Status of Wind

The Present Status and Future Challenges of WindEnergy Education and Industry Collaboration in EU-28Stavros Ph.Thomas∗,1

∗Anemorphosis Research Group, †Eurobank, †EWEA, †ALLIANZ

ABSTRACT Following on from the 2015 report on the Offshore Wind Power Roadmap, the AnemorphosisResearch group was invited by the Independent Council for Science and Technology (ICST)to undertakeresearch into the future challenges and impacts that would result from the forthcoming technological innovationsacross the economy as a whole. This report assesses the available evidence base on the potential CoEmitigation and review current wind energy education in European universities and training centers which lagsbehind the growth of wind power industry. Our study highlights the major opportunities and future challengesin wind energy education, training and innovation to help policymakers understand the importance of valuecreation and knowledge sharing.

KEYWORDS

Wind EnergyEducationInnovationChallengesPower Tomorrow

Contributors: Anemorphosis|Iberdrola|Stakeholders Mecha-nisms|NATURA 2000 Network.

INTRODUCTION

According to preliminary figures gathered by WWEA, the year2014 brought a new record in wind power installations: Morethan 50 Gigawatt of capacity were added during the year 2014,bringing the total wind power capacity close to 370 Gigawatt.The market volume for new wind capacity was 40 % bigger thanin 2013, and significantly bigger than in the previous record year2012, when 44,6 GW were installed. The top twelve countries aloneinstalled 44,8 Gigawatt of new wind power projects both onshoreand offshore and half of them setting new national records:

China added 23,3 Gigawatt, the largest number a country hasever added within one year, reaching a total capacity of 115 GWand now accounting for more than 28% of the world’s wind powermarket. Germany has become the second largest market for newturbines, adding onshore and offshore 5,8 Gigawatt. The US mar-ket recovered from its previous problematic behaviour because ofthe economic recession and reached 4,9 Gigawatt. The newcomerof the year 2014 is Brazil with additional capacity of 2,8 Gigawatt,the first time that a Latin American country has reached such animpressive figure. New installation records were also achieved in

Copyright © 2015 Stavros Philipp Thomas et al.Manuscript compiled: Friday 28th August, 2015%1For more info please contact Anemorphosis Research Group [email protected]. This report is a part of a confidential evaluation. The roadmapis published to facilitate the economic recession of the market and offshore wind industryas a part of a holistic research.

Canada (1,9 Gigawatt) and Sweden (1 Gigawatt), while the pio-neer of wind power Denmark, set a new world record by reachinga wind power share of 39 % in the domestic power supply. For

Figure 1 Economic Evaluation Critical Parameters.

the first time since 2009, the speed of growth was bigger than inthe previous year: The global installed wind capacity grew by16% compared with the year 2013, significantly higher than theprevious 12,8 %. It is also important to mention that the China’splanning targets of wind energy installed capacity in 2015 and 2020are 100 GW and 180 GW, respectively while Germany sets a newtarget to reach 7 GW by the end of 2015.

During the first three decades of modern wind energy deploy-ment, national and international R&D programs played a signifi-

Volume X | August 2015 | 1

INVESTIGATIONS

cant role in making wind energy-as a whole- more cost effectiveand viable. A plethora of international programs, partnershipsand alliances along with innovative R&D activities in cooperationwith industry and and academy have helped make wind energymore sustainable and reliable in terms of power generation andoperability. Looking forward, much of the world has ambitiousplans to expand wind energy development, mainly offshore, thatwill require specific R&D and challenges to accomplish. Achievingthese ambitious goals will require strategic collaborations and R&Dfunding plans, carefully directed to the topics and mechanismsmost likely to accelerate wind energy deployment.

Increasing the name-plate capacity of wind turbines and theirsize, leasing greenfield areas and their deployment on land, and im-plementing new technologies for reliable performance in offshoreconditions have introduced design, supply chain, procurementand engineering challenges, networking barriers, and social andenvironmental issues that today’s and future researchers shouldinvestigate and solve for the pace of development to continue.

Academic education and training, play and have to play a vi-tal role in the development and integration of the wind powerindustry. Innovation and collaboration are high priorities for everymodern society, and are key factors in its vision to build morereliable, technical feasible, economic viable and sustainable energysolutions. Education itself, one of the powerful means to balanceintellectualism and craftsmanship, plays a critical role in the de-velopment of new methods, tools and mechanisms in wind powerindustry.

