Deep Dive Yields Foundation for Strategic Growth
When a global transport and logistics business wanted to not only look to the future of the wind energy sector, but to try to predict and improve it, the company turned to Ventoco for a systematic yet flexible approach from renewables experts who have broad and deep experience and a network that takes decades to develop. The results were a worldwide outlook and foundation for the customer’s strategic growth opportunities.
Looking Down the Wind Energy Logistics & Transport Road
The global transport and logistics company wanted to prepare for the future of wind energy manufacturing and development. But where was that future going to be?
That was the question that brought Ventoco to the table to help create a five- to 10-year global outlook and strategy for onshore wind energy growth. The report included projections for potential geographic and stakeholder shifts in the full supply chain, identifying movements of raw materials to interim transfers of major components to major factories and shipping to construction sites around the world for their final installation.
The Challenge & Opportunities
Our tasks were to identify, define and project changes in three areas of the onshore wind energy industry:
- Current component manufacturing/assembly – Where were the major components for onshore wind energy development – towers, blades and nacelles, and for the nacelles, the subcomponents such as gearboxes, hubs, main shafts, generators, control panels and bearings – being manufactured?
- Emerging and major wind markets – Where in the world would wind energy development happen over the next five to 10 years? Where would new markets emerge?
- Future component manufacturing/assembly – How would these dynamic market and supply shifts possibly impact the logistics of it all? How could early insight provide opportunities for a differentiating strategy and market offering for this transport and logistics company?
This is not the kind of information one can simply find on the Internet.
So we went to work, looking at all the pieces of the puzzle, digging deep into the bill of materials, gathering information, connecting to our network in defining today’s vs. the future’s qualified suppliers, evaluating the next turbine generation’s material usage, investigating major market policies and energy demands, and applying overall insights based on our past experiences. Ultimately we mapped it all out in a comprehensive report for our client.
Over the course of the nine-month project, we kept a narrow focus on the full demand side of the wind energy supply chain and all the logistics and transportation steps, from procurement to delivery of components and parts. We asked overarching questions such as:
- How many links in the full value- and supply-chains are suboptimal?
- Which of these could create business opportunities our client might capitalize on?
- Are there elements, technologies, tooling, etc. (i.e., intellectual property) our client could acquire and integrate, or is it something our client can design or organically grow in-house?
- Are there inorganic opportunities like acquisitions, mergers or partnerships, and which companies might be targets?
- What are the current competitors preparing to do, and how can we outsmart them?
- How would the market and customers react and accept a change in value offering?
- When and where should the plan be launched and marketed?
Broad & Deep Value for Renewable Energy Clients
Ventoco is perfectly positioned to handle these types of assessment, strategy development and implementation projects.
The value we bring to the table is not that we know everything, but that we know enough about most things in wind and solar energy segments, and perhaps more importantly, how or why the global and local supply and value chains are as they are in their respective segments.
As a consultancy group, we collectively are an inch deep and a mile wide on most things, but each Ventoco consultant, in their specialty area, is both a mile deep and a mile wide. The result is that, as a single-minded collaborative, we know where to find the information and data that’s needed, and if we don’t, our many decades in the industry mean we’re connected with someone who can either help or point us in the right direction. From there, we’re able to develop programs and recommendations for our clients that in turn execute their strategies based on solid data and informed decisions extracted and articulated from decades of practical, hands-on leadership and execution in the renewable energy sector.
Ready, Set… Wait.
Following hundreds of interviews and thousands of hours of research, we delivered to our client an thorough informational foundation and recommendations for transport and logistics planning specific to its capabilities.
Unfortunately, no renewables consulting firm could have predicted COVID and the material cost increases across the entire supply chain of more than 40 percent in some cases, ultimately impacting the deployment of wind across the globe. The project was put on hold as a result.
We’re now in summer of 2023, the wind energy industry is beginning to regain its footing and our information and analysis are back on the table.
Unique Circumstances, Systematic Approach
Every company and customer is unique, with its own markets, barriers and advantages. From decades of similar lessons and projects, Ventoco has developed a systematic, strategic and flexible approach that aligns with the objectives of clients in a wide range of renewable sectors while incorporating their cultures and values into planning.
We continue to work with major regional and global companies that operate in a host of diversified industries, all of them having a common goal of expanding their reach into renewables. Similar to the above logistics and transport project, our work encompasses market research, product development, intellectual property and global renewable policies related to the energy transformation that is radically changing the western world.
* Note – Due to nondisclosure agreements, we are unable to reveal this client’s identity.
