Amin Ahmadi of AP Renewables discusses how their new SCADAScope system uses data analytics to enable faster wind turbine troubleshooting and reduce downtime. Check out AP Renewables at https://aprenewables.com/. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to the special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, along with co host Joel Saxum. Our guest is Amin Ahmadi technology lead with AP Renewables is based in Ontario, Canada, our friends up north. I was first introduced to AP Renewables because of their SLPS system, which is a grounding brush upgrade kit to reduce static and lightning issues in a bunch of Gamesa turbines. So it basically gets rid of the air gap on TikTok and LinkedIn from static electricity jumping inside the turbines. They also have a new product now called SCADAScope, which provides insights and diagnostics for Gamesa and a bunch of other turbines. So we're really interested to hear what Amin has going up in Canada. Amin, welcome to the program. Amin Ahmadi: Thank you. Allen Hall: Let's, let's talk about the lightning issue that the Gamesa turbines had and the little spark gap they built into that wind turbine and what it means to the SCADA system because it did cause a lot of problems. Amin Ahmadi: Yeah we started in fact as a consulting and we started noticing a similar problem coming up, different problems having these phantom noises and I don't have a lightning background like you do, but I saw the problem from. Random unexplainable electronic faults and escape on calm losses that could only be mapped over weather events and then you go back to building codes and other things like you got a lightning system. You got a ground that thing really good. And this particular design wasn't grounded really good. So we decided to take the we decided to solve a bunch of problems through a single common design, which was a brush that installs quickly and makes a lot of problems go away. And and what we liked about it was how very quickly you get a lot of gain. The return on investment was huge on it. And to be honest, I designed a very elaborate thing. I send it to a wind farm we work with. He's this is not installable. And my partner who has a design background, not engineering, he looked at it. It's this is bad. This is bad. And he made it into, so revision two took about 15 minutes to install a revision one, which I had instead design didn't get installed in three, three hours. So that's, that was how the team came together to really make these things work and work well. And work outside the paper, which sometimes is a great place to design things. Allen Hall: Yeah. So the design, what it does is it takes electricity, static electricity, or lightning from the blade to the hub without having a big spark gap. Because every time there was a discharge, a significant discharge in the, in the cellular array next to the electronics, it upset the electronics. It upset the SCADA system. And the turbines would Alarm, right? They would alarm and sometimes shut down for no apparent reason. Amin Ahmadi: Yeah, you basically charge up the blade as a capacitor and eventually you reach the air gap and you dump that surge of current and the grounding is disturbed enough that the electronics would just fault out for some random reason. Because, 200, 000 amps is going through the ground now.

This week's episode covers Eversource exiting offshore wind, delays at Dogger Bank wind farm, honorees of the Queen Elizabeth engineering prize, and the return of Wind Farm of the Week featuring Kay Wind farm. Allen and Joel also look forward to attending ACP OMS in San Diego! Allen Hall: Joel, I think being in the podcast business is a lot easier than being in the AM radio business, clearly because down in Jasper, Alabama the station was alarmed by some guys taking care of the grounds. They had come out to, to mow and weed whack and whatever they're going to do. And. At the tower site. And when they got there, there was no tower. The tower was gone. I was left with a bunch of cables on the ground. And so the tower evidently was stolen. And the station manager at down there in Alabama doesn't have any leads. They can't figure out where this, all the equipment went to. And it wasn't like it was a little tiny. 20 foot tower. It's like a 200 foot tower. So talking about taking down a really big structure and somehow dragging it off into the woods and never to be found again. So there's a, that's a big problem. If the people are starting to steal your radio tower, you got Joel Saxum: issues. I just can't see what anybody would do with it. You're not going to cut it up and sell it for scrap. Like every If this is national news now, every scrapyard is going to know. First off, look, so what are you going to do with it is one, if, and if you reinstall it eh, we're going to install it so we can get TV from fricking Germany. I don't know. But if you're going to reinstall it, someone's going to see it. They're going to be like, there's the 200 foot tower. So I don't know, unless it's just a really extravagant prank that someone's pulling, I'm not sure what you're going to do with this tower. But kudos to the people that pulled it down. I don't know how you did that overnight. Allen Hall: They don't have any insurance coverage, because who would steal a tower, right? So now the station's in trouble because the FCC which license all the radio stations in the United States has pulled their license. So they had an FM station and an AM station, the AM station got stolen. The FM station evidently is still operational, but the FCC told them to turn it off. So now they're stuck. They gotta go buy a new tower. Those things are not cheap, by the way, so that's a big problem. And it just reminds me when you and I were been down in Oklahoma and Texas. That a lot of wind turbines now, thank goodness, are well locked up because there's a lot of vandals out there and some of these wind turbines are located in remote places that we make sure that all those things are closed and secure like we hope that they are because there's a lot of crazy stuff going on right now. Joel Saxum: So one last question, Allen, at what point in time do we just get rid of AM radio? Allen Hall: As soon as podcasts take over the world, that's when, or when you can listen to it on a podcast on AM radio, that's when you can do it. Joel Saxum: That's our next frontier, back to AM. Allen Hall: Back to AM, amen. Well, Joel, Eversource is pulling out of the offshore wind business here in the United States. Now, Eversource is a large electricity provider on the East Coast. They operate New England's largest energy system with about 4. 4 million electric natural gas and wind Water customers in sort of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and up in New Hampshire, so they cover Hartford, Connecticut and Boston, Massachusetts, two big metro areas because they published their financials for 2023 and they had booked a 1. 9 billion dollar impairment. For its offshore wind investments for last year, and evidently, as part of that, they decided to sell their 50 percent stake in South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind projects to global infrastructure partners. Now, in return for selling those, you're going to receive about 1. 1 billion in cash.

We discuss an offshore renewable insurance consortium launched by SCOR and Acrisure Re and EDPR's acquisition of Australian renewables firm ITPD to expand in the Asia Pacific. Plus, a look at the rising budget costs for clean energy tax credits in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and what it could mean for the growth of wind, solar and electric vehicles. Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out IntelStor at IntelStor.com. Reinsurer SCOR has launched a new offshore renewable energy insurance consortium with partner Acrisure Re. The consortium increases SCOR's total deployable capacity to over 180 million dollars. SCOR says. Its technical expertise and understanding of client needs positions it as a leader in providing insurance. To the growing offshore wind industry. So Phil, another insurance company hopping into the offshore market, there seems to be a lot of people putting their toes in the water at this point on offshore. 180 million is not a lot of money in that marketplace, but it does seem like people are testing the waters. Philip Totaro: It's an interesting thing. Certainly good to do with a partner. The challenge with offshore is obviously with the scale, like you're saying, 180 million and deployable. Capital is not going to really make that much of a dent in the overall global market, which is, well over, a trillion dollars in investment even at this point. The reality is that, insurers have seen a lot of losses onshore and offshore. It's good that you're getting, new companies involved. It's, score is increasing the scope of their. What they're able to address. The challenge is that, I think these kind of partnerships. Are going to be necessary moving forward because insurers and in particular reinsurers have had a really rough go of it. With some of the catastrophic losses that they faced, particularly in offshore over the years where, entire projects have had to have, the main shaft bearings replaced on the turbine or. You've had other kind of significant fleet wide issues in, in some cases. Overall, it's a good thing. It's a good deal. But it's a market that's getting tougher and tougher to get into. Joel Saxum: Yeah, the important thing to understand about the insurance market in any industrial capacity, specifically, we're talking about onshore, offshore wind here, is that you don't have an insurance company and that's your insurance. You may have an insurance company, the broker, whatever that runs the thing, but you may have 20, In an offshore win, you could have 20, 30 companies in here. So if SCOR comes in on a project, say there's, right now we talked earlier today about Dogger Bank A. Dogger Bank A is going to have two, two policies there. One for construction, one's when they turn into operations. There's going to be a turn off, turn on date there. That, say, we're going to go to the policy when it is in operation, that policy may be written by, who knows, I don't know, Aeon, that's the broker, but the Aeon will have 20 different, 30 different companies behind them, each one of them taking 2%, 3%, 5 percent of that risk, there may be one lead on there, and that lead on something like an offshore wind project may only be 7. 5 percent or 10 percent or 15 percent as opposed to onshore where it may sometimes be 25, 30, 40 percent because, that asset, that wind farm may be worth 100 million or 200 million where you go to an offshore wind farm, it's worth a billion. Nobody has that kind of capital. So a lot of times the lead is someone who really knows offshore stuff Njord, they put that thing out because, the big pro,

CEO Josh Riedy explains how Thread's UNITI software platform enables intuitive data management and analysis for drone inspections at wind farms, creating integrated "electronic medical records" for turbines. Visit their website: https://thread.one/ Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to the special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, along with my co host, Joel Saxum. If you've been paying attention to the drone inspection business, you may have noticed some significant changes in the last couple of years. The amount of data being acquired is astounding where the industry once lacked sufficient data. Now we're overflowing with it and new ideas and businesses are trying to solve the data overload problem and bring more of a uniform approach to inspections. Be that wind turbines, transmission lines, substations. Our guest today is Josh Riedy CEO and founder of Thread, and Thread is based in North Dakota in the central part of the United States. Thread has developed some really interesting products and is really simplifying the way that we handle data. Josh, welcome to the program. Josh Riedy: Thank you, Allen. Glad to be here. Allen Hall: So we have a massive problem that the industry is going through at the moment where we want to acquire more data and that's what Thread does in their platform. And let's talk about that in a moment here, but I want to understand the scope of the problem because we, Joel and I have been around talking to operators lately. And here's one of the things they tell us, and it happened this morning, actually, on a zoom call they want to acquire more data. They want to acquire the wind farm, the turbine, the blade, but also the transmission line, all the substation. They want to gather drone images of all of it. And the problem they were having was what to do with all the data that actually happened today. Joel Saxum: Yeah. How do we manage it all? Allen Hall: Yeah. And this revolve back to our conversation about what Thread is doing to answer that call. So maybe you can describe what you're doing to answer the call of we have a lot of data. Josh Riedy: Allen and Joel. Thanks for having me again. And you touch on the heart of the problem. There is too much data and not just too much data. It's sensitive information. It is not meant to be in the public sphere, and that is a huge consideration. So the goal of Thread and our passion since 2018 has been to take that information and make it relevant to the customer, to the stakeholder that needs that information. And that's not simple, because no large organization is just one modality. There are many different groupings within a given organization that have different needs. And to get that right has been a pursuit for some time, but I do believe we are on the right track and we're able to show the world that. Allen Hall: I have really seen a shift Josh in what the engineers are asking for it was for the longest time Let's take some images of blades and then they're like wow I got this I can got some images of blades with drones This is fantastic Why am I not doing everything around this wind turbine and that means looking at the tower looking at the cell going down to the base of plant, right? So the BOP and then those large operators are like, Hey we own everything out to the substation here, folks.

This week we spoke to Alex Fournier, a field operations manager who works on wind turbines in frigid temperatures, about the safety precautions and practices technicians need when doing turbine maintenance and repairs in extreme cold. Recommendations such as heated gear, taking breaks to warm up, and using procedures to mitigate risks like icefalls are only a few ways that techs could keep safe in winter temperatures. Visit https://www.fabricair.com/ice-protection-systems/ Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to the special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, along with my co host, Joel Saxum. In this episode, we explore the unique hazards faced by wind turbine technicians working to keep the turbine spinning during extreme cold weather events. As renewable energy expands, more wind farms are located in remote areas with harsh winter conditions, placing technicians at risk of frostbite, hypothermia, and injury. Joining us to discuss cold weather safety is Alex Fournier, field operations manager at Borealis Wind, which is a division of FabricAir now. Alex is based in Quebec, Canada, and has been working in the wind industry for seven years. Alex will share his insights on the precautions technicians should take when performing maintenance and repairs in cold climates. Alex, welcome to the program. Alex Fournier: Thank you guys for having me today. Allen Hall: So it's been really cold in Canada and the United States. There's been we're expecting a snowstorm tonight. So we're battening down the hatches. But as the wind turbines must keep running. And I was recently down in Texas when a cold front was coming on. Coming through there and the technicians were really concerned about it because it's something that doesn't happen very often They're not really prepared for the cold weather to stay any length of time And I thought Alex does this all the time. He lives in this kind of environment That's my day today and with Borealis, Borealis obviously creates the de icing systems for wind turbine blades And so Alex is up and down on wind turbines all the time putting systems in and keeping blades Turning, I thought this is a good opportunity to talk about wind turbine safety and cold weather conditions and some of the things that you do and your technicians you work with to keep yourself safe in this cold weather conditions. Because I'll have to tell you one of the coldest times I was ever in was in Montreal, very near to you, actually. Alex Fournier: Yeah the thing with Montreal is, oh, it's an island, so it's a circle of water. And so it's really humid. So when you're in the city, you can feel the humidity go through your clothes. It's so yeah, you don't go in Montreal when it's minus 30. Allen Hall: No, and you better bring a hat and gloves because I thought I could make about a hundred yard run to the building I was working at from my car and I got about halfway there and I thought, I'm going to have hypothermia. I am not going to make it. Alex Fournier: Oh yeah, no, it's not not temperature you want to play around with. Allen Hall: Yeah. Some of the gear that's used up in Canada, and I've seen some pictures of technicians up in Canada, getting ready to go work on wind turbines. I think it's really important that we all highlight what are those things are and the safety gear you guys take.

This week we analyze recent news from Siemens Gamesa, Vestas, and Ørsted, including financial struggles, layoffs, and plans to regain profitability. The episode also covers offshore wind manufacturing expansion in the U.S., a fallen wind turbine rotor in Norway, and the need for better data sharing among wind farm owners and operators. Plus, if you're attending ACP O&M in San Diego, sign up for the IntelStor event! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Joel Saxum: So Allen is in Denmark at the Leading Edge Symposium DTU in Roskilde there with a lot of really smart people talking about leading edge erosion issues. What are the newest protections out there? What kind of projects going on in the world? From our side of view, how does aerodynamics leading edge roughness affect lightning? A lot of really cool things going on there. Of course, DTU is always doing great work. But that's where Allen is today. So this week I'm going to try to be my best Allen. I'm Joel Saxum, the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard Lightning Tech. And I'm here with international renewables expert, Rosemary Barnes. Plus, wind energy economics and data guru Phil Totaro from IntelStor. This is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. So speaking about offshore wind in the United States and how the IRA bill is interacting and if it's kicking off manufacturing facilities or what's actually happening on the ground, today there was an announcement by US Forged Rings Inc. It'd be the USA's only integrated one stop shop manufacturer for offshore wind towers and steel forging. What they released today in an article was, or in a press release was, the fact that they're going to have two factories up and running on the east coast. One by 2026, one by 2027. And they're going to work together. To build these large scale steel infrastructure that we need for offshore wind in the U. S. So one of one of the factories is going to output towers. They're saying a hundred towers per year with a 35 foot diameter on them and the other factory that's going to be completing 2027. It's for forging and ring rolling, and they can do up to 40 feet in diameter. So what this will do is be able to help the U. S. market create its own transition pieces, its own, bearing races, its own caps for the towers and whatnot. But Phil, what are the larger reaching implications of this press release? Philip Totaro: It's extremely good for the offshore wind market where, a company is looking to obviously take advantage of the 45x manufacturing tax credits. What's interesting about this, though, is that in addition to this serving the offshore wind market, assuming that this factory exists, we don't actually have a lot of particularly forging capabilities in the United States for anything above, let's say, like a megawatt onshore turbine. We usually have to import a lot of that stuff from Europe. Even Asia doesn't have the, a full capability to do, enormous 6, onshore turbines. A lot of that they're actually getting from Europe as well. Surprisingly, to, to most. The fact that this, these factories will exist, and, the tower factory with, it's going to start off at 100 units a year and they said that it's going to potentially expand to 200 units a year. We'll see. Maybe some of those units will actually be dedicated to to some onshore wind turbines as well. If we can get the offshore market really going,

Leveraging new research, this News Flash episode dives into the Australian wind energy market, with insights from IntelStor on capacity, future growth, turbine tech, and factors impacting profitability like PPAs and maintenance costs. IntelStor provides valuable data and analysis on renewable energy markets, including this latest report on Australia. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelStor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech. And I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out IntelStor at IntelStor.com. Well, Phil, IntelStor put out a really interesting report about our friends in Australia and the wind energy down there. A lot of moving pieces at the moment. 12 gigawatts already installed wind. What's the future look like? What's happening? What turbines are working down in Australia? Philip Totaro: Well, thanks, Allen. First of all, I appreciate the opportunity to come on and talk about this exclusively. The Australian market's an interesting one because they've now got 12. 2 gigawatts operational as of the end of 2023. They've got another 4. 4 gigawatts under construction right now, which is absolutely explosive growth from the typical annual capacity additions they've seen. Even last year they only added something like 800 megawatts. But they've also got 8 gigawatts of onshore wind that's consented and hasn't started construction yet, and another 90 gigawatts that is early to mid stage proposed, where a lot of this is tied to additional intrastate transmission lines being built, or even the transmission line they're talking about building from Australia to Indonesia, and so they've got a ton of ambition and a ton of proposed projects.  If a bunch of that capacity does get green lit, that does mean new factories in Australia because they're gonna have more than enough capacity to be able to, Sustain a dedicated factory, certainly for companies like Vestas and maybe even GE. Allen Hall: So the vast majority of the wind energy at the moment is in Victoria, which is down south by Melbourne, right? So they have like a third of the total install capacity. What do we know from that area? What have we learned? Where is Victoria headed? Because it seems like the rest of Australia is still playing a little bit of catch up. Philip Totaro: Victoria's got the highest installed capacity because they also have the highest demand and the highest concentration of population and load centers. So that explains a lot about both wind and solar being so popular there. They don't have quite a lot of intrastate transmission built, so whatever is being built in terms of power generation, wind, solar, et cetera, in Victoria is for the most part being consumed in Victoria and so that's going to be a challenge longer term for them to look at how they're kind of Integrating their overall electric grid throughout the whole country, and whether or not they're going to have intrastate market balancing mechanisms facilitated by intrastate transmission. Joel Saxum: Yeah, if you look at some of the analysis that some experts have done on the country as far as queue lines and where load centers are,

Lightning struck wind turbines in the U.S. over 77,000 times in 2023 alone. Vaisala Xweather Insight experts detail how their advanced National Lightning Detection Network tracks each bold strike in real-time. Learn how wind farm operators tap into this data to optimize turbine safety and uptime during fierce storms. Visit their website: https://www.xweather.com/ and read the report! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to the special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, along with my co host, Joel Saxum. Vaisala just published his 2023 lightning report, and if you haven't seen it yet, better get online and check it out. One of the key items in that report is 77, 000 lightning strikes occurred to wind turbines in the U. S. in 2023. So we thought it'd be a pretty good topic for a podcast because we've, Joel and I have seen a lot of lightning damage across the United States and 77, 000 lightning strikes is probably one of the reasons why. And if you're not familiar with Vaisala, Vaisala is XWeather System, which is where that data comes from is in advance, whether intelligence platform provides businesses and organizations with accurate real time. Weather insights and a lot of sites that we go to, Joel and I go visit, have the XWeather system. And that system integrates data from multiple sources into a sort of a unified view and analyzes current and historical trends and generates hyper local forecasts using artificial intelligence. And as part of that XWeather system is the National Lightning Detection Network, NLDN. And we're going to use that acronym throughout this podcast. The NLDN is a network of over a hundred ground based sensors across the U. S. that detects cloud to ground and cloud to cloud lightning strikes in real time. That system is operated by VISLA, and it uses sensors to pinpoint lightning strike locations, polarity, amplitude, and other key characteristics like specific energy. And that network provides critical lightning data for early warning systems, research, and weather sensitive operations like wind turbines. With a detection efficiency over 90 percent nationally, the NLDN sets the standard for accurate real time lightning detection and mapping. Our guest today, we have two of them, Martin Murphy, Senior Scientist at Vaisala. And Martin has a degree in meteorology from Penn State and a PhD in atmospheric science from the University of Arizona. And he has worked with Vaisala and its predecessors for over 27 years. One of his focuses is on analysis and validation of lightning detection systems, and he's a co author of two patents related to lightning detection. Martin, welcome to the program. Martin Murphy: Thanks Allen Hall: And Hans. Hans is the Vaisala product manager for Xweather, and we've had Hans on the podcast before, and we see Hans at all the trade shows across the United States. So Hans, welcome back to the show. Hans Loewenheath: Thank you. Thank you for having me. Allen Hall: So guys, I want to dive in first into the NLDN. And since Martin's here, I want to understand Or explain to everybody what the system is, because we travel around the United States quite extensively, and we meet with a lot of operators, and when we say, did you check the NLDN, the National Lightning Detection Network, they kind of go, what? What is this thing? Joel Saxum: You get these glass,

