Windpower Engineering & Development is a growing wind-power resource targeting professionals involved in all aspects of a wind farm’s lifecycle, including developers, engineers, technicians, manufacturers and researchers that work to site, build, maintain, repair and optimize wind-related components, software and projects. The goal at Windpower Engineering & Development is to educate and expand the knowledge…
One good turn deserves another – setting the standard for wind energy maintenance
By Conor Wilkinson, EMEA Commercial Brand Manager, ExxonMobil Fuels & Lubricants Energy security and sustainability are headline topics – soaring gas and electricity prices and growing concerns about climate change have guaranteed that. Part of the answer is an increased focus on wind power; as a result, it is significantly growing in importance as part…
Plugging offshore wind power into our energy grid
By Ralph Kurth, Senior Principal, Energy; and John Crowther, Senior Principal, Environmental Services; Stantec With President Joe Biden setting a 30-GW offshore wind goal by 2030 for the United States, the industry is ready to take off. This massive development is a very ambitious goal that will require detailed engineering and planning. One thing that…
How lidar powers wind energy in offshore environments
By Matthieu Boquet, head of market and offering, wind energy, Vaisala Government organizations around the globe are increasingly implementing policies and programs aimed at increasing the number of wind turbines and the amount of power generated from wind energy. To meet this demand, there is continued innovations in the design, development, performance testing, operations and…
How engineering simulation software can increase offshore wind adoption
By Guillaume Lechaton, Sales Director for Wind and New Energies, Akselos Offshore wind is going from strength to strength. 2021 was a record year for the industry, with almost 21 GW of capacity added globally, up from 6.1 GW in 2020. Total offshore wind capacity is now at 57 GW and is expected to reach…
The prioritization of innovation over process is hampering manufacturing
By James Montgomery, VP of Solutions, Andea A deep disconnect between R&D and manufacturing is jeopardizing efforts to increase speed to market and achieve economies of scale for complex new technologies while harming safety and sustainability standards. The hand-off from product design and development to production creates significant risks as engineers prep the shopfloor to…
Improving offshore weather forecasting with machine learning
By Intissar Keghouche, DELFI lead, StormGeo “All models are wrong, but some are useful,” the statistician George Box wrote in 1976. This familiar aphorism sheds light on the fact that models cannot capture the complexities of the real world. Whether we use models to study financial market mechanisms, predict optimal healthcare strategies or, for any…
Can the United States reach its offshore wind target despite operational and financial challenges?
Article shared with permission from Enerdatics In Jun 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a new federal-state partnership to expand the domestic supply chain for offshore wind. The government is endorsing a set of federal, state and mutual commitments to incentivize manufacturing facilities for components, port capabilities and logistics networks. The measures are aimed…
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail: Operators will inherit the impact of greenflation – and they must be ready
By Evgenia Golysheva, VP of strategy and operations, ONYX Insight In their quest to lead the fight against climate change, clean energy industry stakeholders have had to overcome no end of challenges. And in doing so, huge progress has been made; the levelized cost of solar and wind energy has tumbled in the last decade,…
A lightweight with a heavyweight’s strength: Customized filtration solutions support weight reduction in wind turbine gearboxes
Case study by Eaton Gear-driven wind turbines are the heart and soul of sustainable, green energy generation from wind. With the urge of maximizing efficiency and reducing costs, engineers strive to build bigger, safer and more powerful turbines. Eaton’s customized TWF Twinfil filter systems enable designers to reduce weight of the gearboxes significantly while maintaining…
May 2022 Issue: Maximize Turbine Performance With Automatic Lubrication
Windpower Engineering & Development is a growing wind-power resource targeting professionals involved in all aspects of a wind farm’s lifecycle, including developers, engineers, technicians, manufacturers and researchers that work to site, build, maintain, repair and optimize wind-related components, software and projects. The goal at Windpower Engineering & Development is to educate and expand the knowledge…
Resilience and integrity – hurricane readiness for offshore wind assets
By Jeffrey Lewis, technical advisor, BMT Extreme weather is no new threat for offshore operators, but it is growing. The number of tropical storms and hurricanes is steadily increasing year on year, with 13 severe storms reported in 2020, and weather events like these threaten devastation and pose challenges to companies with assets that sit…
HVDC transmission comes to U.S. offshore wind
By Kevin Pearce, grid access business development manager, Siemens Energy A planned offshore wind project in New York is gaining attention for its novel design that will, for the first time, leverage high-voltage direct current (HVDC) technology to support offshore wind in the United States. In a consortium with Aker Solutions, Siemens Energy is supplying…
The opportunity for digitalization to build the wind sector and accelerate the energy transition
By Jamie Stapleton, global digital portfolio leader, Hitachi Energy Digitalization has transformed the power sector over the past two decades. From lower monthly utility bills to reduced outages and faster response times, it has enabled greater transparency into operations and increased efficiency and reliability while decreasing costs. However, in order to meet sustainability goals, this…
Navigating early wind’s midlife crisis through data
By Staffan Lindahl, Co-founder at Bitbloom Wind energy is no longer new, and a growing cohort of generation assets have been operational for well over a decade. With the first flush of youth (turbocharged by subsidies) behind them but many years ahead before mandatory retirement, these early-mover assets can pose challenges for owners and operators.…
Future of airborne wind energy systems depends on safety and efficiency
By Jaap Bosch, head of business development, Ampyx Power Over the past decade, airborne wind energy systems (AWES) have made significant research and development advancements. Using tethered flying devices, including kites and planes, AWES convert wind energy into electricity and will soon be part of wind energy’s promise to be a dominant energy source. While…
Maximizing turbine performance with automatic lubrication solutions
By Hans Landin, group VP at Timken When it comes to the equipment inside wind turbines, performance and reliability can’t be compromised. Turbines are often in remote locations like mountaintops and offshore outposts. They must be built to withstand very harsh and dynamic operating conditions. They’re relentlessly pounded with weather extremes including oppressive heat, freezing cold,…
3 strategies to beat the wind technician shortfall
By J.L. Baker, CEO, GattiHR Many labor and workplace training concerns soon await the U.S. wind energy sector. In fact, several are unfolding right now. The industry currently employs about 7,000 wind-turbine technicians. That’s no doubt a hefty amount of labor. But according to industry reports, it’s not enough. Not even close. To meet the overwhelming…
February 2022 Issue: How Floating Wind Will Come To Dominate The Wind Industry
Windpower Engineering & Development is a growing wind-power resource targeting professionals involved in all aspects of a wind farm’s lifecycle, including developers, engineers, technicians, manufacturers and researchers that work to site, build, maintain, repair and optimize wind-related components, software and projects. The goal at Windpower Engineering & Development is to educate and expand the knowledge…
Fewer parts and pieces: Rethinking wind turbine construction
By Gary Bills, Regional Director EMEA, K2 Management As the world edges toward a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, its demand and appetite remain unabated and continues to grow. The IEA projected that in 2022, there will be a 4% increase in global electricity demand. With gas prices at an all-time high and net-zero targets…