Continuing its series of interviews with the Northwest’s leading energy officials, nwcurrent this month chats with Jens Søby, president of Vestas Americas, a subsidiary of Denmark-based Vestas Wind Systems. In addition to his position as president of Vestas Americas, Søby serves on the boards of the American Wind Energy Association and the American-Danish Business Council.

In this exclusive interview, Søby discusses the benefits of operating Vestas’ North American headquarters in the Northwest, the challenges facing the U.S. and global wind industries, and some of the steps the company is taking to increase the reliability of its turbines.

The world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas has installed more than 33,500 wind turbines in more than 63 countries. In 2006, the company installed more than 15,000 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity globally. More than 9,000 Vestas turbines (more than 4,200 MW) have been installed on American land.

nwc: Vestas chose to build its American headquarters in Portland. Do you think the Pacific Northwest is poised to become the leader in the U.S. wind energy market?
Søby: We had an office in Palm Springs in 2002. We chose Portland because it is in many ways already a leader in renewables—in hydro, geothermal and wind. We moved here in February 2006. We are growing out of the office, so we had to move a number of employees to another building. But we chose to keep our headquarters in downtown Portland because we fit well here and we have great support by the government here. It’s a wind city. It’s a great place to be. We have a lot of colleagues with offices here as well.
Here at our headquarters, we have sales, technology, finance operations. But we have a business academy out by the airport. We fly in technicians from all over the world to be trained first in safety—that’s our highest priority. We also train them on our company values. We get them the skills they need to service our turbines in the best possible way. We have a significant footprint in Portland.

nwc: What factors do you think have led to the rapid increase in wind power development in the United States?
Søby: The wind industry is growing. It’s growing on a global basis, and the drivers are the same all over the world. There is a need for modern energy: clean energy that is based on domestic sources. It can be ramped up very fast, it creates a lot of jobs, and it’s a significant piece in the fight against global warming. It’s also cost-competitive with other ways of generating electricity. If you go to Denmark, where I come from, 20 percent of the electricity is generated from wind, compared to less than 1 percent in the United States. So we see the potential for more wind development in this country.

nwc: What do you see as some of the unique challenges facing the U.S. wind energy industry today?
Søby: The main challenge is we need to get a long-term energy policy in place in the United States. The Production Tax Credit (PTC) has in many ways been a driver for the wind industry here in North America. But the PTC has been on and off, and it has always had last-minute extensions. It has had a huge impact on investments. The whole supply chain, including Vestas, has been reluctant to invest heavily. At the same time, you see China, which has said by 2020, 15 percent of its electricity will be generated from renewables, predominantly from wind. We are also waiting for federal renewable portfolio standard legislation around transmission.
Another challenge is the need to attract young people to this industry. When you are growing as fast as we are—last year, the wind industry grew 27 percent and this year the industry will grow more than 30 percent—we need to get young people on board. It’s getting a little easier—people are getting excited to join this industry. There is a wealth of opportunities, whether you want to be an engineer, an accountant, or work as a technician. You can work worldwide if you work for Vestas. We share the same values, strategies, objectives worldwide. We have the same training program for our technicians and our leadership whether you are in Europe, Asia or here in the United States.

nwc: Do you see a need for a federal policy around carbon emissions?
Søby: Worldwide, there is growing concern over climate change, and it’s time to not only talk about it, but to step up and do something about it. In this country, there is huge support to do something about climate change. The latest polls I have seen show that more than 80 percent of the U.S. population is pro-renewables as a means for fighting global warming. We see that on Capital Hill too. There is a growing understanding that the United States needs to take a leadership role in accelerating the fight against global warming. 

nwc: Are any of these challenges magnified and/or minimized in the Pacific Northwest region?
Søby: The Northwest, in many ways, has shown leadership when it comes to renewables. The utilities here—Portland General Electric, PacifiCorp, Puget Sound Energy—have seen the advantage of integrating wind into their portfolio.
Wind is not here to replace other generation, but wind can be part of the portfolio going forward to a great extent. And the utilities here have seen that and taken leadership. We also see that from our senators, representatives and our governors. It’s not easier here—nothing is easy—but it’s a great environment here in the Northwest. People have seen the opportunity. It’s encouraging. Targets are set, and people are working toward them.

nwc: What do you see as important R&D needs within the industry?
Søby: Over the last 25 years, turbines have gone from producing 30 kilowatts (KW) of energy, and today they can produce 3,000 KW, or 3 MW. We erected the first 3 MW machine in North America last June in Sacramento. It’s the largest and most powerful machine in North America.
We are working on improving the reliability of our equipment. We want to ensure that the wind turbines are maximizing the production of power over the lifetime of the turbine.We are close to finishing the world’s largest wind-development center, which is in Denmark. We have more than 1,000 highly skilled technicians working there from all over the world. We also have a diagnostics center, where more than 25,000 of our worldwide turbines are monitored live. You can go in a turbine anywhere in the world and see how it’s performing, and how the different key components are performing. This is giving us a wealth of knowledge. It’s also feeding our development staff so they can work on improving the overall quality of each component and how they work together. Why shouldn’t a wind turbine produce with the same reliability as an aircraft? We can do that. It will take some time to get there, but that’s what we are working on.