NabraWind - Innovation in the wind market
On Thursday, October 10th 2020, WESA had the pleasure of hosting our first-ever online presentation. We invited Ion Arocena de la Rúa, project manager at NabraWind, who gave a very interesting presentation to about 25 live attending members and many more, watching the recorded event.
In his presentation, he compared the current energy market trends in Denmark and Spain, including the importance of energy storage and Power-to-X. Innovation and a competitive market in wind energy lead to lower electricity prices, so margins are becoming significantly lower, and dependence on government subsidies are becoming close to unnecessary.
This makes wind energy more appealing than fossil fuels, although it challenges wind turbine developers. To remain competitive, NabraWind has specialised in breakthrough innovations in advanced wind technologies, predominantly the self-erecting tower (Nabra Lift) and modular blade joint (Nabra Joint).
Wind turbines must become larger in order to meet power demands and optimize land and cost, but installing large towers involves large, expensive cranes and massive space. NabraWind's self-erecting tower, however, is able to reduce cost by at least 20% and CO2 emissions of installation by as much as 70% by modularly adding tower sections from its base.
As blades become larger, they become increasingly more difficult to transport and install. NabraWind's solution is to transport and install blades modularly, dividing each blade into sections instead of casting them as one unit. This has its challenges, since large blades must withstand massive loads from the wind and even their own weight.
NabraWind is a small company, but is expanding rapidly. They will soon begin more projects offshore, and are starting to tackle power storage. This is necessary if countries want to one day reach 100% renewable energy, and they are ready to use their innovative solutions to achieve this goal.
Thank you!
We got a lot of very positive feedback from our members. They were delighted about the event and NabraWind's very interesting presentation. Also a big thank you to Ion, who we hope to see again in future presentations.
Generally, the students expressed that they were very happy to see, that WESA, despite of the difficult Covid-19 siutation, continues organizing interesting events, inviting companies, searching for new ways of interaction and giving insights to a post-student life in the wind industry.