This past year was one filled with a tremendous amount of uncertainty for our families, businesses, and country. Americans have persevered through a worldwide pandemic with strength, courage, and change. Now, a year later, we have adapted to a new way of life and a new way of doing business.
The wind industry is no different. Influenced by COVID-19, the pandemic caused the country to realign the logistics of doing business. Last year, the wind industry faced a few challenges in the early stages of the pandemic. There were some short term supply chain issues in the early few months, but no changes to the install volume when companies needed projects built and commissioned. Additionally, the pandemic made travel to project sites difficult due to limited airline flight options. COVID-19 did, however, demand the industry review and increase site safety processes on project sites. There are minimal indoor meetings, quarantine periods apply for personnel who have flown, often requiring long distances driven to maintain schedule. In addition, simple protocols such as eliminating pen sharing in signing bills of lading (BOLs) applied to keep everyone involved safe.
The manufacturing of a wind turbine often occurs in locations far from where the project is actually set up. (Courtesy: Logisticus Group)
Even with the challenges of COVID-19, 2020 was a banner year in the wind industry. According to the American Wind Energy Association’s fourth quarter market report, the U.S. wind industry experienced the highest quarter on record by installing 10,593 MW of new wind power. With an 85 percent increase over 2019 and developers commissioning 16,913 MW of wind power capacity in the U.S., more wind was installed at the end of 2020 than any other year except 2012. Now there is 122,468 MW of operating wind power capacity on the American grid with more than 60,000 wind turbines operating across 41 states and two U.S. territories.
Looking at trends
To meet the projected growth of 2021, we must look back on trends created in 2020 and plan for what is to come this year. One important factor that developed last year was that wind power transportation will continue to fall under essential services. States ruled the construction of renewable energy resources is federally designated and a critical infrastructure industry. Renewable energy workers are designated as essential, critical infrastructure workers.
We also must consider the aging workforce that represents a large portion of the jobs in transportation, cranes, and construction as we look forward into 2021. This demographic is at high risk for the virus. If it begins to spread quicker or different strands emerge, this large portion of the workforce could be dramatically affected and, therefore, projects delayed.
As the workforce adapts to new COVID-19 standards, the wind and solar industry is expected to move full steam ahead in 2021 with predicted exponential growth. A rising number of businesses are continuing to invest in renewable energy as they work to meet renewable and sustainability goals. According to the latest Lazard levelized cost of energy (LCOE) report, land-based wind power costs have declined 70 percent since 2009.
For parts moving by road, comprehensive route planning and adjustments are constantly shifting. (Courtesy: Logisticus Group)
Additionally, a new stimulus/relief bill passed by Congress in December 2020 is giving businesses extensions of renewable energy tax credits due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These tax credits incentivize businesses to move toward future clean energy. Finally, this year, we will continue to see the decommissioning of older, outdated coal-fired power plants. In the last decade, hundreds of these plants have retired or are facing retirement in the near future due to regulatory pressures, flat electricity growth, and competition from renewables. The retiring of plants will leave openings for more solar and wind projects to open up in their place.
Producing jobs
While some people may assume the pandemic in conjunction with the retiring of outdated power plants will produce job loss, the wind industry is actually producing an exponential amount of jobs. According to the American Clean Power Association, clean energy provides jobs for more than 300,000 Americans with the wind industry producing 120,000 of those jobs. There are 26,000 of these jobs at more than 500 American factories producing wind-turbine components. Additionally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ranks a wind-turbine service technician as the nation’s fastest growing job. Other jobs range from construction to technicians to factory, distribution, and developmental jobs. These high-quality jobs in the clean-energy workforce can help boost American jobs in the wake of COVID-19 job loss.
Some transportation projects can take months or even a year of logistical planning to move a turbine from point A to point B. (Courtesy: Logisticus Group)
As states race to meet their renewable energy goals and wind-turbine projects are set up all over the country, it is up to the “behind the scenes” professionals to keep the projects moving forward. The logistics of turbine transportation may seem minor to some in the total scope of the project, but the project requires an enormous amount of planning and execution. The manufacturing of a wind turbine often occurs in locations far from where the project is actually set up. Some transportation projects can take months or even a year of logistical planning to move a turbine from point A to point B. The turbine blades, towers, and nacelles will move over multiple methods of transportation including rail, road, and sea. For parts moving by road, comprehensive route planning and adjustments are constantly shifting. For movement by rail, engineering and gaining clearance for larger components become a major piece of the project as well.
All of these logistical nuances that occur behind the scenes, even before the start of construction and operation, are ones that are happening frequently in the clean-energy industry. These logistical pieces support forward movement and help set the tone for a safe and well executed project.
The turbine blades, towers, and nacelles will move over multiple methods of transportation including rail, road, and sea. (Courtesy: Logisticus Group)
The pandemic brought many changes to the logistics and planning of setting up wind and solar projects. These challenges are ones we welcomed, as we knew the most important role was prioritizing the health and well-being of employees who worked on projects. The demand for new projects in 2021 will be growing at the same rate, and we will continue to strategically work through the best possible solutions for clients, as we know maintaining a strong plan is key to completing successful projects.
Vestas has bolstered its Swedish pipeline with a 67-MW order for the Grönhult project in southwest Sweden from The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG). Vestas will supply, install, and commission 12 V162-5.6 MW turbines, part of Vestas’ EnVentus platform. A long term 30-year Active Output Management 5000 (AOM 5000) service agreement will provide maximum security for the Grönhult project throughout its lifetime by optimizing park performance and limiting downtime.
Vestas will supply, install, and commission 12 V162-5.6 MW turbines. (Courtesy: Vestas)
The Grönhult project was acquired by TRIG from Vattenfall in February 2021, and is ready-to-build. The project is in the Gislaved region in southwest Sweden, and will provide clean, sustainable wind power for more than 20,000 Swedish households.
“The V162-5.6 MW is an optimal turbine for the Grönhult project’s wind speeds and site specifications, and we’re delighted to be partnering with The Renewables Infrastructure Group for the delivery and construction of our first project together in Sweden,” said Juan Furones, Vice President, Sales North & West, Vestas Northern & Central Europe. “The EnVentus platform continues to increase its footprint into the market, and we’re pleased TRIG has entrusted Vestas with this ready-to-build project.”
“We are pleased to expand our presence in Sweden with high-quality partners,” said Richard Crawford, director of Infrastructure at InfraRed Capital Partners, TRIG’s investment manager. “The Nordic region represents a key market for the company with a strong pipeline and favorable economics for onshore wind.”
Vestas has installed more than 5 GW capacity of wind turbines in Sweden.
First turbines will be delivered to the project in the second quarter of 2022, with the project expected to become operational in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Leading France’s wind-power revolution, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) has been awarded the firm order from the EDF Renewables-Enbridge-wpd consortium for the 448 MW Courseulles-sur-Mer offshore wind-power project. Located 10 kilometers off the Bessin coast, the project brings the total capacity awarded to Siemens Gamesa by the consortium in France to approximately 1 GW. Both the wind-turbine nacelles and blades for the Courseulles-sur-Mer project are scheduled to be produced at the Siemens Gamesa facility under construction in Le Havre.
The 448 MW project will rely upon the stable technology of the SWT-7.0-154 Direct Drive offshore wind turbine. (Courtesy: Siemens Gamesa)
“We are delighted to again be the partner of choice for EDF Renewables, Enbridge, and wpd, and to deliver our second firm French offshore order to them,” said Marc Becker, CEO of the Siemens Gamesa Offshore Business Unit. “As we unlock more of the future of wind in France, we thank them for their vote of confidence in our technology, people, and ambitious growth plans in the country. Our facility in Le Havre and the Courseulles-sur-Mer project including service will provide local jobs and value for years to come.”
The 448 MW project will rely upon the stable technology of the SWT-7.0-154 Direct Drive offshore wind turbine, a part of the world’s most installed offshore turbine fleet. Installation and commissioning of the Courseulles-sur-Mer project is scheduled for 2024.
Together with the 497 MW Fécamp offshore wind-power project signed with the EDF Renewables-Enbridge-wpd consortium in 2020, Siemens Gamesa has now signed firm orders with them for approximately 1 GW, further cementing the company as the leader in the French offshore wind-power industry. Siemens Gamesa has an additional firm order in France for the 496 MW Bay of Saint Brieuc offshore wind-power plant with Ailes Marines. Siemens Gamesa has furthermore been named preferred supplier for the 496 MW Dieppe le Tréport and 496 MW Yeu Noirmoutier offshore wind projects.