This week we discuss Enel removing turbines from Osage Nation land, Dominion's 2.6GW offshore wind farm, delays and fallout from offshore wind projects in MD, NJ and NY, the impacts of long project timelines, energy trading opportunities in Denmark, and differences in mining rights between the US and Australia. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Okay, Rosemary, over in Turkey, there was an interesting flight. So they were headed from Istanbul to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the passengers, weirdly, heard somebody in the cargo hold. Yelling for help and I thought oh my gosh. This is a horror movie scene. So the passengers Alerted the evidently the flight attendants or the stewardess is there and then they went to the cockpit and told the pilots Hey, wait, there's somebody stuck in the cargo hold and They diverted the flight and when they got on the ground, they couldn't find anybody. Rosemary Barnes: Anymore. Allen Hall: Oh, anymore which is what didn't what the stories indicate. Rosemary Barnes: Isn't that the obvious Unless someone hit a tape recorder in a loudspeaker in their bag, I would like to think that's what it was, but it doesn't really seem you can divert the flight, but that's surely only going to reduce the risk of harm to this stowaway by a tiny amount. Once you've gone up to Altitude and gone down again, the landing gears come up and gone down and then, yeah, that's horrible. Allen Hall: Yeah, if they're in the landing gear area, that's not a good place to be. Philip Totaro: If it was a stowaway, because there have been cases where baggage handlers have sometimes, unfortunately, been, like, caught in the plane. And that's happened even in the United States. It's extremely rare, thankfully, but that does happen. But to land after everybody's this is like a Twilight Zone episode, Allen. Everybody's like hearing a knock on the thing, and somebody crying for help, and then there's nobody in there? What's going on? Ghosts? Allen Hall: That is so weird. Rosemary Barnes: Was the Twilight Zone always so gruesome? I don't know. This is the way to start in a high note for the episode Allen. Allen Hall: I just thought of you when I was thinking of Rosemary when she flies. She's got to fly for 14 hours at a time. What do you do when you're over the Pacific Ocean and here's everybody knocking from the cargo hold? It's that is a horror scene. Philip Totaro: Hopefully you don't, jeez. Allen Hall: My, my first thought was hopefully it was like a cat or a pet that, sometimes cats can sound like humans and make that kind of helping noise or a bird or something, please let it be something like that. But Rosemary had to go to the human level and scare us all. So there you go. Philip Totaro: Gaslighting Rosemary again. Allen Hall: All right, Rosemary, Equinor. Has entered into an agreement with BP to independently pursue separate offshore wind projects under bids for those New York actions that are going on. BP is going to take full control of Beacon Wind off the coast of Long Island, and then Equinor is going to take Empire Wind. Which is right nearby. The deal provides both companies flexibility to pursue priorities, obviously, for their individual corporate strategies, so they broken the ties financially. This has financial impacts, though, Phil. Equinor is expected to have a write down of about 200 million,

Energy traders in Europe are profiting from electricity price swings caused by fluctuating renewable energy generation. Equinor and BP are swapping their offshore wind assets to maximize earnings growth. RWE onshore wind and solar increased earnings by 50% in 2023. Spanish renewable energy company Ecoener is entering the Greek market with a 350MW, €300 million investment in wind and solar projects. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lighting Tech. And I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro. And this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out IntelStor at intelstor.com. A new breed of traders is upending Europe's energy markets, making huge profits from the region's transition to renewable energy. In a Bloomberg article, they go on to note that anonymous firms in Denmark are using computer algorithms, weather data, and meteorological know how to trade electricity contracts. So recently, when fog set in over Eastern Europe, reducing the solar power generation, the traders, computers snapped up some contracts, betting correctly that the short term Electricity prices would spike in Hungary, and they made millions of dollars from just a few minutes of price swings until the fog lifted. Now, Phil, this is really interesting because they're up in Aalborg and Aarhus, Denmark, in their offices, with a bunch of computers, evidently, and trading on the electricity market, so it has wide ramifications in terms of, Money exchange and what the average citizen is going to pay for electricity if you have traders with that sort of technology attacking the market. And this is not very different than what Enron was doing right back in California days. Philip Totaro: Sort of, but it's, I would actually say it's more equivalent to what happening with energy traders in, that year cut market in the United States or, other places in the world where they have a pretty well established, wholesale market, this is I'd classify it as a new breed only from the perspective that again, you already have some of the same companies like Dunce Commodities or RWE or Centrica already have energy trading houses,and it's how they balance their own generation and power offtake. but a lot of these companies are coming in, like you're saying, and they're just using, weather prediction and, algorithms and things like that to, to try and, work the market as much as they can. I don't know, it's interesting, because at the end of the day, it's capitalism at its best, but it is probably going to end up being bad for consumers, both, residential customers and,corporate power off takers because, most of the time while you can lock in a fixed price contract, the overwhelming majority of projects throughout Europe in general are not necessarily on a fixed price power off take contract for especially for renewables, wind, solar, and even battery storage. it's gonna be interesting if the EU decides to start regulating, even Denmark has even suggested that they might try to clamp down a little bit on this, and,the traders weren't that happy about, saying, hey, you're gonna, you're gonna take all this,food off our table, but they, I think it was 20, Yeah. Yeah. In 2022, they made something like 5 billion in revenue,

We're revisiting a great episode with Nicholas Gaudern, CTO of PowerCurve, discussing their new AeroVista software. AeroVista uses drone inspection data to evaluate wind turbine blade damage and power production potential. Allen and Nicholas discuss how this technology enables strategic repair planning to maximize power recovery while avoiding unnecessary costs. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! PowerCurve - https://powercurve.dkPardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome back to the special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, and this week, we're going to go back in time to September of last year, where I sat down with Nicholas Gaudern, CTO of PowerCurve. And Nicholas and I discuss a new piece of software that PowerCurve has developed called AeroVista. And AeroVista is a unique tool. It takes your existing drone images and then predicts the AEP for the turbine or the particular blade. A lot of operators that Joel and I have run across recently are interested to know what blades to repair based on the amount of damage. And we see damage from all over the world. And there are blades that have very minor damage that you probably leave alone. There are some with very major damage and those you should obviously fix. It's the ones in between where you're not really sure. And this AeroVista piece of software is a predictive tool. It will help you design your campaign to repair blades during the warmer months. So it's a very powerful tool and a and a well needed tool for the industry. So I thought it was time to revisit this episode with Nicholas Gaudern of PowerCurve. Enjoy. Leading edge erosion is a massive power losing problem for most wind farms. Almost every wind turbine blade that has been in service more than two years has some level of leading edge erosion. I'm your host, Allen Hall, and I'm here with our guest, Nicholas Gaudern, CTO of PowerCurve. In this episode, we are discussing leading edge erosion, how it reduces average energy production, and when to address it for maximum revenue generation. And just a brief background on PowerCurve. PowerCurve designs, manufactures and installs power upgrades for wind turbine blades that help their clients make their wind projects more profitable. PowerCurve's Technology has been thoroughly tested and validated, and they continue to work closely with universities to refine it even further. And the upgrades have been installed on blades worldwide. Nicholas, welcome to the program. Nicholas Gaudern:  Hi Allen. Really nice to be back talking to you.  Allen Hall: So you have some new software tools at your disposal, and anybody that knows PowerCurve knows you guys are really good at aerodynamics to understand how blades produce power. You wanna, you wanna describe what this little software breakthrough  Nicholas Gaudern: is? Yeah, I'd love to. So, so what I want to talk about today is, is our new tool that we're calling a. It's it's an a p i, you can call it, it does something and you'll get some really insightful data back. Maybe just take a, a step backwards. It's all about taking a, a data driven and an engineering driven approach to understanding the performance losses that you will get from damages and particularly leading edge erosion on a blade. So, We're about modeling those losses and telling you how you can deal with it. Yeah,  Allen Hall: because there's a lot of information on the internet ...

This is our 200th episode of Uptime! We kick off with a discussion about the similarities and differences between the blade issues at Siemens Gamesa and Boeing's recent door issue. Is engineering for aerospace and wind energy held to different standards? In both issues, who's at fault? Then a review of GE Vernova's Q4 2023 results--what does this mean for the company's future? Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Phil has a confession to make, and I know we talked about this previously, but we didn't let out in the street because I thought it was too early to shock the world with this, but Phil, would you like to describe who your neighbor was when you were growing up in the Hard Streets of buffalo. Philip Totaro: I was neighbors with musical performer Rick James. And I say neighbors loosely because I lived in a suburb of Buffalo, New York called East Aurora, where, we had 10 acres and he had an adjacent, I don't know, 10 or 12 acres. But he had a house up there, and, back in the eighties, that's where he hung out, and, I don't know, had parties, or whatever he did. Joel Saxum: Did Rick James stuff? Allen Hall: Rosemary, you know who Rick James is, right? Rosemary Barnes: I had to look it up, because I was initially thinking the guy that sang Never Gonna Give You Up, which would be yeah, cool, cool enough. Philip Totaro: That's Rick Astley, not Rick James. Rosemary Barnes: Rick James is super freak, which is Yeah, nah, that's a good song. That that's cool. Allen Hall: No, Rick Astley was just a totally different neighbor than Rick James would be. But Rick James had some pretty wild parties. Philip Totaro: You know what? He had wild parties when he was in LA or New York. I don't know if he came back to Buffalo to dry out, maybe that's what it was. Rosemary Barnes: I think I'd rather go to a Rick James than a Rick Astley party based on the kind of music that might be played. Even though Never Gonna Give You Up is a excellent song. Allen Hall: Super Freak's a very popular song, even today. That guy is super talented. Come on, let's admit it, he's a super talented guy. Joel Saxum: The experience could be akin to the Technotrain. Allen Hall: Rosemary doesn't seem to remember that either, even though she's, and she swears she was never on it, but man, I don't know. Rosemary Barnes: The Technotrain. I don't remember going on it. Allen Hall: Yeah, Rosemary, this is our 200th episode. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, how exciting. Did you think that when you started it? Allen Hall: No, I thought you told me we would never get to 200. Rosemary Barnes: I'd never say something like that, but no, you started it before. I came on board after you and Dan had been going for a while. I don't know, maybe you were up to episode, I don't know, somewhere in the tens, less than a hundred. Allen Hall: Less than a hundred. Yeah. I think you were in the fifties or sixties somewhere. Yeah, you've been along for the long ride. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. I went back and watched some of those early ones. It was heavily lightning focused and very much a means to get your super knowledge on the industry out there and now it's grown much more into, covering the topics of the day and yeah, the team's grown four of us here most weeks now that's, yeah, it's been really exciting to be part of this whirlwind journey.

This week we discuss General Atlantic's acquisition of Actus to expand into renewable energy, Cubico consolidating its UK renewable holdings, Northvolt securing project financing to expand its battery factory, and Mitsubishi's investment in European Energy's renewable assets. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intelstor, Phil Totaro and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, joel Saxum and this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at Intelstor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out Intelstor at intelstor.com. Global growth investor General Atlantic has agreed to acquire sustainable infrastructure firm Actis in a deal that will create a diversified investment platform with 96 billion dollars in combined assets and under management. Actis, which manages about 12. 5 billion in assets, will become the sustainable infrastructure arm within General Atlantic's global investment platform. Actis will retain independence over investment decisions and processes under the Actis brand name. So even though they're acting as two separate companies and going to operate quasi separately, General Atlantic is making a big move here on Actis and trying to expand into the renewable energy market, Phil? Philip Totaro: Yeah, General Atlantic already has substantial energy holdings, but this gives them a significant amount of exposure. It's I want to say 6 gigawatts plus of operational and another, I don't know, almost 20 plus gigawatts of pipeline in wind and solar that Actis has been involved in. This is, absolutely a big deal. And it comes on the heels of companies like BlackRock acquiring GIP, which we talked about last week. There's, there's a trend here and a pattern emerging with these, These deals where infrastructure investors seem to be getting a better sense and a better feel for renewables. They understand that even if the supply chain side of it hasn't been particularly profitable, if you're, an OEM, the independent power producers, the project developers, they're usually pretty financially solvent and healthy. And our own analysis confirms that. You're probably going to see a lot more infrastructure, investment vehicles, gobbling up independent power producers. Joel Saxum: Yeah, you always say follow the big money, right? So banks wouldn't be investing in Miami waterfront projects if they thought that the sea levels are going to raise 20 meters next year. So when you see big money making big moves like this, it's, a trend. Like you watch these, all the pension groups and the teacher's pensions and the different things around the world. Those long term investments and infrastructure is the way to go, and I think that BlackRock move, and now this General Atlantic and Actis move, this week is, gonna show that, and we're gonna continue to see some of these deals happen. Allen Hall: Cubico sustainable investments owned by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and PSB Investments has acquired Peel NRE's 50 percent stake in Peel Cubico Renewables, a UK Renewable Energy Development joint venture. The financial terms were not disclosed in this transaction. The deal includes transfer of Peel NRE's Renewable Development team to Cubico and the joint venture's current offshore wind and solar pip...

This week, Allen and Joel talk to Jonathan Zalar of IWTG Consulting about the complicated RCA process. With 20+ years of experience, Zalar details OEM investigations like analyzing turbine data, assessing damage on-site, and convening engineering teams to determine causes. By understanding the inner workings of the OEM process, operators can get their turbines back up and running faster with less of a struggle. Website: https://www.iwtgconsulting.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonzalar/ Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to the special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, along with my co host, Joel Saxum. Our guest is Jonathan Zalar managing partner of IWTG Consulting, and IWTG is based in South Carolina. In the United States, Jonathan has a long career in the wind industry, working for 22 years with GE 13 years with GE Vernova specifically, Jonathan has a wealth of knowledge from both his work in the field and in the engineering offices. He's a mechanical engineering major and also holds an MBA. So I put you in a very select class, Jonathan, which we're going to tap on here. Jonathan, welcome to the program.  Jonathan Zalar: Thanks for having me. I appreciate you guys taking the time.  Allen Hall: There's not a lot of engineers that go after their MBA and then stick to engineering. They tend to go to MBA and they go into the business world and have a nice comfy office and you took the other route.  Jonathan Zalar: Yeah, I went right into my MBA after my undergrad. Guess I want to stay in college a little longer.  Joel Saxum: Yeah, that doesn't make you a bad person, okay? I wish I was still there.  Allen Hall: Jonathan, you have a really a wealth of knowledge here on what happens in the field because you're out there doing it and interacting with the engineering groups that were doing the design work and support work at their offices. And one of the issues that Joel and I get wrapped into a lot is RCA's. And people ask us about this all the time. And we were just at an insurance symposium a week or two ago, Joel and I were, and everybody has a different perspective of what actually happens and what an OEM does behind the scenes, because there's a lot of things that happen behind the curtain that unless you really are on the inside, you just don't know. But there's a lot of good positive things that an OEM is doing during an RCA. So I just like to walk through what happens during an RCA. If you had a blade issue out in the field and you call the OEM, what typically, what typical things happen there? And maybe you can just walk us through what that process is. Jonathan Zalar: When something like that happens, it's like a major event and GE and other OEMs have protocols in place, first of all, to ensure safety, right? Is everybody okay? And then, then it's like, all right, now it's time to put your CSI hat on and go investigate.  Joel Saxum: Horatio Zalar, is that what it is? Jonathan Zalar: While this is all happening, while you're working with the customer, it'd be like, hey, can we come here? We're going to send, these experts out there to go look at whatever it is, a blade, for example. The teams are also looking at the data because when a, event happens, there's data collected on the turbine. There's engineers looking at that data, trying to understand,

Allen, Joel, Phil and Rosemary discuss the renewable energy landscape in Australia, maintenance challenges at the Hywind floating wind farm, and whether U.S. universities can provide value researching offshore wind designs versus leaving it to industry. Plus--Rosemary will be at Everything Electric Australia! Use code EEROSIE for 20% off your ticket! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: All right, Rosemary, you got some important news for the world to hear. You're going to be at...  Rosemary Barnes: Everything Electric Australia, which is in Sydney from February 9th to 11th. And I'm presenting four sessions on the Friday, and then I'll be hanging out there on the Saturday as well to go around. They've got every single electric car that is available or will be soon available in Australia. Plus everything, associated with electrification of the home and everything like that. So yeah, it was a really big, cool event last year, and it's set to be much bigger and much cooler this year. And listeners can get a 20 percent discount off tickets if they use my code, which is EEROSIE, so that's E for elephant. For those of you that have trouble understanding my Australian vowels, but I guess it will be Australians who want to use the code, so not that big a deal. That's EEROSIE. Allen Hall: And how many people are going to attend this event, Rosemary, roughly?  Rosemary Barnes: I'm pretty sure it was like 10 last year, and I'm told that it's much bigger this year.  Allen Hall: Wow. So you better get your tickets now. If you want to attend that event, you better get on it right away. And use Rosemary's code, EEROSIE we get a 20 percent discount. That's fantastic. Denmark has a new king as queen. Margrethe II has abdicated after 52 years on the throne. King Frederick the 10th, formally took over recently in a ceremony at the palace, which Joel and I were at not long ago. Margrethe is the first Danish monarch to voluntarily give up the throne in nearly 900 years. And Joel and I were standing next to Frederick recently at the Copenhagen Wind Europe event a couple of months ago. So we were close to royalty.  Joel Saxum: We didn't even know it either. These guys were pushing us away a little bit. What's going on with these guys? Looked like a bunch of dudes from a Mission Impossible movie. And then we looked behind him and there he was. Now King Frederick the 10th. At the time he was the royal, what is it, Crown Prince? Was it Crown Prince Frederick?  Allen Hall: So Frederick is married to, now Queen, Mary, who is from Australia. And Rosemary, I think she's actually from sort of Tasmania, slash Australia. And I was just wondering if there's a connection here. Is she like a second cousin to you, or is there some sort of in, insight we could have into the monarchy in Denmark? Are we gonna have A new wind turbine facility in Australia.  Rosemary Barnes: You've really gone for the soft spot for any Tasmanian because that is the joke that in Tasmania, everyone is related to each other in possibly not the nicest way and people don't mean it as a compliment when they say that. Yeah, so it is highly possible to be honest. It's highly possible that we're you're related somehow. But not that I know of. And in fact, when I lived in Denmark, I never was introduced to princess, then princess Mary, which I thought was ridiculous.

Allen, Joel and Phil discuss Eversource's offshore wind exit, BlackRock's blockbuster G.I.P. buyout, and how GE's massive SunZia turbine order is powering the Western Hemisphere's largest wind farm in this episode. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum, and this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out IntelStor at intelstor.com. Eversource Energy is continuing efforts to exit investments in emerging U. S. offshore wind projects, negotiating the sale of Interest in three wind farms, South Fork Wind, Revolution Wind, and Sunrise Wind. Eversource sold some assets last year to partner Ørsted. The sale requires regulatory approval and agreements with Ørsted. Scope depends on Sunrise Wind rebid outcome. Eversource is going to take an impairment charge of roughly 1. billion dollars due to the changing market value of those assets and the construction costs. Phil, this is a problem, right? If offshore wind isn't at least profitable, marginally profitable. You're going to see a continual outflux of companies leaving offshore wind in the U. S. And Eversource, again, is another one that's doing it, and that's a big problem for New York in my opinion. What do you think? Philip Totaro: Yeah, and obviously we all know that PSEG left the projects in New Jersey before the plug ultimately got pulled. But, we've talked, I don't know how many times on the show about the fact that U. S. companies don't seem to yet really be bought into the idea of offshore wind. Pretty much all the projects even being built are being built by foreign owned entities at this point. So it's obviously, Eversource doesn't want to stay locked into unprofitable projects and agreements. So the divestiture makes sense for them. The question is, how does anybody follow this up? the interest rates look like they're going to come down. In 2024, there's already predictions that there's going to be up to five rate cuts this year to, readjust the, the fed, interest rate. At the end of the day, I think that's going to help tremendously getting projects back on track and may end up encouraging new investors, to, to plow some money into it. including some of these big infrastructure funds that are, they've got plenty of assets under management now and plenty of cash at their disposal. And they're, looking around. Joel Saxum: To note here too, guys, this isn't an odd concept of 50 percent ownership, 50 percent ownership, we're selling our ownership over here, we're selling our ownership over here, because this happens in offshore wind in the European market all the time. You hear, ah, Kodawind here was bought by this, and this guy's divested here. These are all, those are financial plays. So at some point in time, I would be willing to almost bet that the Eversource game plan wasn't to buy a wind farm, operate it, and decommission it. It was going to be to get in, get it built, get it running, and enhance the value of it, and dump it for a profit. It just is at the stage where, hey, that profit just doesn't look like it may come to be right now, or it's too far off for our investing risk appetite,

In this episode, Allen and Joel speak with ABB's Daniel Gerber, Senior VP, Global Product Group Manager Wind, System Drives and WindESCo's Founder and CEO Mo Dua about their companies' new partnership. They are combining ABB's capabilities in wind turbine electrical systems with WindESCo's optimization software platforms. This collaboration aims to help wind farm operators monitor the health of electrical components to reduce downtime and maximize energy production. Plus, we discuss pilot projects planned for 2024 to demonstrate the value of jointly leveraging ABB's converter expertise and WindESCo's analytics. Reach out to Windesco and ABB! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I am Allen Hall and I'm here with Joel Saxum, and we have some really interesting guests today. We have Daniel Gerber, Senior Vice President, Global Product Group Manager, Wind System Drive from ABB, and he's based in Zurich, Switzerland. And also Mo Dua from WindESCo. Mo is the founder and CEO of WindESCo, which is based in Massachusetts, my, my state. And the reason we're talking here today is because there has been a minority stake in WindESCo from ABB. And when this news release popped out a couple of months ago now, I thought, man, this is a great alignment. Finally, the wind industry is doing something on the electrical side that is interesting, because everything we hear is on the mechanical side. It's all about blades, leading edge erosion, how the gearboxes are breaking, how everything's leaking oil. But the, a lot of the improvements that are going to happen in wind energy and in the production side are going to happen because the electrical control system and the converters and everything downstream are working properly and doing what they should. And this is where WindESCo and ABB come in together. So Daniel and Mo, welcome to the program. Daniel Gerber: Hello, welcome, and thanks for having me. Thank you. Allen Hall: So would you like to just describe what brought the two of you together and how that relationship started and what the plan is for the combined effort. Daniel Gerber: We at ABB, we have a strong commitment in decarbonizing the power generation. And therefore the wind business for us is a strong part of our strategy. Our customers are asking us, what can we do actually to improve the situation, to get more out of our equipment, more out of our turbines. How can we make them as available as possible? And we at ABB, we have 17, 000 converters in the field, more than 21, 000 generators in the field operating. So we have a couple of years of good experience. And what we try to do is to find a partner, which can basically help us to bring a 360 degrees view on this. And we found with WindESCo, a partner, which has a credible offering into the market. And basically allows us to not just see the electrical part, but as well have the mechanical parts together. And therefore we found that WindESCo is one of our preferred partner in this collaboration. Mo Dua: Yeah. Thank you, Daniel. From my perspective, WindESCo has been a company that's been hyper focused on addressing the challenges in the wind sector. And as you guys know, there's a lot of challenges in the sector, a lot of moving parts right in the sector also. So We have ourselves been looking to expand beyond just performance optimization into as...

