Speaking on the opening day of the WindEnergy Hamburg 2024 conference in Germany (24-27 September), representatives pointed out that the scale of the challenge necessitated new approaches for the industry to deliver the energy transition in line with increasingly daunting climate targets.
Qiying Zhang, chief technology officer (CTO) at Chinese turbine manufacturer Mingyang Smart Energy, addressed the growing number of European voices concerned about unfair competition from state-subsidised Chinese OEMs.
Zhang, who was the lead designer on Mingyang’s Ocean-X twin rotor floating platform, pointed out that the global wind industry that exists today was built on cooperation between different regions of the world, and that working together on innovation can be beneficial for everyone.
“[Wind] technology originated from Germany or Denmark. At that time, the European manufacturers came to China and helped China to make renewable energy. Today, China has more than 50% of all new wind installations [added] last year. China has really shaped the supply chain. In order to reach [these] goals, we want to do it the way that Europe does, and see how we can help,” Zhang said.
“Fair competition, energy transition, climate change and carbon neutral are many words, but what are the major points? To tell you the truth, we together need to solve the climate change problem worldwide. From China, we will be here and we will help in fair competition and fair cooperation.”
Why we should embrace AI
Brian Allen, the founder of new offshore wind automation firm Beam (formerly Rovco/Vaarst), also chose to preface his call for innovation with a focus on the immense challenges of decarbonising energy around the world.
“If we’re to hit those net zero emissions targets, and you look at the barriers to achieving them, they’re almost insurmountable… and one of them is labour. On a wider scale, the [workforce] shortage is about 600,000 people. The only way of really trying to solve this is looking to technology,” he said.
“Ultimately, using AI and robotics can help. We can use AI in tenders, in marketing, to help navigate around wind farms, to help inspect wind turbines, to help plan wind farms…
“If we’re short of 600,000 technicians, how could we multiply those technicians, how could we get one technician to do the work of five? We’re in one of the only industries where we don’t have to be scared of AI. It’s not going to come in and steal a load of jobs. We don’t have enough people for the jobs we’ve already got,” Allen added
Nathalie Oosterlinck, the CEO of Japanese power company Jera, meanwhile touched on the themes of balancing cooperation with competition as a way to increase the global uptake of wind energy.
“Getting everybody to come together is easier said than done, because everybody is in competition with each other and everybody is running after the same tenders… But having all those people push to make this happen and make this happen is key. The energy transition is a marathon, not a sprint, and you have to celebrate every little success you get.”
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