The Siemens Gamesa facility under construction on the Quai Joannès Couvert in the Port of Le Havre will be the first in the world to manufacture complete offshore nacelles and blades under one roof. It is the largest industrial project in the French renewable energy industry to date and will be used to supply Siemens Gamesa offshore wind projects in France and potentially abroad. Start of operation for the plant is scheduled to take place in the first half of 2022.
Expected to create approximately 750 direct and indirect jobs when fully operational, particularly in the fields of composite materials, mechanical assembly, and logistics, the facility has already begun recruiting employees.
More than 1,000 Siemens Gamesa Direct Drive offshore wind turbines have been installed in all major offshore wind markets globally. They include the U.K., Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Taiwan, and the U.S., among others. Furthermore, confirmed orders for more than 1,000 additional Offshore Direct Drive turbines have been received for these markets and new offshore markets.
ONYX InSight, a leading provider of data analytics and engineering expertise to the global wind industry, has cemented its presence in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, following the demonstrable success of its Brisbane office after its first year of operations. Joining offices in Chennai and Seoul, Brisbane marks the third regional hub for APAC, serving as a base to deliver its flexible, full-service offer in support of the growing wind-energy industry across Australia and New Zealand.
With OEMs accounting for almost half of the service market in Australia and New Zealand, demand is high for independent service providers (ISPs) that can bring a tech-agnostic approach to data analytics in order to drive greater turbine performance and increased returns on investment.
Recognizing this challenge, ONYX InSight has developed significant partnerships in the Australia/New Zealand region, resulting in a 15 percent market share for software and 10 percent share for hardware, through the successful installation of its pioneering advanced sensing technology, ecoCMS, and roll out of its condition monitoring software platform fleetMONITOR, complete with user-training. This has been bolstered with 4G communications for the simplification of data transfer, enabling greater access to a broader turbine network.
The consolidation of advanced data sensing technology and monitoring software has been instrumental in identifying machinery faults sooner, leading to improved predictive maintenance plans. With longer lead times of six to 12 months to plan for repairs, owners and operators are better placed to optimize maintenance strategies and streamline procurement.
“We are proud to be supporting the increased share of renewables within the APAC energy mix, in line with the climate change targets,” said Ashley Crowther, Global VP, ONYX InSight. “Our physical presence in Australia over the last year has already made a significant impact in our ability to support our local partners, enabling us to provide on the ground support and training in-line with our advanced monitoring services.”
“With our current monitoring capacity upwards of 370 MW across Australia and New Zealand growing, we are continuing to support asset owners to better manage their projects through the modernization of equipment in order to extract better quality data,” he said. “Joining up the dots between the existing and improved data with the latest in predictive analytics software will enable owners and operators to get ahead of machinery failures to ensure that fleets continue to operate at peak efficiency and profitability.”
Brüel & Kjær Vibro (B&K Vibro), one of the leading worldwide independent suppliers of condition monitoring solutions for rotating machinery, has been acquired by NSK, a global organization specializing in researching, designing, and manufacturing motion and control solutions.
B&K Vibro is a leading worldwide independent supplier of condition monitoring solutions for rotating machinery. (Courtesy: B&K Vibro)
NSK’s portfolio of products and technologies enhance automotive performance and industrial productivity, while reducing energy consumption. As the leading supplier of bearings in Japan and the third largest supplier in the world by market share, NSK employs approximately 30,000 people in more than 200 locations across 30 countries, alongside a vast network of joint ventures and partnerships.
NSK has been developing condition monitoring systems (CMS) for internal and field use for decades. Having identified the market need and opportunity to put CMS technology directly in the hands of customers, NSK established a Condition Monitoring System Development Center in April 2019 to create solutions to help customers manage the health of their machinery. To accelerate this initiative, NSK has acquired B&K Vibro, who will be empowered to lead NSK’s global CMS business development as a new autonomous unit within the NSK organization, as NSK grows to become a global leader in condition monitoring.
“I am excited to welcome all of B&K Vibro’s valuable team members to the NSK group,” said Toshihiro Uchiyama, president and CEO, NSK. “Condition monitoring systems and services are a growing market, and B&K Vibro is the current and future leader in this industry. By combining B&K Vibro’s expertise with NSK’s strength as a global leader in the bearing industry with more than 100 years of accumulated knowledge and experience across a range of applications, our two companies will create even more value for society.”
“B&K Vibro is truly honored to become a part of NSK, a company that has set out to become a leader in condition monitoring,” said Marcel Van Helten, CEO, B&K Vibro. “The synergies between our companies are evident, and with the combination of the talent and the knowledge residing within our companies, we will together be able to deliver exciting, innovative business and engineering solutions for our customers. We look forward to enhancing the NSK CMS business platform and accelerating growth in the burgeoning CMS market.”
EDF Renewables, a market-leading independent power producer, has selected Reygar Ltd., the leading provider of innovative remote monitoring and reporting platforms to the offshore wind industry, to power the establishment of a transparent, data-based approach to efficiency and safety across its operations. Reygar’s BareFLEET system has now been fully commissioned on an EDF-chartered crew transfer vessel (CTV) working across EDF’s European offshore wind portfolio.
BareFLEET automatically monitors the health and performance of all critical equipment across each vessel. (Courtesy: Reygar)
In response to the uptick in demand for support vessels to service Europe’s flourishing offshore wind industry, forward-thinking project owners and vessel operators are increasingly committing to working together to ensure that no trip is wasted due to technician sickness or cut short due to mechanical failure. By deploying BareFLEET to collate in-depth health and performance data from across the vessel’s critical equipment, Reygar will provide the CTV operator and EDF with the insight they need to guarantee high levels of safety and vessel availability.
BareFLEET automatically monitors the health and performance of all critical equipment across each vessel, inclusive of engine health, fuel consumption, motion, and impact onto the turbine, transmitting this data to the shore team and relevant stakeholders via the cloud. The crew can also supplement BareFLEET’s digital reporting platform by manually inputting their observations in context, providing full visibility over activity on board the vessel and the factors that influence it.
“Comprehensive data monitoring and reporting has a fundamental role to play in limiting vessel down-time, guaranteeing the maintenance of safe, comfortable conditions for both crew and technicians, and supporting a mutually beneficial relationship between project owner and support vessel operator,” said Chris Huxley-Reynard, managing director, Reygar Ltd. “By commissioning Reygar, EDF has invested in guaranteeing that the technicians who work on their projects are fit to work on arrival while the CTV operator can deploy this data to ensure vessel availability is maximized, allowing them to take on as many projects as possible.”
“EDF is committed to deploying pioneering technology that will power Europe toward the achievement of its renewable energy goals; our partnership with Reygar is therefore a natural next step in that journey,” said James Wilson, area manager, EDF Renewables. “We will be working directly with Reygar to collate enhanced high-frequency motion data for our own in-depth analysis, with the aim of increasing our understanding of how motion affects crew and technician comfort.”
ZX Lidars recently confirmed the appointment of Dr. Steven White as director of Turbine Mounted Lidar as the company scales in market sectors including wind turbine integrated Lidar Assisted Control and non-integrated Lidar for wind-turbine/wind-farm optimization. Having previously led Senvion’s engineering EU North team and with a PhD in laser optics, White combines technical knowhow with practical turbine experience.
ZX Lidars provides industry-leading wind Lidar products, ZX 300, ZX 300M, and ZX TM for wind energy and meteorological applications. (Courtesy: ZX Lidars)
Lidar technology, which displaces the use of met masts for wind resource assessment onshore and offshore, provides look-ahead wind characteristics to validate, monitor and optimize wind-turbine performance on both existing and new turbines for the purpose of increased energy output and lifetime extension.
“Innovation, quality, and collaboration are at the heart of the ‘ZX-way,’ and this unique mix is an ideal recipe to bridge the gap between Lidar and turbine technology” White said. “I passionately look forward to closing that gap through customer-focused improvements in operational wind resource understanding and turbine performance, validation, lifetime operations, and control.”
“On our 18th anniversary of installing the world’s first nacelle-mounted Lidar on a Nordex N90 turbine, it is perfect timing for Steven White to join ZX Lidars as we see a now mature technology providing real performance benefits to wind-farm owners, operators, and turbine OEMs,” said ZX Lidars Managing Director Ian Locker. “We have exciting news to share on Lidar Assisted Control this year, and Steven will be spearheading this and all turbine Lidar activities across the business.”
Recent turbine Lidar announcements from the company include:
The 105-MW Högaliden Wind Farm featuring Vestas V150-4.2 MW turbines will include nacelle-based ZX TM wind Lidars on each turbine.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy approval of ZX TM for Power Performance Testing of wind turbines.
