Sep 27, 2016
About 25 offshore windfarms in Europe will require dedicated maintenance vessels by 2020, John Oosthoek, market intelligence manager for Offshore Renewables at Royal IHC, told Wind Energy Update.
Sep 27, 2016
Using drones that follow automated flight paths without the need for a human pilot could allow wind farm project teams to inspect up to twice as many turbines in a day as they can today, experts told Wind Energy Update.
Sep 26, 2016
Wind energy news you need to know.
Sep 13, 2016
Emerging oil filtration techniques could minimize pad-mount transformer faults and reduce one of the biggest sources of wind farm balance-of-plant (BoP) maintenance, Judah Moseson, vice president of operations at service provider Cooke Power Services, told Wind Energy Update.
Sep 13, 2016
Improving wind turbine reliability to 99.5% will require new data analysis approaches across the industry as existing techniques won’t allow the sector to go above current reliability levels, according to Carsten Westergaard, senior advisor, Wind and Water at the Sandia National Laboratories and Professor of Practice at Texas Tech University.
Aug 16, 2016
Wind turbine manufacturers are responding to greater operations and maintenance (O&M) competition with longer maintenance contracts and lower service charges, experts told Wind Energy Update.
Jul 19, 2016
Predictive maintenance will allow wind farm operators to maximize gains from the latest bearings research and extend gearbox lifespans in the coming years, industry experts said.
May 9, 2016
Switching to self-performance of wind farm operations and maintenance (O&M) at end of warranty can cut costs by between 25% and 35% and allow operators to make more design improvements to increase unit reliability, Jeff Wehner, VP Renewable Operations, Duke Energy, said.
Mar 30, 2016
Operators are performing strategic upgrades, leveraging remote data analysis and optimizing spare parts supply chains to maximize the performance of ageing assets.
Mar 30, 2016
Post-warranty service costs have fallen on increased competition and technological advances and operators must select the solution most tailored to their risk profile.
Mar 14, 2016
Predictive technologies have provided onshore wind farm operators with new cost-saving tools to plan spare parts strategies and operators are taking a more hands-on approach to component logistics.
Feb 15, 2016
Portugal’s Iberwind has increased the availability of its wind farms by around 4% since 2007 and expects further performance improvements following trailblazing tests on yaw alignment and blade aerodynamics, Rui Maia, Iberwind’s Operation and Maintenance Manager, said.
Jan 31, 2016
Advances in component manufacturing and performance forecasting are set to halve the number of gearbox faults within a few years, Edwin Hidding, GE product manager, said.
Jan 18, 2016
Firms in markets offering low incentives for repowering have developed cost efficient maintenance which can expand lifespans by as much as ten years and improve condition monitoring systems to maximize profits.
Dec 16, 2015
Improving spare-parts strategies can slice fault-related downtimes for onshore turbines and many plant operators are storing some components just a few hours away, sector experts said.
