WindEurope Bulletin February 2022

CEO Foreword

Dear WindEurope Member,

In less than two months’ time WindEurope will be heading to Bilbao for our Annual Event from 5-7 April. As with all our Annual Events, it will cover both on- and onshore topics and you will have opportunities to meet the key onshore and offshore players on the exhibition floor, in the conference rooms and at many networking events we are preparing for you!

And things have moved very quickly in the last few weeks. Registration for the event is now open – you can sign up here. Bear in mind that as with Copenhagen last year, we can’t allow on-site registration – you’ll need to register for the event online. Our Stand Sales for the Exhibition are also still open – but nearly 80% of places have been filled, so make sure to land your spot while you still can. This will be a great opportunity to showcase your brand and technology to thousands of potential contacts and partners from across the industry and beyond. Our team will help you find the right location to suit your business needs.

Our Programme Overview is online – you can read it here. We’ll have a packed schedule across the three days with 70+ sessions covering the key issues facing our industry today. And with over 300 speakers joining us from policy, industry, academia, and finance. There will be a big focus on the challenges we face as we aim to accelerate wind deployment in the years ahead. Some of the major topics:

• Sustaining a strong European supply chain – How do we make sure wind turbines are made in Europe?
• Permitting – How do we simplify permitting rules and procedures and tackle the bottlenecks to getting wind farms built?
• Floating wind – Where are we going to see all the new floating wind farms? And how will we scale up the manufacturing?
• High energy prices – What’s the role of wind in keeping energy affordable? And what’s the right market design?
• Circularity and Sustainability – How do we design blades to perform and still be 100% recyclable?
• Digitalisation – How will new digitalisation applications help reduce costs and support energy system integration?

What else? We’ll also have special feature areas across the venue. This includes GWEC’s Global Markets Theatre looking at prospects for the wind industry across the world. Our Start-Up Pavilion showcasing the fresh voices bringing new technologies and new ideas to our sector. And our LearnWind section focusing on everything related to education, skills, inclusion and workforce issues. Finally, we’ll have a range of social events to keep you entertained during your visit and to keep the networking going well into the evening. This all promises to be a major get-together for our industry – in one of the biggest European hubs for wind. So please come along if you can!

A number of other key events are now in the offing for later in the year. RE-Source 2022, our gathering of corporate buyers and sellers, will take place from 5-7 October. Meanwhile WindEurope will be participating in WindEnergy Hamburg 2022 as European Partner, from 27-30 September. If you would like to participate as an exhibitor, contact the Hamburg sales team here.

Now for an update on our advocacy. We’ve focused our discussions with the European Commission in recent weeks on the upcoming Permitting Guidance due to come out this summer. We held a meeting with EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson last month, outlining what the Guidance needs to say. As long as cumbersome procedures hold up the deployment of wind across Europe, we haven’t a hope of meeting our long-term targets.

Nowhere have the consequences of this been more obvious than in Italy. A recent renewables auction there saw disappointing results for wind, 3,300 MW was on offer, but only 975 MW of utility-scale projects were awarded – with wind getting less than 400 MW. This is a prime example of how bad permitting leads to low renewables built-out. The latest undersubscribed auction shows once again that Italy urgently needs to fix its permitting rules. But they’re certainly not alone in this. More info on Italy here.

We are also now highlighting in our discussions with policymakers the very significant challenges faced by the European wind energy supply chain. And we’re spelling out four things the EU can do to address this:

• drive a simplification of permitting processes at a national level.
• help strengthen the competitive position of the European wind industry in the auctions Governments run for new wind farms.
• encourage Governments to avoid negative bidding in their wind auctions.
• support innovation to ensure Europe retains its technology lead in wind.

As EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in her landmark 11 December 2019 speech ‘the European Green Deal is on the one hand about cutting emissions, but on the other hand it is about boosting jobs and creating innovation’. Europe must live up to this to deliver its Green Deal.

A final note that we’ve uploaded new content to our video platform Windflix – see the latest here. We’d also like to draw your attention to our recent webinar “Navigating through WindEurope’s Intelligence Platform”. The 300+ members that joined found it very useful to better understand what data and analysis we have and happily share with our members. Feel free to send it to your colleagues. This is a great outlet for wind energy data, and using it will save you a huge amount of time and money.

