Is the cyber-attack risk for the wind industry growing?

05/25/23 • 28 min

The threat of cyber attacks on the wind industry’s remote control systems for turbines and other equipment is all too real and it is growing by the day, with potentially disastrous consequences for companies which do not understand the dangers they face.

As the industry becomes increasingly reliant on remote systems to control the operations of offshore wind farms, the so-called ‘attack surface’ grows with them. Meanwhile, the energy transition - in which Europe attempts to pivots away from Russian fossil fuels - brings with it a higher likelihood of cyber attacks which originate from state actors.

In the thirteenth episode of the Wind Power podcast - recorded at the WindEurope conference in Copenhagen last month - Ian Griggs, deputy editor of Windpower Monthly spoke to three cybersecurity professionals about the nature of the threat and how the wind industry can guard itself against them.

Boye Tranum, DNV’s director of cybersecurity, Bart Van den Bossche and Tijl Deneut - both cybersecurity experts at Ebo Enterprises - discuss how to assess and counter the threats which face the industry, where responsibility for cybersecurity in companies lies under the new ‘NIS2’ directive, and why people are the weakest link but also the best defence against cyber attacks.

This episode was recorded at the WindEurope Annual Event in Copenhagen and produced by Czarina Deen

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode was recorded at the WindEurope Annual Event in Copenhagen and produced by Czarina Deen

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

What’s keeping the wind industry awake at night?

Last year Europe as a whole commissioned 19.1GW of new wind power capacity (16.7GW for EU-27 member states), according to WindEurope, up 4% (40% for the EU-27 states) from the previous year. That takes Europe’s operational wind power capacity past the 250GW mark but still falls well short of what’s needed to hit climate and energy goals.

From the perennial problem of long waits for permits and grid connections through to nimbyism, ever-increasing turbine sizes and the chicken-and-egg situation that is holding the roll-out of wind power back, there are plenty of issues keeping the industry awake at night. But, as the guests on our podcast point out, this is an industry that is willing - and able - to rise to the challenge.

The technology is there and wind, given the right conditions, can be built at speed.

Matilda Afzelius, CEO for the Nordics at RES, Alexander Fløtre, who heads up offshore wind research at Rystad Energy, Jon Salazar, founder and CEO at Gazelle Wind Power, Joachim Koefoed, who heads up public affairs across Europe for Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Tom Walker, head of onshore wind at Statkraft in the UK, and Eric Jan Bijvank, director Europe & Africa at Fugro join Windpower Monthly editor Claire Warren to discuss some of the challenges - and how we might address them.

To listen, simply click on the 'play' button in the graphic above, or follow and download Wind Power on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other platforms.

This episode was recorded at the WindEurope Annual Event in Copenhagen and produced by Czarina Deen.

Further reading

'EU must restore confidence' as 2022 additions lag climate targets – WindEurope

EU's Net Zero Industry Act 'falls short' of driving 36GW annual wind turbine production – WindEurope

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Next Episode

In conversation with GE Vernova's onshore wind chief Vic Abate

Vic Abate, chief executive of GE Vernova’s onshore wind division as well as GE's chief technology officer, is one of the most senior people working in the wind industry today

A former CEO of GE’s renewable energy division from 2005 to 2013, Abate has been with the company for more than twenty years and he can trace a line in his career from when wind power was in its infancy through to today’s global energy transition.

In the fourteenth episode of the Wind Power podcast - recorded at the recent WindEurope conference in Copenhagen - Ian Griggs, deputy editor of Windpower Monthly, caught up with Abate to ask him how President Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act will affect the fortunes of GE in the coming decade, how the legislation compares with Europe’s proposals and why the company is cutting the number of turbine variants it offers.

This episode was recorded at WindEurope's annual event in Copenhagen, produced by Czarina Deen, and researched by Craig Richard.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.