ZX Lidars provides industry-leading wind Lidar products, ZX 300, ZX 300M, and ZX TM for wind energy and meteorological applications. These Lidars deliver accurate wind measurements in both onshore and offshore applications at measurement heights/ranges across the full swept area of the blades of modern wind turbines and beyond. With more than 30 million hours of operation in the field and more than 7,000 deployments (and counting), ZX Lidars has pioneered the use of Lidar in the wind industry. The company is proud of the many world firsts it has achieved with customers including: upwind measurements from a turbine nacelle, turbine wake studies, offshore deployments of both fixed and floating wind Lidar, an industry-accepted validation process, re-financing and re-powering of a wind farm, successful demonstration of measurement accuracy in a wind tunnel, and total wind project financing from a Lidar without need for a met mast.
Firetrace, a leading provider of fire suppression systems for the wind industry, recently announced the installation of its technology across 500 MW of wind assets across four states for a major American wind farm owner/operator. This order follows a recent incident where Firetrace’s system prevented a minor component fire from spreading and completely destroying a turbine.
In the incident, a fire sparked inside the nacelle due to mechanical error in the turbine that could easily have spread and destroyed the unit within 60 seconds. However, a number of months before, the turbine owner opted for not only fire detection, which would not have helped in this instance, but fire suppression technology that is able to put out a fire that has already started. As a result of this proactive mitigation strategy, the installed Firetrace system was able to detect and suppress the fire before it caused irreparable damage to the unit. Without this technology in place, this single fire could have cost $7 million to $8 million in damage and caused months, potentially over a year, of lost revenue.
Fire is a major risk for wind-turbine owners due to the difficulties of suppressing fires at the height of wind turbines and in the remote locations these assets are placed. Wind turbines have grown to staggering new heights, with new designs and components developed to enable these assets to generate more megawatts of power. However, many of these advances in design and technology expose the turbine to additional risk of catastrophic fires. This issue could hold the industry back if not addressed, causing additional costs and slowing the rate of adoption of the technology.
“90 percent of the time, a fire leads to a total loss of the wind turbine, or at least a level of downtime that results in the accumulation of substantial economic losses,” said Angela Krcmar, Firetrace global sales manager for wind. “We are delighted to partner with some of the leading owners and operators globally to offer 15,000-plus wind turbines protection against fire risk, and ultimately allow them to take advantage of technological progress to improve operations and safety. Our systems have a tangible impact on their bottom-line, as companies that use our products can expect reduced losses, better safety outcomes and improved insurability.”
Progeneration Energy, an energy company specializing in renewable energy generation and energy efficiency solutions, recently announced that it achieved 35,000 construction hours without a lost time incident in 2020, all while doubling company revenue, increasing overall project completion to $68.2 million and employing 135 employees.
According to the latest report from the United States Department of Labor, about 20 percent of worker fatalities in 2019 were in construction — accounting for one in five worker deaths for the year.
Due to these industry-wide challenges, Progeneration Energy places an increased emphasis on creating a workplace culture rooted in safety. The renewable solutions company uses the “Zero Harm Process” program to ensure its employees understand why they need to work safely and take care of each other. Beyond the programs, its construction teams end each morning’s on-site meeting by addressing any potential safety issues — making it the last discussion point workers hear before heading out for the day.
“Progeneration Energy is growing rapidly while effectively managing the safety, quality, and scheduling of projects,” said Anthony Shaw, founder and president of Progeneration Energy. “It’s one thing to demand safety, but leaders must physically lead by example as well as consistently remind their team the importance of following safety protocols to really have an impact. Our executive team consistently checks in on workers’ safety in the field while also prioritizing safety guidelines themselves.”
The renewable energy company had a perfect safety record in 2019 while completing 19,000 construction hours with 88 employees. In 2018, it also had a perfect record with 53 employees.
Along with safety, Progeneration Energy also values quality. It partners with a variety of experts in energy, financing, construction, design, maintenance, and engineering — positioning the company to handle renewable-energy projects from commissioning and financing to routine maintenance, monitoring, and marketing. The company’s projects have performed within 1 percent of design specifications with 100 percent customer satisfaction.
The Alfa Laval company and world-leading pump manufacturer Framo will supply pumping systems for foundations of Scotland’s largest offshore wind-farm project. It is the second order for pumping systems in this application and marks an important milestone as it applies the company’s extensive experience from the offshore industry to renewable energy applications.
Framo suction anchor pumping system (SAPS) in action. (Courtesy: Framo)
The order from Saipem, a global leader in engineering, drilling, and construction in the energy and infrastructure sectors, comprises Framo pumping systems. They will be used in a so-called suction bucket technology in the installation of Seagreen, Scotland’s largest offshore wind park. Once finalized, it will include 114 turbines producing 1,075 MW to supply 1.3 million households with low-carbon energy. Framo pumping system technology will secure and safely anchor the wind turbine platforms to the seabed.
“This second order for our Framo pumping systems used in suction bucket foundations to wind farms is an important milestone for us as it cements our position in this application and takes our long-proven and validated technology from offshore oil platforms to renewable applications,” said Sameer Kalra, president of the Marine Division in Alfa Laval. “Our knowledge and experience from delivering innovative and reliable products to the offshore industry is now also making a difference within renewable energy, to the benefit of our customers and the environment.”
Suction anchor technology has an environmentally friendly footprint. Besides lowering costs due to the increased installation speed, the concept provides for easy decommissioning and a practically noise-free installation.
The technology of suction and bucket foundation has secured and safely anchored platforms and offshore installations around the world since the 1990s. Now, the concept of bucket foundation has been adapted for offshore wind-turbine foundations. Framo is meeting the market demand by offering complete pumping systems required for the installation of the turbine foundations.
The Atlantic Endeavor crew transfer vessel (CTV), owned and operated by Atlantic Wind Transfers, America’s first CTV operator, recently was delivered to support Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) pilot wind farm.
Pioneering next-generation vessel designer Chartwell Marine, headquartered in the United Kingdom, oversaw the vessel’s construction despite travel restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic. Chartwell Marine used data-driven analytics to foster an open and collaborative process with Atlantic Wind Transfers and U.S. commercial boat builder Blount Boats & Shipyard in Rhode Island.
With several gigawatts of offshore wind capacity to be installed the next few years, the U.S. offshore wind sector must rapidly build out its maritime supply chain to ensure new projects can be constructed, operated, and maintained effectively. Atlantic Wind Transfers selected the versatile Chartwell Marine design, which can keep pace as project requirements change. The vessel will enable AWT to continue setting a reference point for effective crew transfer operations in the U.S., offering high standards of comfort and reliability for technicians working on offshore turbines.
The Atlantic Endeavor crew transfer vessel. (Courtesy: Atlantic Wind Transfers)
AWT also opted to equip the vessel with advanced surveying equipment to prepare for future operations in the region, supporting wind-farm owners and operators such as Dominion Energy, as additional generation capacity comes online. The U.S. East Coast will require diverse operational profiles and versatile fleets, and flexible vessel platforms will be a cornerstone for building these vessels.
“Even with the pandemic, international collaboration to build out an innovative U.S. CTV fleet has continued,” said Andy Page, managing director of Chartwell Marine. “We’ve been proud to continue working remotely with Blount to deliver a vessel to AWT’s specifications, a testament to the yard’s adaptability. As U.S. offshore wind continues to grow, it will be crucial to ensure a strong blueprint for a sustainable future is laid using reliable, trusted vessel designs.”
“This is our second CTV entering into service, and Chartwell Marine has been a responsive partner throughout the design and build process, adapting its proven vessel formula to ensure we continue to provide the highest levels of service for our current and future clients,” said Charles Donadio, CEO of Atlantic Wind Transfers. “The Chartwell 24 has set the benchmark for effective vessel performance in the U.S., and we look forward to continue working with Chartwell on improvements to future designs as the U.S. East Coast offshore wind farms build out.”
“Safety and reliability are top priorities for Dominion Energy, and AWT has a proven track record in the U.S. of delivering on these priorities,” said Joshua Bennett, Vice President of Offshore Wind, Dominion Energy. “As the owner and operator of the first offshore wind farm in U.S. federal waters, we take our responsibility to meet and exceed established global standards in crew transfer operations very seriously.”
“Maturing the offshore wind industry’s logistics solutions is a key part of making offshore wind in the U.S. a success,” said James Saunders, offshore operations manager for Siemens Gamesa. “We look forward to working with AWT and Dominion Energy to help realize the industry’s goals.”
