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China Playing Catch-up in Offshore Turbine Technology

FengIn 2018, 11 manufacturers installed 735 units of offshore wind turbines globally, totalling 3,693MW of capacity. Six out of the top ten suppliers are from China: Shanghai Electric, Envision, Goldwind, Mingyang, United Power and XEMC. While China is certainly dominant in terms of supplying offshore turbines, it is still playing catch-up in terms of offshore turbine technology.
 
By Feng Zhao, Strategy Director, Global Wind Energy Council

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Will Consolidation Thwart Innovation in Renewables?

Andre Moura Pro DroneOver the past decade the energy sector has seen unprecedented moves towards consolidation with systematic mergers and acquisitions among utilities, original equipment manufacturers and Internet service providers. This is a natural market tendency when searching for economies of scale and pooling of resources especially in a market plagued by uncertainty. Operational excellence and economic leverage are the targets used to deliver improved performance that should ultimately translate into savings for the end user. However, there is an undeniable downside to this approach which hinders that very same goal. The industry is at a point where we should ask: will these market tenden­cies thwart innovation? Will it become a zero-sum game that can compromise the sector’s goals and, more importantly, is there anything we can do about it?
 
By André Moura, Founder and CEO of Pro-Drone and an EIT InnoEnergy CommUnity Advisory Board Member

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Offshore Wind: Shifts in Focus

Worley View from insideLast year construction began on the world’s first 1GW+ offshore wind farm in the North Sea – Hornsea 1 – with the first blades turning this February. A major milestone in our sustainable energy transition, the next generation of offshore wind projects rival the capacity of traditional fossil-fuel plants. Concurrently, the past 12 months have seen shifts in focus across markets, specifications and finance.
 
As the US Offshore Wind conference approaches, Eoghan Quinn, Global Wind Lead for the newly branded Worley, reflects on the ever-evolving environment of offshore wind.

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Robust Demand Drives Wind Power in 2018

View from Inside AWEA April MayUS wind power saw record purchases by corporate and non-utility customers in 2018. The year’s fourth quarter was also the third strongest for new installations on record. This comes at a time when new development frontiers are opening for offshore wind and technology advancements are making wind more economical than ever.
 
By Celeste Wanner, Senior Analyst, American Wind Energy Association

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Hope is Not a Plan

Pierre Tardieuv2When we look around ourselves today, there are genuine reasons to be hopeful. The urgency of climate change is never far from the headlines, and civil society is ramping up pressure on governments to deliver on climate action.
 
By Pierre Tardieu, Chief Policy Officer, WindEurope, Belgium

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The Blown Flap Tip Invention

Mike FritzIncreasing Net Electricity and Profit
 
By simply placing slots on the bottom of the trailing edge of wind blade tips, a ‘blown flap’ may be created, increasing lift by a significant factor. This could result in 1 to 25% more net electricity, or $ 1–25 billion more net profit per year for the wind industry.
 
By Mike Fritz, USA

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