This week we discuss New York's delayed/canceled offshore wind contracts and the effects on future electricity demands, new port facilities for wind manufacturing, and a US-based initiative to paint turbine blades black to reduce bird collisions. Joel Saxum, Rosemary Barnes, Phil Totaro and Allen Hall bring you the latest in wind energy news, technology, and science! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: So I got this really cool swag. So if you're listening, you really can't see my new swag. Got this Drive Smart sweatshirt from my favorite race car driver, Kyle Weatherman. And in fact, Rosemary, if you go to the drivesmartwarranty.com website, you will see the Uptime logo on the race car that we were on this past year in Texas. So this is going to be an exciting year for Kyle Weatherman and for Uptime and Drive Smart Warranty. Because we're expecting great things this season. Rosemary, want me to, I could, I can get one of these cool sweatshirts and send it your way if you'd like. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I'll never, turn down a freebie like that. Allen Hall: The only problem with this sweatshirt, it's not really a problem, is it has a Chevy logo, and I've never driven a Chevy. Now I feel obligated that I have to drive a Chevy. Joel, you, are you driving a Chevy right now? Joel Saxum: GMC, same thing, same pot of money. Allen Hall: There's someone on the uptime crew, because Phil is driving a scooter. a very complicated scooter, nonetheless. Philip Totaro: I used to, drive a truck, thank you very much, had a nice Dodge for 11 years, so I was part of the family. Rosemary Barnes: We've got a Subaru. Allen Hall: It's a very Australian car. There you go. We're expecting great things this year from, Kyle Weatherman and the DGM crew and from Drive Smart Warranty, so check it out, drivesmartwarranty.com. European energy companies Equinor and BP have terminated their agreement to sell power from the proposed Empire Wind II offshore wind farm. To New York State, the company cited rising inflation, higher borrowing costs, and supply chain issues as the reasons for canceling the contract. As Phil, New York recently launched a new offshore wind procurement to allow developers to exit these old contracts and to re offer projects at higher prices. And that's supposed to conclude sometime in February. However, in this particular case, BP and Equinor also cancelled the substation build. So there seems like they've committed a little further down the line than just saying, hey, we're going to rebid. They've actually stopped production on a vital component of that wind farm. This is in, in light of, obviously, Ørsted pulling out of the two projects. In New Jersey, so there seems to be a trend going on here. Equinor also had the problem, you and I were corresponding via, Slack or whatever it was the other day, and I, commented that Equinor has been pressured by the state quite a couple of times for a variety of different reasons. One more recently is the New York state canceled the on shoring of one of their cables, and which was a last minute dig at, Equinor, I felt. Does this all seem to align? Equinor is getting the cold shoulder from New York State, and will they go back and try to rebid this? Philip Totaro: I believe they will. First of all, this, probably wasn't surprising that they were going to pull out after, Empire Wind 1, Phase 1, and,

Statkraft plans to invest 1 billion euros in wind energy in Norway. TPI Composites expands its supply agreements with Nordex to manufacture blades in Turkey. Siemens transferred an additional 8% stake in Siemens Energy to its pension fund. What does this mean for the industry? Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out IntelStor at intelstor.com. Norwegian utility Statkraft has announced a 1 billion euro investment in new and existing onshore wind farms in Norway. The goal is to double Statkraft's annual wind production to 2, 500 gigawatt hours. The wind investment is part of a larger 6 billion euro plan for Statkraft's operation in Norway. Phil, why does every new investment start with a B as in billion? This is a lot of money moving around on onshore wind at the moment. Philip Totaro: It is, and they want the power, and they're taking it seriously, and it's, interesting because, we talk about, challenges and like the U S offshore wind market and whatever. And then, you go over to Norway and you got a big utility company plunking down a billion Euro to double their, wind output. They obviously get it and they care and they're moving forward. They're going to be, in good stead for, a while. Joel Saxum: One of the big things here too, to know is that Norway runs mostly all on renewable energy already, and they're, flush, as an electrified society. So I believe that a lot of this, if there's new, production that will be going. They're gonna take advantage of some of these HVDC, subsea lines that are heading to mainland Europe and over to the UK to sell a lot of this power, into those other markets. So some of this is less of a, let's electrify Norway, it's more of a, let's take advantage of Norway's natural resources and sell it to other parts in, In the UK and Europe. Philip Totaro: They also have, not just this desire for offtake, but they're electrifying a lot of the vehicles like Norway is the number one place in the world for, electric vehicle sales as a percentage of, all sales or a percentage of population. And, you're right, Joel, because they can take this power. And, pipe it into a broader European market where, you know, different countries, it's, thankfully prices have come down in this winter wasn't so bad. But we're, only back to 2021 levels in, in terms of prices, average prices in throughout Europe at this point. Because we've stabilized the situation now with, Russia and Ukraine, but things can change. Things can escalate. He who hath the power is going to be able to, use it and to sell it. Allen Hall: TPI Composites has expanded its supply agreements with wind turbine maker, Nordex in Turkey. TPI will add two new wind blade manufacturing lines, bringing its total capacity with Nordex in Turkey to eight lines. The agreements are going to run through 2026 with up to three additional years. The expansion builds upon a 10 year relationship between Nordex and TPI in Turkey. This is interesting because you don't really hear too much about Nordex in the United States at the moment.

Allen and Joel flew to Riga, Latvia to meet with Dainis Kruze and Greta Krumina from Aerones. In this exclusive interview, they discuss how Aerones is transforming wind turbine maintenance with advanced robotics and AI, from lightning protection systems testing to leading edge repairs and more. Allen and Joel get a tour of their new manufacturing space and offices, where the team is at work. This is a glimpse into the future of renewable energy maintenance. Visit Aerones' website: https://aerones.com/ Follow Greta and Dainis on LinkedIn! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, and I'm here with Joel Saxum, and we are in Riga, Latvia with Aerones. We're actually at Aerones with Dainis Kruze and Greta Krumina. And we came all the way to Latvia because we wanted to learn where you guys are at. And obviously this repair season has been pretty busy and we've seen you all over the world. But we haven't seen the latest innovations and robots and where this new facility is. Joel Saxum: This thing here. Allen Hall: Yeah, so you guys moved into a new facility. Yes. This year. Yes. And we're only showing part of the facility. A small part. A very small part. A very small part, this is the manufacturing facility where all the robot manufacturing happens at in the design process. But there's another building next door, which is six stories. And you're four of those stories. And they're full of engineers and technicians and customer support people. Yeah, so there's just a lot going on in Latvia at the moment. I think we, the thing that I wanted to come see, and we traveled, I don't know, two, three thousand miles to get here, was to understand where you guys are at. And how far you have advanced from when I think we first met, which is probably three years ago now. There's a lot that has happened. The robot designs have matured greatly. Everything has Yeah, the number of services provided is It's wild. It's crazy. Joel Saxum: You walked us around yesterday, and we just This is for this, and this is for that, and this is another service we do here, and this is a special project we're working on here, and this is this. Oh man, this is so if you thought of Aerones a few years ago as a company that does some robotic tower cleaning and that was cool, you've got to see this. Because what you can see in the camera right now is, like Allen said, the manufacturing facility, behind that wall is a complete machine shop, CNC, lathes. 5 axis machines, welding, testing, all the above, and you're just seeing one building here behind us. Two stories of offices, a rapid prototyping room over here with 15 3D printers and all kinds of people running around in full Aerones gear, getting stuff done. Allen Hall: Yeah, and hats. Joel Saxum: We're talking here, why don't you guys give us a rundown of where you're at. Dainis Kruze: Oh yeah In the last three years we've done a lot. The team, Aerones has done a lot. We've built what we dreamt to build. We've done what we what we wanted to do. And like finally we are maturing into a growth stage company and not the startup anymore. In the very beginning we understood that like just with the cleaning or just with lightning protection system tests it's not going to fly.  So there are a lot more problems on the blades and a lot more problems on the turbines...

The Uptime Wind Energy podcast provides in-depth discussions about the latest news and developments in the wind energy industry. In this episode, the hosts Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, and Philip Totaro dive into topics including Vestas' record 1.1 GW turbine order for a project in New Mexico, proposed federal regulations to streamline environmental reviews for some renewable projects while excluding wind, and Avangrid's failed acquisition of PNM Resources. They also discuss underwater drone technology from VideoRay used for offshore wind farm inspections. Throughout the wide-ranging conversation, the hosts analyze these stories and more with their engineering, project management, and industry expertise, offering listeners valuable insights into the wind sector. This episode exemplifies why Uptime Wind Energy is an essential listen for anyone interested in or working in the renewable energy field. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! VideoRay - https://videoray.comPardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Uptime 197 Allen Hall: Phil, did you see that in Australia during a tennis tournament that they had a deadly snake appear on the court?  Philip Totaro: Yes. I know.  Allen Hall: Rosemary's not here to defend herself, but, oh my gosh, she swears to me that when you walk around Australia, you're not going to be attacked by a poisonous snake, and yet There it is, headline news in the United States, poisonous snake at turn, at tennis tournament. So it was like the world's most deadliest snake, whatever that snake is. Joel, do you know what that snake is? The world's deadliest snake?  Joel Saxum: It was the second most, and it was like a brown. Some kind of pit, Viper Brown something. I don't remember what it was.  Allen Hall: And there it was right in the middle of this to tennis tournament just sitting there. Philip Totaro: Allen, you must not watch tennis that often because when they used to have the tournament in Miami before they moved it into the Hard Rock Stadium they used to have like lizards in invading the tennis courts and stuff like that. So yeah it's not uncommon for that sort of thing to happen. But lizards are nice. Most most of the time they won't kill you.  Allen Hall: But in Australia, they totally will. Yeah, and we were watching you guys watch the Mike Rowe show? I like Mike Rowe. Dirty Jobs, there you go. And he was milking dangerous spiders, poisonous spiders. And the whole time, you got these massive spiders, and on the whole, I'm just watching this thinking, That's what's in Australia. That's what's in Australia. Oh my god, that's what's in Australia. I, can I get that out of my head? That's a dangerous place. Even though Rosemary swears it's nice. I'm sure that it is. And Matthew Stead From Ping says the same thing, we're gonna have to go, Joel. I hate to say it, but I'm not gonna be the first one to step off the airplane. I'm gonna have someone go ahead of me. So my  Joel Saxum: brother lives in Alaska, and he told me this one time, he said, You don't have to be the fastest one, you just gotta be faster than your buddy.  Allen Hall: Australia has become a renewable energy center. Of course, Rosemary points out that they're full of solar, and they have Essentially a renewable energy grid at this point.  But the wind industry is growing out there. There's been a lot of movement out that way. And I hope Vestas installs a plant out there.

A proposed merger aims to create one of the largest renewable investment trusts in London. Vestas has bounced back from previous issues to receive its largest ever US turbine order. Brazilian turbine manufacturer WEG is emerging as a global wind power player through a new partnership with a European company. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intelstor Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at Intelstor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out Intelstor at intelstor.com. Octopus Renewable Infrastructure Trust has proposed merging with Aquila European Renewables. The deal aims to create one of the largest renewable energy investment trusts in London. The combined entity would have a market cap around 750 million pounds. We would also have a portfolio of roughly 1 billion pounds across Europe. Phil, this is a big deal. I know it's in the early stages still, but if this were to happen, this is a ground shaking event. Philip Totaro: It is because both companies have actually been growing their European portfolios. And so to take these two entities and put them together makes a pretty compelling case for one of the biggest certainly would be the biggest financially focused asset owner within Europe and potentially within the rest of the world. Most of the world. Asset owners are independent power producers, utility companies, et cetera. But this would be one of, if not the biggest asset owner both wind and solar assets and energy storage as well. If they were to actually get this deal to go through. So it's worth keeping track of it. Joel Saxum: Yeah. Interesting is it's basically when we talk of Octopus renewables infrastructure, trust. And then looking at Aquila, you're talking about it's a more than at the grand scheme of things, it's a fund, right? It's a financial asset owner. That is a lot a lot of interest in a lot of different places. They being this size, they will have a pretty easy way of attracting capital to grow as well, in my opinion, right? If you're already this big and you're already making these kinds of moves the larger players within the the trading markets, your Vanguards, your BlackRocks, or these kinds of players are more apt to put money into larger groups like this as they grow as well. Allen Hall: Vestas has received its largest ever order in the U S market. A 1. 1 gigawatt deal to supply 242 V one 63, 4. 5 megawatt turbines for Pattern Energy's SunZia wind project in New Mexico. The order is also Vestas is largest single onshore project globally. This thing is huge. And obviously they held it out to the end of Q4, 2023, but it has ramifications all through 2024. Philip Totaro: Absolutely. This deal gives them somewhere in the order of about 3. 6 gigawatts worth of V163 platform orders globally. Which is of course, a derivative product off of some of their previous designs, but it's a brand new blade and it's something they're really hoping is going to play well in the U. S. Market. So to have such a strong foothold with not only this deal with the SunZia project. But a few other orders for this product platform as well in the U. S. for undisclosed customers.

Rosemary had a great discussion with blade expert Mohammed Fajar about blade defects, the blade design and certification process, and how optimization and automation could improve blade quality. Mohammed provides perspective on recent issues with turbine OEMs like Siemens Gamesa, and expresses optimism about wind power's future, particularly offshore! With both of their extensive blade knowledge, they explore how human factors in blade manufacturing lead to inconsistencies and why the industry struggles to implement more automation. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Apex Wind - https://www.apexwind.dkPardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Rosemary: Hello and welcome to a special episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm Rosie Barnes and today I'm joined by Mohamed Fajar, founder and blade consultant at Apex Wind. We used to be colleagues actually at LM Wind Power when Mohamed was a senior structural design engineer who took five blade designs through the certification process. So wind turbine blade defects are very topical at the moment with what's in the news with Siemens Gamesa and also TPI, we've talked a lot about that on the podcast. And I thought that Mohammed would be the perfect person to have on to tell us about how the blade design and certification process works, or maybe more accurately how it should work to ensure that blade defects aren't a problem. They're not supposed to be. So thanks heaps for coming on, Mohammed. Mohammed: Thank you for inviting me. Rosemary: So I just wanted to start out. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and what you're doing now at Apex? Mohammed: I graduated in 2014 as a master in engineering in France about composite structures and materials. And since then I joined LM Wind Power in Denmark and my journey with blades started. So I started as a structural design engineer. Yeah. As you say, designing blades, for various OEMs, uh, taking them from the conceptual design to the Yeah. Manufacturing and handover to, to the factories. Also worked at yeah, a company called R& D test systems also in Denmark doing test systems for wind. And then another three and a half years in Vestas in the innovation department. I was working a little bit as the blade owner in the department tech lead in, in all blade related projects. One of them, it's the, yeah, cable stay drawtor where I also worked on it from the start to almost the end of it. And then since July 23 I went on my own. I started Apex Wind, as you mentioned, and the goal is, yeah, to have this. It's a consultancy company, a hundred percent focused on blades. Uh, helping developers, OEMs and startups yeah, to have a blade expert on the side when they need it. Rosemary: Yeah. It's good timing to pick a company like that, founding a company like that, because it's definitely such a need for blade consultants these days, but with yeah, all of the issues that we're seeing. Mohammed: Yeah. One of the things that really motivated me to get in, because when it was, for example, on the OEM side, sometimes I feel that there was a struggle finding someone who knows about blades and can help with blades. Often you end up, even if you want some CAD resources, you end up hiring someone who works with steel or something, and then almost have to teach him how to work with composites. And there was never this full package for people who knows about the whole value chain of blades to know about the desi...

This week, the team discusses the collapse of a crane hoisting wire rope while offloading a turbine in Houston, revealing issues with corrosion and grease buildup on cables. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Then we move to the impacts of severe thunderstorms and lightning strikes on wind turbine damage and rising insurance costs. We got some offshore wind lease updates from BOEM, and discuss an agreement between Siemens and Vestas to standardize equipment for turbine transportation and installation. Our Wind Farm of the Week is Wyoming's massive Chokecherry Sierra Madre wind project being developed by The Anschutz Corporation. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I have you guys seen this rocket man on YouTube lately, this Robert Maddox, have you seen this guy where he builds these pulse jet engines and he sticks them on a go cart and this pulse jet is glowing red. It's gotta be like 500 degrees and it's right between his legs. Joel Saxum: So he's he's retired, right? This is a retired, it's someone's retired grandfather who is making jet engines out of everything. Or putting them on everything. Bicycles, wagons, scooters whatever he's bored with, right? Allen Hall: Yeah, he's got a water jet cutter, and he's cutting these steel forms to make these pulse jet engines. And, Phil, you know what a pulse jet engine is. That's what the Germans used early on in World War II, right? It's a really crude jet engine, so it doesn't have a lot of Impulse power is basically burning raw fuel and shoving out on an exhaust, but everything gets super hot in those in those pulse jets. And he's got four or five of these stacked up on a steel frame go kart. And I'm not sure how fast he goes. Phil, you gotta check this out. He's got a selfie stick, he's sticking out in front of him, and he's like driving with one hand. Philip Totaro: Driving one handed with four rockets on his back. That sounds like super safe. The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast does not condone this activity in any, where's our disclaimer? Allen Hall: No, this is fascinating because it's such an engineering thing. You think, all those guys designing wind turbines and blades are Just like this guy was probably designing wind turbines back in his twenties. Joel Saxum: This is my, this is what I want to be. Allen Hall: That's exactly what's happening inside their garage right now. If I could just get a water jet, my wife wasn't looking, I would be building this pulse jet engine and put it on a go-kart a thousand percent. Back in July of 22 hoisting wire rope broke on a crane while offloading a Nordex Delta 4,000 nacelle in the Port of Houston. Now, I remember when that happened, and there was a little bit of discussion when that happened, but it went to the NTSB here in the United States to write up the report on the accident investigation, and those things take a year, sometimes longer. They just released the report, so we have a little more insight and some photos as to what had happened, and the crane itself was on the ship, so it was a ship based crane, they had three cranes. And they had completed two lifts using that same crane, lifting nacelles and other things out of the cargo hold. And just after lunch they were lifting another nacelle, and one of the lifting ropes, which is a steel rope, broke. And it dropped the nacelle about six feet back into that bay narrowly missing a couple of guys who we...

In this episode of NewsFlash, we discuss FairWind's acquisition of Wind 1000 to expand its wind installation business internationally. Acciona Energía is selling wind and solar assets to raise capital for future projects, Repsol ordered turbines from Vestas for a new wind farm in Spain. And Ambuja Cement, owned by the Adani Group, announced plans to invest over $700 million in renewable energy to decarbonize its operations. These deals highlight continued consolidation and growth in the global renewable energy industry. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum, and this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out Intelstor at intelstor.com. FairWind, a global provider of wind turbine installation and service solutions, is going to acquire Wind 1000. Wind 1000 is a Spain based regional leader in onshore wind installations in southern Europe and South America. The acquisition aligned with FairWind's global expansion strategy into wind 1000s regions. The combined company expects to grow to a workforce of over 2000 people globally and approaching 1. 5 billion in combined revenue. Phil, this is a big merger of service providers over in Europe. Philip Totaro: Yeah. And it's interesting because while we've seen a lot of like supply chain and independent service provider consolidation, the EPC companies haven't necessarily been gobbling each other up or merging all that much. But the fact that FairWind wanted to be able to entertain international expansion, this is a fairly good fit, I think, for them in that strategy. Joel Saxum: Yeah. And so doing any kind of international business, you understand that, some cultures just like to work together. The Spanish culture, Latin American culture, South American culture is one of them, right? Like the, it's hard to make inroads into those countries if you don't have, if you don't speak language, if you don't understand the culture, if you're not a part of it. So tying that up at the top level is going to enable FairWind's expansion into those countries that are strategically hard to get a foothold in if you're an outsider. Great job by FairWind, enabling that expansion. Allen Hall: Acciona Energía, a major Spanish renewable power company, has hired BNP Paribas to sell its assets. Acciona is planning to sell 308 megawatts of wind capacity and 370 megawatts of solar project potential at roughly 500 million euros. It comes as Acciona looks to raise cash from asset sales in 2024 to reduce debt. Phil, this is becoming more and more common as some of these energy providers have older assets and they're trying to bolster their books and maybe look towards projects in the future. They need cash, so you need to get rid of those older facilities. You need to find somebody to help you sell them, usually. Philip Totaro: Yeah, and keep in mind too, this is an asset portfolio in Spain that is, you know, basically has seen full net positive return on capital during its lifetime already. It's getting close to the age where they're going to repower it. And so they want to be able to move that merchandise.

We decided to re-run one of our most important episodes of the year. The IEC 61400-24 Lightning Protection specification is in the process of being amended. The proposed updated will add more instructions and information for Lightning Detection and Measurement Systems. Lightning monitors are available in a variety of types and sizes. From the basic lightning card to high speed data acquisitions systems with current probes on each blade, the complexity and cost vary from a couple of dollars to upwards of $10k. Do wind turbine operators need expensive lightning monitoring systems? Lightning expert Allen Hall is joined by Chief Commercial Officer, Joel Saxum, as they review the proposed changes and the effect on the wind industry. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. It is the holiday season. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. We are taking a well needed break. Joel's vacationing down in Houston. Rosemary's in warm Australia. Phil is in sunny California and I am freezing in Massachusetts. Hopefully you're close to a warm fire and some hot cocoa and family. We're going to replay for you an old episode of the Uptime podcast that you may have missed. So if you're just kicking around the fire, turn on your podcast player and take a listen to this fine episode of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. Allen Hall: Welcome to the special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. And there is some activity in the lightning world in the IEC 61400-24 specification back in a, in Annex L and Annex L is about monitoring of wind turbines for lightning information. And there's a, an amendment being proposed at the minute by the working group with the IEC working group. That is looking to put some more details around lightning monitoring for wind turbines. And I have Joel Saxum here with me, our chief commercial officer at Weather Guard Lightning Tech. And we think it's important that everybody realize that this is happening at the moment and to make sure operators and owners understand the implications of these changes that are being discussed at the IEC level. And what it means in terms of your future operations, your costs some added complexities, if you decide to go down this pathway. Joel Saxum: Yeah, absolutely. So I think we should start with just a little bit of a discussion around the IEC standard and what it means for the industry. IEC standards are things that are adhered to as basically a technical specification. If it's how wind turbines are rated, by what speeds they can take, or how certain things are designed in foundations, or the lightning protection systems, it's what the industry looks to for guidance.  What ends up happening is if you run into, maybe a court case, or something of this sort, this document becomes a partial, basically, expert witness. Did hey party A is suing party B for whatever on their wind turbines, and then this document will almost always come into play in that. Whether it's an insurance case or it's a legal battle of some sort. Hey did you adhere to the IEC standards? So while it isn't technically a law or something that you have to follow as a regulation, it is a pseudo that in the legal world, right? So the, it pops up almost all the time.  All turbines are when they get certified against the IEC standards. To be able to connect to the grids in most countries.

This episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast features an interview with Gregory Poulos, CEO of ArcVera Renewables, to discuss how the company's work is helping operators improve wind farm performance. We discuss wind resource assessments, wake modeling, repowering with new turbine technology, evaluating offshore wind resources, and accounting for risks like future nearby wind farm development. ArcVera helps make wind power more viable and cost-effective through services spanning a project's full lifetime, from initial prospecting to operations to eventual repowering decades later. Reach out to ArcVera and get your wind farm performing better! https://arcvera.com/contact/ Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome back to this special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm Allen Hall, along with my co host, Joel Saxum. ArcVera Renewables is the leading provider of renewable energy technology services, including wind resource assessments, technical due diligence, project engineering, and O& M support. ArcVera's work in the wind industry is helping to make. Wind energy more affordable and reliable. The company's services are helping developers to build new wind farms and improve the performance of existing wind farms. As a result, wind energy is playing an increasingly important role in the global energy mix. In this podcast, we'll explore ArcVera's work with ArcVera's CEO, Greg Poulos. Welcome to the program. Gregory Poulos: Thanks for having me on, guys. It's great to be here. Hi, Allen. Hi, Joel. Good to see you again. Allen Hall: Yeah, so the last time we got together was in New Orleans at ACP, and that was a good time. That was a really crazy convention. I know since we have left there Joel and I work in the lightning space and you're in the wind in the wind space, actual wind, the productive part of the wind industry business. It's been a busy summer. I assume you guys have been busy with all the projects and all the IRA things have been happening, trying to evaluate performance of farms and what, where to put new farms and what's going on offshore. I'm really interested to pick your brain here. Gregory Poulos: Yeah all of those things globally. Absolutely. Allen Hall: ArcVera's been around for about 40 years at this point. Can you just give our listeners a brief introduction as to all the things you do around the wind industry? Gregory Poulos: Absolutely. So we work on on the wind side. We also work in solar and battery storage. But on the wind side, we work just as in solar and storage through the full project lifetime. So in wind there's a prospecting phase where A developer or somebody trying to create a wind farm is looking for a spot or they have a spot in mind and they need to know if it's going to be economic. It should they invest more in there in the development. So we help folks understand how windy a certain site may be using our vast experience and also advanced modeling tools. Some which we discussed at ACP um, a variety of other things, including our meteorological expertise about flow over complex terrain. There's a lot of free material out there that is inaccurate, and so we help narrow the band of to what the real answer is. Ultimately you have to measure on site and so you have to use lidar, sodar or meteorological towers most commonly offshore, they call them floating lidar or flidar but so we'll recommen...

An article about the benefits of being a wind technician is bringing attention to the industry! After some advice for getting into the industry, we discuss Vestas getting the green light on their GIANT new offshore turbine - the V236-15MW. Phil gives us the scoop on plans for the Port of Long Beach to drop nearly $5 billion on offshore wind real estate in California. Joel highlights an article in PES Wind about engineering firm Bardex bringing offshore oil and gas expertise to wind. And the team agrees that putting data centers inside wind turbine towers is an amazing idea. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: It looks like McDonald's is going to connect up with Google to use AI in their restaurants to make the French fries hotter, and to make the ordering a lot easier. I don't know if you've been into McDonald's in the United States in the last couple of years, but you walk in. And there's almost no humans there, and they got these big touchscreen boards, and they are the most counterintuitive machines in the world. I would like to have a soda. I gotta press press. They make it really difficult. So evidently they're gonna put AI to use with Google to make that better. Pretty soon it'll be in Australia. Joel Saxum: It's not Mac It's not McDonald's there though, Allen. It's Macca's. Allen Hall: Is that what it is? Really? Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, it's roughly right. Maccas. Allen Hall: Of all the things we've seen AI being used for, I swear every day there's a new whiz bang thing that's going to save the world. But none of them seem really action oriented and touchable, right? You can, you're gonna see something from AI. Philip Totaro: Allen, I'm surprised it's not hydrogen powered. Joel Saxum: Hydrogen powered French fryers. Allen Hall: Maybe Google will put their servers in the bases of wind turbines to make everybody happy. How about that? There's a new article by Bloomberg News talking about wind turbine technicians, and that has generated a lot of noise on LinkedIn, on the web also. And the data in that article goes like this wind turbine technicians are projected to grow about 45%, not the technicians themselves, but the employment opportunities and it's faster than a lot of other occupations, obviously, because there's so much energy going into creating wind turbines across the United States onshore and offshore. There's a lot of demand for it and some of the highlights from that article are wind turbine technicians can make about 80, 000 without a college degree but you have to be willing to travel. And there are wind turbines in 44 states at the moment and entry level roles are about 50, 000 plus overtime and travel pay. And within about a year, it can get trained up enough to be working in the field. Now this has subsequently sent a lot of people to our Weather Guard website, because we have some information about being a wind turbine technician. So in the last 24 to 48 hours, I think I've seen 20 requests to be a wind turbine technician and where can they find some information? And I want to highlight here while we're on the podcast Hey. Go to the job boards. Go to monster. com. Check out your local community college. Joel, you know this. That there are a lot of training programs and opportunities out there. You just need to look a little bit. Joel Saxum: Yeah, we did look not too long ago, Allen and I,

We discuss several recent deals in the renewables industry, including Eolus Vind's agreement to acquire 2.3GW of Finnish wind and solar projects from YIT Energy for a bargain price of 25 million euros. Phil Totaro and Joel Saxum analyze the surprisingly low price tag and discuss other renewable energy M&A activity and financing challenges. French developer Akuo Energy fails to sell itself and decides to self-fund projects amidst high rates. Japanese infrastructure company Infroneer Holdings is also acquiring 293 wind turbines from Bain Capital's Japan Wind Development for $1.4 billion, expanding its renewable footprint. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum, and this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies Check out Intelstor intelstor.com. Swedish wind power company Eolus Vind has signed an agreement to acquire Finnish renewable energy developer YIT Energy. The acquisition includes 2. 3 gigawatts of wind and solar projects at various stages of development and a team of 16 employees. Eolus will pay 25 million euros for the transaction, 10 million of it due at closing and the rest of installments through 2025. Of the 2. 3 gigawatt folio, 1. 1 gigawatts are mature projects, 900 megawatts wind and 200 megawatts solar. The other 1. 2 gigawatts are earlier stage projects. Phil, 25 million euros for this seems like a really small amount. Is there more behind the scenes here? Phil Totaro: No, this is probably like the deal of the year. Joel Saxum: Yeah, it's cheap! Phil Totaro: Yeah, exactly, Joel. This is like dirt cheap for a pretty decent pipeline, especially considering Just the 1. 1 gigawatts of mature projects alone. Normally, you spend, a at least, if you're gonna make this type of an acquisition, you at least acquire inclusive of all the development costs to date, plus, whatever, 25, 35%, whatever, is your markup on top of that. This seems like that's all they're paying. They're paying like the bare bones minimum, if they've already gotten any capital together, then, it's not coming along with the deal. it's gonna be Eolus' responsibility to, to take care of that. Yeah this is, like I said, I'd nominate this for, the deal of the year. That, that's a bargain. Joel Saxum: This sounds like a deal,if you had a buddy who was getting a divorce and his house was cheap and you could pick it up or something. heh. Something's going on here that we're not seeing in the news. Allen Hall: French renewable energy developer Akuo Energy ended talks to sell itself and is now working to revive projects. Akuo needed funding to accelerate solar and wind projects in Europe and the U. S. after construction slowed this year from cost pressures. Phil, this is another interesting one because I thought Akuo had a good set of a portfolio that people would be interested in, but evidently the interest rates in the market environment have really slowed down some of these acquisitions. So Akuo has decided to go do the projects themselves. Phil Totaro: Which is interesting because, if their Interest rates are supposedly high enough where they can't find a buyer,

This episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast features Josh Rangel, founder and CEO of Rangel Renewables, a rapidly growing company providing renewable energy solutions. Josh discusses how he is partnering with community colleges to train new wind technicians to meet surging industry demand, his plans to expand into repowering projects with his crane company King Heavy Lift, the positive impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act, and how he is fostering a family culture and safety focus at his company during a time of unprecedented growth. The hosts also explore the global shortage of qualified wind technicians and what skills are most valuable for new hires to have. Throughout the wide-ranging conversation, Josh shares invaluable insights from the frontlines of the U.S. energy transition. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Joel Saxum: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your co host, Joel Saxum, and today, Allen Hall and I have a very special episode in store for you. Joining us on the show is a forerunner in wind energy growth and a leader in the U. S. energy transition, Josh Rangel. He's the founder and CEO of Rangel Renewables, a company that's been growing rapidly, providing renewable energy solutions to the industry. And he's also the visionary behind King Heavy Lift, a key player in the race for a greener tomorrow. But today, he's not just a business builder. He's here to share his invaluable insights into the wind industry, hiring the right technicians, developing their skillsets, fostering an amazing family style company culture and discussing how the IRA bill is driving unprecedented growth in our field. Without further ado, let's get started with this episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. One of the things that we talked about off air was the fact that you're not, Rangel isn't out to steal technicians from that company and this company and that company. What you're really doing is adding to the overall talent pool. Because that's the problem we have as an industry. We have, there's a batch of really good technicians and people within the industry that know what they're doing and can do it. However, We're not going to be able to sustain the growth in what we need to accomplish for our energy transition unless we take brand new green people and train them up and give them opportunities to succeed. So how are you guys attacking that problem? Josh Rangel: By partnering with the community colleges this is my big point that I get all the time. I'm interested, but I just don't know what to do. I don't know where to go. How do I apply? What are the steps? Do I need to go to a school that is requiring me to go for two years? When you get a call and hey, we need 35 individuals in two to four weeks, can you support it? I necessarily can't have somebody go out to a school for two years and then say hey, you know Call me back whenever you're ready to go. And so Streamlining the processes as we identified. Okay. Hey The market is going to continue to grow, not enough, staff that can do the work. Trying to do our best to now working with Aaron to educate those from our social media posts or to go to apply, what the steps are to take. Joel Saxum: Absolutely. And one of the tools that you have to do that is you've got access to some funds too, don't you? Josh Rangel: Yep. So with the Houston Community College,

The whole Uptime crew is back together this week! They debate the future of segmented wind turbine blades--are they needed anymore? Plus Vestas moves to boost its services business by fully acquiring weather forecasting firm Utopus Insights. Also, Fraunhofer's development of a drone-sprayed, biodegradable blade coating to prevent icing, and the challenges of mapping offshore wind farm sites and currents using subsea acoustic technology. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Okay, Rosemary, I was just saw the news article today where the Australian Post is going to stop delivering daily and you're only going to get your mail occasionally in Australia. And I'm wondering like how the heck that works. If you, when your mom sends you cookies, it's really important that they actually get there on time. Now you have to sit there in the post office for a couple of days before they reach your doorstep. I don't know how that works. That's one part of a functioning civilization is that the mail arrives on time. Would you like to explain? Rosemary Barnes: Yeah it's letters. Letters are going to be delivered every second day now instead of every day. Yeah, so if your mum cooks you biscuits, then you can still get them delivered promptly. I think it's, the same trend that you're seeing in the US, I'm sure, and that everyone's seeing around the world, is that in terms of delivery, the profits are to be made in the parcel delivery. And letter delivery just is something that they're forced to do because, you need to have a post system, but everyone's just losing money on that part. So they're trying to, lose less money without reducing the service too much. But how often do you need a letter delivered? It doesn't matter if it was delivered one day later. That's what, there's still express post obviously for that. If you need something delivered. I'm fine with it. I'm going to, I'm going to be okay with this change. Joel Saxum: There's a talking post so I'm back in Houston now and Houston being a big hub in the United States. I ordered something on Amazon today at 2 p. m. and it was here at 4 30. That is just crazy to me. Like the, how fast, and it was just like some random dude in a car pulled up and ran over and, here's your super glue. I was like, oh dang, thanks man. Allen Hall: So Vestas is increasing its expansion of the service business, I think. They've announced the acquisition of Utopus Insights. So they had purchased, actually purchased the company back in 2018 for roughly 100 million. Utopus Insights provides weather forecasting for solar and for wind. And that they have a platform which is pretty popular that a lot of the industry uses called Scipher. And so it has advanced forecasting techniques. And we've seen some of these companies around at some of the conferences like ACP. That they're trying to predict tomorrow's or next week's weather. So you know how much energy you're going to be producing. But because Vestas already owned it, it looks like they're going to pull it all in house and make it a quote unquote Vestas company now instead of an investment. This is interesting, Joel, just because as we wandered around Blades Europe and talked to some of the Europeans. Vestas is trying to make a big splash in the service business with the full service agreements and now looks like in some of the weather prediction. Joel Saxum: Yeah,

Allen, Joel, and Phil discuss Amazon building a major new wind farm in Brazil to power its data centers and operations. Plus India's Adani Green Energy has secured financing for an enormous 17 GW hybrid solar and wind facility. This project aims to leverage Adani's investments in turbine and solar manufacturing. And IPS has acquired Wind Solutions in North Carolina to expand its wind turbine service capabilities. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intelstor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum, and this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at Intelstor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out Intelstor at intelstor.com. Amazon is spurring clean energy growth in Brazil with its first major wind farm in the country. The tech giant announced a 50 megawatt project that will generate over 250 gigawatt hours of renewable power annually. The 92 million dollar wind farm will help supply Amazon's data centers and operations in the region. This is really interesting because Amazon, when they put these new data centers in, no matter where they are in the world, they're trying to create renewable energy to power them, and that can be pretty complicated at times. Philip Totaro: It can, but it's interesting because Brazil's a market where, even though they have recently very low PPAs if they're guaranteeing the power offtake themselves, then it's less of a consideration for them to have to go into, these competitive auctions and tenders for power offtake. It's your CapEx is pretty cheap, there's plenty of turbine supply down there, as, as long as you want it, Vestas. But there, there's plenty of opportunity for them to be able to do this. And obviously co locating your power generation with your load center slash data center is going to be a good move. Brazil's a market where you've got exceptionally high. Capacity factors for most of the capacity that's installed there. So it's it's something that I think makes sense for me. Joel Saxum: Yeah. It's an interesting market down there too. Cause in Brazil, we know that the average wind turbine installed about three megawatts. So the majority of their fleet is pretty new. And you're seeing a lot of growth down there, right? A lot of ISPs, a lot of we have, we talk with our friends with Arthwind there about all the things that they do and the parts of the market that they know, and they're seeing growth in the Brazilian market. Amazon's going down there, they're going to install a 50 megawatt project. While it makes sense for them, the resources to maintain that project from an operations and maintenance position are starting to mature in the country as well. Allen Hall: India's renewable energy ambitions are charging ahead with Adani Green Energy securing over 1. 3 billion dollars in financing for a massive clean power complex. The funds will back the initial development of Adani's planned 17 gigawatt. Hybrid wind and solar park is one of the largest project finance deals ever in Asia. And as we're discussing COP 28, one of those items is what India is doing in terms of getting to renewable energy. Wow, Joel, this is amazing. 17 gigawatts is a Big project.

Allen and Joel chat with Alex Pucacco, an engineer in the wind industry, about his new book, "Where the Wind Takes You: Adventures of a Wind Turbine Engineer". The book shares real-life stories and anecdotes from Alex's 10+ years working as a wind turbine technician and engineer, set in the days of the "Wild West" in wind. It follows an apprentice wind tech named Aaron as he tries to get experience in the industry. Each chapter features trips to different wind farms around the world where Aaron encounters colorful characters and gets into humorous scrapes and mishaps while working on turbines. Tales of issues like missing tools, breaking down vehicles, and adventures at local hotels highlight the lifestyle of constantly traveling techs. If you're looking for a holiday gift for your wind industry friends, this is it! Buy the book! Alex's Website: https://windyproductions.com/product/where-the-wind-takes-you/ Amazon: https://a.co/d/9xiMHLN Allen Hall: Our guest is author Alex Pucacco. Alex is based in Nottingham, England, and is an engineer by training, working in the wind industry since 2011. Alex is the author of a brand new book about being a wind turbine technician and engineer. It's called "Where the Wind Takes You: Adventures of a Wind Turbine Engineer". Alex, welcome to the program. Alex Pucacco: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Allen Hall: So there's very few books about being a wind turbine technician or engineer in the field. Yours is interesting because it's based on real life experiences. And I know you've changed the names to protect the innocent quote unquote, innocent, right? It's, but it's really based upon on some level, your interactions and working in winds, you've been in wind over 10 years. And you went through some of the, what I would call early times in wind, when wind started to become big. And Scotland and it looks like most, mostly Scotland early on, at least some of the book is about that. I want to hear some of the details, like how did you get into wind? Why did you get into wind? What was some of those early experiences because there's a that at that time it was a difficult industry to get into. Alex Pucacco: It was and I think it still is to a degree and as I would say it's better to be lucky than smart. I did I wouldn't say mine is a conventional route. And I think since releasing the book a lot of people have approached me to ask desperate to get into wind, what's the best way? So I guess in repayment for that I have I'm putting together an article at the moment to help young people get into wind because it is very competitive and difficult despite us crying out for more technicians. So yeah, I did a engineering degree at the University of Nottingham, which was completely useless. Didn't pick up a spanner in the entire time. Graduated into a recession ended up working for a small UK manufacturer of off grid wind turbines, the tiny ones on the back of boats. Did a bit of residential solar for a bit, and then I went to California Wind Tech, which was like a two month course they did in California, just as an introduction to electrical and hydraulic schematic reading, and then I got a real lucky break. I applied for a salesy operations job, which was a real sort of dog's body type role. And they gave me a chance at a wind turbine gearbox consultancy that was just starting up in wind. A load of people had left on maternity leave. We didn't have enough people. And, we had more work than we could deal with. So very often there'd be a shout around the office, who wants to go to Australia, America, Scotland, to do whatever job it was, main bearing inspection, portable vibration demonstration, something like that. Stick my hand up. Yeah, I'll go. Get yourself booked. You travel. Off you go. And that was it. You were gone for two, three weeks. And it was fantastic. I was very lucky. Joel Saxum: So this must have been before kids and wife,

Wind turbine maintenance expert Garrett Calaway joins hosts Allen Hall and Joel Saxum to discuss his company, Calaway Solutions, which provides comprehensive turbine health audits and inspections. Calaway explains their process for assessing drivetrains, blades, generators and other components through visual inspections, drone imaging, and advanced techniques like borescoping. He highlights the need for impartial "data illumination" to determine the true condition of turbines, often unknown even to operators, and advocates for proactive maintenance over reactive fixes to maximize asset lifetime value. Calaway describes their diverse customer base and how regular audits can benefit owners, prevent issues, validate OEM work, ease transactions, and give insurers confidence by responsibly managing turbines. Visit https://calawaysolutions.com/! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to this special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. As we know, wind turbines are a maintenance nightmare at times. And with so many variety of wind turbines, particularly across the United States and the world, it's really hard to know what's wrong with any particular turbine at any particular time. And with the markets consolidating and the number of turbines that are exchanging hands, knowing the health of a wind turbine becomes critical. And that's where Calaway Solutions comes in. Garrett Calaway is the CEO of Calaway Solutions and has been involved in this industry a very long time. In this podcast, Joel and I will have in depth discussions with Garrett. We're going to pick his brain as to where these problems are, how to find them and how to diagnose the health of your turbine. So this is a really great episode. Garrett, welcome to the program and give us a little bit of background on, on where you came from and how you got to this place. Garrett Calaway: Been in the wind business for renewable energy for about 12 years. Started as a technician at Siemens back when it was Siemens, not Siemens Gamesa in its heyday. Done major components. That's actually where I learned bore scoping and, NDT process. I was part of the Siemens engineering engineering group. Used to be called ST. Learned from everybody. Learned from the Danes. Learned from, the original guys that were building these wind turbines in the United States. Honestly, I got really lucky. From there, I ended up at Wanzek. I helped build their major component and renewable services group. Yeah, I just decided that I was going to do this on my own. That I knew how to do it. We take that end of warranty style lockdown. We have that checklist. And what we want to propose to the world is that you do not wait till the end of warranty for this. You start at COD. You go through it, you do a 100 percent check of everything, not just a visual walk down. External blades, internal blades, main bearing gearbox, generator, everything that you could think of, so that you have a real baseline. We want to say we come in and do a 100% And then throughout your warranty contract, but just for easy math, we'll say that your contract's five years. We come back and we do 20 percent of your site randomly. And then by the time we get to the end of your warranty, you don't even need an end of warranty walk down. You already know the problems that you've got, the utility has going on in their sites.

