Sivakumar Jayapal

ZF is a global technology company supplying gear systems for vehicles and industrial technology. ZF Wind Power designs modular gearbox platforms and produces complete powertrains for wind turbines. Sivakumar Jayapal, Chief Service Officer at ZF Wind Power, talks with Windpower Engineering & Development about its new interactive service Thrive.

Below is an excerpt of ZF’s Wind Spotlight with Windpower Engineering & Development, but be sure to listen to the full episode here or on your favorite podcast app.

What is Thrive?

Thrive is ZF Wind Power’s new service brand, which we launched in 2022. As a global leader in the wind industry for the gearbox and powertrain, we aim to empower a sustainable future with our partners by our service offerings. Our unique service concept helps our wind park operators, consumers and customers to get the most from the wind power to generate limitless green energy. “Thrive” means to prosper, to be fortunate. We embody that definition to the power of our service. For us, service is not reactive, but rather being proactive. It is not only about maintaining and keeping the wind turbines alive, but about continuously optimizing to thrive and prosper.

What does Thrive’s tagline ‘For continuous availability’ mean?

With Thrive, we strive for continuous availability for our partners and their wind projects. Thanks to our customer-centric mindset, availability of the gearbox and the spare parts along with our global footprint, we can ensure the wind power continues to reach consumers 24/7 through the year.

How do you guarantee this availability?

Thrive offers a complete service package. We bundled everything together, including worldwide field support, workshop repairs in 90 days, global replacement pool, spare part management, and we also train our partners. All these are supported by our unique digitalization approach, a service powered by analytics. This includes different digital offerings like ZF’s customer dashboard, intelligent powertrain, spare part optimization. We also work as partners with our customers and tailor our offerings to their preference. That’s key because it’s not that they have to get the full package. There is no standard or a fixed approach. We always develop a personalized package together with our partners, which suits their business model, they have a choice to select in any six of our offerings.

What is the gearbox pool and how does it work?

Thrive offers an international pool for its partners. This gearbox pool contains new and refurbished gearboxes from all major brands and multiple turbine models. Using the digital Thrive platform, customers can go into zfthrive.com and order a gearbox of their choice, which will be shipped within five days. The gearbox pool provides many opportunities for our partners such as low personal stock, less downtime and replacement gearboxes when a gearbox needs service.

This podcast is sponsored by ZF Wind Power.

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In April 2023, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed the Promoting Offshore Wind Energy Resources (POWER) Act, enacting the state’s new 8.5-GW offshore wind target while highlighting the local workforce development and domestic supply chain features of the bill. This was just the latest example of the offshore wind industry’s emphasis on “local content” in these massive projects.

Block Island Wind Farm
Credit: Orsted

Less than a year ago, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) approved two leases for large offshore wind projects off the coast of North Carolina, known as the Carolina Long Bay (CLB) sale. That lease auction pioneered a new local content requirement where bidders were invited to include a local content commitment to receive a percentage bonus on their bids. This extra bidder credit required developers to commit to helping establish a domestic supply chain for offshore wind as well as commit to funding workforce development programs for the offshore wind industry.

However, offshore wind developers, as well as the policymakers who make the rules for offshore wind, have so far not made the connection between the drive toward domestic economic development known as “local content” and the varied uses of geospatial data. Full understanding of that connection should lead policymakers to expand their thinking on local content requirements and include geospatial “content” and related services in offshore wind lease auction rules like the bonus bidder credit.

The core of geospatial data analysis is the gleaning of useful insights into the local conditions that meaningfully impact a project or business objective. The basic need for this in federal offshore wind leases is that the required site assessment plans (SAPs) and construction and operations plans (COPs) must contain detailed information about the affected geographies and an analysis of the physical impacts on the local area. What is less obvious is the connection to increasingly important local socioeconomic impact assessments that underlie local content rules. These lease requirements can have a strong tie to geospatial data in topics such as location-dependent livelihoods, local economic activity, displacement of people and businesses, and transmission line siting.

Fundamentally, the real objective of local content policy is not the amount of physical material made in the United States, but the longer-term structural growth in local economic activity. But the word “content” implies physical materials, which has led to a focus on supply chains, manufacturing and construction. In the CLB example, there was some evolution in this thinking in that the bonus was awarded for commitments to local workforce development, but even then, the focus was on the workforce involved in construction and operation of the physical facilities.

The CLB commitments demonstrate some of the limitations in prioritizing things like the physical supply chain. Even in the long-term, the total offshore wind potential off the coast of North Carolina is unlikely to spur a North Carolina supply chain, manufacturing facilities or even significant port construction beyond the minimum needed for delivering the CLB wind farms. What may ultimately prove more valuable in the long term is the development of a “services infrastructure” that is both local and can be provided to other geographies. As geospatial analysis is recognized as an integral part of the offshore wind development process, the development and economic activity of geospatial services can be an enhancement to the scope of local content benefits.

Even further, geospatial services could be used to help assess other local socioeconomic impacts. Traditional thinking on geospatial data and offshore wind development is focused on local physical conditions relevant to project deployment. Typically, this includes the environmental impact of the construction and presence of large pieces of infrastructure such as transmission facilities and the turbine platforms themselves.

