The contemporary wind power industry was largely born in Jutland, a famously windy region of Denmark.
It was here that, after the 1973 oil embargo cut off power to much of the West, inventors and machinists began comparing notes on ways to exploit the wind that blows across this flat expanse that separates the North Sea from the islands that make up the rest of Denmark. And perhaps no one has been more influential than a Jute named Henrik Stiesdal.
At age 21, he built a crude machine to generate electricity for his parents’ farm. He later co-designed an innovative three-blade turbine that laid the foundation for what has become a multi-billion dollar global industry. His inventions have led to over a thousand patents and he is widely considered a pioneer.
Now 66, it’s not over. After decades working for what became some of the giant wind power companies, Stiesdal is putting his ideas into a startup named after him, seeking innovative ways to deliver clean, affordable energy and address climate change.
At a factory in Give, a small town in Jutland, workers with welding tools prepare to produce huge tetrahedral structures, designed by Stiesdal, that will serve as foundations for floating wind turbines, which can operate in deeper water than traditional wind farms. Made of tubes and resembling huge toy Lego blocks, they will be partially submerged, covering an area of roughly two football fields.
Nearby, engineers are testing a machine that looks like a series of stacked cafeteria trays. This is a new design for an electrolyser, which takes water and derives hydrogen gas from it, which is attracting increasing attention as a substitute for fossil fuels. The electrolyzers are intended to reduce the high cost of producing green hydrogen, which is emission-free.
Another product under development is an industrial oven that bakes agricultural waste, such as dung and straw, so that its carbon content does not escape into the atmosphere and form carbon dioxide.
“You can see they’re not just wordson climate change, Stiesdal said. “we have started to do something”.
It is taking the lead when the renewable energy industry in Northern Europe is stagnant. The concern is that Chinese manufacturers, who have long established their dominance in making solar panels, will do the same in wind power.
Stiesdal has raised about $100 million for his company, Stiesdal, which has 125 employees. To keep costs down and expand its reach, it plans to license new products, letting others build them.
In the late 1970s, he and a blacksmith, Karl Erik Jorgensen (died 1982), designed a wind turbine for a local company now called Vestas Wind Systems, then a manufacturer of cranes. It had three blades and “air brakes” to keep them from spinning out of control—a common hazard. They also designed the device to continue to face directly into the wind, for maximum energy efficiency. The machine became the basis for Vestas, today the world’s leading manufacturer of turbines.
Stiesdal then joined a second Jutland company that would become a giant in the industry, now called Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy. He pioneered technical advances, such as casting one-piece blades, which allowed wind turbines to evolve from relatively small farm structures to towers with blades over 90 meters in length.
Perhaps Stiesdal’s most enduring breakthrough was taking industry to sea, via the construction of the world’s first offshore wind farm in 1991, a relatively modest project in shallow water near Vindeby, Denmark. Huge fields of marine turbines are today an important source of renewable electrical energy.
Stiesdal believes that his new company has a good chance of success because the technologies he is promoting are well suited to a small country like Denmark. The products are not high-tech or labor-intensive, he said, but they do rely on a well-educated workforce.
“In many ways they are similar to what I did as a pioneer 45 years ago.“, said.
stanley reed
THE NEW YORK TIMES
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6769415, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-06-20 21:00:07
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