Kind regards,

Giles Dickson

WindEurope Intelligence Platform

Members’ Successes

Endiprev to be main supplier for the Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm commissioning

Endiprev was selected by GE Renewable Energy to be the main engineering service supplier for the commissioning of the first commercial offshore wind farm in France, the Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm (Parc éolien en mer du Banc de Guérande).

After the company’s performance in several offshore wind farms for GE Renewable Energy with the Haliade 150 wind turbine, and the work that it has been doing on the new Haliade-X, Endiprev will take part in three scopes of activities: Electrical & High Voltage works, Mechanical and Electrical Completion, and Commissioning. The service provider will begin working on this project in the first few months of this year, and it will have more than 100 skilled engineers and technicians working on it.

The Saint-Nazaire Wind Farm commissioning is an important achievement for Endiprev as it is their biggest project so far. It is set to come online in 2022, and it will be the first large-scale offshore project in France. It will be made up of 80 GE Haliade 150 wind turbines, generating a total capacity of 480 MW, enough energy to power 400,000 houses.

About Endiprev

Endiprev is a renewable energy service provider specialising in technical and engineering services for energy generation.

The company has global experience in electrical power, providing high-quality services. It has around 300 professionals, technically trained in various fields, including diagnosis, commissioning, testing, validation, inspection, maintenance, and high voltage works. Its continuous success is built on a solid track record of on-time and on-budget projects for a growing list of customers, and based on a project management integrated-solution mindset.

Endiprev has been working on a range of international wind energy projects, with more than 30 countries in their portfolio and offices across seven countries: Germany, Spain, the United States, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and France.

Find out more

RelyOn Nutec to further its role in the energy transition with a new training centre in Eemshaven, the Netherlands

RelyOn Nutec is due to open a new training centre in Eemshaven in early 2023, to meet the increasing demand from the onshore and offshore wind industries in the Groningen area.

Eemshaven is uniquely positioned to service wind projects in the North Sea, and in cooperation with Groningen Seaports, a suitable location has been found in the Emmahaven area of the port. Construction of the new centre will begin in early March 2022.

With the beginnings of the Dutch hydrogen industry emerging right outside of Eemshaven, RelyOn Nutec wants to play an important part in shaping and developing the new standards for hydrogen safety training. The ambition is to add hydrogen training facilities to the new training centre, and the hydrogen training objects can be used for research and testing purposes – as well as by other parties present in the region.

With the creation of the Eemshaven training site, RelyOn Nutec is offering state-of-the art training centres conveniently located around the North Sea. This runs from Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger and Kristiansand (Norway) to Esbjerg (Denmark), through to Bremerhaven (Germany), Eemshaven, Amsterdam and Rotterdam (the Netherlands) to Ostend (Belgium). On the other side of the North Sea, training centres can be found in Great Yarmouth, Teesside and Aberdeen (United Kingdom). You can always find a RelyOn Nutec training centre nearby.

Groningen Seaports’ CEO Cas König: “We are very excited for the arrival of RelyOn Nutec. In the Eemshaven area there is a lot of attention on offshore and onshore wind, and we expect this to grow in the future. An innovative training centre does not yet exist, and this establishment will further strengthen the strong position of Eemshaven as a key operations and maintenance base for the offshore wind industry. It is also excellent that RelyOn Nutec sees opportunities for the hydrogen industry. That in turn offers opportunities for other projects at Eemshaven”.

Peter Van Cauwenberghe, Managing Director RelyOn Nutec Central Europe, sees the realisation of the centre in Eemshaven as an important addition to the RelyOn Nutec group. “We see the new training centre in Eemshaven as a unique opportunity to be even closer to our customers. With this centre, we want to provide support to important energy projects, including hydrogen, but also to support local workers with innovative and high-quality safety training. We look forward to working with Groningen Seaports and to supporting the port’s ambition from this new location.’’

About RelyOn Nutec

RelyOn Nutec delivers safety, compliance and competence services and solutions around the world. Through 32 facilities, RelyOn Nutec helps clients to protect their people, their assets and the environment. RelyOn Nutec has a deep history going back over 50 years and, through the intelligent application of the latest technology, leads the energy sector as well as other safety critical industries.

RelyOn Nutec leads the safety and technical training field and has a broad range of innovative digital services, including digital learning, simulation technology and a market-leading suite of SaaS applications. RelyOn Nutec is the preferred end-to-end partner in developing and maintaining a safe workplace. The market-leading digital services offer clients a modular approach to managing safety across their business processes while minimising risk and revolutionising the way they track workforce safety, compliance and competence.