Allen Hall and Joel Saxum had a great conversation with Daniela Roeper of FabricAir, formerly Borealis Wind, regarding their innovative wind turbine blade heating system to mitigate icing. They discuss the system's impressive new capabilities, including advanced controls, analytics, and an efficient service model, now enabled further through the strategic Borealis acquisition, to provide exceptional value for wind farm owners. Roeper shares insightful perspectives on overlooked icing costs and explains how this optimized technology can boost production at icy sites. With FabricAir's substantial resources supporting ongoing enhancements, the future shines bright for effectively tackling troublesome turbine icing. Learn more and reach out! https://www.fabricair.com/ice-protection-systems/ Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: We're at CanREA the Electricity Transformation Canada 2023 event, and because it's so icy, we decided to grab Daniela Roeper, who was formerly with Borealis Wind, who is now VP at FabricAir. So we have a lot to discuss, icing wise, on turbine blades. It must be a huge discussion point this week because it is terrible outside. Joel Saxum: Yeah, there's a half inch of ice on every bar. Allen Hall: Oh yeah, everywhere. Daniela Roeper: Couldn't ask for better marketing. Allen Hall: No, this is great. Joel Saxum: And the fantastic marketing that you guys did with the ice scrappers at the booth. Allen Hall: Oh, yep. Spot. Perfect timing. Spot on. Yeah. I gotta grab one of those before we leave. Yeah. Daniela Roeper: Free ice protection systems for your vehicle. Joel Saxum: The base model. Allen Hall: Yeah. So lot's happened since we have spoken to Borealis and you, which just realized 'cause you reminded me. We, we talked in Copenhagen, which was earlier this year. But a lot has happened since then, so maybe you could give us a timeline of what you've been through over the last couple of months. Daniela Roeper: So we spoke at the end of April, and in June we closed a deal with Fabricare to become part of the FabricAir group. FabricAir is an HVAC company, they've been around for 50 years. They produce fabric ducting, which is used in many different industries. And they've been our fabric duct supplier since we started the company. And there was a very good strategic fit. So as of June 1st, we are officially part of the FabricAir group, and Borealis Wind is the product line in FabricAir. Otherwise, the system itself hasn't changed, so that stays the same, and we have some exciting developments with our business model that I want to share, but I don't know if I should do that yet. Allen Hall: Let's work our way up to that. FabricAir, if you don't realize makes all the ducting for all the air conditioning and heating systems in a lot of factories and buildings around the world. In terms of your product, though, it's like a toughened, almost like a fire hose consistency of material. Is it Kevlar? What is this magic fabric that you stick in blades? Daniela Roeper: We are using Cordura fabric. Allen Hall: Okay. Daniela Roeper: Which is a fabric you may have heard of. It's advertised on work pants, backpacks, military gear. Allen Hall: Yeah, it's really tough stuff. Exactly. Okay. That makes a lot of sense then. Alright, so FabricAir is based in Denmark, right? But they have a lot of facilities all over the wor...

Allen and Joel recap their experience at the 2023 Blades Europe Forum, discussing key differences between the European and American wind industries. They touch on topics like thermal imaging for blade inspections, EU-funded blade research projects focused on actionable results, perspectives on the value of FSAs, and handling the data deluge from modern turbine sensors. They also recount visiting Aerones' extensive Riga facilities, detailing how the drone services provider has grown into a sizable global operation. Overall, they found Blades Europe to be more academically focused than the American version and gained several useful wind industry insights from the Amsterdam conference. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: We went to the Van Gogh Museum before Blades Europe. And that was one of the cooler things we saw in Amsterdam. We didn't have a long time there, but it was fascinating to see the self portraits. That was the little highlight was a bunch of self portraits by Van Gogh of himself, with the ear, without the ear. Both ears, both still there. Yeah. And he looked like a guy from Northern Europe, right? So there's an early, there's actually a photograph of him as, I don't know, 18, 19 year old kid, and he's like clean shaven. He's got both ears. He looks like a person you'd run into on the street today. A lot of tourists come through Amsterdam, of course, a lot of UK youth that we noticed were running around having a good time and good for them. But yeah, a crazy week on the road. We spent the whole week over in Europe. We went to Amsterdam, we went to Riga, Latvia, and then we ended our tour in Copenhagen for a night. So a whirlwind tour and stay tuned because we have a lot to discuss about Blades Europe Forum. Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I am your host, Allen Hall, and I'm here with Joel Saxum. And we just got back from Blades Europe Forum 2023 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. And we sat through all the sessions, at least the vast majority of them, so that you didn't have to. And we wanted to touch on some of the highlights that we saw at the Blades Europe forum. Because there was a lot of good information there and a lot of good discussion points. And as Joel and I discussed in between sessions and at dinner the United States and Europe are going in different directions. And I wrote a LinkedIn post about it, which got a lot of traffic. So we should talk about that too, Joel, while we're at it. Joel Saxum: Like Allen was saying, one of the things we notice here is, okay the audience at Blades USA, when you're there, if you're in the Blades world in the United States, you've probably been to Blades USA, or at least one of your colleagues has. The reason being is it's a lot of operators, right? So there's performance engineers, there's an eng, performance analysts. There's blade engineers, there's mechanical engineers, there's all these asset managers. There's the people responsible for making sure that the blades are running on. Your wind farms are at blades. You Blades, USA, right? I think, what was the last year, about 200 people there Allen in, in Austin? Allen Hall: Yeah, maybe a little more. Joel Saxum: Yeah, so to get a little bit of a different view on it this event is, you would think, an on the outside of carbon copy. Haymarket puts on this, it's through Wind Power Monthly. Blades USA, Blades Europe. Same logos,

As COP28 begins in Dubai, there are big investments in wind energy around the world. The European Investment Bank is backing wind energy with €5B to promote European-based wind manufacturing and development. In the U.S., Leeward Renewable Energy is using $580M for a wind and solar project. RWE and Masdar join forces for the 3GW Dogger Bank SouthWind Farm which will power 3 million homes. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out IntelStor at intelstor. com. The European Investment Bank has pledged 5 billion euros in guarantees to support Europe's struggling wind energy sector. Costs are soaring for turbine manufacturers as they face stiff competition from China. Back in 2022, the EU had a negative trade balance of over 400 million euros with China. In the wind sector, Chinese wind turbine prices are roughly 20% lower than those in Europe and the United States. The European Investment Bank funding should help companies secure more contracts and boost growth. It even extends support to international firms like GE, which have Europe based subsidiaries. Leeward Renewable Energy has secured $580 million to fund two lean energy projects in the U. S. The funds come in the form of tax equity commitments. That money will help build a 179 megawatt solar farm in Arizona. It will also repower an 80 megawatt Illinois wind farm by upgrading the turbines. Construction has begun on the Arizona project, while the Illinois wind farm upgrades are expected to go live in December. A massive new offshore wind project is coming to the U.K. German company RWE and UAE firm Masdar will develop The three Gigawatt Dogger Bank, south Wind Farm off the British Coast. Dogger Bank South would generate enough clean electricity for 3 million homes with RWE holding 51% and Masdar 49% Construction could begin in 2025 for first operations by 2029. The partners call it their largest ever renewable energy collaboration boosting UK and global climate goals.

Join hosts Allen Hall and Joel Saxum as they interview Zack Dorfman of Pearce Renewables, the United States' leading independent wind service provider, about their rapid growth and investments in technicians. With over 1,000 GWO-certified wind techs performing services from maintenance to major component exchange, Pearce is committed to recruiting and career development. Technicians can gain insights into joining Pearce's team, while the hosts explore their extensive capabilities enabling wind farm uptime. This episode is essential listening for wind techs interested in growth opportunities with Pearce Renewables. Check out Pearce Renewables Follow Zack Dorfman on LinkedIn Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to this special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, and I'm here with Joel Saxum. Pearce Renewables is the nation's largest independent service provider for wind, solar, EV charging, and energy storage. Pearce Renewables is rapidly growing with a team of over 1, 000 experienced and certified technicians. They offer a wide range of services, including preventative maintenance, corrective maintenance, and capital improvements. In this podcast, we'll be speaking with Zack Dorfman, Senior Vice President of Wind at Pearce Renewables. I'm interested to hear all the cool things that are happening at Pearce in wind. Zack, welcome to the program. Zack Dorfman: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Glad to be here. Allen Hall: The 2023 repair season is just wrapping up at the moment. And from what we're hearing, it's been extremely busy. Can you just touch on some of the projects that Pearce has been involved with over the last couple of months? Zack Dorfman: Yeah, absolutely. It's been an exceptionally busy season for us. I think as many people, the beginning of the year was a little bit slower of a season, which kind of happens, especially on the wind side. We've had a tremendous amount of growth, specifically on major component exchange and blades. We've been doing multi platform major component exchange and heavy lift jobs throughout the year. We've kept those teams exceptionally busy on the blade side, we're a tier one blade supplier and we've really grown our customer base specifically with blades. And lastly on the maintenance side of the house we've really done a lot with some of our customers with localization of hubs and trying to find unique solutions to, to meet their needs. Allen Hall: Wow. Okay. There's a lot there. Has some of that work been part of the IRA bill? It seems like that kind of work has been picking up over the last couple of months. Are you getting involved in some of those projects, the repowering projects and those type of events? Zack Dorfman: We've done some repowering projects in the past, none of which are currently under the IRA. We've got a couple projects that is a precursor to a repower project that we're working with currently now that is an IRA project. We've got a couple of projects currently going on right now that are IRA projects. We've been actively spending a ton of time around IRA and on behalf of our customers, been working with groups like ACP as well as making sure that we're at the forefront with working with the government on guidance for what these projects look like. Joel Saxum: Quick question for you then, Zack.

This week, we're re-running one of our favorite interviews with Stefann Perrigot, director at PES Wind Magazine. Perfect timing, seeing that the magazine's latest edition features Allen's article! Stefann gives an inside look at PES Wind's dedication to exclusive industry articles, thoughtful debates on issues like blade upkeep and VR safety training, and an editorial process focused on insight and integrity. Be sure to read the latest edition by visiting peswind.com! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome back, I'm Allen Hall. This is the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. As you're listening to this episode, Joel Saxum and I are on an airplane to Amsterdam, hopefully. And we are going to be at Blades Europe Forum, which is a massive event talking all about wind turbine blades. And we hope to see a number of people that have been on the podcast at that conference and we're gonna hopefully meet a bunch of new people there too. This week for the podcast we're going to highlight one of the interviews from earlier this year and it's with Stefann Perrigot, director of PES Wind. And the latest issue of PES Wind just came out, and if you don't have your copy, you can get a free copy online at peswind.com. And the cover story on PES Wind for this issue is about lightning. It's written by yours, truly. So this is a really good episode. It's a good interview with Stefann Perrigot, but if you haven't downloaded that PES Wind, go ahead and get that done because the, there's a, I've seen advance of some of the articles that are inside that. It's a really good, really good issue of that magazine and it includes a story about lightning from yours, truly. So here again is Stefann Perrigot, Director of PES Wind. Allen Hall: I am Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and today's special guest is Stefann Perrigot director at PES Wind and PES Wind is a website that provides news and information about the wind energy industry. It is part of the Power and Energy Solutions network, which also includes websites dedicated to solar energy, energy storage, and other renewable energy technologies. PES Wind's, website features, articles about new wind projects, technology developments, and industry trends. In addition to its website, PES Wind also publishes a quarterly magazine, which is beautiful. The magazine features in-depth articles about wind energy topics, as well as interviews with industry experts. If not familiar with PES Wind, you should be. So, Stefann, welcome to the program.  Stefann Perrigot: Appreciate being here. It's been a long time coming. Yes, it has actually. And I've been asked a few times by a number of my clients on the, you know, especially at the recent global offshore wind on the, on the floor itself to say, you know, when are you getting on? So Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do it at the show itself, but you know, here I am now and it's a pleasure to be here. Allen Hall: Just a couple of touch points here where we get started. I think when you read PES Wind, you realize, wow, this is, this magazine is brilliant, right? There's a, a lot of good information in every magazine Plus has beautiful photos. The magazine itself looks exquisite. How long have you guys been at this making this magazine? Stefann Perrigot: So a bit about us. You know, we've been going sort of nearly 20 years now, but it used to be a renewable energy publication...

In this episode, Phil walks Allen and Joel through new research from IntelStor on optimal wind turbine models for maximizing asset owner profits. Turns out that bigger isn't always better--stick with a 1.5-2.5 MW machine from a good manufacturer with a good PPA. Asset owners and investors, visit IntelStor.com for more actionable intelligence on optimizing your renewable energy projects. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum, and this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out IntelStor at intelstor.com. IntelStor released information on onshore wind turbine profitability on LinkedIn. It provided a unique insight into the specific turban profitability and garnered several hundred thousand views. Okay, Phil, explain what that chart means and why we should care. Philip Totaro: This chart on asset owner net profit after they've achieved a net positive return on capital. What that means is, if you've spent, let's say, 200 million dollars on building a project, once your project has paid back that 200 million plus, how much is really left over? And which makes and models of turbine are actually giving you the best possible financial return? What we came to the conclusion of with this was, the turbines that are towards the top of this list are the ones that have a fairly reasonable net capacity factor, but they also have pretty high legacy PPA. That's usually on the order of, 65, 70, 75 dollars plus. Those are the turbines that are going to end up producing the best financial performance for you. Not necessarily just the ones with the best technical performance. Joel Saxum: What if we're talking, we want to talk apples to apples. So if I have the same piece of ground and the same wind resource in one spot, what is the best performing technically turbine? What make model should we be actually installing and why? Philip Totaro: In that ranking, what we've got are GE and Vestas are at the top. And then you've actually got Siemens, Siemens Gamesa, and Goldwind are actually the three and four. And GE and Vestas do get a bit of preferential treatment that they've got the better performing project sites, but at the end of the day, the turbine availability is going to be one of the largest determining factors of that profitability, because whatever your net capacity factor is, it's just, what the site does. So a project site that's got, let's say a 45 to 50 percent net capacity factor, but only a 12 a megawatt hour PPA, financially, is going to underperform a project site that's got, a 25 percent capacity factor, but an 80 a megawatt hour PPA. Allen Hall: But when it gets down to same site, which turbines are better? And what I think I'm seeing in this data, Phil, is the smaller turbines outperform the bigger turbines, and it's not even really close. Philip Totaro: They are, and the reason for that is they benefit a lot from the legacy power purchase contracts. Basically, it makes up for the fact that their net capacity factor is a lot lower then a brand new, shiny turbine that's got like a 50 percent net capacity factor.

In this Thanksgiving edition, we reflect on the past year in wind energy. We're thankful for positive trends like capital changing hands, companies addressing the technician shortage, and growth of our podcast! The Uptime team sincerely appreciates the partnerships, experts, and audience feedback that have made this podcast possible. As we look ahead to next year, we invite you to continue engaging and let us know what topics you want us to cover. And most importantly, we're thankful that we can keep having insightful discussions about the wind industry! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to this special Uptime edition during Thanksgiving week. And Phil, Joel, and I, are going to reminisce about the past nine months and what's been happening for 10 months, 11 months, however long it's been. I guess we've been looking at it 11 months, going to what's been happening in wind. I think there's been a number of changes over the last six weeks that will have implications over the next couple of years. And. I know, Phil, we've been all going back and forth about where offshore wind is headed. I want to kick off first by looking back on onshore wind and let's say something positive here about what has been happening on onshore wind because there has been really good things happening. Philip Totaro: We're poised at this point of the year, we're poised to see, a, potentially a new installation record, in the United States this year, still to be determined whether or not, they're going to get there by the end of December. But, I think the certainty that has been provided by this extension of the production tax credit through the, Inflation Reduction Act has helped. The investment tax credit as well, and I think it's provided, a lot of people, even though they haven't released the full IRS guidance and everything yet. I think it's provided a lot of people some certainty. I think you're gonna see floodgates open when they do finally release this IRS guidance, but based on what everybody's anticipating, There's been, a lot of, companies getting back to business. if you remember this time last year, we were talking about how GE was going to shut down the factory and, everybody was financially insolvent. And, it was just terrible. And, now, things are actually on an upward trajectory. So I think you know, it's an industry getting back to business and, there's talk of new factories in the United States. The super secret Danish project in Colorado, economic, advisory council or whatever, announced. that their, LM was basically a contender for, for a factory potentially there. Yeah, I'm, optimistic about, onshore wind. I'm actually, surprisingly, I'm actually optimistic about offshore wind, because I think we've now, at this point, suffered through the last five months of nonsense, and, we actually have, something good on, on the horizon. Joel Saxum: There's a couple of... trends that I want to touch on if we're just talking about trends and things that have happened in the last year. One of them has been the large sums of capital changing hands. A lot of Duke Energy with their big sale of assets and you saw some Algonquin and Liberty Power and some of these other ones. And I think it was Con Ed got bought up and a lot of money being changed hands. And the reason that money's changing hands is because companies are basically divesting from older assets,

Siemens Energy reported massive losses in its wind turbine business while GE Vernova avoids over $1B in losses thanks to offshore project cancellations; the two companies face very different futures, with Siemens Energy planning to break even by 2026 and GE Vernova looking to boost profitability ahead of its renewable energy IPO. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out IntelStor at intelstor.com. Siemens Energy reported a net loss of 4. 6 billion euros for the full year 2023. This was due to steep losses in its wind turbine business, Siemens Gamesa. The company is restructuring the wind turbine business after it faced unexpected technical problems and inflation eroded margins. Now, Phil, the investor call and the press junket that Siemens Energy held this week was really interesting about what the approach is. And they didn't let out a lot about the future of Siemens Gamesa, just saying that they were going to lose a significant amount of money this year. Philip Totaro: So right now they're going to end up having to rely on revenue from the offshore wind turbine sales and both the onshore and offshore services business to make up for the lost revenue or lack thereof in terms of onshore sales because they've paused sales of the, the 5. x platform. Siemens Energy has already come out and said that they've got enough to be able to survive as Siemens Energy, because their other non wind businesses under the Siemens Energy umbrella are profitable. But the question is, how long are they going to let Siemens Gamesa run itself into the ground without substantial top line revenue and profitability? They're talking about break even in 2026, but they have not yet really presented a roadmap for how to get there. The other question to address is, okay, if they start... stripping assets, which I don't necessarily expect they're going to do. But if they decide to do that, what does that look like then? Obviously Siemens Energy survives with a kind of Danish German Siemens wind business kind of reconstituted. What happens to Gamesa? And how does that necessarily play out? The Spanish government wants to be able to protect one of its institutions. and there again have been suggestions that they're separately trying to get some money together, to bolster the company if it is, ends up being spun off. There's a lot of uncertainty and we're anxiously awaiting their capital markets day presentation, next week. Joel Saxum: While Siemens Energy right now is that it's a burning fire. Everybody's watching it and you're staring at this problem, trying to figure out what's happening. They're saying their outlook looks to break even by 2026, three years down the line. And three years down the line, there could be some massive shifts in the wind industry, right? And one of the things that I, that's not, was not talked about in any of these reports, is the pressure from the Chinese OEMs. And there's an active interest going on right here from the European, basically, Parliament. To possibly want to look into competition and whatno...

In this illuminating episode, hosts Allen Hall and Joel Saxum interview David Burton, a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright law firm and an expert on U.S. tax policy for renewable energy. They dive deep into the intricacies of the Inflation Reduction Act and how it will impact wind projects, with David providing insightful explanations of production tax credits, investment tax credits, domestic content requirements, and more. With his extensive experience structuring tax-efficient energy deals and advising major corporations, David unpacks these complex new policies and delivers key knowledge that could save or make wind companies millions. Subscribe to David's Blog, Tax Equity News. Follow David on LinkedIn! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to the special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, here with Joel Saxum. And our guest today is David Burton. David is a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, which is based in New York. David is an expert in US tax matters and has experience with structuring tax efficient transactions for renewable operations. David was a managing director and senior tax counsel at GE Energy Financial Services, where he oversaw all the aspects for more than 21 billion in global energy projects. David, welcome to the program. David Burton: Thank you, Allen. It's great to be here. Allen Hall: Okay. So the timing of this could not be better. And Joel and I were just up in Canada trying to explain to the Canadians what the IRA bill meant and why everybody is so confused as to what is happening in America. So we thought we'd bring in the expert to help us with understanding the, all the tax incentives that are built in. Built up into the IRA bill. I don't want to give you a couple of softballs to start with. How about that production tax credit? What is that in the IRA bill? And what does that mean? David Burton: It's $27.50 per megawatt hour for the first 10 years of production. If you transfer the project, the transferee steps into your shoes and does not get to restart the 10 year period. It's a pretty powerful tax credit to get the 2750 megawatt hour. There are requirements you have to meet that we call the fine print that regard prevailing wage and apprentice requirements, which we can get into. Allen Hall: That makes sense to me. That's a really good explanation. I have not heard explained that simply. Joel Saxum: That one's easy. I like that one. I can follow that. Allen Hall: All right. Investment tax credits. Let's raise the heat up a little bit. What is an investment tax credit? David Burton: The base of percentage for the investment tax credit is 30%. Again, you have to comply with prevailing wage and apprentice to even get to 30%. And it's a tax credit that accrues when the project is placed in service, basically operational. And it's 30 percent of a tax basis. Which, you know, more or less is 30 percent of the cost of the project. Rather than having to wait 10 years, you get all, you get the tax benefit all upfront. So, oftentimes the PTC may be a bigger gross amount but it's over 10 years, so sometimes you'll, you're not opt for the ITC because it's a better present value answer, but it's just a question of math. Joel Saxum: I want to touch one important thing here, and this is an important thing that I got from you, David,

Big news from Siemens Energy and Ørsted pushed the Uptime crew to record this special episode. Siemens Energy scored €15B financial backing from the government, banks, and industry to propel the company. Ørsted replaced their CFO and COO as the Danish energy leader looks to address the effects of Ocean Wind 1&2. Vestas and Nordex reported a positive Q3 with improved orders and financial statements. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Today's episode of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast is a special episode because we have seen so many quarter three results coming in and the changes at Ørsted. We thought we'd put together the special episode. So this is unique. There is a lot going on at Siemens and energy and Siemens and Gamesa, and there seems to be a rift between the two companies and Ørsted is shuffling the deck chairs a little bit. The CFO and COO are out and they're bringing interim people into those slots. But we do feel like Ørsted is going to be heading in the right direction. It's just going to take a little bit of time to recover. So in this episode, we talk to all those things. We also talk about Vestas having a really great quarter and Nordex doing fairly well for themselves. So there's some good news on the wind turbine OEM front. So stay tuned. There's a lot ahead. Siemens Energy has provisionally secured about 15 billion euros for financing various projects. The German government has agreed to provide about seven and a half billion euros of that in guarantees of the total of 15 billion that's headed towards Siemens Energy. It's a weird breakdown how this happens, Phil. So banks are providing about 12 billion euros. The government is backing the banks for about seven and a half billion of that. Siemens, the mothership, is providing about two billion Euros to the sale of a joint venture shares to Siemens Energy. Siemens Energy is also putting up a 3 billion first loss tranche. So there's a, obviously a couple of players in the middle of this. There's gonna be some restrictions on Siemens Energy where the management does not get dividends or bonuses during this guarantee period. This is probably good news for Siemens Energy, but it doesn't really bode well going forward, right? It just seems like there's gonna be more tough times ahead.  Philip Totaro: Yeah, actually, it's probably better than you think, Allen, because this provides investors confidence. It brings some closure and some certainty to what was an open issue. The government, it's important to also note, the government in Germany is not actually putting up any actual cash at this point. Joel Saxum: Just backing.  Philip Totaro: Yeah, it's a backstop. So similar to what some financial institutions and other companies that were quote unquote too big to fail in the U. S. going back to the, the Lehman Brothers collapse and all that in 2008, 2009. You've got a situation where it's a move that provides investors confidence. They were, Siemens Energy and Siemens Gamesa came out and said we don't actually need the cash per se anyway. We, what we need are it's a mechanism to be able to provide the customers who are demanding the backstop a way to, to achieve that. Because of Siemens Energy's financial results and reporting earlier this year, they had their credit rating lowered. Which precluded the banks from wanting to be able to provide any kind of a backstop absent this go...

