WINDENERGY MAGAZINE 02 2018

interview
WINDDAYS 2018
WindDays 2018 is the place to be if you wish to position yourself in the wind energy. ‘You receive
inside information about everything that is going on in this field. From the latest scientific
developments and information on technical innovations in the area of, for example, turbines,
foundations, the installation process and by now also on the decommissioning of the first
generations of wind turbines,” says Anouk Stortenbeker, communications manager at TKI (Top
Consortia Knowledge and Innovation). TKI was set up under the auspices of the Energy Top Sector.
ANTOON OOSTING
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THE WIND INDUSTRY
Together with Erik van Diest, communications
and events employee at the Dutch Wind Energy
Association (NWEA), she is responsible for the
conference programme at this two-day event. What
started in 2007 as a one-day conference for the
members of the NWEA only, has now grown into a
busy two-day event with some thirty two sessions
in which experts and market parties exchange the
most up-to-date knowledge with visitors from
home and abroad.
The growth of the event is thereby in line with
the development of the wind energy sector in the
Netherlands. Actually, it is growing so fast that the
sector is now starting to be seriously concerned
about the expected labour shortage in the sector.
“The current 10,000 workplaces in the wind industry
are expected to potentially grow to 20,000 by
2020, increasing to 50,000 by 2050,” says Stortenbeker.
And these only concern the direct jobs, the
indirect jobs have not even been included.
Stortenbeker: “These will be filled by both practically
and theoretically trained people who often
still have to get trained for this. This is quite a
challenge, but it also offers positive news for those
employees who have seen their jobs in the offshore
oil and gas sector disappear in recent years.
“It is expected that they will need relatively little
training to start working in the wind sector,” says
Stortenbeker.
After an initially rather slow start, the sector is
now going through a considerable acceleration.
Danish energy company Ørsted is busy preparing
for the construction of the Borssele I and II wind
farms, which will commence at the end of 2019. In
December 2016, a consortium of Shell, Eneco, Van
Oord and Mitsubishi won the tender for Borssele
II and IV. On Friday, 6 April, Minister Wiebes for
Economic Affairs and Climate announced that Two
Towers B.V., a company owned by Van Oord Renewable
Finance, Investri Offshore and Green Giraffe
Holding, is the winner of the tender Borssele Innovatiekavel
V. Two experimental wind turbines will
be realised in this tender.
Stortenbeker: “As TKI Wind at Sea, we find this very
important. Wind farms involve enormous investments
where investors are looking to keep their
risks to a minimum. Continuous innovations are
of great importance in order to increase efficiency.
However, in order to keep the risks manageable, it
is very important to be able to test and prove them
before applying them. In this respect, TKI Wind op
Zee would also like to see innovation plots included
in the permits for future wind farm sites off the
coast of Holland.
In the meantime, lots I and II of the wind farm Hollandse
Kust Zuid (740 MW) have also been granted
(to Chinook, subsidiary of Nuon/Vattenfall) and
Hollandse Kust Noord, lot V (700 MW) will follow
next year. The concession for the Hollandse Kust
West (1,400 MW) is scheduled to be issued in 2021.
“The growth of offshore wind makes it that we
need to go into serious talks with all other users of
the North Sea. Stortenbeker: “How can the different
roles mutually enforce each other. For example, a
start has been made on pilot projects for innovative
oyster beds within the boundaries of offshore wind
farms. The wind energy sector is seeking those
types of cooperation.
DISCUSSING THE FUTURE GRID
All these aspects of the realisation of offshore wind
farms are discussed in no less than 32 sessions
spread over the two-day WindDays event. The
issues of integrating and distributing wind energy
in the national grids, for example, are high on
the agenda. After all, how do you get the energy
generated at sea to the customer in the hinterland?
“How do we bring the generation of the electricity
and the consumption together in a network. This
will be a major challenge for the future. Solutions
to these kind of problems will be discussed at the
conference,” says Erik van Diest. I am sure that we
will also discuss the European Commission’s plan
to develop a grid for all the wind farms to be built
in the North Sea. By interconnecting them, the electricity
can be better distributed across the North
Sea countries and parts of the country where it is
needed at that moment.
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20 2-2018 WindEnergy
WindEnergy 2-2018 21