Henrik Stiesdal

Henrik Stiesdal joined the wind industry pantheon in 1978 when he invented one of the ‘Danish Concept’ turbines, a design which dominated the industrial landscape through the 1980s. Stiesdal continued to be a leading influence in the sector through his role as chief technology officer of Siemens Wind Power, which he left in 2014 to advance other projects, including the paradigm-shifting floating wind turbine design called TetraSpar, a prototype of which is now on track for installation off Norway next year. During his career, Stiesdal has created more than 175 inventions and logged more than 650 patents related to wind power technology.

Walter Musial

Walter Musial is a principal engineer and manager of the offshore wind department at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where he has worked since 1988, in 2003 launching the offshore wind energy research programme at NREL which he now leads. Musial was also responsible for the development and implementation of the full-scale blade and drivetrain testing facilities at the National Wind Technology Center. As early as 2004 he made the case for building cost-competitive “deepwater wind turbines” to diversify the US electric energy supply with offshore energy sources that would be “complementary to onshore developments”. He has authored over 60 publications and holds two patents.

Paul de la Guérivière

Paul de la Guérivière is CEO of French floating wind pioneer Ideol, which is the first sector company to have two commercial-scale prototypes in the water, the 2MW concrete FloatGen demonstrator off France and the 3.2MW steel Hibiki unit off Japan. His innovative ‘damping pool’ platform concept has taken up a place along the oil industry-inspired spar and semisubmersible designs that have formed the first wave of pilot and array projects in Europe. Prior to founding Ideol in 2010, De la Guérivière worked in clean-energy business development in China and in the area of carbon finance. He holds a Master of Science degree from the École des Ponts ParisTech.

Yoshinori Ueda

Yoshinori Ueda is general manager of the Japan Wind Power Association (JWPA), and board member and head of the international committee at the Japan Wind Energy Association (JWEA). Through his work as committee member of several floating wind power working groups in Japan, he was influential in the development of the landmark 14MW Fukushima Forward project, the world’s first multi-unit array, and 2MW Goto pilot. Ueda majored in mechanical engineering at Kyoto University and worked in power plant production at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for more than 30 years, including on floating wind technology designs dating back to at least 2004.

Recharge opens voting for 2019 global floating wind prize