Andrew Garrad

From his school days he has had a strong interest in mathematics. He has a BA in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford and a PhD in theoretical fluid mechanics from the University of Exeter where he studied the boundary layer flow over dolphins.[2] He built his first wind turbine in 1971 which he erected at his parents’ home. His enthusiasm for wind energy was sparked by a lecture by Ernst Schumacher[3] in Oxford, also in 1971.

He has been professionally involved in wind energy since 1979, when he joined the Wind Energy Group.[4] Mathematical modelling remained his main enthusiasm and Garrad Hassan[5] was built on the provision of mathematical models of all aspects of wind energy. His mission for the company was to be able to predict everything from the weather, through the turbines and wind farms to the electricity in the grid and finally the cash flow.[6][7] In 1984 he wrote the zero version of the wind turbine system aeroelastic code Bladed whose development continues to this day.[8] Data, both measured and predicted, were the main currency of Garrad Hassan and the company produced many other computational tools[9][7][10] adopted by the industry. He was heavily involved in the technical due diligence of very large wind farms as part of the drive towards project finance. GH, together with the offshore consultancy Tecnomare, undertook the first ever floating offshore wind turbine design studies.[11] Although GH speciliased in wind energy it also provided parallel services in wave and tidal energy, for example its WaveDyn software for predicting the dynamic behaviour of wave energy devices.[12]

He was one of the pioneers of Chinese wind energy development and was co-Chair, with the Chinese Minister of Electric Power, of the first Chinese International Wind Energy Conference in Beijing in 1995 when there were no turbines in China! Later on starting at the turn of the century GH helped shape the newly formed Chinese industry with many design contracts and also strategic advice on the development of their nascent offshore industry.[13]

He is a past-Chairman of the British Wind Energy Association, now Renewable UK.[14] He was President of European Wind Energy Association (EWEA, now Wind Europe)[15] from 2013 to 2014. He chaired Bristol’s year as European Green Capital in 2015.[16][17][18]

He sold Garrad Hassan to Germanischer Lloyd in 2009 and became President of the combined company, GL Garrad Hassan, and hence was responsible for both consultancy and certification. When he retired in 2015 the renewable energy company had 1,000 staff in 29 countries. In retirement he remains active in wind energy and, in 2019, he was appointed Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in Renewable Energy by the University of Bristol.[19] His job is to introduce students to the engineering world outside university.[20]

He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering by the University of Bristol[21] in 2009 and by the University of Exeter in 2018. He was a member of the Council (Governing Body)[22] of the University of Bristol from 2012 to 2016 and is on the advisory board of the Cabot Institute.[23] He is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Academy of Engineering[24] and an Honorary Fellow of New College, Oxford.[25] He received a CBE[26] for services to renewable energy in the 2017 new year’s honours list.[27]

He has regularly been voted amongst “the most influential people in the wind energy business.”[28][29][30][31] On his retirement the industry magazine, Wind Power Monthly, referred to him as the “the god father of wind energy technology.”[1] OGM[32] named him one of the world’s seven most influential energy leaders along with Elon Musk and Bill Gates.

In 2006, he received the EWEA’s Poul la Cour prize[33] and in 2015 the Aeolus prize from the Hellenic Wind Energy Association[34][35] the only “non-Greek” ever to do so.

He lives in Bristol, England and is married with four children.