AWT’s Atlantic Endeavor joins the Atlantic Pioneer, the first CTV to be launched in the U.S market, which has serviced the Block Island Wind Farm since 2016 through construction and now long-term O&M.
What products does The Crosby Group offer the renewable energy sector?
At The Crosby Group, we have one of the largest rigging equipment offerings in the world. We are a manufacturer of below-the-hook lifting components, load monitoring equipment, and mooring products. As you think about lifting components in the construction, maintenance, and service world of wind, you are going to be dependent on safe rigging equipment to connect your load to the crane. That’s where The Crosby Group comes into play.
Our expertise is in forging those lifting components that you see as connecting points or parts of slings, that you see lifting blades, turbines, nacelles, and tower sections. Our forging experience goes back hundreds of years. Our Gunnebo Industries brand was formed in 1764 in a small forge operation in Sweden. Crosby goes back to 1880 with the manufacturing of the wire rope clip in the U.S. With that rich history, even to today we have maintained highly vertically integrated manufacturing operations. We’ve expanded our global footprint with operations in the United States, Canada, and various countries in Europe, including the U.K., The Netherlands, Sweden, France, Norway, and Germany.
What does that mean for wind?
We see our product used in all parts of the life cycle of a wind farm. From construction to maintenance and repowering, The Crosby Group lifting equipment will be used in many applications. Whether it’s attaching as lifting points to tower sections, monitoring the weight of a load, or even in long-term mooring applications, our portfolio has a broad use throughout the lifting and rigging of wind-farm components.
Most people will be familiar with our products in the construction of wind farms. As an example, we have one of the widest ranges of shackles that will be used in conjunction with slings to lift tower sections, blades, nacelles, and rotors. For wind, we like to believe that our long history in manufacturing, vertical integration, and transparency gives contractors and crane operators peace of mind. When you are lifting multi-million-dollar equipment hundreds or thousands of feet in the air, you want to know that a company like The Crosby Group has your back with quality rigging equipment.
What recent developments highlight The Crosby Group’s commitment to offshore wind?
We’ve partnered with quite a few end users from construction firms to unions to train in safe rigging. In 2020, we developed and launched a “fundamentals of rigging” course geared toward offshore wind construction. For the last 20 years, The Crosby Group has had industry-leading training programs on heavy lift, offshore and onshore rigging applications, and train the trainer programs. So, it was a natural fit for us to develop a fundamentals course aimed at offshore wind. In this course, students will learn about risk management, riggings plans, and basic principles when using wire rope, chain, and synthetic slings with Crosby hardware.
2020 was an interesting year to launch such a program. With COVID, there was an obvious transition to doing more training virtually. We’ve put together a few programs and content to help address that gap, but there really is no good substitute for in-person training. With that in mind, we looked for opportunities to partner with end users in the offshore wind market to sneak in some in-person training when it was safe. We see a real need to educate end users in offshore wind construction, particularly in North America. The European market, as an example, is more mature and well developed when it comes to rigging in offshore wind. However, there is a real demand in North America for rigging education in this space.
Do you see the European model being used in the U.S. as we go forward?
I think so. We’ve seen a few organizations like the Global Wind Organization organizing a footprint here in the U.S. They have had a lot of success in Europe, which is where the market really has been strong. Rigging training geared toward offshore wind is something that will continue to grow, particularly in the U.S. We will be working with various partners, like our distribution network, to help establish that footprint. So, yes, I think you’ll see a European model that hopefully gets adopted here in the U.S. as this market starts to pick up.
What about The Crosby Group makes it uniquely suited to address these challenges that offshore wind presents?
When you think about lifting equipment and installing equipment in the ocean, you’ve got a market or an environment that is very similar to offshore oil and gas. While the components you are lifting are obviously different, basic safety principles and the equipment used to lift are going to very similar. Offshore oil and gas is an area that we have been successful in when it comes to training and supplying quality product. Whether it is a heavy-lift product, mooring, or load monitoring, Crosby’s heritage and the vast amount of experience that we have translates well.
Since offshore wind is still “new” to The Crosby Group as well, how are you working to increase your knowledge and experience?
Increasing our knowledge in any market is about starting with end users. When we decided we needed to know more about offshore wind, we reached out to our industry partners to get to know what problems they faced in lifting and rigging for offshore wind construction. As we had those conversations, we identified a number of opportunities that we could support. People wanted to know what their loads weighed, so we had a solution in our Crosby Straightpoint load monitoring product line as an example. Another opportunity was the training needs for basic rigging skills, which we can absolutely support.
There were other opportunities for us to learn about the market where we didn’t have a presence. One of those opportunities was to form a partnership with Verton, which we recently announced. Verton has a phenomenal product that eliminates the need for tag lines when lifting with a crane. They are also working on a specific product for wind that enables crane operators to position a load remotely in high wind environments. That partnership has built on Verton’s product expertise and our deep connection in the rigging industry.
What ways does The Crosby Group offer expertise in raising awareness for a well-trained workforce?
Training is a part of our heritage. There’s no other lifting and rigging manufacturers in our space that promote and offer the portfolio of training that we do. It’s as important to us to provide safe rigging equipment as it is to ensure that users of our equipment are adequately trained. We are very fortunate to have a distribution network that feels the same way. It’s our shared objective to ensure that rigging training and product is widely available to the offshore wind market.
So, what makes us well equipped to develop and promote training? We have members of our training, engineering and even our sales teams that sit on various rigging industry boards and committees. We use our product knowledge and industry service experience to develop our training programs. When we go in and we train on how to make a safe lift, what type of equipment selections you should be making, we are already in front of those industry standards as they evolve.
Part of what we do with that knowledge revolves around our “train the trainer” program. We have what we call a Rigging Trainer Development Course that focuses on equipping people to pass on rigging knowledge. Ensuring that the wind industry is equipped with not only competent, qualified riggers but also trainers is key to a well-trained work force. In a year prior to COVID, we trained somewhere in the range of 10,000 to 15,000 people a year. We are excited to bring that knowledge and reach to the wind market.
As offshore wind continues to develop in the U.S., how has The Crosby Group conditioned itself to further that goal?
To further the goal of offshore wind development in the U.S., we have continued to work with our distribution partners on addressing both product and rigging application needs of the industry. That’s why we’ve been doing a lot of virtual training about our products and applications. It’s an interesting transition to take some of the product that people have used for 100-plus years and apply that to construction and maintenance in offshore wind.
You can see that some of that content in our Crosby “Ask the Expert” podcast series that we have done. In that series we address a number of questions from end users. We talk about what components to use in offshore applications, how to avoid mooring fatigue, and hydrogen embrittlement — all topics relative to offshore wind.
There’s an old saying that in a project you can only pick two of doing something fast, cheap, or good. We emphasize that in application use and product selection that SAFE is actually the first and most important part of a project. We are happy to partner with our distribution network and our shared end users to promote that in the offshore wind industry.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, wind power in the United States has tripled in the past decade. It is now the largest source of renewable energy in the country. While the U.S. has been harnessing onshore wind energy for the past decade, the price of offshore wind per MW ($ per MW) has fallen to among the lowest energy cost per unit. As such, the U.S. is ramping up to capitalize on the offshore wind-energy market.
The increasing demand for renewable energy means a corresponding increase in the workforce required to build, operate, and maintain offshore wind farms. The wind has the potential to support more than 600,000 jobs in the U.S. by 2050.
With that comes a unique set of health, safety, and training challenges. Fortunately, the U.S. industry can shorten its learning process by looking at successful projects in the U.K. and leveraging best practices to ensure they have the medical staffing, team, and resources necessary to protect workers on offshore wind farms.
The United Kingdom (U.K.) leads the world in offshore wind capacity and has revised its offshore wind deployment target of 40 GW by 2030, up from the 10 GW it currently has.
Wind farms are in areas with consistently windy conditions that can increase the risk for falls, especially as wind speeds rise to unsafe levels. (Courtesy: Remote Medical International)
Safety Challenges of Offshore Wind Farms
Offshore wind farms are, by their very nature, remote locations. In the event of an emergency such as a heart attack or an on-the-job injury, medical care must be administered on-site prior to evacuation.
The immense size of a wind turbine is also a challenge to worker safety. Today’s wind turbines can be upwards of 200 feet. Rescue skills are critical to reaching a worker who requires medical attention in a turbine.
The height also presents a danger from falls and falling objects. Throughout construction and maintenance, workers may be working hundreds of feet in the air. When they accidentally drop a tool or object and someone is hit, it can cause major injury — and, at the very least, it will hurt.
