Robot Wars | Europe's turbine makers risk losing all to China without 'controversial' step on automation

Europe’s turbine makers must up their game on automation or risk getting wiped out by China, warns the head of a pioneering robotics centre, who says some may have to suffer short term pain for the greater good of the continent’s wind industry.

“A solid four.” This is the mark that Christian Schlette, the Head of Unit at the SDU Center for Large Structure Production (LSP) in Denmark, gives the wind industry out of ten for how far it has come on realising the potential of automation.

This varies from company to company, he stressed. But what is undoubtedly true – and potentially a cause for optimism – is that Schlette said there are “tons of low hanging fruit out there ripe for automation.”

Schlette is a German national who previously worked on robotics and digital twins at RWTH Aachen University, one of the leading institutions in his homeland for engineering. He moved to work at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) in Odense in 2017, where he has led its work on large structure production.

Last year, he took up a full-time post as head of the new LSP Center, which aims to develop automation solutions for the energy, maritime and construction sectors.

To achieve this, the LSP Center is currently in the midst of building a new state-of-the-art workspace – 30 metres long, 20 metres wide and 10 metres high – in the heart of the Port of Odense. So far, DKr425m ($65m) has been invested in the LSP Center and its equipment, which is expected to open in June next year.

This workspace will feature four robot arms that can work individually, in pairs or all together synchronously (see video below). These can weld but also have other tools added, allowing for other functions.

The robots will be “agnostic” to the material they work with, “it can be anything,” said Schlette, rattling off concrete, steel and composites as examples.

There are “hardly any robots” currently used by wind power manufacturers, he said, meaning they are dependent on manual labour.

This is a “challenge” for suppliers in the West, given labour costs are “way less” in other places. China, of course, is the elephant in the room.

There are also “less and less people actually willing to work in what we sometimes call 3D work, which is dirty, dull and dangerous.”

“Automate yourself out of the situation, go buy robots,” would be the obvious advice, said Schlette. “But those robots do not exist.”

“This is where we come in.”

Different ways that manufacturers can work with test centre

The port of Odense is one of the “European super league” ports for the offshore wind industry and is home to many of its major players.

This naturally makes it a perfect home for the LSP Center, which can easily collaborate with major manufacturers – Korean-owned monopile maker CS Wind Offshore is an early example of a company it has linked up with.

Schlette said the centre is also in dialogue with leading players – including turbine makers Vestas, Siemens Gamesa and GE Vernova and developer Orsted – about how they could use its technology once it is up and running.

There are different ways the centre can work with manufacturers, explained Schlette. A supplier will present a problem and the LSP Centre will have a “portfolio of partial solutions, partial equipment that we then adapt and reintegrate into what we call a solution.”

This often involves “off-the-shelf components being put together in a new manner. And then a lot is in the software, the control software to actually operate the different pieces of a hardware system as an integrated system.”

Some companies that don’t have money to invest might want the centre to develop a particular solution but to achieve this through public funding, he said. “There's a lot of funding around in Europe and also here nationally in Denmark that we can tap into.”

In that case, the LSP Center keeps whatever IP is developed as “background IP,” and this can be used for the next project that comes along.

“Other companies say, ‘You know what, we want to invest in this also IP-wise. We want to take any result, any outcome of this project and take it back home. It’s our IP.’”

‘I was thinking, why doesn’t this exist already?’

One of the many low-hanging fruits that the wind power industry could pluck, said Schlette, is mounting boom cranes to robotic mobile platforms to carry out maintenance work.

These cranes would be able to carry out scanning, repair and painting operations at heights of 15-20 metres, he said.

Currently, when monopiles are being stored in an upright position, “a guy in a basket needs to go up, and needs to bring all the tools up,” with the assistance of a manual crane operator.

“Why not automate this by making a clever crane that is a robotic platform?”

Currently, the LSP Centre is working on developing this using a platform produced by Austrian supplier Palfinger, said Schlette.

This is what Schlette’s team is now working on with CS Wind Offshore, he said. It’s also “spilling over” into the maritime sector, which has “very similar needs” for a mobile robotic solution that can “reach out or reach high.”

Schlette said he has found himself wondering: “Why doesn't this exist?”

“This is one of the low-hanging fruits where we can actually do a lot with things that are basically already around. We just recombine them to a novel system.”

‘Very controversial – some agree with me, but can’t say it out loud’

So why is the wind industry not grasping what is well within reach? There are two main reasons, said Schlette.

The first is that companies – in a wind industry that has come under considerable financial pressure in recent years – say they simply do not have the money to invest in developing the technology.

“‘So no Capex, please. Whatever you offer, please offer it for free,’” said Schlette, echoing comments he has heard in the past.

“Secondly, even if we would bring the money,” Schlette continued that they would often say “‘Ah, we have tried it in the past. It didn't work. Or we have heard that someone tried it in the past and it didn’t work. And we are not willing to go there again.’”

These are not responses or attitudes peculiar to the energy sector, added Schlette. “It's exactly the same for the maritime sector. And it's exactly the same for the construction sector.”

The issue, he said, is that “companies are so deep in their operations and also the margins are so slim that hardly anyone is ever capable of investing into a more long-term solution.”

What can therefore be done to break this cycle, where companies are locked into their inefficient, labour-intensive methods by the thin margins that they cause?

One thing that certainly doesn’t help, said Schlette, is more universities “dabbling around” with research projects that do “not lead anywhere”. Projects need to be “application oriented” and “close to industry at high tier levels.”

One solution, said Schlette – “and this is very controversial. I know some people would actually agree with me, but they can't say this out loud” – is that manufacturers should standardise components so they are exchangeable between companies.

If they do that, “the prices for automation technologies will go down for everyone.”

Standardising might not be immediately beneficial to each individual company, he said, “because this means that a potential competitor also has access to the same thing.”

But turbine-makers and supply chain companies are all currently “under pressure,” he said. It’s not about who can “pocket the most money anymore... we are all pocketing basically what is left.”

Robot Wars: Who has the lead between Europe and China?

“Otherwise, we are going to lose this industry,” he said, pointing to the solar and electric vehicle sectors as two that have already been decisively captured by the Chinese.

“Denmark is very proud of its wind industry and also being an early adopter and the driver of the industry,” he said. “But we also there see a market that is dwindling towards Asia.”

Europe’s need to automate is not just due to the opportunities this offers in cutting labour costs and narrowing the gap between the price of turbines produced in the continent and in Asia, said Schlette.

The lack of workforce in Europe is also an issue that has become “more apparent” over the last few years, he said. Even if labour costs were not an issue, “we still wouldn't have enough hands to handle it."

Where does Europe stand versus China when it comes to automating its wind power sector currently?

Until recently, Schlette said that he tended to think, like many other engineers in Europe, that that “we still have a lot of know-how for which you would have to have over decades nurtured mindset that you do not find in China.”

“This is wrong.”

Now, he believes the engineering skills in China are “as good as whatever you find in the US and Europe.”

Many of the core components used for robots, such as motors and sensors, now come from China, he noted. “So I think from one perspective, this is already a lost case.”

Some of the moves Chinese industry is making are “clearly subsidised,” he said. “It would not be possible if you would do this economically.”

“I think it is a strategic move to occupy certain markets like wind energy. However, I think also in China, there is a lot of pressure on them as well as on everyone else.”

What the West may still have, said Schlette, is a “slim advantage in terms of mindset and innovation readiness.”

When it comes to reshoring the wind industry and securing its future in Europe, Schlette is definitive: “Automation is the solution.”

“I see no other way.”