After the development, construction and implementation of renewable energy projects into the grid comes another important part of the value chain: the operation and maintenance of projects. The owners of solar parks or wind farms usually hire specialized companies that already have experience in the management of renewable energy assets. Also, through previous project work and expertise, service providers in this segment can often draw on sophisticated technologies and their experience to get the most out of the projects. In the following article three of the most relevant operation and maintenance service providers in Europe will be presented:
1. wpd windmanager GmbH & Co. KG (Bremen, Germany)
The wpd AG is a well-known German company active in the wind energy market – the subsidiary wpd windmanager is specialized in operation and maintenance, technical as well as commercial. While focusing on (onshore and offshore) wind energy, the company has plenty of experience in the solar market as well and offers the same services for solar farms as for wind parks. From their headquarter in Bremen, Germany, wpd windmanager is active all over to world.
2. Stern Energy S.p.a. (Parma, Italy)
Stern Energy is an Italian independent operator of solar farms in Europe. Apart from technical and management services, the company also offers consulting services in the photovoltaic sector. While operation and maintenance is the main pillar of Stern Energy, they also have expertise in extraordinary maintenance or even specialized and individual services. Most of their projects are in their home country, Italy, followed by Germany, the United Kingdom and finally almost a dozen projects in the Netherlands. All together their portfolio holds over 1200 MW of capacity.
3. Acciona SA (Madrid, Spain)
Acciona is one of the biggest players in the renewable energy market. With their headquarter in Madrid, the company has built a name for itself worldwide. With Energy being one of their main pillars, Acciona also offers the operation and maintenance of renewable energy projects. With the goal of prolonging the lifetime of wind and solar parks as much as feasible, Acciona has a renewable energy control center (CECOER), in which the operation of more than 400 renewable facilities is supervised. All together they account for an installed capacity of 12,000 MW.
Picture Source: Unsplash, 05.11.2021
