Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Volume 61, Issue 2
In this Issue of ILT we are pleased to bring you descriptions of work being carried out in Turkey, Malaysia, Brazil, USA, Sweden and Belgium. As per usual, a wide range of topics is covered which we hope will provide all our readers with items of interest.
ILT were very pleased to be able to attend the recent Joint Tribology Conference organised by STLE and ASME in the USA. This is an annual event that seems to become more relevant year by year. Certainly many of the papers presented covered work related to the real world problems surrounding the lubrication and tribology sciences.
At ILT we would definitely recommend that if possible you make arrangements to attend this conference in future. It really is a good way to both meet with fellow researchers but also gives a good insight into what areas of study are dominating research institutes around the world.
The generation of energy by wind turbines was covered and this does seem to be an area of major interest to tribologists and lubrication engineers. The following extract from the very interesting report from Arthur D Little provides some background to the problem.
The future of offshore wind is in doubt
Offshore wind is, in many ways, an ideal form of green energy. It is clean and renewable, and can be deployed well away from public view. It is well supported, especially in Europe, by the public and governments as a way of meeting their renewables targets. However, despite this positive climate, the future of offshore wind is by no means assured. Supply constraints, logistical difficulties and technical concerns present significant obstacles to the expansion of the sector. The first two barriers are well known and in some ways are easier to overcome. The technical challenges are less widely recognised but present the biggest barrier to long-term growth. The figures are stark. Onshore,wind turbines can achieve availability levels of 97 per cent. Offshore,technical problems mean that number can be as low as 60 per cent. This problem is exacerbated by the remote nature of the installations, which makes repair times much longer than for onshore facilities. If the offshore wind industry is to become a major player in the energy sector, it will need to address this high technical failure rate and find ways of developing equipment that is robust and reliable in an offshore environment. No one part of the industry is going to be able to achieve that step change in the technology. It will require collaboration and a willingness to share resources and knowledge. That collaboration will need to be driven by smarter customers and by governments providing research funding and direct financial incentives (For further information please visit www.adl.com).
In a nut shell here is a real technical problem were new technology is simply not reliable enough to meet the required durability level.
An urgent and big challenge for our colleagues over the next couple of years!!
John Taylor
