John Olav Giæver Tande is Chief Scientist at SINTEF Energy Research and Director of NOWITECH, a EUR 40 million research cooperation on Offshore Wind Technology, www.nowitech.no. He is also heading the sub-programme on offshore wind energy within the European Energy Research Alliance, and Steering Committee member of the European Technology and Innovation Platform ETIP wind. He has more than 20 year experience within the field of wind energy research, with focus on grid integration and offshore technology. He graduated from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 1988 and has since then worked in Denmark and Norway. He has been with SINTEF Energy Research since 1997.