Previous surveys show that organizations that innovate andwork synergistically are more profitable and have greater businesscompetitive edge compared with these firms that prefer moresecrecy in their strategic objectives. When an organization or afirm is working together with researchers from the Academy could:

• develop new ideas, products and services for the market• get expert advice and access to the latest knowledge, technol-

ogy and equipment• have access to skilled and work-ready researchers• gain access to national and international knowledge networks• lead to new funding schemes and modern research modeling-

surveying - infrastructure

From the other point of view, also the benefits for researchersworking with businesses means the opportunity to:

• contribute to knowledge sharing and value creaation• produce high quality and relevant research that translates

directly into commercial outcomes• develop new ideas, products and services for the market• produce research leading to greater social, economic and en-

vironmental impact• improve graduate outcomes and effective knowledge transfer• build valuable contacts and networks• build a reputation as a world-class research institution open

to business

However, currently (2015), most engineers in Europe’s windpower industry do not have systematic education backgroundrelating to wind energy. The rapid growth of the huge wind energymarket-especially offshore- drives more and more people to workin this sector. According the report of the UK’s Royal Academy ofEngineering, research and development should be targeted to thetopics identified by the experts as research prioritizes. The overallscope of future research is to facilitate the portfolio managementand project development of cost-effective and technical realizable

wind power plants that can be connected to the smart grid, withthe minimum environmental impact.

Research PrioritiesEurope is focusing heavily on offshore wind power development.Three countries — Germany, Denmark and the United Kingdom,are spearheading this drive. The European Wind Energy Associ-ation (EWEA) road-map is projecting that offshore wind powerplants will increase the overall installed capacity to 40-50 GW in2020 from 6.5 GW in 2013. Various options are being examined toimprove the technology for installing wind turbines. At present,wind turbines are anchored to the seabed in water depths notexceeding 30 meters. Research studies and simulation modelingtests are being conducted on artificial platforms and wind turbineson floating foundations anchored at depths of up to 60 meters.To reduce investment costs, researchers are also looking into thepossibility of using existing offshore oil industry’s techniques andlessons learned. More than 100 research priorities were proposedfrom the industry’s experts and the topics of these proposed pri-orities were divided according to short-tern (0–5 years), mid-term(5–10 years), or long-term (10–20 years) time scale.

Figure 2 Wind Power Research Priorities.

Despite the fact that the European wind power industry hasbeen experiencing rapid growth in demand as a result of the con-secutive incentive policy issued by the central governments there

2 | Stavros Philipp Thomas et al.

is a significant gap of the available engineers, scientists and re-searchers. Education across the Academic institutions and trainingcenters carries several vital functions including: promotion ofpublic awareness, development of consumer confidence, trainingtechnical support staff, training of engineers, and training of policyanalysts and development of policies that facilitate the industry asa whole.

Currently, many engineers and project managers in Europe’swind power industry do not have systematic education back-ground relating to wind energy. EWEA suggests that, every 10 MWwind power could create 35-45 job opportunities. As of December2014, installed capacity of wind power in the European Uniontotaled 128,751 megawatts (MW). The European Wind Energy As-sociation estimates that 230 gigawatts (GW) of wind capacity willbe installed in Europe by 2020, consisting of 190 GW onshore and40 GW offshore.. This means that Europe’s annual new installedcapacity will reach 18,000 MW by 2020 and thus, the wind powerindustry will create approximately 50,000 - 60,000 new jobs everyyear from 2015 to 2020. For example, Enercon, one of the biggestwind turbine manufacturer, has planned to recruit more than 1000graduates from universities between 2015-2020 while Dong Energy,the largest offshore redeveloper in the world is continuously hiringwind power experts and graduates and running innovative con-cepts (Engineer the Future). However, wind power industry facesthe problem of lacking skilled professionals with proper experi-ences in wind energy. Academies and training centers can offersystematic and structural knowledge to people to know how tomanage the wind power equipment and identify the associatedrisks and uncertainties related to the transportation, installation,operation and maintenance.

EDUCATION IN ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS

As the global wind power industry grows in geographic distribu-tion, project size and complexity, there is a corresponding needfor professionals to lead interdisciplinary wind power projects tosuccessful completion. The education of wind energy, one of themost important energy resources, is still a newborn area in Eu-rope’s education system. However, some universities and collegesrealized the importance of wind energy education for a sustainablewind power industry and they already offer undergraduate, mas-ter and doctor programmes. By 23 May 2015, there are almost 100EU approved Master programs offering colleges and universities(excluding the independent colleges).

