Operations & Maintenance
RSS feedNews & in-depth analysis of wind farm and turbine operations & maintenance, including turbine & blade failure, access, monitoring & control systems, health & safety, refitting, repowering, wind monitoring and site security.
Ørsted keeping tabs on Covid-19 impact
Ørsted’s under-construction wind farms are progressing according to plan despite the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. It continues to monitor how the virus will affect its operations.
Coronavirus creating 'considerable downside risk'
The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak could squeeze supply chains and hinder project maintenance schedules, but should not derail a predicted record year of wind power installations in 2020.
Material considerations: covering up the cracks on turbine failure
The Material Failure Investigation Group of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) has been listening to, and acting on, presentations on the subject of wind turbine failures for the past two years.
News and Analysis
Global onshore O&M costs 'set to continue rising'
Operations and maintenance (O&M) costs will continue to increase while manufacturers negotiate higher rates for contracts and project owners fail to capitalise on predictive analytics.
Spain surpasses 25GW after ‘intense’ 2019
Spain looks to have recovered from its self-imposed doldrums, installing 2.2GW of new wind capacity in 2019, a five-fold increase over 2018.
WindEurope unconvinced a post-Brexit trade deal will be reached
Trade bodies WindEurope and RenewableUK have published a briefing about the impacts the UK’s exit from the European Union may have on the industry, but said the timeframe of a reaching a deal during the transition period was “extremely tight”.
Sharpening-up blade recycling
The wind power industry has spent decades working on the design and manufacture of turbine rotor blades, refining its production processes to handle complex composite materials at ever-growing size and volumes.
SGRE lowers 2020 guidance after project delays
Siemens Gamesa (SGRE) has lowered its guidance for its 2020 financial year after the early arrival of winter weather prevented the manufacturer from carrying out installations at five wind farms in northern Europe.
In depth
What to do with turbines after they leave support system
With around 6,000 turbines due to leave the support system in 2021, Germany's environment agency has assessed the country's readiness to recycle this potential flood of turbine components, and at what cost.
Windpower Monthly review of 2019 -- part 2
The next generation of new turbines continues apace in the second half of the year, but financial woes among many of the industry's western OEMs also bite. Here are the top articles from the latter half of 2019.
Windpower Monthly review of 2019 -- part 1
A spate of technology launches dominated the first half of the year, with a new generation of prototypes also being installed. Here are the top articles from the first half of 2019.
Look and listen for blade defects
The latest theories and current practices of rotor-blade monitoring and maintenance in the 100GW US wind market were subjected to lively and informed debate at the Windpower Monthly forum in Austin, Texas.
Viewpoint: How blockage effects skew energy-yield forecasts
After correcting some key methods behind the original estimates, major offshore wind developer Ørsted recently made news with a downward revision of the expected internal rate of return for seven of its offshore wind projects.
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