Find out more

Share your successes with us!

Is your brand bringing new, ground-breaking solutions to the wind industry? Have you recently launched a major project in your field? Do you have positive business news to share?

Then make sure to get in touch with us here at WindEurope – we’ll be happy to promote your success story as part of our monthly Bulletin! This is a chance to share your accomplishments with thousands of others from right across the wind energy value chain – a major visibility boost.

Please be aware that this service is only available to members from the categories C3 and above. Publication of stories is on a first come, first served basis.

Get in touch with our Membership team now to send in your news!

Send us your success story

Events

WindEurope Annual Event 2022 in Bilbao – Less than two months to go

When: 5-7 April
Where: Bilbao

Our Annual Event in Bilbao is getting closer – and the pace is starting to pick up!

Registration for the event is now open – click here to sign up and see a full breakdown of prices. Bear in mind that due to ongoing health guidelines, you won’t be able to register onsite in Bilbao. So make sure to register online before setting off! Proof of your COVID-19 status will also be required for entry – so make sure to have this ready when you arrive. Our guidelines for this are available on the registration page as well.

Our Programme Overview is also live! 70+ sessions spread over three days, with over 300 speakers from the industry and beyond. Plus the separate schedules in our Feature Areas and our Social Events in the evening. You won’t be short of choice while you’re there! Check out the overview here.

Finally, our stand sales our still open but selling fast! 80% have already been booked – so make sure you get in on the action while you can! The Exhibition Space is a great way to showcase your brand to thousands of attendees as well as other brands – plenty of potential contacts, partnerships, and business opportunities! You can see the floorplan and book your spot here.

The clock is ticking… We hope to see you two months from now in Bilbao!

Register now

Wind energy in Europe: 2021 Statistics and the outlook for 2022-2026

When: 8 March, 15:00-16:00 CET

Join our experts for a discussion on the latest developments in the European wind industry outlining key installations across various countries, a roadmap outlining how Governments can reach new renewable energy targets, and the latest policy developments affecting the wind sector in Europe.

Register now

Offshore Wind in Europe 2021: Trends and statistics

When: 15 March, 15:00-16:00 CET

In this webinar, we’ll be taking a look at the state of the European offshore wind industry, installations at offshore wind farms this year, supply chain activity, investment trends, and relevant policy news from National Governments and the EU.

Register now

WindEurope Technology Workshop 2022 – Call for abstracts open now!

WindEurope’s Technology Workshop on Resource Assessment and Analysis of Operating Wind Farm for 2022 is now on the horizon! We invite you to join us in a few months time for another comprehensive look at the state of wind energy technology, and for a chance to network with other cutting-edge leaders in renewable tech development once again.

Our call for abstracts is open until 18 March! We’ll be communicating the results of the call with you by the beginning of May.

Click here to submit your proposal and to see the complete list of topics – they’ve been streamlined into three overall tracks:

• Resource Assessment;
• Analysis of Operating Wind Farms; and
• and Artificial Intelligence, Business Models and Forecasting.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Submit your abstract

RE-Source 2022 – Date confirmed

When: 6-7 October

Our RE-Source Event for this year has been confirmed for the 6-7 October. This is a key gathering for corporate buyers and sellers from across Europe, and where all of the actors in the PPA world can come together and discuss the latest developments.

The location and further details will be confirmed in the coming months. Stay tuned!

Save the date

WindEnergy Hamburg 2022

When: 27-30 September
Where: Hamburg

WindEurope will be the European Partner at WindEnergy Hamburg 2022 taking place on 27-30 September. Registration for exhibitors is already open. Check out the application page for a full breakdown of prices and deals.

Find out more

Other News

Windflix – February 2022 updates

We’ve just uploaded our latest batch of Windflix content for February, with plenty of new updates and roundups for you to get through!

• In the latest instalment of Windtelligence, we look at our recently-published roadmap for Wind Energy Digitalisation by 2030, laying out the role of digitalisation in wind energy and looking at how to scale-up this process going forward.
• A look at some recent successes and breakthroughs across the industry, as well as some more random finds in the latest episode of Breaking Wind.
• Giles and Pierre give us a recap of the latest news from National Governments across Europe as well as a deep-dive into energy security in Episode 5 of Tea & Champagne.

More content to come very soon, keep an eye out!

Find out more