For the third time, The Switch took part in the EWEA wind power exhibition which brought over 8000 professionals last week to Brussels, Belgium. True to The Switch permanent magnet generator (PMG) technology solutions, we discussed our offering with many of our booth visitors, and, once again, it became obvious that PMG technology has really become the preferred choice for the wind power industry. And if EWEA 2011 was the global water cooler of our industry, our revolutionary power train solution, FusionDrive™, successfully launched last September at the Husum Wind Energy 2010 with Moventas, seems to have become a top trending topic.
Offshore continues to grow in importance as a significant wind energy segment and our visitors made several inquiries about low- and medium-voltage drive trains as part of their wind generation solutions. Also, certification of wind turbines in accordance with GL and UL standard requirements is clearly a growing trend.
The debate around the availability and pricing of rare earth materials has been recently heating up, and we noted this also at EWEA 2011. As a result of China’s rare earth export restrictions, mines in other parts of the world have started to reopen their operations. Material deliveries from US and Australia –based mines to Europe are expected to start already as soon as next year, and other mines in Canada, South Africa and Kazakhstan plan to make their resources available in the near future.
Mika Jantunen, Product Manager, Full-power converters
Panu Kurronen, Product Manager, Permanent magnet generators
