-year tender programme. That could only happen because of the steps taken by the State in designing an… Read more »
Intertidal cable installations
The Race Bank Wind farm is being constructed by DONG Energy approximately 27 kilometres off Blakeney Point on the North Norfolk coast and 28 kilometres off the Lincolnshire Coast and Chapel St Leonards. It covers an area of 7511ha. Export cables bring the power from the wind farm to the substation onshore. These export cables… Read more »
Dramatic price drops
Words: Steve Sawyer, secretary general at GWEC The dramatic drop in price of solar and wind generated electricity, for solar in particular, has grabbed a lot of attention lately. Prices in the range of $US 0.03-0.04/kWh have come through in tenders from Peru to Mexico and Morocco to South Africa. It is almost to the… Read more »
Wind reflections
Steve Sawyer, Secretary General, GWEC, gives a global overview of wind power during 2015, a very positive year culminating in the Paris agreement in December. He predicts a steady growth in the industry over the next five years. Wind Power Leads All New Power Generation More than 150 nations gathered in New York, on Earth… Read more »