Many of the Academic Institutions offer courses on sustainableenergy-which is a more generic study direction with partial windpower studies. The courses in renewable energy, such as hydroenergy, thermal and wind are popular for a long time in Danish,Swedish, Norwegian and int he Netherlands universities includingKTH Royal Institute of Technology at Stockholm, Sweden, Tech-nical University of Denmark at Lyngby, Aalborg University inDenamrk, Uppsala University, Chalmers University of Technologyat Gothenburg, Sweden, Delft University of Technology at Delft,Netherlands, FH Aachen - University of Applied Sciences, theSwiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) and manyothers.

It is also very critical to understand that there are many concernsbecause of the shortage of engineers with wind energy educationbackground. This phenomenon operates as a bottleneck for the de-velopment and integration of wind energy in Europe and becauseof this matter more and more universities provide undergradu-ate programmes in wind energy. Especially for the universitieslocating in the regions which are rich in wind energy potential.

However, the majority of these programs are conducted in theircountry of origin language and thus, international applicants couldnot follow the study line in these institutions.

Tertiary Education Statistics and Facts

For students studying in European universities , there are twotypes of master programmes. One is full-time, another is part-time.Many graduates choose the latter one in spite of the fact that itusually needs 3-4 years to finish. The Erasmus programme wasone of the most well-known European programmes and ran forjust over a quarter of a century; in 2014 it was superseded by theErasmus+ programme.

In the field of higher education, Erasmus+ gives students andstaff opportunities to develop their skills and boost their employ-ment prospects. Students can study abroad for up to 12 months(during each cycle of tertiary education). Around 2 million highereducation students are expected to take part in Erasmus+ dur-ing the 2014–20 period, including 25 thousand students in jointmasters’ programmes.

The EU-28 had just over 20 million tertiary education studentsin 2014 (see Figure 3). Five EU Member States reported 2.0 milliontertiary education students or more in 2014, namely Germany, theUnited Kingdom, France, Poland and Spain; tertiary educationstudent numbers in Italy were just below this level and togetherthese six countries accounted for two thirds of all EU-28 studentsin tertiary education.

Approximately 4.8 million students graduated from tertiaryeducation establishments in the EU-28 in 2014. An analysis of thenumber of graduates by field of education shows that 34.4 % hadstudied social sciences, business and law; this share was higherthan the equivalent share (32.8 %) of tertiary education studentsstill in the process of studying within this field, suggesting thatless students had started this type of study in recent years, orthat either drop-out rates or average course lengths were higherin other fields. A similar situation was observed for health andwelfare, which made up 15.5 % of graduates from 14.3 % of thetertiary education student population, as well as the smaller field ofservices studies. The reverse situation was observed for the otherfields of education, most notably for engineering, manufacturingand construction-related studies, humanities and arts, and science,mathematics and computing.

Across the EU-28, one third (32.8 %) of the students in tertiaryeducation were studying social sciences, business or law in 2012,with more female (3.9 million) than male (2.8 million) students inthis field of education, as shown in Figure 4. The second largestnumber of students by field of education was in engineering, man-ufacturing and construction-related studies which accounted for15.0 % of all students in tertiary education; three quarters of thestudents in this field were male. The third largest field of study washealth and welfare, with 14.3 % of all tertiary education students;close to three quarters of the students in this field were female.

Education in training centers

The shortage of professionals in wind power sector has led to arapid increase in demand for wind energy specialists. In Europe’swind power industry, most recently graduated engineers are notwell trained on wind energy technologies and application andthere is also a lack of experience in manage and operate windpower projects. There is therefore an urgent need to develop,implement and share new training courses that should provide en-gineers, scientists, technical staff, policy makers, owners, operatorsand planners constructive knowledge. Some training centers offer

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Figure 3 Students in tertiary education, by field of education and sex, EU-28, 2015.

Figure 4 Graduates from tertiary education, by field of education, EU-28, 2015.


professionals short-term mid-career training on the topics suchas wind resource assessment (RISO DTU) system design (DanishWind Power Academy), risks management (DNV GL) mainte-nance, installation, etc. They offer on-the-job training as well as theconventional face-to-face training in wind energy for people whoare not willing to quit job to study for several years as full-timestudents.

