Editorial March

Three more weeks – then we would like to invite you for the second time to the "Hamburg Offshore Wind – HOW2018" conference. At the same time the second bidding round for offshore wind is in progress, whose results are eagerly anticipated by the industry.

We're convinced that HOW 2018 will provide important information for further developing wind turbine technology and the associated installation and maintenance concepts. The trend is undoubtedly towards wind turbines in the double-digit megawatt range. On the other hand, price developments on the power exchanges are also playing a decisive role, with some project developers during the last bidding round in 2017 showing that they only want to finance their wind farms with electricity market revenues. Therefore it will also be highly exciting to see which developments are on the horizon, as forecast by the electricity market experts and portfolio managers.

The offshore wind sector has seen a rapid race to innovate, which has led to a roughly 50% reduction in costs in recent years. But this is the case not only with offshore wind but also with onshore wind, photovoltaics and, increasingly, solutions for sector coupling.

For the seventh time, the Renewable Energy Hamburg Cluster is conferring the "German Renewables Award 2018" industry prize in order to showcase the sector's ongoing capability to innovate. The competition is now open for submissions in the “Products”, “Projects”, “Student Work” and “Lifetime Achievement” categories, whereby entries or Lifetime Achievement award nominations can be submitted by 5 May. The award ceremony will take place during the WindEnergy Fair and the first Global Wind Summit on 26 September 2018 at the Intercity Hotel Dammtor in Hamburg. We are looking forward to your exciting entries that prove the industry's capabilities for innovation!