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May 2023

New Policy Blows New Life into Wind

Despite a down year, wind power prospects improve significantly with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Long-awaited policy certainty provides a critical shot-in-the arm for the wind industry, leading to a growing pipeline and reinvigorated domestic supply chain. Last year will go down as a transition year for the wind industry. Build volumes slowed considerably from record levels set in 2020 and 2021. Project delays plagued developers as supply chain challenges, […]
John Hensley

Combating Crew Challenges in Offshore Developments

The United States has ambitious plans to develop a world-leading offshore energy sector; however, regulations to embolden its domestic capabilities could limit its progress to increasing offshore wind footprint.

In 2021, several key pledges were made to revolutionize the United States’ offshore wind-energy sector in the first weeks of the Biden administration, including new targets to generate 30 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030 (“30 by 2030”) and 110 GW by 2050 to catch up with expansive offshore wind development projects in Europe […]
Erland Ebbersten

Planning your CLEANPOWER 2023 experience

A list of wind-related businesses exhibitingat the premier clean-energy trade show.

3S Lift Booth #: 4041 ABB Booth #: 4253 AABL A/S Booth #: 1237 ABS Wind Booth #: 2322 ACS – Apprenticeship Booth #: 3720 Acuren Booth #: 1752 Adolf Thies GmbH and Co. KG Booth #: 3923 Aegis Onshore, Inc. Booth #: 540 AES Booth #: 1915 Aggreko, LLC Booth #: 4433 Alltite, Inc. […]
Wind Systems staff

April 2023

Logistics capacity crunch could jeopardize offshore wind targets

The required expansion of offshore logistics risks adding further costs and delays to the energy transition amidst increasing supply chain costs, raw material shortages, and shrinking subsidies, so the offshore wind industry needs to adopt a more efficient model of expansion.

The IEA predicts we must build more than 70 GW of new offshore wind capacity each year until 2030 to achieve net zero, and we have yet to address the enormous expansion in global logistics capabilities that this will require. With 80 percent of the world’s offshore wind resources lying in deep waters, we will […]
Dave Acton

AI Turbocharges Renewables: Successfully Scaling a Diversified Fleet

Artificial intelligence is the catalyst to full-feature performance optimization that owners and operators need to ensure continuously profitable operations, enabling them to deliver on PPA commitments while ensuring worker safety and the achievement of sustainability goals.

The global community’s expectations for corporations have changed as climate-related catastrophes continue to strike with increasing devastation. In 2020, Bloomberg investigated board members across 20 European and U.S. organizations and found that “the greening of global finance had not yet reached the boardroom.” As the world reels from a turbulent geopolitical landscape, the vulnerabilities and […]
Robert Budny

Planning your CLEANPOWER 2023 experience

A list of wind-related businesses exhibitingat the premier clean-energy trade show.

3S Lift Booth #: 4041 ABB Booth #: 4253 AABL A/S Booth #: 1237 ABS Wind Booth #: 2322 ACS – Apprenticeship Booth #: 3720 Acuren Booth #: 1752 Adolf Thies GmbH and Co. KG Booth #: 3923 Aegis Onshore, Inc. Booth #: 540 AES Booth #: 1915 Aggreko, LLC Booth #: 4433 Alltite, Inc. […]
Wind Systems staff

March 2023

Case Study: Inspecting Wind-Turbine Bearings

By investing in machines that can check the quality control of engineered bearings, companies can further push their green-energy initiatives.

Recently there has been a significant increase in demand for larger bearings up to 1,200 mm in diameter for use in the construction of wind turbines, which promises exponential growth in the coming years as countries across the globe work toward meeting their green energy targets. In addition to the wind energy sector, the Dudley, […]
Chris Wright

Back and Forth with Oscillating Bearings

Bearings that don’t complete the circle have different problems compared to fully rotational bearings.

Cranes, wind-turbine blades, and airplane wing flaps all have a similar problem: The bearings that help them rotate don’t go in a full circle. Like kids on a swing or seesaw, they oscillate back and forth or up and down. Some oscillating bearings also can be thought of as carrying a load rather than rotating […]
Mary Beckamn

February 2023

Wind-Turbine Fire Risk: The Time to Act is Now

Industry attitude toward managing avoidable problems such as fire damage lacks rigor, but the time to change this attitude is now, on the eve of historic development in the wind sector.

Wind turbine fires are relatively rare. But when turbines do catch fire, the ensuing spectacle of rotating flames and falling debris is impossible to ignore. Less transparent, though, is industry-wide data on details such as how many turbines burn down and the full cost of damages when they do. Most often, these facts are known […]
Ross Paznokas

How to Refresh Offshore Wind’s Hiring Strategy to Avoid Project Delays

Across the renewables industry, creating an ample pipeline of talent remains a work in progress, with the pressure set to increase as markets grow in line with global ambitions.

Historically, offshore wind developers have relied nearly entirely on exporting expertise from Europe to fill open vacancies in developing markets. But exponential growth expected from emerging markets such as North America, Taiwan, and Japan will put a squeeze on talent. Last year, the Global Wind Energy Council estimated 3.3 million direct offshore wind energy supply […]
Jordan Mason

AI Applications in Wind-Energy Systems

Artificial intelligence can help the wind-energy sector address challenges and offer immediate improvements on several fronts.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been receiving a lot of attention in recent years, and for good reason; this technology has the potential to revolutionize nearly every industry. The renewable-energy sector is no exception. In 2021, the World Economic Forum published a paper discussing how AI could be harnessed to accelerate the transition to renewable energy, […]
Rene Morkos

January 2023

Maintenance-Free-Bolting Concept for Bolts up to M100 (4”)

ITH Bolting Technology combines digital bolting tool procedures, advanced fastener design, and installation know-how to reduce maintenance costs significantly – proven for onshore and offshore wind-turbine installation projects.

With its brand, IHF Fastener Systems, ITH Bolting Technology has developed innovative fastener systems up to M100 (4”), which are specifically designed to match the technical demands of onshore and offshore wind-turbine joints. ITH is a leading global system supplier in bolting technology providing bolting tools, engineering, fasteners, and service. The “Maintenance-Free-Bolting” concept includes the […]
Frank Hohmann

Bringing Torque Calibration to the Field

As market needs continue to change and get stricter, it is essential that state-of-the-art equipment is available to achieve the most accurate torque requirements.

Go back far enough and very few people even considered torque specifications for bolted joints. It simply came down to just tighten it as much as you can, add an extension or get a hammer, and tighten it some more. Slowly, around the time manufacturers were producing high-performance aircraft engines for WWII, the world got […]
Sam Ortolani

Lidar: The Path Forward for Wind Resource Assessment

As the wind industry continues progressing into an increasingly tech-driven space, decision makers can expect met towers to be replaced mostly by Lidars for wind measurements.

By Elvira Aliverdieva

The development of a successful wind-farm project depends on the developers’ knowledge of how much energy can be produced in the potential development area. Location-specific information regarding the wind speed, meteorological patterns, terrain, and other factors advise the siting and design of a new wind-power project. But as turbines grow taller, it is important to […]
michele-admin