Energy Transition Now Podcast Series 5

Series 5

Kicking off the Offshore Wind mini-series, we have Mark Leybourne, the Offshore Wind Program Lead for the World Bank, to discuss emerging Offshore Wind markets.

Hosted once again by David Linden, the conversation explores the unique and important role of the World Bank in expanding and supporting offshore wind globally, the opportunities and challenges governments with an emerging market face, as well as what action is needed for those markets to take off.

This week David Linden speaks with Liming Qiao, Head of Asia at GWEC (Global Wind Energy Council) on unlocking the offshore wind potential of Southeast Asia.

The route to market for offshore wind is now being developed in the region, setting it up for significant growth in the next decade. David and Liming explore the drivers for offshore wind investment, why Taiwan offers a template for the region, how the Philippines is now outpacing Vietnam as the future growth market, as well as how Korea is creating the right conditions for delivering its 14 GW target.

For a technology that is essentially still in a pre-commercial phase, the expectation is high for floating wind to be the future of the offshore wind industry. But the technology landscape that is going to help floating scale is far from settled.

With vertical axis wind turbines having been around for just as long as horizontal axis ones, floating also presents an opportunity for vertical turbines to play a bigger part. To discuss how the floating offshore wind sector has evolved, and the role that vertical axis turbines can have in the growth of this market, David spoke with Johan Sandberg, CEO of SeaTwirl.

Ambition is not something the Offshore Wind industry is lacking. The question is whether it can deliver on the targets being set.

New and emerging markets are often singled out for discussion, but the theme of deliverability is just as important – if not more so – in Europe, the birthplace of the industry. To discuss the theme, this week David spoke with Justine Burg, Vice President of Business Development, Europe Offshore Wind at Equinor.

The offshore wind industry has a key role to play in creating a more sustainable energy system. A fundamental question the industry needs to ask itself is how to scale while also maintaining its sustainability credentials?

This week, David spoke with Maximilian Schnippering, Head of Sustainability at Siemens Gamesa, to explore the current footprint of the industry, drivers and opportunities for sustainability, the barriers to change, as well as when we will see a fully carbon neutral, circular Offshore Wind industry.

If you missed any of the recent podcast mini-series on Offshore Wind, or don’t have the time to listen to every one, you’ll be pleased to hear that we’ve just released our series review.

Last week Gareth Hector and David Linden sat down to discuss the rationale for this series and take a listen back over some key moments from each podcast.