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QUO VADIS


8TH QUO VADIS CONFERENCE The location for the 8th Quo Vadis Conference was the city of Hamburg and the venue was the Hotel Hafen, a landmark building towering over the river Elbe in the heart of the busy harbour area.


There are many features that make Quo Vadis a unique event. Firstly, attendance is by invitation and this is so that owners and operators can be brought together in an environment that encourages mutual support and sharing of experiences. This enables turbine OEMs to be excluded from the event and this helps to create a platform for sharing.


FAMILY ATMOSPHERE


Then there is the family atmosphere. The wind industry is a close knit community and this is even more so at Quo Vadis with Kevin and Sigrid’s direct involvement with each of the attendees. This year there were over 80 delegates at Quo Vadis, most of whom had been at previous Quo Vadis conferences and this aspect of return visitors is what makes Quo Vadis really special.


For those returning to the event, it is a time to catch up with friends from the industry, and for those attending for the first time – they are all welcomed into the family. Kevin and Sigrid work hard at this by creating space throughout the two days for people to have time together in both a relaxing and informative environment.


SOCIAL EVENTS


Everyone is invited to arrive on the day before the conference, and this year a bus tour of Hamburg was laid on followed in the evening by a dinner in the Au Quai restaurant, a specialist fish restaurant right on the water front.


CONFERENCE


The conference too has its own unique atmosphere. This is in large part down to the style and confidence with which Clifford McSpadden, co-director with Kevin Donovan, leads the whole event. At last year’s Quo Vadis in Berlin, Kevin and Clifford introduced GWA Supplies, the business that sources parts and consumables for wind turbines, and they were able to report that they had listened, learnt, and had grown in this past year in both the quantity and the range of components supplied to the industry.


SPEAKERS


Delegates heard from a wide range of speakers during the day…


• Maria McCaffrey, Chief Executive, RenewableUK


Maria highlighted the challenges that the industry is facing on both a political and financial basis, and how the industry is rising to these challenges with a pledge to be the least cost form of energy generation by 2020. She highlighted the fact that in the UK, wind contributed to a record 24% of the generated electricity – so wind energy is no longer an alternative, it is now a core producer.


• Richard Granger, Schaeffler Technologies


Richard presented the problems associated with ‘white etched cracking’, a phenomenon that occurs when the metal in bearings is hardened more than the original material, and he explained how surface treatments are being developed to address it.


CONTINUED...


www.windenergynetwork.co.uk


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