Thoughts From The Wind Europe Summit 2016

As I reflect on what I observed at Wind Europe Summit and Wind Energy Expo in Hamburg last week, I am left with three lingering thoughts.

• The wind energy industry is clearly maturing as the new projects get larger and less frequent and much more competitive for the operators and suppliers. Also, the market growth rate seems to have slowed some from recent years, and the number of operators and suppliers is beginning to consolidate. All of this adds up to fewer, larger industry players which is a clear signal of a maturing industry.
• Another obvious trend is the continued innovation and drive to lower the cost of wind energy. There is a relentless theme of cost reduction across all the segments of the value chain, from equipment OEMs, to operations and maintenance, to energy trading and distribution. For example, Sentient Science introduced a new data science model that can predict gearbox component failure. New technology in floating turbines and energy storage has the potential to open up large new markets for wind energy which will increase the market size dramatically to further reduce costs.
• Finally, many speakers and people I talked to suggested that the industry needs to move beyond component and segment level optimization and start to approach challenges with a full system level view. Hans Bunting, COO of Renewables at Innogy made this point several times during the Technologies for Transition session. To move the industry forward, we need to take a system wide, technology independent, full supply chain view of the problem from the equipment, to the operator, through distribution all the way to the end consumer. Breaking down the barriers across the supply chain and even between different renewable technologies (wind, solar, hydro) is the best way to move the industry forward.

Integrating industry data and business processes within and across companies and technologies will allow the wind energy market to address challenges and improve its competitiveness to become a leader in the world energy market.

I have talked with many companies struggling with the challenges of integrating data and processes across their organization and with their suppliers. Luckily, Planet OS has been able to help some companies with these data integration challenges.

To learn more about how you can address your data integration challenges to improve your competitive position, increase revenue, and reduce costs, contact me at gkleiman@planetos.com.

Originally published at planetos.com on October 4, 2016.