Phil Totaro and Joel Saxum discuss the situation in Taiwan where Orsted has another ship delay that is pushing back the completion of the offshore project.  In Norway, World Wide Wind received the green light to trial their small counter-rotating turbine off the coastline.  Billionaire Bill Gates has backed a US-based startup that looks towards vertical blades on an oval track to generate low-cost electricity – Rosemary has doubts. Then the crew digs into the newly financed effort to photograph rotating blades using drones.  Plus, Windy Hill Wind Farm in Australia is our wind farm of the week! It’s an action-packed episode! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Uptime 191 Allen Hall: Rosemary, I was watching X the other day and they had a little video from Canberra. I thought, Oh my gosh, I know someone from Canberra. And it was at the airport where a lady evidently missed her flight and decided that she was going to get out on the tarmac and then flag down the airplane on the tarmac. So she was literally out on the tarmac. There's video of her trying to alert the pilot, like what the pilot is going to do. I don't know. But the question in the aerospace community and the airplane community is how did somebody get on the tarmac in Canberra? I assume there's a couple of gates or guards or something before he could hit the airplane. and second of all, was that you? Rosemary Barnes: It wasn't me. It's been a long time since I missed a flight. it has happened in my life, but not recently. And yeah, Canberra is not the largest airport, technically international. but in reality, it feels more like a rural airport, but there are locking doors between the, yeah, the departure lounge and the tarmac. So a little bit surprised. I guess someone stuffed up and forgot to lock a door. Allen Hall: I hope that's the case because the pilot was concerned about it. Yeah. She's lucky. She didn't get sucked into an engine. That could have happened. That could have really happened. It was very serious. yeah, hopefully everything goes better in Canberra. And this weekend on the podcast, we have a lot of crazy, interesting news from all over the world. We're talking about new wind turbines off the coast of Norway. We're talking about new wind turbines in the United States of all things. plus Ørsted is in trouble again in Taiwan. This is a crazy week for wind energy, so stay tuned, there's a lot ahead. If you have some free time in early February, you probably ought to go to Denmark and, go see the Leading Edge Erosion of Wind Turbine Blades conference that's going to be held outside of, or in, where DTU is. Because Joel and I are going to be there, of course, because where else would we be in February? It's one of the colder places on the planet. But we are talking about leading edge erosion, and I know Rosemary is a big fan of leading edge erosion and, trying to squash it, in our times at LM. But there's a lot of people that's going to be at this conference that we know that have been on the podcast. Morton Handberg from Wind Power Lab, Nicholas Gaudern from Power Curve's going to be there, Dainis Kruze from Aerones. Christian Bachman, DTU, so there's a number of really interesting talks that are happening and it's all, it's not like there's multiple rooms, there's one place where all the action is and you're just going to get, a fire hose of really useful information.

First up, Ørsted harnesses a windfall, scoring a cool €450 million by harnessing offshore assets to powerhouse Glennmont Partners. But they aren't the only ones making waves--India's Adani Group storms the market with 200-meter tall turbines packing a 5.2 MW punch. Not one to be outdone, the UK and Germany seal a clean energy pact, connecting their power grids and blowing open opportunities for offshore and carbon capture projects. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com News Flash 11-13-23 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum, and this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out IntelStor at www.intelstor.Com. Ørsted has signed an agreement to divest 50 percent of the Gode Wind 3 offshore wind farm in the German North Sea, to Glennmont Partners of all groups. The value of the Gode Wind 3 transaction is roughly 450 million euros. Gode Wind 3 has a capacity of 250 megawatts, and Ørsted has been working on it since roughly 2017, 2018. Phil, this is well needed cash for Ørsted to help cover some of the OceanWind 1 and 2.  Philip Totaro: It does do that. So this deal is, a normal, probably planned asset rotation, and certainly Glennmont's been, buying up, stakes in, renewable energy assets all over the world, particularly in Europe. So they like things that are profitable, and, this project is. So they're, they're diving in at a good time. And as you mentioned, the cash does come in handy these days, when you're talking about, $530 million in write offs in Q3 and, many billions of dollars worth of impairments, which is revenue that they're probably not gonna recognize at this point. So that's, how that works. yeah, the cash comes in handy.  Joel Saxum: Yeah, I think something to be noticed here is that, this is, this is normal rotation stuff for, capital assets. So people are divesting, reinvesting, taking capital, paying off bank loans, going and using that capital to invest in other places. It's, a normal rotation, like Phil said.  Allen Hall: Adani Wind, which is part of the Adani Group, has started production of India's tallest wind turbines. A spokesperson of the Adani Group said that the new wind turbine has a maximum generation capacity of 5. 2 megawatts and a rotor diameter of 160 meters, with a tower height of 120 meters. So this is a pretty big wind turbine. The Adani Group has received orders for 54 turbines at this point. Phil, there's a new entry into the Indian wind market.  Philip Totaro: It is, and it's based on technology that was developed by Wind2Energy, W2E, in Rostock, Germany. They're a very well known and reputable company that's been around for a while. This is, a solid design that's now received type certification as well. And they're gonna be able to use it for, the Indian market and the Sri Lankan market, and they certainly have, designs on wanting to be able to export it to other countries.  Joel Saxum: I think it's interesting that they went straight into the market with a 5.2 megawatt machine. Not even trying to cut their teeth on something small at all, they just said, you know what, screw it, go for the 5. 2. 

At Electricity Transformation Canada 23, Icetek's André Bégin-Drolet explains their thermodynamic icing sensor that detects onset and intensity. The technology optimizes turbine operations to reduce downtime and damage while improving grid reliability. Icetek provides expertise and data analysis services alongside the product for maximum value. Check out IceTek at icetek.ca And follow their LinkedIn Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! IceTek Allen Hall: At Electricity Transformation Canada 2023, we're here to talk ice detection with André Bégin Drolet with Icetek. And icing. Welcome to the program. André Bégin-Drolet: Thank you, thank you for having me. Allen Hall: So Icetek is a new ice detection system that I was first introduced to by Borealis Wind. And Daniela said we got this new ice detector and it's fabulous. It tells us all these great, wonderful things about ice that we never knew before and I had never heard of it. Which was odd, because we live in a place where there's a lot of snow and ice. I usually hear about ice detection. It's a thing that happens. But Icetek is a relatively new company based in Quebec. André Bégin-Drolet: Yeah, exactly. So it's we started the company in 2020. So that's three years from now. But it's a spin off from a university project. We, I'm a mechanical engineering. Professor Laval University in Quebec City. We developed the sensor throughout the research for the last 15 years. So we did a lot of research, academic research. It was a tool for us to understand icing on wind turbines. And then I started a partnership with Daniela a research partnership with them to help them be be better. And this is where it it all started, where... After the project, she asked, can we buy those sensor? They were not for sale 'cause it were a research product, at the moment. And then, yeah, this is when the university encouraged us to to go and start a spinoff company for that. Allen Hall: Because the problem is not just knowing that there's ice. The problem is trying to know that ice is coming. That's the trick. And a lot of the ice detectors that are out there are really binary. That ice is here. Ice is left, but in an operational sense, in a wind turbine, it doesn't really help you all that much. Leads to a lot of downtime. Yeah, André Bégin-Drolet: so ice is a very complicated problem. Ice can take different incarnations, freezing rain, blaze ice, rime ice, ore frost different types under different conditions, and we learned that through our 15 years of research that it can take different Incarnation and we designed the sensor so that we could know when it start. So the really onset of icing when there's no icing visible, but the conditions are prone to icing. And then what's the intensity of icing? What's the amount of liquid work content in the atmosphere when it stops the meteorological icing. 'cause when the meteorological icing is over, you can still have ice on the structure. Is still, is this still icing? Yes, but it's called instrumental icing, persistence of icing. So all these different phase of the icing, you need to understand them. And as you mentioned, it's not a binary. Allen Hall: No, definitely isn't. And I know Daniela trying to explain that to me several months ago. And it just went, there was a lot going on there. So I'm glad we have time to sit down and discuss it. Okay. Let's just walk through what the sensor is. Because it looks different than any other icing sensor that I've ever seen. It's a, it's a metallic cylinder. Yeah.

The latest episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast tackles the major offshore wind project cancellations on the U.S. East Coast. Ørsted recently halted development of its Ocean Wind 1 and 2 projects off New Jersey. The decision highlights ongoing challenges in the American offshore wind market like permit delays, supply chain issues, and lack of specialized vessels. Rosemary, Joel, Phil, and Allen analyze Ørsted's financial position, problems with U.S. inter-agency coordination, and impacts on future offshore wind PPAs. GE Vernova's reduced losses in wind energy put it on course for a 2024 stand-alone company but there are risks ahead. Our Wind Farm of the Week is Grand Bend Wind Farm in Canada. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Uptime 190 Allen Hall: The Nuremberg Technotrain, the rave, seven hour rave train that runs through Germany. Come on. Can you imagine being in that train? Rosemary Barnes: I've been to some German raves. You have been to a rave in Berlin? Is that true? Yeah. I've been to like special underground clubs. Wouldn't you, if you were in Berlin and had the opportunity? Of course you would. Come on.  Allen Hall: No, I am not going. To a rave in Berlin. That's not in my top 10. Sorry.  Rosemary Barnes: I went to this one with my little sister when she lived in Germany, which was probably like 15 years ago, or maybe even more. And yeah, it was in some disused industrial building, like an old factory or something. And they had this artwork made out of just like scrap. Random scrap, and one of them was sitting on the bar, and then every, half hour or whatever, they would just turn it on and would just breathe out this big fireball, just, everyone would just get out of the way of this sculpture breathing out a fireball and just keep on dancing. Allen Hall: Rosemary, I, this is so out of character. I can't believe you're within a hundred meters of a rave. That's insane.  Rosemary Barnes: Probably these days it might be more likely to go to a Taylor Swift concert than a than a rave, but purely for if there was a seating option. I enjoy a seated option at a music event these days. Allen Hall: I had no idea. When I brought it up, I was like, there's nobody who's been to a German rave. Oh yeah. I've been to the German rave all the time.  Rosemary Barnes: You are crazy. If you're going to go to Berlin and not go see any electronic music, it's very good. There's a good, a very good electronic music thing. If I was in New Orleans, I would go see some jazz, you've just, you've got to go see the cool thing where you go. Invite me along to some events and I'll tell you what the cool thing is happening in that city and yeah, help you to get a little bit of cultural experience. Allen Hall: Orsted held an investor conference call November 1st and Phil, there's so much discussion within that investor call. They eventually had to stop it. That investor call went about 90 minutes. Usually those calls go one hour and that's it. And the Q and A sessions are pretty short. So it's usually about 40 minutes of presentation material and 20 minutes of Q and A from investors. But this one was like the opposite. It was about 20, 25 minutes of PowerPoint presentation followed by an hour. Ish of big name banks and investment firms asking very pointed questions of Orsted. And this all revolves around Orsted ceasing operations at 2 in New Jersey.

In this episode of News Flash, hosts Allen Hall, Phil Totaro, and Joel Saxum discuss recent developments affecting major players in the renewable energy industry. The conversation focuses on the outlook for Danish wind energy company Ørsted after the firm canceled two major offshore wind projects in the United States, leading to credit rating downgrades. In addition, the hosts analyze the situation with German industrial giant Siemens Energy, which may require government support to backstop performance guarantees on billions of dollars worth of orders, due to issues with its wind turbine manufacturing subsidiary Siemens Gamesa. As Saxum notes, this raises the specter of Siemens Energy as a "too big to fail" company in Germany, similar to the debates over bailouts for automakers in the United States during the 2008 financial crisis. The hosts provide insight into the strategic and financial implications of these events for two renewable energy leaders. News Flash 190 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intelstor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum, and this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at Intelstor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out Intelstor at Intelstor. com. Credit ratings firm Fitch changed their outlook for Ørsted from stable to negative due to U. S. offshore wind project issues. And S& P put Ørsted on a credit watch negative due to loss of value and project issues. Of course, this is all revolves around Ørsted ceasing development of Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 off the East Coast of the United States. Ørsted's long term credit rating remains at triple B. Plus, but Ørsted also has an impairment charge of roughly 7 billion US dollars from those cancellations. Ocean wind one cancellation fees are somewhere in the realm of two to two and a half billion dollars. So Phil. This is a big deal for Ørsted, not just because they have to cancel these projects, but it's having ramifications to the stability of the company. Phil Totaro: Absolutely. And with their market cap basically cut in half one wonders if they're, they're saying they're fine. But the reality is I don't think the market thinks they're fine. And the question is, are their customers and partners going to think they're fine? When it comes to, any kind of commercial agreements. So the, it. It begs two questions. Do they actually need support and are they going to go seek it from either Danish government or maybe the EU? Second is there's been a pretty strong rumor about that maybe a company like Equinor would step up and actually make an acquisition. Given the fact that there's still obviously value there with Ørsted, but, the reduction in their market cap actually potentially makes them more attractive at least in the near term. There's some stability that I think management needs to bring. One of the things, if we go back to the transcript of their recent earnings call from the other day. The leadership didn't exactly provide they provided factual updates about, the cancellation of the projects, the impairments, the write downs, etc. They did not necessarily provide any visibility or guidance as to their strategy. And I believe it was one of the analysts on the call representing an investment bank that actually brought that up. And it really does bear further kind of examination, where do they go from here? And how do they plan to get there? And that's a big kind of gaping hole at this moment from their  leadership.  Joel Saxum: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see here in the next year or so, of the juggling of the top wind asset owners in the world by valuation, right? Used to always be Ørsted, Iberdrola, Nextera, EDPR, all these big ones up there. So there's going to be some shuffles. 

In this episode of Uptime, Joel Saxum and Allen Hall sit down with the CEO of AC883, Lars Bendsen. AC883, a Canadian ISP specializing in blade repairs, has gained recognition for their unique approach to pitch alignment during the frozen ground season. Pitch misalignment is a topic of growing importance in the wind energy industry, and in this discussion, Lars shares his insights on its impact and challenges. He raises thought-provoking questions about the effectiveness of active pitch management and its potential limitations in practice. Join us for this engaging conversation as we delve into the complexities of pitch alignment, mass imbalance, and other critical aspects of wind turbine maintenance. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.comAC883 - https://www.ac883.com AC883 Interview Allen Hall: We're here at CanREA with Lars Bendsen of AC883. If you are familiar with AC883, they are an ISP up in Canada that does all kinds of blade repairs. And one of the more interesting things that they do that's unique is pitch alignment. So this is pitch alignment season when the ground freezes over and they take their equipment out and make sure your blades are pointing in the right direction. And which Evidently, it is a thing that a lot of blades are not pointed in the right direction.  Joel Saxum: Yeah, Lars has shared that with us. Big problems all over the place.  Lars Bendsen: It's for sure a topic that's become more and more evident. There's more and more people out there doing the same or similar way of detecting a pitch misalignment. Yeah. Of course, there's more awareness around it now than there was when we started doing it with our methods of doing it. So it's for sure become a topic. There are also more engineering reports coming out from NREL. And from sorry, from the German Institute as well. Yeah. So there's ton of rebar coming out of the damages that misalignment causes. Joel Saxum: Yeah, it's like running a car down the highway without an alignment on the front  Lars Bendsen: end. You're gonna just... It's funny, if you have your right tire and your car is unbalanced, you go in right away to get it changed. Which you don't do with your turbine, you just let it run. Yeah, because turbines are cheap, right? Yeah, exactly. It better cost any money.  Joel Saxum: Ha! We've been talking with Lars, of course, always great conversations, the knowledge that he has. And the AC 883 team and we've stumbled upon a theory that we want to talk about. So it, with the knowledge of pitch alignment and what you guys see out in the field, and of course seeing all kinds of different OEMs and issues that pop up, you've come across one specifically that we've been talking about. Want to share that with us?  Lars Bendsen: Absolutely. I think it's me throwing it out there and also to get some great feedback. So it's my theory. And what we have seen is the the topic on active pitch. Which means you're twisting the blades half a degree every time you pass the tower. And the reason they do that is? Let's do it because if you take some of the the, what do you call it, the What do you call it? I lost the word, right?  Joel Saxum: What do you call it? It's like Wind buffeting causing  Lars Bendsen: deflection. Take the other way so we don't have that and you can actually run in higher winds as well. Okay,  Joel Saxum: yeah. Yeah,

Last week, Allen and Joel attended Electricity Transformation Canada 2023 in chilly Calgary! Bundle up as the guys discuss the latest innovations in wind, solar, storage and transmission tech on the exhibit floor. They'll also sit down with organizer Traci Huggans to understand how this major industry event comes together. Why were so few American firms attendance? With high, stable electricity prices and growing demand, they discuss why our northern neighbor presents an untapped business opportunity. Book your booth for ETC 2024! https://electricitytransformation.ca/exhibit/ Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall. Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Last week, Joel Saxum and I were at the CanREA, Canadian Renewable Energy Association's Electricity Transformation 2023 event. And we had a couple of conversations on the floor with a number of companies, and you'll hear those over the next couple of weeks. This week, you hear Joel and I talk about what's happening on the show floor and our impressions of everything that's happening in Canada, even though it's a small snapshot of all the exciting new things that are happening in Canada. And we also speak with Traci Huggans, who's the manager of international events and membership marketing with RE+ who helped organize the ETC23 conference. So this is a really good episode because we had not been to Canada before to see all the renewable energy projects that are happening and it was a good experience and we were hosted by, of course, AC883, who does wind turbine blade repair in Canada and also in the United States and does a lot of pitch alignment. So if you're interested in pitch alignment, you should probably give those guys a call at AC883. All right. Stay tuned. This is a really good episode. I hope you enjoy it. Allen Hall: Joel and I are in Calgary, Alberta, in the middle of a snowstorm. Joel Saxum: They said it was going to be beautiful when we got here. Allen Hall: There is very little sunshine, and there's definitely no beach. Joel Saxum: Yeah, we were trying to think of alternative locations for the Canadian Renewable Association event in the end of October, and I don't think there is any unless we start jumping to a different country. Allen Hall: Yeah, we've got to get down to Toronto, someplace where it's warm. But we're at Electricity Transformation Canada 2023. So this is the big renewables conference for Canada. And we've been walking the floor the last couple of hours and noticing all the different kinds of businesses that are involved in renewable energy. And solar is huge in Canada, clearly. Joel Saxum: Yeah, big time. You're seeing a lot of not a whole lot of brand new technology. A lot of companies that Are offering services or offering solutions but not like someone going, Hey, we've got this brand new fancy thing. Quite a bit of solar, quite a bit of solar. So walking around, Allen and I did a lap here as we do at trade shows. And we saw quite a few solar racking companies, solar development companies some permitting companies as well. Which turns out to be a little bit of a different challenge once you're here in Canada, as opposed to the U. S. Allen Hall: Yeah the province to province issues. It appears to be big. Joel Saxum: Yeah, it's something that we don't think about in the U. S. as much because when you go state to state in the U.

This news flash covers major renewable energy project financing deals and acquisitions in the wind industry. Key points include Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners securing $1.2 billion in tax equity financing from major banks for the Vineyard Wind One offshore wind project. Energex Renewable Energy also secured $322 million in tax equity financing from J.P. Morgan and Capital One for its Boswell Springs wind farm. The deals allow the companies to receive significant cash upfront in exchange for future production tax credits. In mergers and acquisitions, Scotland-based Aurora Energy Services acquired Houston-based Cotech Group, a wind turbine blade maintenance company, to expand its service offerings and workforce in the U.S. The deals highlight the activity in renewable project financing and consolidation in the wind energy services sector. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com News Flash 103023 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intelstor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at InterStor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out InterStor at intelstor.com. Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid announced the largest single asset tax equity financing and first large scale offshore wind transaction in the United States for Vineyard Wind One' s project. The 1.2 billion tax equity investment was reached with JPMorgan, Chase, Bank of America, and of course, Wells Fargo. Alright, Phil. There's a lot of tax equity investment happening right now in wind. What does it mean?  Phil Totaro: Effectively, they are taking some cash, if not all of it, up front. In exchange for future production, tax, credit, revenue, and allowing the financiers to basically do that at a rate with an interest rate on top of it. So that, if they're giving CIP and Avangrid, 1.2 billion in cash now, presumably they're gonna be generating at least, 1.8 to 2 billion in PTC revenue in the future. And so the financial institutions collect that future revenue on kind of a, an annuity basis. And the developer gets cash up front to either reinvest in Greenfield project development or to bolster their balance sheet. Allen Hall: Canadian electricity producer, Energex Renewable Energy has secured a 322 million dollar tax equity investment for its 329 megawatt Boswell Springs wind project that is under construction in Wyoming. The upfront tax commitment was made by J. P. Morgan and Capital One, Energex said last week. The arrangement will see the investors provide cash payments as production tax credits are generated from the project over 10 years. Joel, it looks like they're going to receive about 420 million in a production tax credit over those 10 years, and they're taking in from the banks about 322 million now. How are they playing this swap of tax security? In the future for income now.  Joel Saxum: So what this is the 330 megawatt Boswell Springs project is going to cost about 583 million to build. Instead of having 583 million at say 7 percent over the course of however long that debt takes to pay off, instead of having that debt financing, they've exchanged some of that debt financing for tax equity financing, but at a different rate.