However, a recent report on offshore wind development noted that “formal BOEM guidance for developers includes assessment of not only environmental hazards, water quality, biological resources, endangered species, and archaeological resources, but also social and economic resources.” Latest technology and advances in geospatial analysis could not only provide comprehensive physical impact assessments, but also insights into the impacts and benefits regarding these social and economic resources.

For example, geospatial analysis could more accurately assess disruptions to economic activity on sea (fishing, water recreation, etc.) and on land, such as access to or transit across lands where new transmission lines are sited. On the other hand, similar analysis could be applied to economic benefits from increased grid capacity and lower cost energy in the area such as attracting businesses and jobs.

Building a domestic industry in geospatial services can be a significant contributor to domestic economic benefits from offshore wind projects. Other countries are ahead of the United States in terms of offshore wind development experience and expertise, but geospatial data collection and analysis specific to offshore wind are key work areas where the United States can catch up to and someday surpass other countries. Furthermore, training and providing experience in geospatial jobs is a valuable form of workforce development in that these can be more highly paid jobs that are less temporary than construction jobs.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning some other advantages of designating geospatial services as local content:

• International trade law: Supporting domestic geospatial services does not run afoul of the legal issues with “subsidizing” domestic products and manufacturing.
• National security: Domestic data collection and services avoid national security concerns regarding both visibility into the data as well as foreign supply chain risks.
• More local activity: More of the offshore wind development process, like the early phases of planning and design, can be local content activity versus just the construction phase.

Ultimately, while the CLB offshore wind lease auction was successful in securing major local content commitments, the scope of what was considered local content was still limited to traditional thinking. As a result, the projects may not realize their full potential for bringing economic value to the United States and North Carolina. Going forward, policymakers should strongly consider how geospatial data and services can greatly increase the economic benefits sought by local content policies.

Sloan Freeman is Director of Hydrospatial Solutions of Geodynamics, an NV5 company. She is a licensed NC Professional Land Surveyor and has completed the NC Military Business Center’s Defense Contractors’ Academy and Duke University’s Research Costing Compliance training. Prior to founding Geodynamics, Sloan worked in the research sector of marine ecology and environmental policy at the Duke University Marine Lab where she managed and coordinated multi-million dollar research grants and projects in the field of coastal and ocean science. As Principal in Charge at Geodynamics, she manages long-term IDIQ contracts with the USACE and coordinates collaborations with partners in coastal engineering, natural resource agencies, and for the US Navy, NOAA, and BOEM.

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“American offshore wind power is vital to accelerating the deployment of clean energy and the industry is stepping up to the plate to invest,” said John Hensley, VP of research and analytics at ACP. “The rapid growth in the U.S. offshore wind pipeline reflects strong federal and state government commitment to clean energy expansion and the industry’s response to those goals. These projects have the potential to create tens of thousands of jobs, reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign energy, provide coastal cities with reliable clean power, and help the U.S. meet its emissions reduction goals.”

“The Offshore Wind Market Report” underscores the role that states are playing in driving U.S. offshore wind procurement. East coast states, like New York and New Jersey, have set procurement targets totaling over 51,000 MW. In total, 10 states have combined offshore wind targets of over 81,000 MW.

The new report emphasizes the economic impact of offshore wind on domestic shipbuilding, with more than 30 new vessels currently on order or under construction to support the industry.

The domestic supply chain for offshore wind is also set for significant growth, with 14 facilities announced or under construction. Investment announcements for major offshore wind components exceed $1.7 billion, and with three state solicitations pending, more supply chain investments are anticipated, bolstering the sector’s expansion.

Despite these growing trends, project costs are rising due to supply chain disruptions, commodity price increases, macroeconomic inflationary pressures and higher interest rates. Rising steel prices in particular pose challenges for offshore wind developers, as steel represents a significant portion of project material costs. Lengthy and unclear permitting and regulatory timelines worsen these issues. Resolution of these permitting and siting challenges, alongside improving economic conditions, would strengthen the economic viability of offshore wind projects.

H”While the U.S. offshore wind industry is making tremendous strides, it’s essential to address these challenges to ensure the long-term economic viability of these projects,” Hensley said. “A strong, collaborative approach between industry stakeholders and government bodies will help us tackle obstacles – like clarifying permitting processes – and realize the full potential of offshore wind as a key component of our clean energy future.”

Key Takeaways from the Report:

• U.S. Offshore Wind Pipeline: 42 MW currently online, 51,377 MW in development pipeline across 32 leases.
• East Coast dominates with 84% of the pipeline, accounting for 43,115 MW.
• Early development projects represent 33,875 MW, while advanced development projects account for 16,564 MW.
• Ten states have combined offshore wind procurement targets of over 81,000 MW.
• New York leads with 4,362 MW of capacity in the pipeline, followed by New Jersey with 3,758 MW.
• Revenue: 2022 BOEM lease sales generated nearly $5.4 billion in federal revenue.
• Prices were highest in the February 2022 New York Bight auction, averaging $8,313/acre, and lower in Carolina Long Bay and California.
• Manufacturing: Offshore wind is driving domestic shipbuilding and a growing domestic supply chain, with over 30 vessels on order or under construction.
• Headwinds: Project costs are increasing due to supply chain disruptions, commodity price increases, and inflation, with steel prices as a notable concern. Lengthy permitting and regulatory timelines exacerbate these issues.

The Offshore Wind Market Report is accessible here.

News item from ACP

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