Taranto is not just Ilva, not just stories of unemployment and environmental pollution. Taranto is also home to a reality that is growing, that is at the cutting edge in terms of technology, that creates local employment and "turns out" skilled workers who travel the world to train their colleagues in how to manufacture wind turbine blades. That reality is called Vestas.

Wind energy in Taranto has a relatively long history. In 1989, West (Wind Energy System Taranto) was founded in the "city of two seas" to manufacture wind turbines, and as early as 1991 the first 1MW prototype was installed — a machine that was at the forefront of technology for its time. Ten years after West was established, in 1998, the joint venture Iwt (Italian Wind Technology) was launched; in 2001 it was acquired outright by Vestas. Since then, the Danish company has operated in Taranto with a wind turbine blade manufacturing plant that has produced nine different models over the years. The Taranto plant is powered by 100 per cent renewable energy.

Manufacturing wind turbine blades, precision craftsmanship

They stand a hundred metres tall, silent giants that generate electricity without polluting — they are wind turbines. When we see them turning in a wind farm, we rarely think about the process concealed behind them.

To begin with, there is the manufacture of all the components, which in the case of the Vestas plant in Taranto means producing wind turbine blades made from fibreglass assembled with carbon fibre. In Taranto, 5 production lines are in operation, manufacturing three different types of blade: the V100 at 2MW, the V112 at 3MW, and the V126, also at 3MW. There are two types of production process: structural shell, also known as infusion — essentially the same procedure used in the marine sector to build fibreglass boat hulls — and structural spar, in which the fibreglass used is pre-impregnated; in this case the process is similar to that employed in the automotive and aeronautical sectors. Nothing is left to chance: every single process, from constructing the internal core to the bonding phase and the manufacturing of the outer surface of the blade, is monitored and certified.

To build a blade — the smallest, at 1MW — takes 6 men and 40 hours, of which 8 hours are spent making the internal part of the blade and 16 on the lamination phase, that is, the outer surface. The remaining time is used for what is known as the curing phase and for quality control. Producing a V100 blade (the smallest currently manufactured) requires 330 working hours.

The blades produced are shipped all over the world. Given their dimensions — reaching up to 62 metres in length and weighing 3 tonnes — the technical solutions for transport and the associated costs represent a crucial stage of the entire production process.

Installation and management of wind farms

Once all the components of a wind turbine have been manufactured, they are shipped to the site where a wind farm will be built. At this point, installation begins. Vestas workers specialising in installation assemble a wind turbine in two days: the foundation, the erection of the tower on which the nacelle containing the rotor will be placed, and finally the turbine.

Today the company also handles the service management of all Vestas machines in operation, as well as those of other brands, with continuous remote monitoring, periodic inspection and maintenance, as well as emergency interventions in the event of faults. A team of 400 staff divided into 200 teams operates on a daily basis with on-site interventions, supported by a further 80 people managing logistical, technical and contractual aspects. Vestas Italia in Taranto coordinates the real-time monitoring of data from wind farms across the entire eastern Mediterranean (for example: Italy, Egypt, Jordan, Greece, etc.); from here, in the event of faults, alerts are dispatched to teams in the field. All data is sent to the research and development centre located in Denmark (the largest in the world), where it is analysed with a view to the continuous improvement of both component manufacturing and plant management.

Green jobs and employment for the local area

Vestas has 21,781 employees worldwide. The Taranto plant currently employs 738 workers (of whom just one woman works in production and 5 in the administrative department). A headcount that has doubled in just two years, thanks to the continuing demand for wind turbines and projected growth in the sector.

The workers come almost entirely from the province of Taranto, some from Brindisi and Bari, and through shift work they keep the plant running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

These employees, most of them with an average age of 30, are true artisans of wind energy. The attention to detail and finishing is entirely done by hand, achieving perfectly aerodynamic blades with a weight variance between one blade and another of no more than 3–4 kilograms out of a total of 3 tonnes. Highly specialised workers who, thanks to continuous training, are able to share their know-how around the world within Vestas group companies.

Vestas by the numbers

• 57,600 turbines installed worldwide
• 76 GW of installed wind power capacity
• 63 GW of wind power plants under management
• present in 75 countries across five continents
• 21,781 employees worldwide
• 731 employees at the Taranto factory
• 2.9 billion euros in revenue in the last quarter at global level, an increase of 37% on the previous year

Wind energy in Italy

In Italy, according to figures from the European wind energy association (Wind Europe), at the end of 2015 there were 9 gigawatts (GW) of wind power installed, with projections to reach 12 GW by 2020.

"Today we are at a delicate stage in the development of wind energy in Italy. There are older wind power plants — those that are now approaching the 20-year mark and require a renewal intervention, what in technical jargon is called retrofitting. As well as optimising electricity production on new turbines, Vestas is following with great interest the potential of the Revamping business, that is, the replacement of old machines with new-generation machines, which would bring more high-performing and efficient machines to the market. However, as things stand, this entails the introduction of a new bureaucratic authorisation process," says Rainer Karan, Managing Director of Vestas Italia Srl. "The need to renew the older plants, combined with the existing auction mechanism, would help the development of the wind sector and the market linked to it."

There is also the question of the auctions for non-photovoltaic renewable electricity, which are due to take place in the coming days to allocate new incentives to renewable energy plants. The government has earmarked 435 million euros per year by decree, and the new plants will be selected during the auction on 27 November. These plants will be eligible for an incentive period of 20 years. The outcome of the auctions will be decisive for the development of wind energy in Italy.

Wind energy in the world

According to data from the Global Wind Energy Council (Gwec), total installed capacity worldwide at the end of 2015 stood at 432.9 GW, with cumulative market growth of more than 17 per cent. The increase in new capacity is driven above all by China, with its 30,753 MW installed last year; while the sector globally recorded new growth of 63,467 MW in 2015, up 22 per cent on 2014.

2015 was an unprecedented year for the wind industry from the standpoint of newly installed wind power capacity, which surpassed the 60 GW threshold for the first time in history. More than 63 GW of new wind energy capacity was connected to the grid, an increase of 22 per cent compared to 2014 (51.7 GW).

Also according to the Gwec, by 2030 wind power production could reach 1.2 terawatts (TW) or even as much as 2.1 TW. Growth that requires investments of around 200 billion euros, thanks to which, over the next 14 years, 2.4 million new jobs could be created worldwide. Vestas estimates that by 2020, 10% of global energy consumption will be generated by wind energy.

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