Industrialising the Renewable Energy Sector

Just a few decades ago, a new wind farm would have consisted of a handful of smallish turbines generating a modest amount of electricity for local use. Nowadays, giant offshore developments such as the London Array and Greater Gabbard will, when complete, have the capacity to flow hundreds of megawatts of power into the National Grid. And the developments of the future, such as the 9 gigawatt Dogger Bank zone, will see hundreds of ever larger, more powerful wind turbines located even further offshore.

However, this rapid growth is being hindered in some ways by the industry’s lack of maturity. As yet, many specialist parts are hard to obtain and are often manufactured on a bespoke basis, pushing up costs. There is also a skills shortage and knowledge gaps in some areas (such as working successfully in adverse weather conditions at sea) which have caused problems and delays in some offshore wind projects.

Developers are now starting to realise that, if the UK is to achieve its renewable energy generation targets, the industry needs to start using standardised methods and equipment to improve quality, reduce costs and speed up turnaround times. This is already starting to happen – for example, specially-built vessels are now coming on the market for installing wind turbines and their foundations – but there is still a lot of work to do if the market is to become truly industrialised in the next few years.

Wilding says: It’s hard to see how the renewable energy industry can keep up its current rate of growth without standardisations such as “off the shelf” parts and equipment becoming available. However, developers such as E.ON and RWE are already industrialising the sector by building the right relationships with manufacturers and suppliers to make this happen. There are exciting times ahead – and we’re looking forward to being involved.

Source:Recharge News