In Denmark and around the world, Henrick Stiesdal is revered as a father of the wind industry, an industry so young that the 55-year-old Siemens CTO can easily recall the breakthroughs that enabled him to build the company's first 30kW offshore wind turbine in 1991.
After 20 years of innovation, Siemens has just installed its newest turbine off the coast of England. Stiesdal, who has 85 patents to his name, has changed Siemens Wind Energy from a regional - almost artisanal - turbine builder into a global powerhouse, with research and manufacturing centers in major markets as far away as China and the United States.
And nothing shows this corporate transformation better then Siemens' new high tech production techniques modeled after the auto industry: the turbine's sculpted B75 blade is built in one, long mold as a unified piece - with no joints - making it 20 percent lighter than blades produced using traditional methods.
Stiesdal notes, "We can reduce production and logistics costs by standardizing and modularizing components. This is a major step towards making wind power independent from subsidizing."
Can wind turbines replace cars as symbols of modernity?
Images: Henrick Steisdal, Siemens; others, Siemens
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It took me more than two hours to find Henrik Stiesdal's name in Danish for a translation into English of a Chinese article in which his name is only given in Chinese, so, for future cross-reference, here is "Stiesdal" in Chinese:
Traditional characters: 斯提耶斯達爾
Simplified characters: 斯提耶斯达尔
Hanyu pinyin romanisation: Sītíyēsīdá'ěr
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Julian, glad you finally found what you were looking for. Good of you to post the Chinese name here for when another translator searches for it! I used to work in the translation business myself (Fr->En) in the pre-Internet days and know what a hunt it can be to find these sorts of things. Thanks for visiting the AIChE ChEnected blog!
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