Please join us in welcoming Shawn Sheng, research scientist from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He will be discussing the challenges and opportunities facing the global wind industry.
4290 Fitts-Woolard Hall
Wind Plant O&M Challenges and R&D Opportunities
Global wind industry has experienced tremendous growth during the past two decades and the trend does not appear changing in near future. However, the industry is still challenged by premature component failures and high operations and maintenance (O&M) costs, which can account for up to 35 percent of levelized cost of energy. It is important for the industry to improve performance, reliability and reduce O&M costs through advanced technologies, enabled by R&D in related disciplines, to be competitive. This talk will first briefly discuss the challenges with wind plant O&M, then give an overview of related NREL R&D activities in the areas of performance, reliability, and O&M cost modeling, finally touch on future R&D opportunities in related areas. Hopefully, some of the presented challenges and future R&D opportunities are of interest to the industrial and systems engineering community to take on and help the wind industry address.
Shawn Sheng is a senior research engineer at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and a key member of the drivetrain reliability collaborative research team. Currently, he leads wind turbine gearbox reliability database, condition monitoring, wind plant operations and maintenance (O&M), including offshore, and wind energy digitalization research at NREL. Sheng is a co-operating agent for International Energy Agency Wind Task 43 on wind energy digitalization. He is an active advocate for conducting advanced research, bridging gaps between academia and industry, and transforming wind O&M through R&D. Sheng has a broad range of research interests:
His work has been published in various journals, conference proceedings, book chapters, and technical reports.
