Exclusive Articles
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 »
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 »
Energy Roadmap 2050 An Insiders Guide
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 »
Flying high
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 »
Last word
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 »
Wind powers growth in European jobs
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 »
Winds Ultimate Goal Educating The Public
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 »
The Case For A Safety Critical Culture
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 »