Wind farms are in areas with consistently windy conditions that can increase the risk for falls, especially as wind speeds rise to unsafe levels. Add to that extreme rapidly changing weather conditions that can occur miles offshore.
An offshore wind farm medical team is not just treating employees who visit the ship’s hospital; they must also be prepared to deliver care in a 200-foot-plus turbine or lower the patient to safety.
Further, as the demand for offshore wind energy in the U.S. rapidly increases, construction will be a 24/7 operation, which only increases the need for trained medical support staff and for training personnel on how to handle emergencies and provide advanced first aid.
The most common medical issues on offshore wind farms include crush injuries from tools or hydraulics, everyday illnesses of all types, dental emergencies, problems from ongoing medical conditions such as diabetes or asthma, serious medical emergencies such as heart attacks and strokes, and, of course, COVID-19.
These are complicated not only by the remote location of most wind farms, meaning medical help could be hours away, but also by the infrastructure. For example, Remote Medical International medics were called to help a 35-year-old who had become confused while on a turbine. The medic had to scale the tower, quickly diagnose the issue, extricate the individual from the turbine, and provide emergency treatment for, in this case, a stroke, until he could be evacuated. The interesting thing here is no one would have expected a 35-year-old to experience a life-threatening cerebral event.
Wind-Farm Construction vs. O&M Medical Needs
Identifying the right medical support services and resources for an offshore wind farm requires a solid understanding of their business operations with the flexibility to change the medical services provided as the wind farm’s needs shift with time.
During the initial construction phase, trained medical professionals must be deployed on jack-up vessels that serve as floating triage centers or clinics. These vessels provide medical support much like a general practitioner, treating minor abrasions, administering antibiotics, and addressing day-to-day medical concerns. Without this treatment, employees would have to go back to shore for even minor treatments. This results in significant costs and could disrupt construction depending on the individual’s role.
Alternatively, without this class of support, workers may opt to ignore maladies until they become more serious issues, resulting not only in additional costs and down time, but also increasing the risk to life.
Deployment in the construction phase is typically a short-term assignment relative to the life of the wind farm but requires trained medics and nurses. Construction may last only two years but require more than 600 individuals depending on the size of the farm.
However, once the wind farm moves into the operations and maintenance (O&M) phase, a medical support team that works alongside technicians for the long-term is required. While supporting about 50 to 60 people, the support will be needed for the life of the farm — 25 years or more. Offshore wind-farm employees expect professional-level care to maintain day-to-day health as well as in the case of an emergency.
Along with finding the right partner to provide onsite medical support, it’s vital to train teams in preventive health and emergency response. (Courtesy: Remote Medical International)
COVID-19
Health screenings are the first line of defense against COVID-19 in the workplace. Medical experts must develop a COVID-19 assessment program tailored to each location’s unique operational needs. This includes screening questionnaires based on the latest CDC guidelines and assessments for signs and symptoms of COVID-19. In addition, regular COVID-19 testing helps mitigate the risk of unknowingly exposing the organization. When one or more employees test positive, it is crucial to have a case-management strategy in place to safely and efficiently care for the affected individuals and monitor for potential workplace spread. Finally, as vaccines become increasingly available, organizations must develop plans to roll them out to workers in remote locations.
To ensure the continuous operation of offshore wind farms, it’s critical that a company’s medical-services partner has the flexibility to offer new services when an emergency, such as a global pandemic, occurs.
Training
Along with finding the right partner to provide onsite medical support, it’s vital to train teams in preventive health and emergency response. Considering the size of offshore wind farms — they can span 145 square kilometers (55 square miles) — the response time to any medical emergency by vessel could be hours. It is impossible to have a medic on every turbine, so workers need to be confident that they can rely on the first aid skills of the person next to them, at least for the first 10 to 20 minutes. This makes training an essential part of any health and safety program.
Preventive Health
A corollary to medical training is prevention training. Training workers how to avoid injury and illness helps ensure they are aware of the hazards and can stay safe on-site. This training should cover a wide range of topics including fall prevention, health (and mental health) strategies for working in confined spaces, first aid, proper use of PPE, avoiding slips and trips, preparing for extreme weather, and general health and safety education.
Emergency Training
Emergency training includes a variety of exercises and drills that run through various scenarios, different types of rescues, and treatments. It is designed to give a technician confidence they can help a colleague when needed while on their own turbines, safely. Minimally, technicians should receive in-depth training and practice on dummy turbine masts where scenarios can be simulated as if they were on their own turbines every two years. And if a medic is embedded with the team, training should take place monthly.
Even with the best training, however, companies must be realistic about the time, skills, and scale of support needed to deliver emergency medical treatment. Realistically, it can’t be taught in a two-day medical course or occasional refresher program.
Critical Medical Support Services
As the burgeoning offshore wind-energy industry grows in the U.S., the experience of companies like Remote Medical International working in the U.K. has shown that U.S. companies must offer medical support services that include paramedics, rescue capabilities, and topside services. Because the work environment is well-outside the acceptable distance to the nearest hospital, offshore wind farms must have the services and resources to provide extended care to employees in the event of a construction injury or other medical situation and to provide basic and ongoing health and safety training.
As the market in the U.S. continues to grow, it’s critical for companies to seek a partner experienced in the renewable energy sector that understands the unique safety challenges of offshore wind farms and has the ability to meet an evolving set of medical needs to keep employees stay safe, healthy, and on the job.
Offshore wind turbines are always an impressive sight as the massive structures rise out of the ocean and up into the atmosphere, transforming gusts of wind into electricity.
But, as that power is generated, it has to rely on miles and miles of cable to transport that energy to the thousands of homes and businesses that depend on it.
The responsibility for manufacturing and installing that massive amount of cable falls on Nexans, a company that has been dedicated to designing cables and cable systems for more than a century.
“One of our main business areas is export cables for offshore wind,” said Ragnhild Katteland, executive vice president for the Subsea and Land Systems Business Group at Nexans. “We delivered the 150kV subsea export cable to the very first commercial offshore wind farm, the Hornsea I in Denmark, at the beginning of 2000. The windfarm — and the cable — are still in operation. We have an end-to-end approach for this business; from front-end-engineering through design, manufacturing, and installation to inspection, maintenance, and repair.”
Artist’s illustration of Nexans Aurora offshore cable laying vessel at an offshore windfarm. The vessel will make its debut in 2021. (Courtesy: Nexans)
Working closely with clients
Nexans maintains a long-term partnership with its clients and works closely with them in order to contribute to the development of the industry by offering innovative solutions adapted to their changing needs, according to Katteland.
“The offshore wind farms are getting larger and farther away from shore,” she said. “This requires new solutions as well as dedicated, experienced, and professional teams to execute the projects.”
Those developments and innovations are an important ingredient for Nexans as the company strives for a carbon-neutral future, according to Katteland.
“Our purpose is to ‘Electrify the Future,’” she said. “Nexans has its own goal to be carbon neutral by 2030, and electrification is key to reach the ambitious carbon neutral goals set by the different governments and associations. We are delivering the export cable solutions for offshore wind farms as well as the interconnectors to make this happen. Offshore wind farms are safe and sustainable; it’s renewable, and it is really a way to have de-carbonized energy accessible to everyone.”
Start-to-finish involvement
In order to meet those admirable goals, Nexans is intricately involved in the development from the beginning, bringing together its clients and its suppliers to make up a robust supply chain, according to Katteland.
“Nexans can bring solutions and new developments to the offshore wind farms for them to move forward,” she said. “We’re not only bringing the product, we are installing and protecting a true end-to-end approach of the projects. We have formed a partnership with Bureau Veritas for certifying the way we are working on project management and risk management to ensure the best way of working and safest results for our clients.”
The Nexans high-voltage cable plant in Goose Creek, South Carolina, is being expanded to manufacture underwater cable for offshore wind farms. (Courtesy: Nexans)
Meeting specific challenges
Every offshore wind farm has its specific challenges, and the experts at Nexans strive to meet and answer every customer’s needs, according to Katteland.
“To give the best support to our clients we need to understand the projects and stake holders,” she said. “And how to bring additional value on top of delivering the product and the installation itself.”
Nexans’ commitment to a project starts with early involvement and carries through to the very end, according to Katteland. But it doesn’t end there. Nexans is also involved in maintenance and aftermarket to ensure a reliable cable link.
Developing the U.S. market
With all its experience in the European offshore wind market, Nexans already has begun making inroads in the fledgling U.S. offshore wind market, according to Katteland.
