Engr. Col Mushtaq Hussain Dar(R) shared his experience with Engineering Post,
Engr. Col Mushtaq Hussain Dar(R), General Manager Plants/Chief technical officer of 2 wind farms, with a capacity of 50MW each, namely Foundation wind Energy Limited (FWEL) 1 and 2 located at Gharo, attended the Global Wind Summit and shared his observations with Engineering Post.
Over 35,000 visitors from 100 countries, including state energy ministers, EU commissioners and corporate CEOs presented their latest technologies and strategies under the theme of “Breaking New Ground” at the Global wind summit held in Hamburg, Germany’s Exposition Center. About 1,400 exhibitors, speakers, energy ministers, European Union commissioners, and CEOs gave presentations covering the latest technologies and strategies.
The expo is one of the world’s largest wind energy events. Held every two years and organized by WindEurope, the Global Wind Energy Association, and VDMA Power Systems, it consists of both the Wind Energy Hamburg Expo and the Wind Europe Conference. Though only generating roughly 5% of global energy, wind is the fastest growing sector in the industry. The summit brought together 16 turbine manufacturers including Chinese and Indian producers. In addition to discussing the expanding role of wind, daily themes included advancing generation capacity, digitization, new technologies (such as floating offshore wind), financing, and investment strategies.
As the Summit opened, WindEurope began disseminating its latest study, detailing how more than 20 GW of wind capacity could be installed annually between 2030 and 2050.
The most important shift this time around was the introduction of All Brand takeover in contrast to the prevalent trend of Operations & Maintenance (O&M) by original equipment manufacturer (OEM). This is a cutthroat change in the corporate setup and is likely to cause a stir in the prevailing administrative structure and has the potential to change the dynamics of Wind energy business all over the world by making the environment more competitive in the near future.
Another important change is the reduction of O&M costs Vis a Vis the reduction of Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) cost.
On the technological side, producers showcased the development of ever-larger capacities. MHI Vestas launched its new 10-MW version of the company’s V164 offshore turbine. According to the company, the new turbines are designed to run at full power in wind speeds of 10 meters per second, last for 25 years and be able to power almost 6,000 average European homes. Nordex also discussed its new N149 4.0-4.5 MW on-shore prototype that, after a challenging trial period, just received test certificates.
GE subsidiary LM Wind Power’s senior director John Korsgaard stated that advancing from the under-development 12MW Haliade-X to 20MW or more single-unit turbine capacity in the near term is “perfectly feasible.” Predicting 250-meter rotors (they displayed a mockup of the 107 m Haliade-X rotor at the Summit) to soon be a reality, he stated he could see no technological reasons why these figures or higher couldn’t be achieved.
