The Dane who Harnessed the Wind - Ep139: Henrik Stiesdal

This week, Michael’s guest is Henrik Stiesdal, former CTO of Siemens Gamesa and a pioneer of wind turbine technology. Nicknamed "The Godfather of Wind", this Danish inventor is behind many of the sector's most important innovations. He is responsible for over 175 inventions and is named in over 1,000 patents. Today, he runs Stiesdal, a startup which innovates in floating offshore turbine foundations, thermal power storage and hydrogen.

Links: 

Henrik was profiled in The New York Times in May: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/business/energy-environment/denmark-wind-power-stiesdal.html 

Henrik featured in Offshore Engineer in 2022: https://www.oedigital.com/news/497276-cto-in-focus-henrik-stiesdal-wind-power-pioneer 

Discover more about Henrik’s company, Stiesdal: https://www.stiesdal.com/about/ Purchase The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Boy-Who-Harnessed-Wind/dp/0007316194 

Related Episodes: 

Watch Episode 130 with Paddy Padmanathan here: https://www.cleaningup.live/ep130-paddy-padmanathan-the-usain-bolt-of-solar-power/ 

Watch Episode 128 with Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg here: https://www.cleaningup.live/ep128-prof-bent-flyvbjerg-how-big-things-should-get-done/ 

Guest Bio 

Henrik Stiesdal is Founder, Chief Technical Officer and Board Member at Stiesdal, who are committed to developing and commercializing technologies with high impact on climate change mitigation. Henrik is a wind power pioneer: having built his first test turbine in 1976, Henrik sold the license to commercial design to Vestas in 1979, kick-starting today’s wind industry. Henrik was Technical Manager of Bonus Energy from 1988, then CTO of Siemens Wind Power from 2004-2014. Henrik installed the world’s first offshore wind farm in 1991, and holds more than 1000 patents.