Global Wind Service (GWS) is celebrating its 15-year anniversary in wind energy. Since securing its first contract in Esbjerg, Denmark, GWS has worked on close to 2,000 projects in 40 countries around the world. The company now employs more than 1,700 people from 39 different nationalities, working across 13 business units and on site around the world. In 2021, the company delivered a revenue of 184 million Euro.
“Global Wind Service has come a long way over the past 15 years,” states Michael Høj Olsen, CEO of GWS. “From being a smaller entrepreneurial provider of manpower, co-founded by Lars Bo Petersen and Michael Nielsen who is still active and shareholders in GWS, to now being one of the preferred project partners globally, for complete wind turbine services. We have managed to grow together with our clients and adapt to industry needs. We can all be very proud of what we have achieved – it is something that would not have been possible without all our dedicated and skilled colleagues.”
As projects have become more complex and challenging, GWS has invested heavily in training, processes and in systems to meet higher standards for safety, quality and technical expertise. In 2021, Global Wind Service Academy was established in Szczecin in Poland.
Key accomplishments over the past 15 years include taking a position within offshore installation and service; the installation of the very first offshore wind turbines in U.S. at Block Island in 2016; installation of the first offshore wind farm in France, Parc Éolien en mer de Saint-Nazaire, in 2022; and playing a role in the growing offshore market in Taiwan with local establishment and colleagues.
Other key accomplishments established a blade maintenance team of more than 250 specialized blade technicians and back-office staff, as well as the entering of markets like Turkey, Lithuania, Serbia and other locations to support partners and clients in the installation of onshore wind farms.
“When we expand and open new units, it important for us, to hire local employees and build a local organization. We thereby contribute positively to the local societies and labour markets in the different countries,” Olsen continues.