“We have a long-term frame contract with Ørsted for using our cable manufacturing plant in Charleston (South Carolina) that we’ve now turned into a high voltage subsea plant,” she said. “That will be the first HV subsea plant in the U.S. From this plant, we will deliver the export cables for the wind farms to be developed by Ørsted and other potential U.S. offshore wind farm projects that we are following closely.”
The road that has led Nexans to being a leading supplier of cables and systems to the wind industry is a long one.
The path of Nexans’ cable. (Courtesy: Nexans)
120-plus year history
The company was founded in 1897 delivering cables and cable systems to a myriad of industries. In 2001, the cable and components part of the company was spun off from Alcatel to become Nexans.
At the beginning of the 1970s, Nexans’ HV subsea flagship plant, Halden, Norway, was constructed, as well as the C/S Nexans Skagerrak, Nexans’ laying vessel. Both were built for one project only — the first interconnector between Norway and Denmark, according to Katteland.
“That was our first-ever interconnection project,” she said. “And now we have a long history of solid experience of cable manufacturing and cable installation, both subsea and onshore.”
Next up: Floating farms
Nexans continues to grow within electrification as Katteland emphasized that the next phase after the bottom fixed offshore wind farms will be floating offshore wind farms.
“For the floating offshore wind farm, dynamic cables are needed, as opposed to static cables, which are used for bottom fixed offshore wind farms,” she said. “We have gained valuable experience and technology knowledge from previous engagements in the oil and gas industry, which we now are using for the offshore wind industry.”
A cable laying vessel the company used in 1936. (Courtesy: Nexans)
By using the knowledge Nexans learned from existing industries, the company was able to deliver cables to an offshore floating wind farm demo in 2007, and later, Nexans delivered cables used for Hywind Scotland, commissioned in 2017, according to Katteland.
Katteland fully expects Nexans’ involvement in wind projects across the globe to grow, which stands as a testament to its rich, diverse history.
“We are pioneers; we are united; we are dedicated,” she said. “These are our company values, and these are the ones driving us.”
Nexans is ideally positioned to continue offering quality cable and cable systems as it moves into the next phase of global wind-energy development.
“Electrification is a key enabler for the green transition in the world, and with this, an increasing demand for cables,” Katteland said. “The wind industry worldwide is expected to grow with an additional 200 GW next decade, with a split of about 90 GW in Europe, 90 GW in Asia, and the remaining in the U.S.”
A cutaway of a Nexans HVAC export cable. (Courtesy: Nexans)
The future of U.S. offshore
Most of the offshore wind farms the next decade will be of the fixed bottom variety, but Katteland expects floating wind-farm technology to become more of a reality as well.
“As floating gets more mature, you will see floating wind farms being planned where bottom fixed cannot be built due to water depth,” she said. “There are several prospects in the early engineering stages, like outside California.”
Nexans is adding capacity to its plant in Halden, as well as reinforcing and adding capacity to its Charleston facility, which should support both the U.S. and European market, according to Katteland. Nexans is also investing in a state-of-the-art cable laying vessel, Nexans Aurora, a new cable-laying vessel built for the installation of interconnectors and export cables used in offshore wind.
The technology group Wärtsilä will supply its advanced energy-storage technology for two major projects in southern Texas. The interconnected stand-alone systems will have a combined rated capacity of 200 MW. Wärtsilä has also signed 10-year guaranteed asset performance agreements for the installations. The order was placed by Able Grid Energy Solutions, Inc. (“Able Grid”), a utility-scale energy storage project development arm of MAP RE/ES, one of North America’s leading investors in modern energy projects. The order was booked by Wärtsilä in February 2021.
The Madero and Ignacio energy storage plants will deliver valuable grid support to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the body responsible for managing the electric supply to more than 25 million customers. Wärtsilä will supply its next-generation, fully integrated GridSolv Quantum energy storage solution. The modular solution is designed for ease of deployment and sustainable energy optimization. The energy-storage systems will also feature Wärtsilä’s GEMS smart energy management platform to monitor and control the flow of energy, enabling these projects to provide grid support for critical periods during extreme weather or grid instability conditions, such as those that Texas has recently experienced.
“Able Grid selected Wärtsilä technology, among other considerations, for its critical safety and cyber-security features,” said Sharon Greenberg, Able Grid Chief Operating Officer. “The system complies with all applicable standards, like UL9540A, to ensure sustained safe and reliable operations. In addition, the GEMS Power Plant Controller is U.S.-code based and meets all IEC62443 cybersecurity standards.”
“The Madero and Ignacio projects will participate in the existing ERCOT wholesale electricity market, delivering key ancillary services required for grid stability, including frequency regulation,” said Aaron Zubaty, CEO of MAP RE/ES. “Years of development by forward-looking innovators like Wärtsilä now allow us to deploy market-driven solutions that will improve electricity grid reliability and performance while enabling further decarbonization of electricity markets.”
“Energy storage is rapidly becoming a key asset for the global energy markets, and Wärtsilä has a leading position in this field,” said Risto Paldanius, Vice President, Americas, Wärtsilä Energy. “In the planning of these installations, we were able to provide solid expertise based on our depth of experience in energy storage, and this added considerable value to our energy optimisation capabilities.”
The projects’ 10-year Wärtsilä Guaranteed asset performance agreements will enable flexibility in system maintenance and operation in order to maximize revenue in the ERCOT market. The agreements include maintenance services, an availability guarantee, and a flexible capacity guarantee based on usage.
The systems are expected to become fully operational in January 2022.
Able Grid will provide construction management and operational asset management services for the facility, which is owned by a privately-held energy storage power producer building multiple utility-scale energy-storage projects across the US. Since its founding in 2016, Able Grid’s focus has been on investing in communities and markets where energy storage will generate long-term value to utilities that manage diverse energy portfolios, providing low-cost and sustainable power for their customers. MAP RE/ES has been an innovating and leading investor in renewable energy projects since 2005 and has directly funded the development of more than 16,000 MW of operating wind and solar generating capacity located across the United States.
Alan Glore’s decision to enroll in the business management program at the Centura College of Allied Health and Trades campus around the corner from his house in Newport News seemed like a logical career move.
After all, Glore reasoned, the commute was short, he would be crowning his associate’s degree in social services with a bachelor’s, and the former cellphone tower repairman would be keeping his feet on the ground, albeit reluctantly.
Then he spied a brochure in the for-profit college’s lobby. It beckoned students to explore a career in maintaining wind turbines.
Glore was smitten enough to reinvent his future on the spot.
“Any job I’ve had since climbing cellphone towers hasn’t really done it for me,” he said. “I need to be up in the air.”
Now, the 39-year-old is on his way back up. In February, he joined the inaugural class of six intent on becoming certified wind-turbine technicians a year from now.
“I’d heard about it, but didn’t know how to be part of it,” he said about renewable energy work. “This is my jumpstart, with an exclamation point.”
With more than 5 GW of wind power literally on its horizon, the first-of-its-kind training is a piece of Virginia’s endeavor to become an industry hub. Students learn classroom and hands-on lessons at the Centura campus in Norfolk and two of its for-profit “sister” colleges — Tidewater Tech and the Aviation Institute of Maintenance.
Glore can barely contain his enthusiasm for discovering his academic groove. Even an untrained observer can detect a smile behind the redhead’s mask during an evening class in electricity.
It doesn’t matter that his round-trip commute, which includes navigating the oft-congested Elizabeth River tunnel, was lengthened to 60 miles, that he bagged his idea of starting a catering company with the planned business degree, or that certification requires 12 intense months of immersion.
“I better be exuberant about it because I’m already in it, and there’s no turning back,” Glore said. “I just feel I would’ve been treading water doing anything else.”
Oceanographer grabs wind, runs with it
That Glore was even able to pivot to a close-to-home degree related to renewable energy is due to the persistence — and impatience — of Michael Lanouette.
The oceanographer, with a doctorate in education, has dedicated 35 years to helping technical career colleges from Florida to California be nimbler and more relevant. Since a 2018 move to Virginia, he has focused on Centura and the associated for-profit campuses where he serves as vice president of administration.
John Blumenstein is one of Centura College’s wind-turbine technician instructors. (Courtesy: Elizabeth McGowan/Energy News Network)
“Wind is going to happen,” Lanouette said, his words tumbling as rapidly as he skittered among an impressive array of 100 welding booths tucked inside a Tidewater Tech building. “My question was: Are there going to be high-paying jobs available to graduates? The answer is yes, so we did it.”
“It” refers to innovating a wind-turbine technician program in nine months by adding specialized courses to the foundational ones already offered to aspiring tradespeople.
As a for-profit force, Lanouette said he was able to take a get-out-of-my-way approach and cut through bureaucratic red tape.
