By Sam Salem and Peter Nyegaard Jensen, Wind Cluster; and Fabio Orlandi, TER Rotary limit switches are used in wind turbines for managing and controlling the position of the nacelle (yaw control) and in some cases for pitch angle of the blades (pitch control). Whenever the direction of the wind changes, the wind turbine nacelle will…
Oil debris monitoring saves time when it comes to wind turbine gearbox maintenance
By Jordan Freed, Director of Corporate Marketing & Product Strategy, Gastops There is an abundance of literature dating back over the past 20+ years about the challenge of premature gearbox failures, and the cost impact they have on wind turbine operation. While the principals of prognostics and health management (PHM) are well established, and the…
Innovation in floating wind will be crucial to the future of offshore energy
By Mark Goalen, director of offshore engineering, Houlder With offshore floating wind as a proven commercial reality, the challenges associated with the industry are now focused on delivering at scale, but there are still key innovation issues to be resolved across the industry. Meeting targets The global floating offshore wind industry is expected to reach…
Aluminum vs. copper: Which is best for cables used in the wind industry?
By James Moorman, VP of sales, Helukabel USA The wind industry wrapped up another banner year in 2020 by commissioning 16,913 MW overall as an industry. With over 60,000 wind turbines in operation across 41 states, OEMs, asset owners and independent service providers follow industry technology advancements to maximize the efficiencies of new turbines and…
Ready-to-float: A permanent cost reduction for offshore wind
By Robert Speht, CEO and co-founder of FloatWind Ltd The world’s first gigawatt-capacity floating offshore wind farm remains a little way off, but advances across the industry are bringing it ever closer. As it stands, floating offshore wind farms have a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of more than three-times that of fixed-bottom wind farms. And…
Deployment – not time – will drive floating wind cost reductions
By Jonah Ury, senior associate; and Dan Kyle-Spearman, associate director; The Renewables Consulting Group Offshore wind has seen a remarkable cost reduction and growth over the last 30 years since the commissioning of Orsted’s 4.95-MW Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm, the first offshore wind project. Floating offshore wind, the next evolution of offshore wind technology, consists…
Sizing up offshore wind power with hydraulification and advanced sealing systems
By Marcel Schreiner, Global Segment Director, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies’ Energy Sector The offshore wind energy industry is on the cusp of a significant transformation, fueled by increased demand for clean energy sources, technological advances and improved efficiencies. Based on projects currently under construction, annual installations of offshore wind turbines are predicted to grow from 6…
Case study: RAD Torque tools assist in delivering offshore wind turbine components
The potential for unlimited generation of clean, renewable energy makes offshore wind turbines a modern choice for global power production. While there are many benefits to offshore wind turbines, building them at sea poses some unique challenges during the transport and construction process. Construction at sea is a demanding task, and transporting the immense components…
Further collaboration between wind turbine OEMs and operators could boost wind industry profitability even more
By Martin Sørensen, director of alliances, WindESCo As the wind industry continues to scale-up globally, now is the time to reimagine how key players within the sector interact with each other, learning lessons from industries such as rotorcraft — where the correct functioning of complex gearboxes and rotating blades is a matter of life and…
Why renewable energy businesses must commit to company gender equality
By Bronwyn Sutton, Offshore Wind Principal; and Kim Connolly, Principal Engineer; Clir Renewables As the world increases investment in the energy transition, companies in the sector are expanding from small teams of tens or hundreds to multinational offices with thousands of employees. However, unless these companies take an active role in promoting diversity and equity…
Choosing the right lubricant for today’s wind turbines
By Shubhamita Basu, Ph.D., North America Product Manager, Industrial Oils; Carlos Nazario, North America Product Manager, Grease Additives; and Gareth Fish, Ph.D., Technical Fellow, Industrial Additives and Greases; Lubrizol Wind energy has steadily become one of the strongest components of electricity generation in the United States over the past 30 years. According to the U.S.…
Crossing the power threshold for offshore wind turbines
By Chris Poynter, Division President, ABB System Drives At 13 MW, the Haliade-X wind turbines that GE is supplying for the UK’s Dogger Bank Wind Farm are currently the most powerful in the world. However, the next generation turbines will push the power up to 15, 16 or even 20 MW. That means we are…
The complicated U.S. regulations for offshore wind vessels
By Matt Tremblay, Senior Vice President, Global Offshore, ABS The next three years could be a defining period for the U.S. offshore wind sector. It represents a growth area of the maritime industry at both a domestic and international level. Globally, developers have announced projects totaling at least 200 GW of new capacity since the…
Marching toward increased investment in offshore wind and related vessel support
By William Baldwin, Cindy Muller, and Sarah Dicharry, Jones Walker The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) adopted regulations in 2009 to regulate wind energy development offshore (30 C.F.R. Part 585). But to date, only two offshore wind projects are currently online in the United States: Block Island, located off the…
Five months into the Biden Administration: A whirlwind of federal action on offshore wind
By Georgena Terry, research associate, Clean Energy States Alliance In late March, President Joe Biden announced an offshore wind goal of 30 GW by 2030 in a manner that protects environmental assets and creates employment. Through a coordinated multi-agency approach, Biden plans to fast track the deployment of utility scale offshore wind. The focus will…
An inside look at how safety standards are created for the wind industry
By Wesley Witt, chair, and Kristy Abel, vice chair, GWO North America Committee The amount of standardized safety training continues to increase year-over-year across North America in the wind industry because companies gain productivity and a more flexible workforce, while workers are more easily hired and valuable to their employers. In 2020, the number of…
Maintaining a successful wind industry with efficient maintenance tools
By RAD Torque Systems As we move through 2021, the effects of the last year can be felt across all industries. However, despite some major disruptions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the global wind industry still managed to achieve a record year. According to the Global Wind Energy Council, 2020 saw a 53% year-on-year…
Unlocking the potential of offshore wind with lidar technology
By Elvira Aliverdieva, product specialist; and Mathias Regnier, WindCube product manager, Leosphere, a Vaisala Company All around the globe, offshore wind energy is gaining significant momentum. In 2020 alone, the world added more than 6 GW of new capacity via offshore installations. As global interest in offshore wind energy continues to grow in both near-shore…
Health and safety risks across offshore wind, and how vessel data can minimize them
By Chris Huxley Reynard, creator of the BareFLEET advanced remote monitoring and reporting system, and Managing Director of Reygar Ltd. Providing operations and maintenance (O&M) services for an offshore wind farm can be a grueling task. Consider the complexity of installing or fixing a machine as large and complex as a wind turbine — a…
Adequate up-tower rescue training is paramount to ensure today’s new wind technicians stay safe
By Sam Heim, Media Specialist, Petzl The wind technician career is projected to have the highest job growth rate in the United States for the next eight years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the projected percent change in employment from 2019 to 2029 for wind techs is 61%; the average job growth rate…