Allen Hall and Joel Saxum go in-depth with R&D Test Systems Chief Engineer Claus Beck, who reveals the innovation behind their massive test benches capable of rigorously vetting the next generation of multi-megawatt turbines. From building test rigs for machines that don't yet exist to creating 25MW powertrain test stands, R&D is enabling wind OEMs to thoroughly validate their radical new designs. You'll be blown away by how critical R&D's capabilities are for scaling up turbines. This is one episode you won't want to miss - the thrill of engineering big things to power the future! Visit https://www.rd-as.com/ to learn more! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Allen Hall: Pushing the boundaries of innovation often requires testing the limits of today's technologies. That's where R&D Test Systems comes in. Over 15 years, this leading test equipment developer has provided cutting edge testing technology to help wind energy companies launch the next generation of products. From their powertrain test benches to their rain erosion test facilities, R&D Test Systems has built an impressive array of testing capabilities. Their expertise allows clients to validate designs, benchmark performance, troubleshoot issues, and certify products for safety and standards compliance. On this special episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, Joel Saxum and I will be talking with Claus Beck, Chief Engineer at R&D Test Systems, about the amazing technology they have created and have in their development pipeline. Claus, welcome to the program. Claus Beck: Thanks a lot, Allen and Joel. Allen Hall: Well, the wind industry has a massive problem ahead, as I see it. As wind turbine sizes continue to scale exponentially, there appears to be limited ways to test this equipment to demonstrate lifetimes. And most recently, we've seen some OEMs announce this, that they have issues with thoroughly testing complete systems before they get placed in service. Are you seeing some of these same issues and what are you hearing from the test equipment side? Claus Beck: Yeah, so it's of course, something we hear of that there are difficulties in this field and because of the cost of, Taking a turbine down in the wind field or in a North shore let's say a platform, then that would create a lot of cost. And because of that, then you need to test. And that's also a really a focus point for all big OEMs that we are dealing with. Allen Hall: Yeah, it does seem as the offshore wind turbine sizes have grown so fast where we've gone from even during the development phases, we've gone from like a 10 megawatt machine to now we're talking about upwards of 20, maybe 22 megawatt machines. That's a huge issue because I think as we've, even on blade sizes, and you guys do work with blades also, the blade lengths have, the new blade lengths have created issues that they have might, may not have seen before. So there's some unknowns out there until you actually test something as massive as a 20 megawatt machine. And does that, how does that drive you? I mean, what are your thoughts when you see a new announcement of a 22 megawatt machine, what are you thinking about that as these new machines are announced? Claus Beck: Yeah, so it calls, it implies a lot of difficulties when you scale in this speed, which is the wind industries is doing so that, that causes some difficulties you there's a lot of scaling loss normally when you design stuff, but these does not always apply and you have a lot of failure modes, which change when you scale to these sizes.

Allen and Joel are preparing for their trip to a Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA) Electricity Transformation Canada 2023! It's going to be a busy and cold week. Then they dissect New York's rejection of offshore wind project price increases, analyze union concerns about layoffs at Siemens Gamesa, and discuss new subsea power cables planned for Italy and Greece. Our Wind Farm of the Week is Fairbanks Wind Park in Michigan, pouring money into a small community and keeping 24,000 homes running. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Joel and I will be at the Canadian Renewable Energy Association's Electricity Transformation Canada, 2023 event. And I had to look up, I haven't been to Calgary before even though I was a huge fan of the Calgary Flames hockey team for a long time, especially when the, when they won the Stanley cup, that was pretty awesome. But Calgary is the largest city in Alberta with 1. 4 million people. So Rosemary, is that bigger or smaller than Canberra? Rosemary Barnes: Bigger. It's three, three times the size. Joel Saxum: Calgary is like the Denver of Canada. Right up against the mountains, farms on the other side, good beef and Caesars. Allen Hall: It's the cleanest city in the world. And there's also 120 languages spoken in the city. That seems like a lot maybe because of the oil. Maybe that's what it is. There's people from all over the world to it. But here's the one I'm really worried about. The highest recorded temperature ever in Calgary was 97 degrees. And we're gonna be there almost in November. Pretty close. So if the highest temperature ever was 97, I'm figuring it's gonna be just slightly above freezing while we're over there, Joel. Joel Saxum: Perfect. That's what I like. Rosemary Barnes: They have those Chinooks there, right? Where the temperature suddenly swings by like 20, 20 degrees and, or 40, if you're talking Fahrenheit in just a, an hour or two, doesn't it? Allen Hall: Rosemary recommending that I bring shorts and a t shirt and wool mittens. Moving back to the United States big news out of New York. The New York regulators rejected requests from developers of several. Offshore sites in their bid to add to the PPA prices. And this went through a whole bureaucratic decision making process. But the end of it, there was a vote and they voted to essentially sell everybody, no, we're not going to adjust our pricing. And if you want to cancel, go ahead and cancel. So the government governor got involved in this a little bit and said, Oh, we, it. We don't want you to cancel, we just want it to be more affordable. So the offshore companies that are trying to develop these, we're not going to negotiate because that would ruin the integrity of the system we have developed. Here's what the intent is now. They're going to, and I can allow them to raise prices. They're saying, if you want to cancel, you cancel, you have to pay the fees. And then we're going to go through an accelerated bid process again, with the same developers. To see if they give us some lower prices and I cannot figure out for the life of me why they think they're gonna get lower prices by rebidding it, they're gonna get the same prices they had before. Or higher. Or higher. Yeah. Because you have to pay, they have to pay off the penalty they paid and earn that money back somehow, which is...

We discuss major investments in offshore wind projects in the UK and Brazil by Marubeni and TotalEnergies, highlighting the opportunities in these growing markets. Then we shift to how Berkshire Hathaway Energy has leveraged tax credits to achieve negative income tax rates, underscoring the financial incentives driving renewable energy development. Key takeaways are the attractiveness of offshore wind and how tax policy is fueling clean energy growth. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech. And I'm here with the founder and CEO of InterStor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at InterStor. If you need actionable information about renewable projects or technologies, check out InterStor at InterStor. com. Japan's Marubeni Corp and its partners have pledged to invest 10 billion pounds, about 12 billion U. S. dollars over the next decade in clean energy in the United Kingdom. Among the planned investments, the 3. 6 gigawatt ASEAN Floating Offshore Wind Farm in Scotland will be the largest project. Marubeni which plans to invest around 1 billion pounds of its own, expects various support from the UK government, including helping with the ASEAN Offshore Wind Project. Japan and the UK are really aggressively seeking renewable energy, particularly offshore wind at the moment, Phil. This seems like a good combination between the two, and ten billion pounds is a lot of money. Philip Totaro: It is, Allen, and it's great to see but what's interesting about it is a couple of things. First is, most of this money is earmarked for project development. And most of it for offshore and floating offshore in particular. And I think one of the reasons why they want to do this, Marubeni wants to be able to get a lot of lessons learned on offshore, floating offshore investments in the UK, where they're obviously ramping up and rolling these projects out. They want that knowledge base and that experience when they start doing some more of these deep water projects in Japan. Which they're still getting their pardon the pun, but they're still getting their feet wet with. So they're... They're leveraging this investment as something that will also benefit not only the UK with the cash, but Japan from the experience. Allen Hall: Brazil's energy minister announced last week that France's TotalEnergies is investing almost 100 billion in boosting its presence in Brazil, including offshore wind projects. According to the announcement, the money will be used in the areas of oil and gas research and exploration, as well as offshore and onshore wind. Plus some solar projects. Again, a hundred billion dollars is a lot of money to be pumping into Brazil. I guess TotalEnergies sees a really bright future below the equator. Joel Saxum: Smart money spent, because if you've got someone that's coming in that's willing to they're looking at offshore oil and gas research and exploration as well as offshore and onshore wind. If they're smart, offshore wind and oil and gas research and exploration can be co located and co spent. Because every one of those needs site characterization, they need seismic studies, they need near surface studies, they need all kinds of stuff that has a vessel in country doing a lot of work...

The IEC 61400-24 Lightning Protection specification is in the process of being amended. The proposed updated will add more instructions and information for Lightning Detection and Measurement Systems. Lightning monitors are available in a variety of types and sizes. From the basic lightning card to high speed data acquisitions systems with current probes on each blade, the complexity and cost vary from a couple of dollars to upwards of $10k. Do wind turbine operators need expensive lightning monitoring systems? Lightning expert Allen Hall is joined by Chief Commercial Officer, Joel Saxum, as they review the proposed changes and the effect on the wind industry. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com IEC 61400-24 Amendment Discussion Allen Hall: Welcome to the special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. And there is some activity in the lightning world in the IEC 61400-24 specification back in a, in Annex L and Annex L is about monitoring of wind turbines for lightning information. And there's a, an amendment being proposed at the minute by the working group with the IEC working group. That is looking to put some more details around lightning monitoring for wind turbines. And I have Joel Saxum here with me, our chief commercial officer at Weather Guard Lightning Tech. And we think it's important that everybody realize that this is happening at the moment and to make sure operators and owners understand the implications of these changes that are being discussed at the IEC level. And what it means in terms of your future operations, your costs some added complexities, if you decide to go down this pathway. Joel Saxum: Yeah, absolutely. So I think we should start with just a little bit of a discussion around the IEC standard and what it means for the industry. IEC standards are things that are adhered to as basically a technical specification. If it's how wind turbines are rated, by what speeds they can take, or how certain things are designed in foundations, or the lightning protection systems, it's what the industry looks to for guidance.  What ends up happening is if you run into, maybe a court case, or something of this sort, this document becomes a partial, basically, expert witness. Did hey party A is suing party B for whatever on their wind turbines, and then this document will almost always come into play in that. Whether it's an insurance case or it's a legal battle of some sort. Hey did you adhere to the IEC standards? So while it isn't technically a law or something that you have to follow as a regulation, it is a pseudo that in the legal world, right? So the, it pops up almost all the time.  All turbines are when they get certified against the IEC standards. To be able to connect to the grids in most countries. So it is a very important document and has real world implications for everybody in the wind industry.  Allen Hall: And there's been really two additions to it. There was an early edition back in the 2000s. Then in 2019, they updated it with a lot more information from the technical aspects from watching lightning damage to wind turbines and providing some feedback and how to test better. So there has been some more recent updates to the document. The monitoring side, though, was pretty scarce. There was an Annex L in the 2019 version of the document, but it was pretty simplistic. You can put systems on your turbines to detect when lightning has str...

This week on the Uptime Wind Energy podcast, the crew covers everything from high-tech wind turbine inspection worms to turbine toilets. Allen, Rosemary, Joel, and Phil dive into the challenges of wind turbine manufacturing and recycling, discussing how Europe and China compete in the global wind market. The team explores how turbines operate far offshore, the need for onboard amenities, and the logistics of servicing turbines miles out to sea. Whether it's innovative inspection tools, blades recycling advances, offshore turbine operation, or manufacturing competitiveness, this week's Uptime podcast tackles the nitty-gritty of wind farm operation and equipment. Grab your coffee and get ready for an energetic dialogue on all aspects of wind energy. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Uptime 187 Allen Hall: Rosemary, a couple of Australians have decided to book continuous cruises. And they have actually done 51 cruises back to back starting about a little over a year ago now, and they spent 450 days living on a princess cruise or a princess ship so far. And they claim that it's cheaper than living in Australia. So they're retired. They don't have any place to be, but I guess living in Australia is pretty expensive and it's actually cheaper. To get a cabin on a cruise ship where they just make all the food and you can look at the beautiful ocean and live on a cruise ship. So Rosemary, there's hope in the home search in Australia, you just get a cruise.  Rosemary Barnes: I can't think of anything worse than living on a cruise ship. Yeah, I like my personal space. I get seasick. I like to, yeah, be outside and experiencing nature and in charge of my own life. But I think that I, it's not that they said it's cheaper than living in Australia. They said it's cheaper than living in a retirement home. In Australia. Yeah, but a retirement home has nurses and stuff. They've obviously got good health if they are not concerned about only having access to the, little dinky sick room on a cruise ship. It's catchy, and if they love cruising and, they've got the money, then... Go for it, but yeah, no, I can confirm that it's not cheaper to go on a cruise than to just, pay rent and buy groceries in Australia.  Allen Hall: I don't know, the buffets are pretty well stocked on those cruise ships. You'll be well fed. The dessert bar, the chocolate fountain, come on Rosemary, they have a pool, Shuffleboard. Rosemary Barnes: Honestly, like I wouldn't do a cruise for more than a weekend and I would only do that if I had a good reason to suffer through it. A cruise is not my idea of a good time. I'm not a cruising personality.  Allen Hall: Phil you've been on a cruise, come on.  Philip Totaro: No, and I never will.  Allen Hall: Joel, you been on a cruise? Joel Saxum: I have a 17 foot boat that I go fishing on, if you count that as cruising.  Allen Hall: Wow, we got a lot of land lovers here.  Rosemary Barnes: It's one of the main reasons why I decided not to pursue being an astronaut because I just don't want to be trapped in, inside for, weeks on end. That sounds horrible to me. Allen Hall: Wait a minute. Wait. When did this happen? When were you going to be an astronaut?  Rosemary Barnes: When I was a teenager, I wanted to be an astronaut and, I went as far as studying aerospace engineering.  Joel Saxum: Does Australia have a space program?  Rosemary Barnes: No,

Phil Totaro, Joel Saxum and Allen Hall discuss the latest Reuters news article regarding Siemens Gamesa shuttering sales offices and factories. What are the upcoming risks to Siemens Gamesa, and does the company have the financial resources to weather the upcoming headwinds? Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com News Flash 10-16-23 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intelstor, Phil Totaro, and the Chief Commercial Officer of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. Big Reuters report from Siemens Energy where they're considering shutting down some of the Siemens Gamesa factories and sales offices as part of a review aimed at reducing losses at the company. There's been a number of discussions about this across the internet over the last couple of days. The plants have not been defined yet. The sales offices have not been defined yet as what ones would likely go. However, it does put a lot of countries on end as there are a number of plants across the world that Siemens Gamesa has invested a good amount of time and money into. And although no final decisions have been made yet, we feel like and the news is from different sources that by early November or mid November, they are going to have this plant identified. And Phi, this is causing a little bit of upset in the marketplace in terms of the stock, but also in terms of the wind energy community as to where Siemens Energy and Siemens Gamesa is headed. There's a lot of moving parts at the moment. How fast does Siemens Gamesa and Siemens Energy need to move to right this ship? Philip Totaro: Fairly fast. And the reality of this is there's a few different implications. First is that they probably want to be able to announce something in November at their Capital Markets Day event so watch out for that. The second aspect of this is, okay, obviously there's a significant amount of investment in Denmark and in Spain. And unfortunately, those are likely to potentially both or, there's been talk in the past about potentially Spain might get shut down or outsourced a lot more than the resources that they have in Denmark, which was the legacy Siemens. And the legacy of the company, everything that's core to Siemens in Germany and Denmark is something I think they want to keep hold of. There are companies in Asia, that includes Chinese wind turbine OEMs and now Indian wind turbine OEMs like Adani Group and others, who are trying to get a bigger foothold in the West. Does this present an opportunity for them to dive in to a factory that's already got overhead cranes, it's already got molds, it's already got other things? Allen Hall: Now, Joel, with the closing of sales offices, that does not bode well for the future, right? You always want to have sales in action for next four or five years. That's when you'd be booking orders out that far. If Siemens Gamesa limits their sales staff, doesn't that just hurt their future tremendously? It seems like that's a very short sighted approach to a longer term problem. Why the move on the sales side? Joel Saxum: In the article it states they operate 79 sites, including sales and service offices, R& D centers, as well as 15 factories to produce blades and nacelles. But a sales office is one thing that you could save a little bit of capital on, to be honest with you, Allen.

Wind turbine blades are getting a fresh new life thanks to REGEN Fiber's innovative recycling process! Their mechanical process turns old blades into top-notch construction materials. REGEN's can turn any blade into strong, clean fiber that passes all the tests. With wind farms desperate for sustainable solutions, this Iowa-based startup is gearing up to start recycling blades at scale. Their new facilities will give old blades a new purpose in buildings, roads and more as the wind industry upgrades to bigger and better turbines. Out with the old, in with the recycled - REGEN Fiber is spearheading a recycling revolution for the wind sector. Check out REGEN Fiber Contact Jeff Woods! jwoods@regenfiber.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall and I'm here with my good friend Joel Saxum and on this special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast, we have a really interesting topic. As of 2020, there were over 720,000 tons of blade material around the world that needed to be disposed of or recycled. With more wind farms being built every year, this number will continue to grow. Landfilling the blades is problematic. Their large size makes transportation and burial difficult and expensive. So finding an effective way to recycle the blades is becoming an urgent priority for the wind industry. Companies and researchers are currently exploring how to design future turbine blades for easier recycling, but wind farm operators need better recycling and disposal options for existing old blades, some promising recycling methods are being developed. And we are speaking with 1 of the companies investing in new recycling methods, REGEN Fiber. Our guest today is Jeff Woods, director of business development at Travero and Travero is the parent company of REGEN Fiber. Jeff, Welcome to the podcast. Jeff Woods: Thank you. Allen Hall: Obviously, we know we have a lot of problems with old blades and in the United States. It does create a lot of publicity of pictures, of blades being buried and more recently in Iowa where you are and also down in Texas. There's been some disposal issues where blades have been sitting out for a long time and haven't been recycled like they were supposed to be. And this is creating quite the clamor for wind turbine OEMs and operators. Jeff Woods: It is. It's a problem that I think when the industry got rolling decades ago, there was a lot of passion about getting a renewable energy resource literally up in the air and running to produce electricity in the region here, particularly in the central Midwest, where we've got more wind tunnels and you can shake a stick at quite literally and, for a long period of time, there really wasn't a lot of problems. Yeah, a few blades were getting damaged through lightning or storms or hail or whatnot. But boy, in the last I'll Five, seven, 10 years as some of these farms have approached, the 20 year mark in particular, which is generally accepted as a benchmark time for the lifespan for some of the original blades that are out there. They're coming down they're stressed, they've been damaged. They need to be replaced. You've got the inflation reduction act now which is compelling even more ferns to absolutely amp up on steroids. What the future of wind energy production in the United States looks like. So you have a lot of companies that are talking about going in and repowering existing turbines, knocking existing turbines down entirely and replacing them with much bigger much more efficient units. And that's all great,

The latest Uptime Wind Energy podcast investigates ingenious systems tracking bird behavior near turbines. Hosts Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, Phil Totaro, and blade expert Rosemary Barnes examine radars revolutionizing avian activity alerts. From Robin Radar's monitoring, new technologies enable prudent wind farm planning around flocks. But can colorful deterrents like green towers really redirect birds? The team weighs wavering research on visual repellents. They also confront repairs rattling turbine reliability - dissecting blade imperfections from microscopic defects to major retrofits. With quality controls failing, can wind power keep soaring? Discover uplifting solutions to bird puzzles and blade bottlenecks only on Uptime - the #1 podcast helping wind work. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Uptime 186 Allen Hall: Has everybody seen A Christmas Story? Rosemary, I know you don't have snow, but have you seen A Christmas Story movie?  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I, I was subjected to a whole, a whole lot of American Christmas traditions, but that one didn't come up. Phil Totaro: I've never seen it. Allen Hall: So in a very Christmas Story fashion, I received this sort of box at the house, and it said Fragile on it. And then I thought, well, it must be a major award. And then I, I do open it up and sure enough, right over there. Rosemary, can you  Rosemary Barnes: tell what that is? Did you get a, what? Doesn't that mean that you have 100, 000 subscribers? We have  Allen Hall: over 200, 000 subscribers to our YouTube channel.  Rosemary Barnes: Going crazy. Nice. That's so cool. Well, it's not really  Allen Hall: congratulations. It's, it's one of those things like, what am I going to do with this thing? Now that I have it, I'm not sure what to do with it. So I stuck it here behind me figuring like, well, that's exactly what you do. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's basically a lawn ornament. That's essentially what it is. Joel Saxum: I think the next time you go to Texas, you should get a belt buckle made.  Allen Hall: See, that would be cool. I'm with Joel on that one. So the next NASCAR race I go to, I got to have a YouTube buckle, but thanks to everybody on YouTube has subscribed to our channel because we're, we're getting really close to a quarter million subscribers on that channel. And we really appreciate everybody paying attention to us and, and on the audio platform, Spotify and Apple podcasts, we have seen a market, a number of people. listening to the podcast. So we really appreciate it and keep on listening and send us notes. And we really appreciate when our listeners send us notes and tell us things that they'd like to hear on the program, that's what's  Rosemary Barnes: wonderful. Allen Hall: Well, we know there's an issue with TPI blades and with wrinkles in particular, because TPI has announced that and they're, they're making some changes to the quality system and bringing people in, uh, to get back on track, but it also looks like they have a number of existing winter and blades that have. Wrinkle issues at a minimum. So if you're paying attention out there in the LinkedIn world, you see some of these repairs going on and Rosemary, I've watched, I don't know, 8, 10 videos over the last couple of weeks of. Repairs that are happening to TPI blades down in Mexico. And those repairs appear to be very close to the root of the,

Brace yourself, wind energy investors - the latest episode of News Flash brings turbulent forecasts for major industry players. Hosts Allen Hall, Phil Totaro, and Joel Saxum dive into the factors whipping up stock storms for turbine titans Siemens Energy and TPI Composites. Quality control issues have shredded share prices, leaving the companies listing and analysts speculating about potential mergers or acquisitions to stay afloat. But while most wind stocks are trapped in a downdraft, the hosts spy one high flier: Indian firm Suzlon Energy. Its shares have soared 150% thanks to slashed debt and new global partnerships. Will the coming months bring sunny skies or more dark clouds for wind energy? Tune in to find out! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com News Flash Oct 9, 2023 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech. And I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intel store, Phil Totaro and the chief commercial officer for Weather Guard Lightning Tech, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. So if you check your stock portfolio lately, you may have noticed two things in there. Siemens Energy and TPI composites are not doing that well. There's some real worry on the street about TPI composites. It has remained stagnant. It lost a lot of its value when they announced some quality issues a few months ago. And the stock prices continue to slowly drop, and obviously Siemens Energy is in the same boat. They, when they announced the quality issues the stock price roughly dropped in half and it has been slowly sinking since then. These are two major players in windfill that have immediate value in the marketplace and we need them to be hanging around. But the market and the holders of these stocks and the general industry is saying, This, they are not gonna have a good six months here. That there is not anything that's gonna radically change. And it's almost like they're starting to short the stocks and think maybe there's an acquisition in their future. That's what it appears like to me right now. What do what say  Phil Totaro: It's interesting. I don't know that acquisitions are necessarily the pathway out for either company. TPI is an interesting case because they are. largely at this point an outsourced manufacturing capability. They're mostly building to print blades from GE and Nordex at this point. And they're, what they're doing for GE is based on a lot of like legacy design and technology work. And it's just churning out the, the, I'll call it the mundane technology from, 15 years ago. The work that they're doing for Nordex is interesting because they're doing a lot of the newer blades and a lot of the newer designs but it's still on a build to print basis. Meaning that, I think they're not able, and they've got a lot of smart and talented people there, but they're not able to really demonstrate to the market that they've got more capabilities because they're being so hamstrung by, These quality issues that they've had with Nordex and GE and other customers in the past. They're in a bit of a conundrum and, acquisition could be a pathway out of it. The likeliest thing to happen would be potentially a merger with Ares, a Brazilian blade manufacturing company that's been interested in global expansion, particularly in North America Whether or not that's actually gonna happen. I don't have any insider knowledge on that one or anything So i...

