When the time comes to find a new caring partner

摘要

When Upwind Solutions chose Kansas City as the location of its new parts and tooling centre, it stressed that it would be close to more than 70% of US wind farms coming out of warranty over the next three to five years. Indeed, operations and maintenance (O&M) for out-of-warranty turbines is a serious issue - especially in the US because the warranties of turbines installed during the building spree of two to five years ago are starting to come to an end. Owners must now consider who will provide the O&M on turbines that could last 20 years or more, and which include some components that tend to fail earlier, such as gearboxes around year seven. The market is huge. Ageing turbines usually have higher service costs, and the growing size of turbines means fewer parts being discarded if damaged; a set of blades may cost $300,000 (€209,000) or more. Industry body American Wind Energy Association (AWEA estimates that more than $40 billion (€28bn) of US wind installations will be out of warranty in 2011. Research firm Lucintel says the global O&M market will grow by 16.6% in each of the next five years, to reach $10.6 billion (€7.4bn) in 2016, with US and China the hot spots. Various estimates determine that 2010 to 2012 is the tipping point, after which more US turbines will be out of warranty than not. An estimated 18,000 turbines will come off warranty in the next three years, says Marty Crotty, CEO of UpWind, one of the three largest independent global providers of O&M.