Wednesday 4th April 2018

Wind Watch

Wind watch is published every Monday, Thursday and Friday.

In the meantime, have you checked out the latest posts on our blog? We've got some interesting additional pieces on there.

For our series of member Q&As, Frances Salter spoke to Julien Sellier, managing director of Structeam. Here's an excerpt, and you can read the full piece here. If you'd like to take part in a member Q&A, email us at editorial@awordaboutwind.com.

Member Q&A: Julien Sellier, Structeam

In the simplest terms, what does your company do?

We are consultants in blade technology, as well as being contractors. This means we are specialists in advanced materials such as fibre re-enforced plastics and the technology used to make blades cost-effectively. We work in Europe, India and China.

Of the deals you’ve worked on, which is your favourite and why?

I have many favourites: one would be when we got our first blade design in 2011, which was certified through DNV-GL. The main achievement was to convince this first customer that we would deliver with our newly formed company, and we delivered; that’s why it was is so symbolic for the company.

In which markets do you see the biggest opportunities right now?

Probably China has the lion’s share, but Europe and America are also significant.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the wind industry, and how would you solve it?

I think it’s operations and maintenance because the investment phase is now well understood. The little operations and maintenance problems become bigger as the industry grows. We have to remember that 10 years ago, 2MW turbines were the largest platform available: now it is in the region of 6-8MW.
This scalability...