R&D
Gamesa participates in both Spanish and European working groups aimed at establishing priorities for the sector’s R&D work. In 2003 a Gamesa representative sat on a committee of experts as part of the National Energy Program of the National R&D Plan 2004-2007. In 2006 we were members of the steering committee of the Technological and Scientific Windpower Network (Red Científico Tecnológica Eólica, or REOLTEC) which proposes lines of enquiry for R&D for the forthcoming National R&D Plan 2008-2011. We also took part in various CEOE (Spanish Business Federation) working groups concerned with innovation. GAMESA was also represented on the Executive Board for the only integrated wind power project contained in the EU’s 6th Framework R&D Program and was also part of the working team that prepared the SRA (Strategic Research Agenda) for the European wind power technological platform (TPWind).
During 2006, and for the second consecutive year, Gamesa went through an internal process of technological strategic reflection focused on wind power, based on our own methodology known as GAWETS (Gamesa Wind Energy Technological Strategy), which enabled us to review and confirm the key technologies on which to concentrate our technological development efforts, with a view to subsequently developing them further so that they can also be applied to other new or existing products.
Technological development is established for several years at a time on a revolving basis, reviewed with each annual Technological Development plan, which sets out the activities and deliverables that we aim to achieve during the year in question, leading finally to assignment of a budget.. Within this framework the Company’s strategic and priority lines within the R&D function are centered on the following aspects:
- With a view to assisting the Company’s growth, we work on creating new product lines, consolidating the new MainStream segment, and on reducing energy costs.
- With a view to enhancing the return on capital employed, working lines are geared to reliability and standardization.
- Lastly, with a view to financial strength, we work through networks of Gamesa technological centers making the best possible use of research assets.
The figures for Gamesa’s activities strictly related to R+D (in other words without including technological innovation) in the years 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 were 32,3 Mill. 40.8 Mill. 50 Mill. and 36 Mill. Euros respectively, while the figure for 2006 was 33 Mill. (capitalized research expenditure), representing 1.37% of turnover for the year.
This R&D activity generates technological wealth, particulars of which at year-end 2006 were:
- Applications for patents filed in 2006: 25 overall, compared with 23 in 2005.
- Portfolio of patents granted and in force and pending (including pending patents brought forward from previous years), at year-end 2006: 77 in total.
- Portfolio of patents granted and in force at year-end 2006: 13 in total.
The total figures show the number of families rather than the number of patents. The 77 current patent families give rise to 151 patents, throughout the USA, China, Mexico, India, Korea, etc.
The 2006 report of the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, compiled and presented by the European Commission in December 2006 and based on data at year-end 2005, places Gamesa in eighth position in Spain, and at number 273 in the ranking of the 1,000 European companies with the highest investment in R&D. Gamesa also comes in at number 22 out of a total of 65 companies in the ‘Industrial Machinery’ sector. Source: Monitoring Industrial Research: The 2006 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard