One of the most important events of the wind energy sector – WindEurope Bilbao 2022 – starts today. BalticWind.EU is a regional partner for discussions about the future of wind turbines in Europe, especially in the Baltic Sea region. What will industry representatives discuss in meeting in Spain ?
The annual WindEurope conference is an opportunity to discuss in various forms the challenges facing the wind energy industry. Organizers anticipate panel discussions, poster sessions, closed debates, presentations of the latest technologies. Each participant will have the opportunity to learn about the prospects for wind energy development in individual countries from the level of policy makers and companies involved in supply chains. Talking about the current challenges facing the sector will be paramount.
Challenges facing the wind industry – leading themes
The organizers have selected several guiding themes that participants in the Bilbao event will lean on.
The first of these concerns the so-called local content and production of wind components in Europe. Today, developers are demanding sustainable production and services. The industry will look at how to strengthen the European supply chain and producers. The recent geopolitical situation and the turmoil surrounding COVID-19 has shown that while global business provides a lot of benefits, when there are perturbations in international markets, all countries in the world are affected, which ultimately affects, among other things, project implementation schedules.
You can no longer skip a conference without the topic of floating wind farms. According to many think tanks and industry forecasts, it is floating technology that will be key to realizing the full potential of offshore wind. This one, in turn, is often linked to the development of the hydrogen economy. Today, the vast majority of turbines are installed on permanent foundations. Floating farms are only appearing at sea, mostly in pilot projects, but some countries are already planning to organize RES auctions for floating technologies. What can be done to accelerate the optimization and cost reduction of floating wind farm deployment?
The energy crisis, high energy and commodity prices, is one of the main themes that has dominated every discussion and action of European decision makers since autumn 2021. Countries that have installed significant amounts of wind turbines are already seeing the benefits of wind power – it reduces energy prices significantly. In Bilbao, the industry will discuss how wind energy can further contribute to reducing the energy crisis, and how to develop energy markets with a significant participation of RES.
Renewable energies help fight climate change, but environmental protection should not be forgotten either. Sustainability also includes wind energy technologies. Today, the challenge is to recycle used wind turbine components. Currently developed technologies recover only most of the materials used in their production. Recently, shovels have come on the market that are 100 percent recyclable. How quickly can widespread recycling of old wind turbine components be implemented?
Today, digitalization is not new to the renewable energy sector, but optimizing projects with digital technologies can help reduce wind project development costs and power system integration. Digitization technologies have been around for many years, but how do you implement them effectively?
BalticWind.EU at the Bilbao conference. Visit us at booth 3-B65
The BalticWind.EU platform is the voice of the Baltic Sea Region at the conference in Spain. We will be looking at the conference from the perspective of topics important to the countries of the Baltic Sea Region.
What is BalticWind.EU planning this year? We will be talking to wind industry representatives from the Baltic Sea region about the future of the sector. We are planning interviews that will appear on our platform in the form of videos and podcasts. We invite you to participate in the debates which will be held live at the BalticWind.EU stand.
Please visit BalticWind.EU today and follow us on Twitter and Linkedin. If you have any questions, please contact our team. In particular, we invite attendees of the Bilbao event to chat live and visit our booth 3-B65!
