It’s been a week since the American Wind Energy Association WINDPOWER conference in New Orleans, LA, and we are still amazed by the success of the show. Sentient participated as an exhibitor for the first time at WINDPOWER 2016, and we were impressed by the sessions and quality of the information that was presented. The recent extension of the Production Tax Credit certainly was a big draw for the 7,200 people at the show, and we’re told attendance was way up from previous years. At the end of 2015, about 8,500 megawatts came online in the United States, bringing the total installed capacity to nearly 75 gigawatts. The landscape of the wind industry is expected to be very different by 2020 as the PTC will attract more investments and installations around the country. It’s an exciting time to be launching new products and gaining momentum in wind.
In just two years, Sentient has contracted with 18,000 wind turbines in the global renewable energy market. Now that we have the failure rate information from most of the major wind operators and developers in North America and Europe, we’ve started aggregating the demand for uptower component and gearbox replacements.
We launched
DigitalClone Live for Suppliers last week, which will facilitate communication between the supplier community and the operators. The web portal shows the anonymized opportunities from the life extension solutions recommended by Sentient to the operator network. The opportunities are segmented by geography, gearbox type, wind turbine manufacturer and financial opportunity. Operators take advantage of the tool to reduce their inventory costs through better supplier agreements. The application in turn allows suppliers to see the aggregated demand for parts and services, so they can sort and target their sales strategies. A supplier can submit a proposal to an operator through the offer button. The operator can review the bid, see Sentient’s life predictions of the supplier’s products, and then choose to accept and disclose their information, or deny the offer. Sentient facilitates the information exchange, ensuring the operator’s data is anonymous until NDA’s are in place.
Thank you to everyone who came to visit us at our booth, to the AWEA staff who did a phenomenal job coordinating the show, and to our partners who continue to help us grow and make an impact in renewables. To learn more about Sentient Science, visit sentientscience.com and request a demo.