Table bellow summarises opportunities to future wind energyprojects because of the knowledge and experience received intraining centers. Much of the opportunity to drive down costs isperceived to be in the design and performance of wind turbines,O&M strategies and manufacturing innovations anticipated tohelp reduce the cost of wind energy.

STRUCTURAL RESEARCH NEEDS TO ACCELERATEWIND ENERGY DEVELOPMENT

Research and development has a vital role to play if the potential ofwind energy is to be fully exploited. Policy metrics, a set of reliableand cost effective regulations, efficient IEC standards should con-tribute to faster deployment and integration. However, investmentin wind power R&D will not be delivered by market signals alone;extensive support at the national and international levels is neededto accelerate the development of wind energy technologies andfacilitate the implementation of innovative solutions.

At the I E A’s 35th meeting of experts regarding the Long termR&D needs for the wind energy industry in Stockholm, Swedena wind power investor and developer mentioned: "There is aconsensus on the view that there still is a need for generic long-termresearch. The main goal for research is to support the implementationof national/international visions for wind energy in the near and farfuture. It was the opinion that it is possible to reach this goal for the nearfuture with available knowledge and technology. However, large-scaleimplementation of wind energy requires a continued cost reduction andan improved acceptability and reliability. In order to achieve a 10 to 20%part of the worldwide energy consumption provided by wind, major stepshave to be taken. The technology of turbines, of wind power stations, ofgrid connection and grid control, the social acceptability and the economyof wind power in a liberalized market, all have to be improved in orderto provide a reliable and sustainable contribution to the energy supply.It is for this objective that there is a need for long- term R&D. Besidesthat, there is also a need for a short-to mid-term research that mainly isin the interest of utilities/manufacturing industries and to some extent tosociety.

It is true, that during the last ten years, R&D has put emphasison developing larger and more reliable in terms of quality andavailability wind turbine systems utilising knowledge developedfrom national and international R&D programs. Thus, continuedresearch is a fundamental component for the overall Cost of En-ergy mitigation and technology improvement. Continued R&Dwill support the design and implementation of new proposalsand mechanisms-tools as well as incremental improvements. Re-searchers around the globe investigate the aspects and impactsof extreme wind phenomena, aerodynamics, load effects, electri-cal generation, supply chain and procurement excellence. Thisresearch has resulted in larger and more sophisticated machines,improved component performance, optimized supply chain andaccessibility structure and reduced O&M costs.

However, significant opportunities remain to reduce windpower plant LCOE and increase further the deployment of windenergy. Exploiting these opportunities will require multi-yearresearch programs and strong collaborations between research in-stitutions and industry from many countries to study how a wind

power plant system performs as a whole, and to optimise the per-formance and cost associated with the operation and maintenance.

In the first years of R&D, research academies and universitiesproduced more knowledge than the industry could handle. Re-search was mainly aimed at applying existing knowledge to thefield of wind energy. Nowadays, automatic portfolio managementsystems and offshore applications produce more uncertainties andrisks than the researchers can solve with current knowledge. Fu-ture research should be conducted to address the specific problemsrelated to wind engineering technology.

TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGES

Nowadays, offshore wind turbines installed generally in the rangebetween 3 and 5 MW although prototypes of power up to 7 MWand even higher are currently tested (Only a few months after itssales launch at the EWEA Offshore trade show in Copenhagen,the new Siemens offshore flagship wind turbine of the type SWT-7.0-154 has now been installed as a prototype), indicating the man-ufacturing trends concerning future wind turbines operating inmaritime environments. On top of that, wind farms’ total capacityhas increased as well. Before 2000, average wind farm size wasbelow 20 MW. Today, the experience has grown significantly sothat many countries are building large (average size of projectsexceeds 150 MW), utility-scale offshore wind farms or at least haveplans to do so.

Nevertheless, the vast majority of the existing large-scale com-mercial projects still use shallow-water technology (located at lessthan 30 m water depth) although the idea of going deeper is gradu-ally moving closer towards implementation. Actually, the averagewater depth remains below 20 m, (excluding the first full scalefloating wind turbine (Hywind) which was installed in 2009 off theNorwegian coast at a water depth of 220 m. On the other hand, theaverage distance from shore ten years ago was below 5 km, whiletoday is close to 30 km—confirming that offshore wind turbinesare installed increasingly away from the shores.