“I have a team, but I was the tip of the sword,” he said about his pluckiness. “We’re the muscle behind this.”
Since arriving in Virginia, Lanouette had attended meetings about how the state could fill thousands of anticipated wind jobs. Public universities such as Old Dominion, Virginia Tech, and James Madison covered the engineering and policy bases, but hemmed and hawed on the subject of turbine maintenance.
A frustrated Lanouette leaped to fill that void because “we’re the little engine that can. We can create niche programs that other schools can’t.”
That’s why he was beaming on February 3 when Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam and a slew of dignitaries attended a ribbon-cutting at Centura Norfolk for the program rollout.
Chance Payton is a student in the wind turbine technician program. (Courtesy: Elizabeth McGowan/Energy News Network)
And Lanouette was still smiling in mid-February when U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., hosted a socially distanced conversation at the same campus with a who’s who of renewable energy insiders about how the state can position itself as an offshore wind leader.
Northam and a Democratic-majority General Assembly have been aggressive with legislation forcing the state’s main investor-owned utilities — Dominion and Appalachian Power — to displace fossil fuels with renewable energy.
Last October, when Lanouette was in the midst of weaving together his training program, the governor told a national audience about the new Mid-Atlantic Wind Training Alliance. In addition to Centura, Virginia’s nascent but bold attempt to create wind-specific jobs includes the New College Institute and the Mid-Atlantic Maritime Academy.
To ensure the courses have the wind industry’s seal of approval, all are certified by the Global Wind Organization and the National Center for Construction, Education, and Research.
Mayor Kenneth Alexander, in his fifth year leading Norfolk, is thrilled his hometown city is in the thick of training for a transition to clean energy. As chancellor of the three for-profit colleges, he is one of Lanouette’s top cheerleaders.
“Research and development is fine, but I wanted us to be part of the hands-on experience,” he said. “My passion is putting people to work.”
Trent Nylander is one of Centura College’s wind-turbine technician instructors. (Courtesy: Elizabeth McGowan/Energy News Network)
Location and a robust maritime history position southeast Virginia as the nexus where the economy, the workforce, and the supply chain can become wind-energy-centric.
Alexander and Lanouette have teamed up to “spread the gospel” educating people about real and viable job opportunities in renewable energy.
“Our little school had other groups talking with one another,” Alexander said. “We’re going to mean something in this field.”
The mayor is also motivated by the double-whammy jeopardizing the expansive Hampton Roads region on the Chesapeake Bay. An unfortunate and well-documented mix of geology and climate change means flooding is constant because the land is sinking as the ocean is rising.
“I didn’t just wake up one day to say I wanted to align myself with wind, solar, and energy storage,” said Alexander, a state legislator for 14 years. “It’s part of my body of work.”
‘I picked the right one’
Lanouette’s team hired two seasoned instructors — John Blumenstein and Trent Nylander — so Glore and his fellow trainees could absorb lessons from pros with years of on-the-job and teaching experience.
Nylander, a Colorado native and longtime electrician, entered the wind industry two decades ago as a technician. He worked in Colorado, Kansas, and Texas before landing in Norfolk.
“I always wanted to be near the beach, but I never thought it would be on the East Coast,” he joked. “Really though, this is an ideal situation because I love teaching.”
Michael Lanouette outside Centura College. (Courtesy: Elizabeth McGowan/Energy News Network)
He feels confident his students will find jobs because the “market for wind is so hot right now that the industry can’t find enough bodies to fill positions.”
Blumenstein said the wind industry will reward those with knowledge who show extra effort. He learned that working for General Electric’s wind subsidiary after the company sent him to school in upstate New York in 2008.
Turbines were a natural segue for the Navy veteran with 45 years of experience as an auto mechanic.
“It’s basically the same,” he said, comparing what’s under the “hood” of each. “But with turbines, everything is bigger.”
Hired as the wind-turbine coordinator, Blumenstein embraces mentoring by easing Centura’s eager class of recent high school graduates, military veterans, and career-switchers into new roles.
“It’s exciting, especially when you think about the number of turbines going up just between here and Maryland,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity.”
Chance Payton of Virginia Beach is one of his student sponges keen to absorb every ounce of insight.
The soft-spoken 20-year-old, highlighter poised over his textbook on the table in a Centura classroom, admits he signed up after his mother demanded he select a career from a list of choices she drew up. In his heart, the recent high school graduate is aware she “nagged” him because she didn’t want her son settling for his job at the local carwash.
“I feel like I picked the right one,” Payton said about his mother’s tally, which also included carpenter, painter, mechanic, and nurse.
He was exposed to the principles of renewable energy during science classes at Wilson High School, where he gravitated to projects that dug into its related technology.
However, even though he excels at science and math, he admits being a bit intimidated by an entirely new vocabulary of nacelles, rotor blades, and gearboxes. He is still training his brain to soak in a new language.
Michael Lanouette, left, with Norfolk Mayor Kenneth Alexander. (Courtesy: Elizabeth McGowan/Energy News Network)
Theory to practice
The squat unmemorable buildings that house Centura and Tidewater Tech are as nondescript as the different but equally dreary thoroughfares they are located along.
But the colleges weren’t invented to win architectural accolades. While some for-profit colleges have been under a harsh spotlight for questionable practices, these particular institutions provide the setting, instructors, and tools for students to gain command of a trade from theory to practice.
“That’s our wheelhouse,” Lanouette said. “It’s where we shine.”
Early on, Payton, Glore, and their fellow trainees were poring over the intricacies of safety, voltage, pneumatics, hydraulics, and electrical and mechanical systems. An interactive model of a turbine’s innards at the back of the classroom turns what they read and hear into three-dimensional exercises.
The practice part begins later. For instance, at the Aviation Institute’s composite lab, they will learn how to repair a damaged turbine blade, applying the same science used in the airline industry.
Live lessons in climbing, rigging, and rescue will start as soon as another partner, the nearby Mid-Atlantic Maritime Academy, delivers a 60-foot turbine to a now-empty lot adjacent to Centura.
Students will travel to the academy to practice rappelling, necessary because turbine blades are often close to 350 feet long, and maneuvering safely between a transport boat and a turbine.
If and when Hampton Roads attracts wind-turbine manufacturers — most fabrication is now in Europe — Lanouette is already brainstorming a future training program with Tidewater Tech’s 100 welding booths as its centerpiece.
He’s tuned in to what he calls wind energy’s “cool factor,” but what sparked him to initiate the technician program is far from superficial.
Lanouette formed a deep connection to the cycles of the sea during his oceanography studies. Plus, like any offshore wind technician, he knows what it’s like to live remotely in cramped quarters with little human contact and be a self-sufficient problem-solver.
“Our planet is fascinating in that it does have the ability to right itself,” he said. “It’s just that the humans can’t keep doing what we’re doing when it comes to pollution.”
To ensure the courses have the wind industry’s seal of approval, all are certified by the Global Wind Organization and the National Center for Construction, Education, and Research. (Courtesy: Elizabeth McGowan/Energy News Network)
Thinking beyond two wind farms
The technician program is on a rolling admission schedule. Already, a total of 10 more students are in line to start in April and May. That aligns with Centura’s motto of “get in, get out, and get a good job.”
Lanouette knows it was a gamble to graduate the first classes in 2022, three years before Dominion Energy will complete its 188-turbine, 2.6-GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind commercial project 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.
But somebody had to plant the proverbial flag.
Jennifer Palestrant, chief deputy for the state energy agency, organized the stakeholder roundtables a year ago that spawned the wind alliance.
This first iteration of training was designed to emphasize skill flexibility so graduates had the option of working in places such as the shipyards until local wind farms are operating, she explained.
“We decided we couldn’t wait to build the workforce,” Palestrant said. “This isn’t just about us. The goal is not just to build two wind farms. It’s about bringing this industry to the United States with all of those jobs and opportunities.”
Of course, newly minted wind-turbine technicians aren’t without other geographical options.
From coast to coast, the country has more than 122 GW of onshore and offshore wind power capacity, according to the American Clean Power Association. And the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calls job prospects for turbine service technicians “excellent,” projecting employment will grow a whopping 61 percent by 2029. The median annual wage is roughly $53,000.
Palestrant, who calls herself the face of offshore wind in Virginia, conservatively estimates that the region could be flush with 5,000 wind jobs if manufacturers set up shop in Hampton Roads.
That jobs figure would drop to 1,000, she said, if the sum total of the region’s wind amounts to only the offshore projects being built by Dominion and Avangrid Renewables. Avangrid’s proposed Kitty Hawk project would expand from an initial 800 MW to 2.5 GW off coastal North Carolina and Virginia by 2030.
