Sparking a sustainable future: Global presence, local excellence

The outlook for wind power is strong, despite the pressures facing the industry right now. The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) forecasts 2TW of installed wind capacity worldwide by 2030, driven by renewed commitments to the energy transition from the EU, China and the US. 

Inflationary pressures and rising costs have tempered instincts to invest in new manufacturing without certainty and visibility around future wind volumes. This has led turbine manufacturers to increase their reliance on supply chain partners with global footprints, including servicing operations. 

They also require component suppliers to work with them to come up with products and innovations that address challenges to deliver the energy transition. 

Technological innovation will enable the energy transition

Advances in wind turbines have occurred at breakneck pace over the past few years. The push to reduce capex and opex and expand into areas with more challenging wind conditions, have led to bigger machines and numerous turbine platforms, with many manufacturers now looking to simplify their offerings.

Significant opportunities for advances in related areas have emerged, including turbine monitoring and predictive maintenance, grid integration and energy storage, emphasis on maximising turbine lifetimes, and practices that involve reuse, refurbishment, and recycling of components and materials from wind farms. 

To enable turbine makers to gain a competitive advantage while incorporating sustainable practices, optimisation of product value chains and lifecycles is essential. 

“We believe this can be achieved through customer engagement to establish long-term partnerships with OEMs, using our technological expertise to deliver high-quality products and also supporting them closely in their key markets with regional after-sales services,” said Xabier Irure, global commercial director of Ingeteam Wind Energy.

Lean manufacturing practices help reduce costs

When designing its converters, generators and other products, Ingeteam strives for manufacturing simplicity, durability and reliable operation, as well as ease of maintenance. 

Lean manufacturing practices help reduce production costs, eliminate waste and improve efficiency. “We try to minimise the environmental impact of manufacturing processes by adopting sustainable practices, such as using renewable energy sources and reducing waste,” he said. 

Ingeteam is also a founding partner of RenerCycle, which was set up to implement practices to recover, refurbish and recycle components from wind turbines and wind farms when they reach the end of their operational life.

Meeting customers’ needs 

In the 25 years that Ingeteam has supplied components for wind turbines, it has grown with the industry resulting in a global footprint, supplying 20 countries, on four continents, with manufacturing and after-sales facilities in the US, Brazil, India and Spain. 

With this foundation, Ingeteam has established close relationships with customers, often participating in the early-stage development of new designs and using its experience to give feedback to customers on products, topologies and market requirements. 

An advantage of maintaining a diversified product portfolio is that the company can support its customers' more complex requirements. As renewable growth continues, hybridising different technologies and resources is becoming more common. This is done to maximise grid connection capacities, optimise battery storage solutions, harness the complementary profiles of wind and solar for integrating more renewable output into grids, and increasingly, to use renewable electricity for hydrogen production.

These present technical challenges around how to maintain grid stability and enable systems integration. “Our R&D experts work with customers from NPI (New Product Introduction) and product specification development stages, while our engineering teams are often called upon by customers to provide expert opinions when it comes to identifying the most efficient solution in terms of cost and reliability,” said Irure.

Investing in R&D and nurturing innovative thinking

The importance of R&D cannot be underestimated, according to Irure. Ingeteam allocates more than five per cent of annual turnover to R&D and has nine laboratories and more than 400 employees working in R&D. 

This focus on innovation yields new R&D projects every year, which form the basis of new products for customers and solutions for real-world applications and challenges the wind industry is addressing. 

The Business Unit and Technology Centre is focused on long-term R&D – Ingeteam R&D Europe (IRDE) – where teams work on new technologies informed by perspectives from different sectors, not only wind. This is a relevant approach especially when wind turbines need to be integrated with other technologies – solar, batteries or electrolysers, for example – for the wider energy transition. 

The Business Unit’s R&D departments are organised vertically to efficiently deliver technological advances and new products to the market. Ingeteam has nine first-class laboratories.

Ingeteam combines a global footprint with the closeness of a local approach, as Irure concludes: “Choosing a technology partner with a global footprint and vision, coupled with local capabilities, provides access to world-class products, accelerates time to market, and ensures a deep understanding of local markets.”

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