A. Production

Another important input parameter in the economic viability ofthe project is the expected power production. As sufficient windspeeds and capacity factor at the project site are the main driversof wind energy production and of wind park revenues, the un-derstanding and forecast of wind become essential. Therefore, alot of effort must be put into assessing the wind energy resourceat the given project site with the highest prediction accuracy andby taking into consideration the reliable numbers for the capacityfactors.

In general, actual capacity factors for onshore wind farms oscil-late across time and regions, with an average value being between20 and 30%. For instance, the average European value between2003 and 2009 has been recorded at about 21%. The highest valueshave been recorded for Greece and the UK (i.e. equal to 29.3%and 26%, respectively) due to the existence of many low densitypopulation areas which benefit of high wind speeds and enablethe siting of wind farms.

On the other hand, offshore sites may have the ability to demon-strate quite higher capacity factors than onshore counterparts (as aresult of the higher mean power coefficient which is usually metin offshore installations), typically ranging from 20% to 40%. Onemay see that capacity factor values, in some cases, even reached50%, however, this is not the rule since there are cases where therecorded capacity factor may be quite low mainly as a result of the


n Table 1 Risk-consequence illustration for wind energy projects

Possible risk factors Consequence Proposed Solution

The resourcing constraints of manufacturers. The lack of experienced staff could risk thequality of manufacture and testing.

Third-party inspection services during manu-facture and inspection will help meet specifi-cations and deadlines.

Equipment survival in offshore environments. Equipment might have a reduced life span. Operation and Maintenance metrologies andStrategic improvements .

Lack of experience of offshore structures(fixed or floating) and foundations

There is a danger of over or under design,leading to unplanned project costs or evenfailure.

Staff training and critical thinking improvementvia experiences.

New designs are required, for example in-creased turbine size or device prototype.

The lack of experienced staff could risk designquality.

Testing of components, including turbineblades and converters improvements throughresearch and testing.

combination of extended downtimes due to several system failuresand the tough conditions usually met in marine environments.

The traditional approach for gathering wind data is to constructa meteorological mast equipped with anemometers. However, inthe offshore environment this practice is both difficult and expen-sive to implement. Nowadays, a plethora of devices is available.WINDCUBE and FLidar, the floating LiDAR technology are justbetween the most famous innovative solutions to these problems.FLiDAR can measure wind at turbine hub-height and provideaccurate and reliable data on wind speed, wind direction, andturbulence. Additional sensors can be integrated onto the buoy toachieve a full environmental assessment of the location.

Figure 5 Wind distribution assumption and turbine choice

B. AEP Uncertainty Estimation

Model uncertainty relates to the uncertainty of the parametersestimated based on the wind study. Consequently, while windstudies are often based on very complex models, there is a risk thatthey contain estimation errors, such as measurement errors and/ormodel errors. Measurement errors include that measured windcharacteristics may not be correct due to for example dysfunctionalmeasurement instruments or incorrect calibration of these. Modelerrors for example relate to the risk that measured historical windconditions are not representative of the future wind conditions.

Furthermore, the wind study may be wrong with respect toassessing the effect a turbine has on the turbine specific productionof the turbine behind it, which is called wake effects. The size of thewake effects is affected by factors such as wind speed, wind density,turbulence and distance between turbines, meaning that wakeeffects may be larger when the wind is coming from a direction in

which turbines are located closer to each other. We consider modeluncertainty as a static uncertainty, which means that it is fixed overtime. This implies that if the wind study has underestimated thetrue wind average speed or wake effects for the first operationalyear, it will be underestimated in all years. Consequently, takingwind study uncertainty into account, we reach static P75 and P90measures that are fixed over the life of the project.

At figure 5, we illustrate how different P measures are affectedby how wind variability is taken into account (whether wind vari-ability is averaged or not). The blue line illustrates productionuncertainty when all production uncertainty is considered on anaverage basis, while the green line illustrates production uncer-tainty when wind variability is based on short-term uncertainty.

Figure 6 AEP and Uncertainty. The graph is based on a 2.3MWturbine

C. Technical Availability and AccessibilityThe technical availability of a wind turbine depends, among others,on: The technological status (experience gain effect throughoutthe years) of the installation at the time it went online (increasingexperience in both production and operation issues in the offshoresector suggests that the failure rate decreases and the reliabilityincreases respectively). The technical availability changes (agingeffect) during the installation’s operational life.

