Norstec Academy Students Dive Deep into Offshore Wind Industry

Wind Energy, Northern Germany, and Universität Oldenburg’s Post Graduate Programme Renewable Energy (PPRE) have been on a journey together for the past 30 years. Passionate students are encouraged to realize every opportunity they have to push forward for a sustainable future.

Paul Lawson from the USA, a second semester masters student specializing in Wind Energy, ventured to the UK in what he describes as “a once in a lifetime chance” to explore offshore wind in one of the fastest growing markets in the world.

Norstec Academy, a key collaborator in offshore wind throughout the UK and around the world, challenged students with a number of questions; the main driver being: What inspires you about offshore wind?

A tough question for any engineer to answer. Those who were able to convey their passion were offered a week-long tour by Norstec which consisted of everything from mock press interviews, pitching a 300MW wind farm to investors, and even climbing in a real Siemens training nacelle.

Here’s what Paul had to say:

“I like to think of offshore wind energy as a mechanical engineers playground. As a mechanical engineer, the challenge of ever shifting obstacles are not difficulties, they are contests.”

This one-week experience, which included visits to the Crown Estate and a Siemens training facility, fueled the young student’s fire for wind development.

Although Paul is starting his master’s thesis in the field of Lidar based wind measurement in Oldenburg, Germany plans for the future are in motion. He plans on continuing onwards next year into the field of wind turbine design or possibly a PhD position in cooperation with a wind energy company.