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Publisher's Note May June 2023

Floris Siteur 2023Copenhagen was the centre of the wind industry once again
The WindEurope Annual Event 2023 was organised in Copenhagen from 25 to 27 April. It was the biggest WindEurope event so far. More than 15,000 participants and more than 500 exhibitors participated in the event. Walking around the venue, you could feel the positive buzz, and all the people I spoke to (which were a lot!) were positive about the event.

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Publisher's Note March April 2023

Floris Siteur 2023The Net-Zero Industry Act versus the Inflation Reduction Act: Europe versus the USA
The European Commission (EC) has presented the Net-Zero Industry Act as part of its Green Deal Industrial Plan to scale up green manufacturing, remain competitive with the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and become less dependent on China. The Net-Zero Industry Act aims to strengthen the resilience and competitiveness of net-zero technology manufacturing in the European Union (EU) and is an answer to the IRA, which was introduced in the USA in 2022.

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Publisher's Note January/February 2023

Floris Siteur 2023And the winner comes from?
The race among OEMs to have the tallest turbine with the highest capacity on the market has been going on for years, especially when it comes to the offshore market. The capacity of offshore wind turbines has more than doubled in less than 10 years. For example, in 2014, Siemens started serial production of its SWT6.0, a 6MW turbine, specifically designed for offshore. The largest model that Siemens Gamesa is now offering is the SG 14-236 direct-drive (DD), which has a capacity of up to 15MW. Serial production for this model will start in 2024. The biggest Siemens Gamesa turbine in serial production is currently the SG 11.0-200 DD turbine.

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Publisher's Note November/December 2022

Floris Eddie 2022An imbalanced market
Lately, wind turbine manufacturers listed on stock exchange markets have announced their most recent financial results. Without exception, they are all facing challenging times. This is mainly caused by the current market environment, with higher costs and issues with supply chain reliability.

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Publisher's Note September/October 2022

Floris Eddie 2022What do rising energy prices mean for the wind business?
Due to the war Russia started in Ukraine, the world is facing several challenges. Besides the obvious humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, the most prominent challenge is the energy crisis. The rising cost of energy causes an inflation rate for our day-to-day spending in many parts of the world that we have not seen for decades. The main reason for this rise is the seemingly ever-increasing price of gas. At the time of writing, the gas price was at least € 280 per megawatt hour compared with less than € 30 per megawatt hour a year ago. As I wrote in my note for our March/April 2022 issue, Putin is (most likely) also using the gas deliveries to European countries as a political instrument. Because the gas and electricity prices are coupled, the electricity price has also seen a sharp increase. The European Commission has already suggested decoupling these prices since electricity is being generated more and more by other sources, like renewable energy, which is less dependent on gas prices. As I have said before, renewable energy might be a way out of this energy crisis, and it looks like governments are thinking along these lines as well.

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Publisher's Note July/August 2022

Floris Eddie 2022The wind energy sector requires a global cybersecurity initiative
Recently, (at least) three European OEM’s and a service company experienced a cyberattack that caused operational problems for their wind turbines under service. Other industries already face cyberattacks on a regular basis, so it is likely they will happen more often in the wind industry as well.

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Publisher's Note May/June 2022

Floris Eddie 2022Challenges of floating wind
If it is up to the European Commission, all the energy used will come from renewable sources by 2050. Achieving this goal will require the large-scale use of floating wind turbines. So far, the majority of offshore wind farms have been bottom-fixed; however, much of the world’s oceans and seas is too deep. In waters deeper than 50 metres, it becomes a technical and economic challenge to install bottom-fixed turbines. That is where floating wind comes in.

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