The accessibility difficulties (accessibility effect) of the windfarm under investigation. This parameter is, as aforementioned,of special interest for offshore wind parks, especially during win-ter, due to bad weather conditions (high winds and huge wavessuspend the ship departure, thus preventing maintenance and


repair of the existing wind turbines). Nowadays, contemporaryland-based wind turbines and wind farms reach availability levelsof 98% or even more (Kaldellis, 2002, 2004; Harman et al., 2008)but, once these wind turbines are placed offshore the accessibilitymay be significantly restricted, thus causing a considerable impactto the availability of the wind farm and in turn to the energy andeconomic performance of the whole project.

This is not always the case however; apart from the distancefrom the shore, the accessibility to a wind farm’s installation sitedepends also on several other parameters such as local climateconditions and the type and availability of the maintenance strat-egy adopted (the limited size of some wind farms does not alwaysjustify the purchase of a purpose built vessel so there may besignificant delays if the vessel is, for example, away for anotherassignment). Thus, there are cases where the impact may be moreor less significant than the expected one.

A case with low recorded availability is North Hoyle offshorewind farm, which is located in the UK, at an average distance fromthe shore equal to 8 km (see also Table 3 where recorded availabilitydata for several wind farms are presented). As it is mentioned in(BERR, 2005), the availability of this wind farm during a one-yearperiod (2004–2005) was recorded equal to 84The most notablesources of unplanned maintenance and downtime have occurreddue to termination of cable burial and rock dumping activitiesas well as high-voltage cable and generator faults. It is worthmentioning that the downtime recorded splits to 66% owed toturbine failure, 12% to construction activities, 5% to scheduledmaintenance and 17% to site inaccessibility due to harsh weatherconditions.

Another example with even lower availability (67%) is the caseof Barrow offshore wind farm (see also Table 1), also located about8 km far from shore, in the UK. The total average availability ofthis project is quoted as 67% for one-year period between July 2006and June 2007. This low availability is due to a number of windturbine faults, mainly generator bearings and rotor cable faultscombined with low access to the site because of high waves duringthat time period.

EDUCATION AND R&D CHALLEGES

Currently, public and private universities are the fundamentalforce of knowledge creation and value sharing in wind energyeducation. The number of training centers is still small in SouthEastern countries compare to the Scandinavian countries but theoverall number is small in relation to the increasing demand ofwind power industry. The main weakness of university educationis that the programmes usually take longer time and lack of enoughflexibility while some others offer generic studies programs withno strong directions in wind energy applications.

Undergraduate programmes need four years (English Lan-guage lessons are offered by a very small number), Masters twoyears and doctoral programme need at least three years. The re-sults show that the industry may not afford to wait for years untilstudents get their degree and leave their campus. Consequently,almost every company hires a number of recent graduated employ-ees without proper education background or experience. Thesenew employees should also have the opportunity to take furthertraining in specific topics of wind energy to be able to meet thechallenges of every day tasks.

A lot of companies also expect their employees can get someregular short-term courses every year but the limited number ofwind energy training centers in EU are in huge demand by thewind power industry. According to the EWEA, the number of

jobs in the sector is expected to increase to 520,000 by the endof the decade, a rise of 200% from the number of jobs currentlyavailable in the market, and 24,000 more jobs than predicted ina 2009 EWA report. Most of these jobs should require expertisewind energy education background. It is a huge market drive fortraining centers and Academies. Obviously the number of windenergy training centers and courses offered is inadequate and theyshould be further expanded and strengthened to meet the newdemands.

Engineering and technology are covered in most of EU-28 windenergy education. There is little number of degrees about windpower policies, planning, economics, industry structure, risks iden-tification and management, environmental impact and protection,supply chain and procurement excellence. Almost all of thoseEU universities which offer wind energy education can deliverwind energy courses only on wind engineering and science. Train-ing centers only provide skill training courses for technicians andengineers and thus, it is necessary to layer this gap as soon aspossible.

Almost all of the wind energy education and training in EUrequires participants attending to campus. It creates a dramaticdilemma for people who might want to change their career path,because they usually would like to know more on wind powerbefore making decision. They are considering to enter this newarea but not willing to change their jobs in a rush. In this case,Distance Learning courses is an excellent tool for teaching personsoff campus however, this type of education courses should notbe considered among the most effective ways to get a systematicwind energy education-knowledge.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a shortage of qualified professionals in EU wind power in-dustry, such as policy analysts, procurement specialists, scientists,researchers, and engineers.

