From the editor


A conference call to action


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World Wind Technology Issue 2 2021


Editorial Editor Nicholas Kenny


nicholas.kenny@progressivemediainternational.com Sub-editors Phoebe Galbraith, Nikki Peach, Lizzie Waymouth Group art director Henrik Williams Designer Martin Faulkner Production manager Dave Stanford Head of content Jake Sharp


Commercial Client services executive Ruchita Marwaha Sales manager Roy Morris roy.morris@progressivemediainternational.com Managing director William Crocker


World Wind Technology is published by Progressive Media International.


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ISSN 2044-771X © 2021


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T


he future is an undiscovered country. We can chart a course, measure out the distance between stars and hope that our path will take us towards safe ground, but we can never truly know what to expect until we get there. At time of writing, the industry waits in anticipation for COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, though that will have been and gone by the time you’re reading this. It’s hard to guess at what sort of results we’ll see, but despite early claims of disarray and disorganisation coming up to the last minute, it’s not a stretch to expect some positive news from that quarter. At the very least, the media attention around COP26 has shown how far public awareness has grown regarding the threat of climate change – it remains to be seen, however, what role investing in green energy production will play in the solution.


Even ahead of the climate change conference, governments around the world had been criticised by over 90 wind energy companies and associations, calling for decisive action in the pursuit of net-zero carbon emissions. A manifesto, signatories of which included Vestas, Siemens-Gamesa, Goldwind, Enel and EDP Renewables among others, was released at the BNEF London summit in October, led by the Global Wind Energy Council. A main source of the criticism lay in the fact that growth rates of wind energy installations are currently far behind net-zero goals – set to deliver only 43% of the wind required by 2050, based on a projection by the International Energy Agency and the International Renewable Energy Agency. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. The march of progress moves ever- forward, and the wind industry is moving with it, continuing to innovate and deliver solutions to the problems ahead. Read on to find out how, in Japan, a specially designed ship is being developed to transport energy from offshore wind turbines as a backup to failure-prone underwater cables, on page 23. We speak to conservation and wildlife experts to learn what the wind industry can do, and indeed, is doing, to minimise the threat of turbines to bird and bat populations on page 20. We also cover the launch of the world’s first fully recyclable turbine blade by Siemens Gamesa on page 14. With all eyes on Glasgow, we can only hope the rest of the world follows the industry’s lead.


Nicholas Kenny, editor


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