To achieve the 5,000-jobs scenario, Palestrant wants to widen the wind alliance into North Carolina and also include community colleges and primary and secondary schools.
John Larson, Dominion’s director of public policy and economic development, said the utility doesn’t yet know how many turbine technicians it will need for its Virginia project. That formula blends what type of maintenance the turbines will need with the frequency of technician visits necessary.
He pointed out that his company has tapped into similar types of trade and technical programs to recruit employees in other utility divisions. New hires always undergo internal training so they are familiar with the Dominion-specific technology.
“We’re working diligently on our staffing plans,” Larson said, adding that offshore wind jobs require unique individuals at ease spending weeks away from home. “They have to be committed and of the right mindset.”
Alan Glore is a student in the wind turbine technician program. (Courtesy: Elizabeth McGowan/Energy News Network)
More than ‘a wrench turner’
Glore, the former cellphone and radio tower repairman, laughs about his self-assigned label as “a climber and a wrench turner.” But in the next breath, he acknowledges the acuity, agility, and stamina required to keep sophisticated turbine blades spinning on land or sea.
“It’s a hard life,” he said about the nine years he spent up and down the East Coast navigating mountains, lightning storms, isolation, and towers as high as 1,400 feet. “Everything you hit is made of steel, and it hits you back. That hurts.”
Glore expects his younger classmates — their average age is 24 — will seek him out for climbing tips. While their practice turbine is just 60 feet, part of an on-the-job qualifying test each graduate will have to pass is climbing five times that high.
“A 300-foot tower? That’s a baby, dude,” he said. “You got to get over your fear of heights first.”
He stopped climbing six years ago only because of a family obligation. A less-outgoing brother needed guidance about broadening his lawn care business beyond the startup stage.
Glore is proud to be enrolled in the program during its infancy. He anticipates watching it mature along with the wind industry.
“I can drive by here all the time after I graduate and say that I helped to build that,” he said. “It’s nice to look back and see what you had a hand in creating.”
Hong Kong-based floating wind-power generation pioneer Ocean Wind International Industrial Limited says recent news confirming that half of the total offshore wind-power capacity installed last year deployed by China is “highly encouraging and portends well for the Asia Pacific region as a whole.”
The jump in China’s offshore wind-power generation capacity — 9.89 GW — brings it close to the U.K.’s. (Courtesy Ocean Wind International)
The world’s second-biggest economy installed 3.06 GW in 2020, representing half of the 6 GW deployed globally despite a global economy ravaged by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Though much of China’s installed generation used fixed foundations embedded in the seabed, Ocean Wind International believes that future installations will use more floating wind turbines that can be further out to sea and, thus, take advantage of stronger winds while costing less to install and maintain.
“China has a very ambitious goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2060, but we believe that by making greater use of floating wind turbine solutions that deadline could be brought forward dramatically,” said Jeremy Fitzroy, Ocean Wind International’s chairman and CEO.
The jump in China’s offshore wind-power generation capacity — 9.89 GW — brings it to within a whisker of that being achieved by the world’s biggest offshore wind market, the United Kingdom’s 10.2 GW. Policy advancements being made in other Asian countries are seen as being particularly bullish by Ocean Wind International, especially those in Japan, given the understandable reluctance to revisit nuclear power generation after the devastating Fukushima power plant disaster of 2011.
Pattern Energy, an independent renewable energy company, recently entered into an agreement to fund extensive new research by Bird Conservancy of the Rockies to study birds associated with piñon-juniper woodlands in New Mexico. Pattern Energy’s $80,000 contribution will support scientific monitoring of the potential impacts from management activities on the pinyon jay and other declining birds associated with piñon-juniper woodlands.
Pattern Energy is developing the Western Spirit Wind Projects, collectively the largest single-phase wind project in the United States, in central New Mexico, where the landscape is typified by a mosaic of piñon-juniper woodlands and savannas. The contribution comes from financial agreements for four wind energy projects: Clines Corners Wind Farm LLC, Duran Mesa LLC, Red Cloud Wind LLC, and Tecolote Wind LLC (collectively, the “Western Spirit Wind Projects”).
“The pinyon jay has suffered an 85 percent decline in population since the 1960s and is predicted to lose an additional 50 percent% of its population by 2035,” said Carol Beidleman with Defenders of Wildlife in Santa Fe. “This research will be absolutely vital to protecting this vulnerable species and its habitat.”
“Along with the loss of over a million pinyon jays, many other bird species dependent on piñon-juniper woodlands, such as the juniper titmouse, have also declined significantly,” she said. “The situation is dire, but thanks to strong support from Pattern Energy, there will be reliable science to guide land management projects to better protect this vulnerable habitat and the bird species that are dependent on it.”
“We have learned from years of conducting extensive avian surveys that state and federal agencies, as well as conservation stakeholders, have expressed a lack of robust data on the current status and vulnerabilities of pinyon jays and we wanted to resolve that,” said Adam Cernea Clark of Pattern Energy. “Given the iconic nature of the pinyon jay and its role as a keystone species in a delicate ecosystem, Pattern Energy wants to build our collective understanding of the species and its habitat in New Mexico.”
Of the iconic landscapes in New Mexico, the most familiar is probably that of the piñon-juniper woodlands. Covering a significant portion of the state, this habitat has always been important to humans, as a source of firewood and the nutritious piñon “nuts,” but also for birds and other wildlife. Without the pinyon jay, however, there would be few new piñon pines. Theirs is a symbiotic relationship, with this beautiful blue jay being the primary consumer, and disperser, of the seeds. It “caches” or buries the seeds, allowing for more successful germination. Many other bird species associated with this habitat are therefore dependent on the pinyon jay, just as we are.
Through a collaboration with Defenders of Wildlife, Audubon Southwest, and The Nature Conservancy of New Mexico, Cernea Clark saw an opportunity to support a new research project focused on piñon-juniper woodlands and their associated bird species in New Mexico.
“What I learned from the conservation community is that the pinyon jay, with its caches of seeds, is the primary means for the piñon pine to expand its distribution,” Cernea Clark said. “We know that ecosystems themselves are migrating in elevation and latitude in response to climate change and piñon-juniper woodlands need this bird to adapt to a changing climate. Pattern Energy’s mission is to transition the world to renewable energy, which we need to mitigate the intensity of climate change. There is an eloquent parallel in this bird’s role in the environment and the role of renewable projects like the Western Spirit Wind Projects.”
Some threats to the pinyon jay are known. Climate change and drought, accompanied by insect outbreaks, have killed many piñon trees. But, less is known about how large landscape management projects, such as thinning for wildfire mitigation and clearing for rangeland improvements, affect this rapidly disappearing bird.
The Port of Vancouver USA is reporting a record-breaking year in 2020, with the highest returns in its 108-year history: revenues totaling $50 million — a 15 percent increase from the previous year.
The port moved more than 7 million metric tons of commodities, with energy infrastructure components leading the effort. More than 2,700 wind turbines crossed the docks of the port, the most of any West Coast port and enough to power 112,000 homes.
Last year, the Port of Vancouver USA moved more than 7 million metric tons of commodities, with energy infrastructure components leading the effort. (Courtesy: Port of Vancouver USA)
In 2020, the pandemic disrupted many businesses, but the Port of Vancouver’s proficiency in bulk and break bulk cargoes allowed the port to leverage its best assets, including the ability to handle large-sized shipments, such as wind-energy components. This advantage, along with extensive laydown space for storage, a highly-skilled work force, and excellent transportation connections equipped the port to weather the economic disruption.
“Strategic investments, long-term customer partnerships, and a diverse product mix positioned the port well to continue service as an economic engine for our community during some very difficult times,” said Alex Strogen, chief commercial officer with the Port of Vancouver.
In addition to wind-energy components, the port moved more than 5.4 million metric tons of grain, more than 300,000 metric tons of copper concentrate, and nearly 90,000 automobiles, with a record number of 3,350 autos received on a single vessel in October. Additionally, more than 450,000 labor hours were recorded by local ILWU Longshore workers, whose wages added millions of dollars into the local economy.
“As we look ahead in 2021, we continue to see opportunity for the further diversification of products handled by the port,” Strogen said. “Our role as an economic engine for our community continues to grow regardless of the challenges faced.”
The Port of Vancouver USA is one of the major ports on the Pacific Coast, and its competitive strengths include available land, versatile cargo handling capabilities, vast transportation networks, a skilled labor force, and an exceptional level of service to its customers and community.
Glore was smitten enough to reinvent his future on the spot.