The lack of new people with wind power knowledge is an issuecurrently, and will be even more a problematic aspect so in thefuture, as the proportion of development, operation, maintenance,procurement, supply chain and risks management jobs will growin the wind industry. To circumvent these chaotic phenomenon,this article recommends introducing industry experience into train-ing and education, thus mitigating the theoretical knowledge andoptimizing the technical experience. Industry and academic insti-tutions could jointly fund research projects, develop engagementplatforms, industrial scholarships opportunities and doctoral pro-grams.

In addition, a muti-directional and polysynthetic frameworkis needed to coordinate the synergies between industry andacademia, to harmonize vocational education and training, estab-lish an effective Intellectual Property Rights Strategy and increaseopen innovation. By taking these strategic steps and establish-ing that the European wind energy industry has access to a welltrained, critical thinking and creative workforce, wind energy willbe able to continue to play a fundamental role in the transition toa renewable and sustainable energy system and last but not least,boost economic growth and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.


n Table 2 Risk-consequence illustration for wind energy projects

Possible risk factors Consequence Proposed Solution

The resourcing constraints of manufacturers. The lack of experienced staff could risk thequality of manufacture and testing.

Third-party inspection services during manu-facture and inspection will help meet specifi-cations and deadlines.

Equipment survival in offshore environments. Equipment might have a reduced life span. Operation and Maintenance metrologies andStrategic improvements .

Lack of experience of offshore structures(fixed or floating) and foundations

There is a danger of over or under design,leading to unplanned project costs or evenfailure.

Staff training and critical thinking improvementvia experiences.

New designs are required, for example in-creased turbine size or device prototype.

The lack of experienced staff could risk designquality.

Testing of components, including turbineblades and converters improvements throughresearch and testing.

n Table 3 Roadmap Strategic Approach

Key Themes Issues Addressed Wind Vision Study Scenario Roadmap Action Areas*

Collaboration to reduce windcosts through wind technologycapital and operating cost reduc-tions, increased energy capture,improved reliability, and develop-ment of planning and operatingpractices for cost effective windintegration.

Continuing declines in windpower costs and improved reliabil-ity are needed to improve marketcompetition with other electricitysources.

Levelized cost of electricity reduc-tion trajectory of 24% by 2020,33% by 2030, and 37% by 2050for land-based wind power tech-nology and 22% by 2020, 43% by2030, and 51% by 2050 for off-shore wind power technology tosubstantially reduce or eliminatethe near- and mid-term incremen-tal costs of the Study Scenario.

• Wind Power Resources and SiteCharacterization • Wind PlantTechnology Advancement • Sup-ply Chain, Manufacturing, andLogistics • Wind Power Perfor-mance, Reliability, and Safety •Wind Electricity Delivery and In-tegration • Wind Siting and Per-mitting • Collaboration, Education,and Outreach • Workforce Devel-opment • Policy Analysis

Collaboration to increase marketaccess to U.S. wind resourcesthrough improved power systemflexibility and transmission expan-sion, technology development,streamlined siting and permittingprocesses, and environmentaland competing use research andimpact mitigation.

Continued reduction of deploy-ment barriers as well as en-hanced mitigation strategies to re-sponsibly improve market accessto remote, low wind speed, off-shore, and environmentally sensi-tive locations.

Capture the enduring value ofwind power by analyzing jobgrowth opportunities, evaluatingexisting and proposed policies,and disseminating credible infor-mation.

• Supply Chain, Manufacturing,and Logistics • Collaboration, Ed-ucation, and Outreach • Work-force Development • Policy Anal-ysis

Levelized cost of electricity reduc-tion trajectory of 24% by 2020,33% by 2030, and 37% by 2050for land-based wind power tech-nology and 22% by 2020, 43% by2030, and 51% by 2050 for off-shore wind power technology tosubstantially reduce or eliminatethe near- and mid-term incremen-tal costs of the Study Scenario

Wind deployment sufficient to en-able national wind electricity gen-eration shares of 1020% by 2030,and 35% by 2050.

A sustainable and competitive re-gional and local wind industrysupporting substantial domesticemployment. Public benefits fromreduced emissions and consumerenergy cost savings.

Wind Power Resources and SiteCharacterization • Wind PlantTechnology Advancement • Sup-ply Chain, Manufacturing, and Lo-gistics • Wind Electricity Deliveryand Integration • Wind Siting andPermitting • Collaboration, Educa-tion, and Outreach • Policy Analy-sis


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Status of Wind