Energy and Environment Feature Library

Operations Engineer's library catalogues editorial features going back five years.

Access to all archive material is free to all, including non-members of IPlantE (the Institution of Operations Engineers) or BES (Bureau of Engineer Surveyors), under the umbrella of SOE (Society of Operations Engineers). However, to discover the many benefits of becoming an SOE member, please click here.

05/12/2023 Wind turbine lift safety An HSE alert has raised concerns about the safety of the design of maintenance lifts inside wind turbines. Now, publication of a relevant new design standard has been delayed, reports Toby Clark » Read More

14/03/2022 Condition monitoring for wind turbines In any application, condition monitoring makes maintenance more efficient by preventing catastrophic failures and unplanned downtime, enabling efficient scheduling of maintenance operations with parts ordered in advance, and performing ... » Read More

02/09/2020 Winded: new approaches to offshore wind turbine maintenance Not only are offshore wind turbines a long way from shore, their rotating machinery is housed tens of metres above the surface of the water. The financial incentive to minimise the need to perform inspections and carry out maintenance has ... » Read More

01/11/2019 Show business Energy efficiency and sustainability movers and shakers meet at The Energy Management Exhibition (EMEX) – a free to attend annual event – from 27-28 November at ExCeL in London » Read More

07/03/2019 Pressure cooker A move towards renewables is vital if we want to stop burning fossil fuels. But the intermittent nature of solar and wind energy has been a stumbling block. Promoters of two fluid-compressor plant technologies claim to have the solution » Read More

30/04/2018 Minimising yaw brake noise Maintenance of wind turbine generators (WTGs) aims to sustain efficiency levels and ensure continued reliability, while also dealing with any other concerns that may be raised, as Mark Venables discovers » Read More

08/08/2011 Turbine towers British manufacturing is on the mend. Alan Fitzpatrick reports from a site in Wales capitalising on the rush for wind power » Read More

01/06/2009 Better crystal balls With a breakdown in plant sometimes so catastrophic (failures of lubrication pumps have resulted in shutdowns of more than a year before new parts could be made), it is astonishing that so few plant engineers make use of increasingly ... » Read More

01/10/2008 Turning the tide While wind farms, for most of us, are the iconic, if not entirely friendly, face of renewable energy, there's a quiet revolution readying itself for launch on an unsuspecting public. The new talking point will be marine turbines. Not only ... » Read More

01/02/2008 Money for nothing? There's no such thing as a free lunch - and that holds true for green energy generation, too. Even with wind farms, there is the price of the plant, installation, commissioning, operation and maintenance. There are also safety inspections ... » Read More

01/08/2007 Green choices More and more organisations are hoisting the environmental flag and flying it proudly over their businesses as the move to greater corporate responsibility - and potentially punitive legislation - takes a tighter hold on industry's ... » Read More

01/02/2007 Health check-ups reap big rewards In the age of lean, condition monitoring of capital equipment is an obvious aid to efficient operation, as opposed to waiting for something to break down. As Chris Haines, Rockwell director of customer support and maintenance UK and ... » Read More

01/08/2006 Sustaining the future - making it happen Ever a practically-minded body of men and women, the SOE's annual conference in Birmingham was particularly well worth attending, because it was not so much about the threats to the world environment and the nation's energy supply as it ... » Read More

01/10/2005 The self generation society There is a growing movement towards generating electricity from wind and water locally, with rooftop wind turbines, small hydroelectric plants and solar photovoltaic cells. » Read More

06/12/2004 Renewable Energy - Cast your fortune to the winds Search the internet for the keywords 'wind power', 'manufacturing', 'process' and 'industry' and see what you find. After a little delving in relation to business, the sector you might come across most is farming and 'wind farms', but not ... » Read More