Weather Guard Lightning Tech's Chief Commercial Officer, Joel Saxum, gives his view of the state of the wind energy business from the perspective of a business development executive. The IRA bill is changing the way businesses are planning, working, and being acquired in the United States. Will that trend continue? And with the current lack of technicians, how do wind energy companies grow their businesses? This is an enlightening discussion sure to sparks conversations at the water cooler (or wind turbine). Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Joel Saxum Interview Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, and I'm here with my good friend, JoelSaxum, and on this special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, we're here to talk with Joel, who has recently joined Weather Guard Lightning Tech as our Chief Commercial Officer. And Joel has tremendous knowledge in the wind industry and what has happened over the last couple of years. And today we get to pick Joel's brain. And get a sense of where we have gone, where we are at, and where we are likely headed in the next year or two. So Joel, welcome to the program.  Joel Saxum: Welcome, I suppose, for the, I don't know, the hundredth time or so, maybe? It's, it's close to that at this point. Yeah, so Allen and I were talking in the background off air, talking about, you know, what, what is actually happening out there right now. It'd be nice to kind of drop a little bit of knowledge of. Of what, of course, I'm hearing in the, in the BD circles everybody seems to be connected somehow in this industry. And then also the general trends, all right? And we will touch on a couple of things here.  Allen Hall: So if we go back two years ago to ACP in San Antonio, which is really kind of the first real kickoff. I know we had O& M previous to that. I think, I think that's right, right? So we had O& M in San Diego. And, and at that point in the industry, everybody was just coming out of COVID. Those were really some of the first events, right? We had, if we all remember in San Antonio, we had COVID tests before we could walk into the building. And what fun that was. And at that point in the, in the industry, it was like, everybody was just trying to come awake again. There was a little bit of discontinuity between organizations. You could feel that everybody's just trying to feel the way around. And technician wise, it seemed, it did seem like there was a huge competition for technicians, like, like we have seen now. And then as we progressed over the last year or two, it's really, I think, changed dramatically in terms of the number of players in the marketplace. Even if you look at the number of drone companies that we saw a couple of years ago versus today, dramatically different. In, in terms of just sort of the knowledge base is still see the same key people around in terms of like the, the business development side, it has been a little bit of a rough road, right? Even with the IRA bill has been a little bit of a rough road.  Joel Saxum: Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, the IRA bill was designed to spur on projects, right? They say that we'll, we're going to get PTC back funds back the case, basically credits back basically back the same way they were. Before the IRA bill was passed, so, you know, every 10 years put X amount of dollars into your wind farms, get them up and running again, and you'll re qualify for these credits,

This action-packed episode of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast tackles hot topics like the legal battle over massive piles of unrecycled turbine blades in Texas, construction snafus causing a 2-year delay for a floating wind farm in Japan, a wild new single-blade floating turbine concept inspired by 19th century toys, and ingenious new bearing seals that could solve the chronic lubrication failures plaguing wind farms. The hosts also spotlight the little-known, $700 million Top Crop Wind Farm in Illinois as the wind farm of the week. Grab your headphones and get ready for an energetic dive into the latest happenings in wind. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! ardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Uptime 185 Allen Hall: Well, this week I learned that the word buoy is pronounced boy, and I've also learned a number of other Australian words, and I'm not even sure that makes any sense because Rosemary, buoy is a buoy, a boy is a boy, they're really hard to mix up actually, but in this podcast this week, you went to spar boy, and I was totally confused, I had the dictionary out, I was just thumbing through like spar boy, I, I, I'm sorry, I don't know what that means. Rosemary Barnes: Allen, do you say buoyant or booyant? Buoyancy or booyancy? I think you'll see that it's Australians that have this one, right?  Joel Saxum: I got to agree, Rosemary. I'm sorry. I agree with you. I'm agreeing with Rosemary.  Allen Hall: Come on. I've lost two in a row. I lost the emu and I lost buoy. I'm pretty much out of words at this point. Rosemary Barnes: You can, you can name whatever, whatever birds are native. To the US you feel free to name them and pronounce them how you would wish, but emus are emus. They're ours. They're ours. We're claiming them.  Allen Hall: Well, see, this is, this is why, you know, it's good to have a little bit of international flavor on the podcast because us Americans get a little too out of control and Rosemary's here to rein us back in. So as you will listen to this episode, that's exactly what happens multiple times. It's good to have Rosemary on the podcast. So down in Sweetwater, Texas, where we were. pretty close to it last week. There, it's been a big problem down there about the number of wind turbine blades that are just stacked in piles. And Global Fiberglass Solution was trying to recycle them. And those, some of those blades have been there since about 2017. So they've been there a while. And back in roughly 2016, the IRS encouraged wind farms to replace the blades with the tax credits with new blades, right? So there's a, there were a lot of wind turbine blades that came off the turbines and new ones went on. Well down in Texas, they're looking for get those blades recycled and nothing has happened yet. And it's starting to become a little annoying. And the same sort of situations actually happened in Iowa with the same company in Iowa got really upset and. Forced GE or persuaded GE to take care of the problem in Iowa. So GE is recycling the blades in Iowa now This has led to a lawsuit That was filed this past week between GE and Global Fiberglass solutions and Phil, you want to give us the inside details of what's going on here. Philip Totaro: So, basically the, the back of a contract signed in 2017 and then a separate one signed in 2018. Global Fiberglass Solutions had the obligation to start recycling these blades. I think what they were going to do was to shred them and ...

This action-packed episode tackles game-changing renewable energy investments across the globe - from HSBC pouring $1 billion into climate tech startups to BlackRock colonizing Thailand's bubbly sustainability-linked bond market. Allen, Phil, and Joel dive into Vitol and AT Capital plowing $350 million into India's Juniper Green Energy and its plans to triple clean power capacity in just 2.5 years. With climate solutions needing major funds to cross the commercialization finish line, the episode underscores the renewable gold rush as major players prospect for green jackpots worldwide. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intelstor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, Joel Saxum, and this is your News Flash. HSBC has pledged 1 billion to support climate technology startups. They have already allocated 100 million for investment in breakthrough energy catalysts focusing on climate technologies. The funding will aid companies working on various solutions, including electric vehicle charging, battery storage, sustainable food and agriculture, and carbon removal technologies. Phil, a billion dollars going to climate technology startups is a nice little boost to those industries.  Philip Totaro: It is, and it's coming at a time when there's kind of mixed feelings, I guess, from the venture capital community about particularly investing in anything related to hardware. But there's a lot of money that's been pouring into software. So this move by HSBC is interesting because it sounds like they're going to spread it around a little bit and potentially get a lot of companies, you know, off the, off the ground with a wide array of solutions. That's looks like a pretty good thing.  Joel Saxum: What I'd like to see from this HSBC corner here is what we've talked about before with some of these other VC companies. Now, we know VC spending, like Phil said, is slowing down right now. There's not a whole lot of people with that are willing to empty or open their, their dry powder kegs. But I'd like to see more of these, this money be invested in solutions that are TRL 678, right? That are closer to actually commercialization and making a difference. Because a billion dollars is, it's a huge fund, it's fantastic, but I would, I don't want to see, this is just me, right? I don't want to see a ton of this money get thrown at people with ideas. And while that is definitely needs to happen, right? We need to have monies for that as well. But man, to have some in where it's like, Hey, this is, this is two steps away from commercialization. That would be fantastic because we can actually get some stuff up and up and moving.  Philip Totaro: And Joel, that's a great point. I think what happens a lot in the VC community, because I've had this conversation about advising VC companies in the past and funds and things like that, where they come down on it is they would rather make 100 bets with the hope that they get one unicorn out of those hundred bets, than make ten bets that are all gonna be a winner, but they're only gonna each make, like, maybe a hundred million each, you know what I mean? They, they just don't think that way in terms of making a lower number of higher quality investments. They are throwing a thousand darts at a dartboard and hoping they get a unicorn.  Joel Saxum: Yeah, exactly. It's a, it's the capital game, right? That they're in it to make money,

The growth of the US wind industry has led to new challenges for wind turbine foundations, an often overlooked but critical component. ONYX Insight's Ian Prowell, a structural engineer with extensive wind industry experience, describes how early foundations were designed for smaller 1-1.5 MW turbines with a 20 year lifespan. Now, many sites are being "repowered" with larger 2-3 MW turbines, reusing and adding decades more fatigue loading to the same decades-old foundations. Prowell discusses common foundation types, construction methods, failure modes, and monitoring techniques to ensure adequate remaining life during repowering campaigns. Proper foundation assessment before repowering could prevent costly collapses and save project owners millions. Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, host of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Foundations are a topic that we received several requests for, and honestly, foundations are not discussed enough. Buried beneath the earth, these massive foundations supporting our wind turbines have to remain steady year after year in some tough conditions. And yet, wind turbine foundations have a great track record. However, As the wind industry expands and turbines grow, new challenges are emerging that demand innovative solutions. So I'm looking forward to our discussion with our guest, Ian Prowell, Principal Engineer with ONYX Insight. And Ian has a Ph. D. in structural engineering plus years of experience in the renewables industry. Ian, welcome to the program. Thank you.  Ian Prowell: Great to chat with you, Allen. Allen Hall: So we have something in common, just to kick this off you went to UCSD. Ian Prowell: Yeah, I did my master's and PhD there. Allen Hall: Yeah, so we just visited that campus. It's quite lovely. It's a good place to get your master's and doctorate from. Ian Prowell: Yeah, yeah. Some people do have problems with focus. The waves call and they end up surfing and  Allen Hall: getting back on the topic of wind turbine foundation. So, Ian, you have a number of years in wind turbine foundations and what's been happening on the scene. Can you just give us a brief history, like where we are today and sort of how we got to where we are?  Ian Prowell: In terms of history, I mean, what you see with current wind turbines, say megawatt plus machines. Generally we're talking about late nineties and on early foundations, we kind of had some basic design philosophies and some ideas on how to do it. But earlier we relied a lot on behavior, concrete and sheer and intention. There were some issues that came up as things went by and we learned due to some collapses that that wasn't something we could rely on. And so, yeah, as we're moving forward, turbines are getting bigger. Loads are getting higher. Fatigue loads are getting much higher as we get higher capacity factors, larger rotors, so forth. And so we really have foundations now that are driven by fatigue. That's a major design concern. And we have kind of. Multiple generations of foundations where early on those foundations had initial design philosophies. And as we learned more, those philosophies were updated. And so generally kind of era by era, we're getting more robust foundations, but also it's introducing new challenges. As loads get higher, the foundations get larger. So for example, concrete pours can be very difficult. They could go on for 10, 12 hours or more. And that's, that's very challenging for the individuals out there working and maintaining good practice while pouring that concrete for that long of a period.  Allen Hall: And were there a consistent set of designs used back in the nineties and early two thousands? Or, or what drove those designs? Were they just. Professional engineer by professional engineer, designing them. And because it's not, doesn't seem to be a  Ian Prowell: standard. In the U S there's kind of two things coming in here. We have U S building code.

Start your engines for an electrifying episode exploring the fast-paced world of wind power! From cheering on an Uptime-sponsored race car to tracing troubles with turbine technology, we'll navigate hairpin turns and straightaways in the wind industry. Pit stop with us as we check the pulse of offshore wind farms being built in the Baltic Sea and get an under-the-hood look at new blade monitoring systems. We'll also rev up debate around maritime rules for transporting US wind parts and plunge into the deep to see how underwater drones are scouting future floating turbine sites. So grip the wheel and press play to go full throttle into this action-packed episode! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Uptime 184 Allen Hall: So Joel, we're headed to the big NASCAR race this weekend. So when this comes out, the race would have already occurred down at the Texas Motor Speedway. But we are sponsoring part sponsor of one of the NASCAR cars with Kyle Weatherman. He will be number 91. So if you go back and watch on YouTube, I think you can watch the race afterwards. You'll see our little Uptime podcast.  Rosemary Barnes: I've never, never watched a NASCAR race before, but this, this might be just the push that I need. So Allen, you'll have to tell me how I can, how I can tune in and watch this guy.  Allen Hall: We can Skype it to you somehow, but the NASCAR is actually taking really good action on reducing CO2 emissions through the whole operations. They have a sustainability person that is working in there. They're making a lot of changes at the NASCAR and I like watching NASCAR. It's a lot of fun, but it's also sort of rewarding to know that something you watch like that is trying to make a difference and they're doing a lot, making a lot of changes internally. So yes they do drive internal combustion engine cars for now, but the vast majority of the operations is going to be carbon neutral, I believe by 2035. So that is a pretty short timeframe to change as many operations as they have going. And that's commendable. So we thought we'd help him out and we helped Kyle out a little bit, and we're going to be down at the Texas Motor Speedway. So we'll take some pictures and send them to you, Rosemary.  Rosemary Barnes: What's your guess, Allen, about when they'll go electric in NASCAR?  Allen Hall: Actually, probably sooner rather than later.  Joel Saxum: Spinoff series first, it'll be like Formula E.  Rosemary Barnes: How long do they drive for?  Allen Hall: At Kyle's level, they drive about two hours. That's doable now, yeah. You know, the thing about electric vehicles is they accelerate so darn fast that it would make the races a little more exciting, right? That, that race tightness would really pick up. Well, more news from Siemens Gamesa as they're expecting a 5 billion loss for Some turbine problems and those turbine problems are still tied to from what we've here the 4x and 5x platform Blades have wrinkles in them and there are some pieces of debris and some bearings which are a huge problem there are approximately 2100 4x and about 800 5x models Affected with about somewhere between 15 and 30 percent of them having issues. So that's that's a huge number, right? It's about 900 Turbines and at a worst case so there are some changes happening within Siemens Gamesa where they are limiting onshore turbine sales. In fact, they've restricted it.

Spanish utility Endesa is looking to sell a minority stake in a 2GW renewable energy portfolio to raise funds for new projects. Petrobras, Brazil's state-run oil company, unveiled plans to become the country's largest wind developer through offshore wind projects and partnerships, as part of its strategy to reduce emissions and invest in green energy. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com News Flash September 25 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the Chief Commercial Officer for Weather Guard Lightning Tech, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. Spanish utility Endesa is looking to sell a minority stake in a two gigawatt renewables portfolio. Endesa is open to selling up to 49 percent stake in the portfolio, which consists mainly of solar photovoltaic assets, including projects in development and assets in operation with some power purchase agreements. The estimated value of the portfolio is around $2. 14 billion, as per initial valuations by the banks. The company currently has about 10 gigawatts of installed renewable energy capacity in mainland Spain. Phil, this is a huge deal. It seems like Indus and a number of other companies are selling a minority stake in their existing assets to help fund the next generation of renewables. Phil Totaro: Exactly. So this actually follows moves by Iberdrola Greenergy, and Repsol in the past, you know, 8 or 12 months or so, to also sell off some minority stakes. It's, it's important to note that what, what Indese is doing, and this, keep in mind, this is the Spanish arm of utility company Enel Italian utility company Enel so what they're doing in Spain is, I think, just trying to free up some cash for reinvesting in new greenfield sites, and keep in mind that they're going to start building new or repowering some of the wind and solar sites that they have in Spain within the next five years. And I think that they want to start freeing up some, some cash to be able to do that. Phil, I want to ask  Joel Saxum: you a question about this one. Do you think that some of this has to do with, with rising? Interest rates globally as well, because if these assets are, are financed, is it like, hey, man, we're tired of paying these six and seven percent or whatever the interest rates may be on some of these notes. They think you want to get out from underneath those interest payments a little bit. You think that  Phil Totaro: could be a part of it? Potentially, it depends on what they negotiate in terms of the debt financing. It's... unclear if this is necessarily a direct relation to interest rates, but that has more to do with investing in a new project than necessarily selling off an old one. Usually companies sell off an old asset to free up capital.  Allen Hall: Petrobras, Brazil's state run oil company, is set to unveil new initiatives to become the country's largest wind energy developer. The company aims to be a significant player also in hydrogen carbon capture with a focus on reducing emissions from its product portfolio. Petrobras also plans investments in green electrons and molecules, emphasizing environmentally friendly power generation and storage with minimal emissions. to take a major oil Company like Petrobras that is changing its tune and is going heavily into renewables is a massive shift for Brazil.

This Uptime Wind Energy Podcast interview features host Allen Hall speaking with Aaron Dupuis, Director of Marketing at Phazebreak Coatings, about their ice phobic coating called Neinice that helps prevent icing on wind turbine blades. The coating contains microscopic phase change materials that absorb heat from liquid water as it freezes, preventing ice buildup so the turbines can continue operating in icy conditions. Aaron explains how the coating is applied, how long it lasts, how it has performed in tests, and how it can be used in conjunction with existing deicing systems. He also discusses how partnering with Aerones and their inspection robots has helped optimize application time and efficiency. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Phazebreak Coatings - https://www.phazebreak.com/Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, host of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Wind turbine icing is a massive problem. Most wind turbines in the U. S. and Northern Europe are installed in locations that are susceptible to icing. And yet a significant number of the wind turbines do not have any de icing system. Our guest today is Aaron Dupuis, Director of Marketing at Phazebreak Coatings. And Phasebreak Coatings produces Neinice, the ice phobic coating that is being used on wind turbines to keep them humming during icing conditions. The coating contains a microscopic phase change materials that absorb heat from the liquid water as it freezes. This heat prevents the water from freezing solid and the ice does not form easily and it sheds off the surface. I'm really interested in learning more about phase break during this podcast. Aaron, welcome to the program. Aaron Dupuis: Thank you very much, Allen. I really appreciate it. Allen Hall: So we all know from the icing events that happened in Texas, because that's a very noticeable event, that obviously Texas does not have de icing systems on their wind turbine blades as they readily admit. And why, and why would they, honestly? Aaron Dupuis: Why would they? You wouldn't expect you'd need it. Allen Hall: No, you, you shouldn't really need it. It's what's once every hundred years they may have an ice storm. But they've had two ice storms in about a five year period. So it, it is actually a lot more common than we thought. And that left to hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars lost and deaths and all kinds of horrible things happened there that, that drove the industry to change a little bit. Right. So we're, we're, we're now seeing some more interest in how do I protect these wind turbines that don't have a de icing system. Aaron Dupuis: We were lucky enough at the time to have just coded half the turbines on a farm in Oklahoma. We had 50 coded and 50 uncoded in Oklahoma during that same Valentine's weekend, winter storm. And we, what we ended up seeing, our customer gave us data back and we saw 109% improvement in the coated turbines over the uncoated. And many of them kept turning and came back online earlier than the uncoated varieties. And again, so, you know, Oklahoma, Texas, these aren't really the first things you think of when you think, where do I need to put de icing, right? You're thinking North Dakota, South Dakota. We've been up there, but actually some of our first and frankly to our customers, most important installations have been in that kind and foremost installation. Midwestern middle of America band there.

In Allen's part of the USA, an escaped emu that was on the loose! We then discuss an investigation into a wind turbine collapse at the Akmene wind farm in Lithuania, which was caused by a malfunctioning sensor that provided incorrect data to the turbine controller. The root cause analysis took several months, and the wind farm was shut down until the issue was resolved. Shifting to policy news, the podcast analyzes the UK's latest CfD auction round which awarded 1.5GW of onshore wind capacity across 24 projects in Scotland and Wales. Offshore wind was absent from this round due to limited funding availability and inflation concerns. In the US, Equinor and BP are seeking to renegotiate offshore wind PPAs for their Empire Wind and Beacon Wind projects off Massachusetts unless they can achieve a 6-8% rate of return. On the technology front, we discuss a PES Wind Magazine article from Vaisala about how lidar systems can measure turbulence intensity to improve wind farm performance. Mounting lidar systems on turbine nacelles provides hub-height data to anticipate incoming wind conditions. To close, we cover news that EDF Renewables will repower Africa's oldest wind farm in Morocco, doubling its capacity to 100MW with new Siemens Gamesa turbines. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  PES Wind - www.peswind.comPardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: All right, Rosemary, in my neighborhood of Massachusetts, there was an escaped emu and it was on the loose for two weeks in the neighborhoods and they finally, they finally captured this thing. It was roaming around scaring local residents. And in fact, the, the local animal control officer said, Hey, be careful because emus are dangerous. But they did capture the emu. He would have been left behind by a former owner who moved out of state. And just left the emu behind and the new owners of the property were willing to help cooperate to kind of capture the emu. So the emu will have a new home with a local species expert and I assume that local species expert is in Australia. So you're getting another emu, Rosemary. Because Massachusetts is not the right place for those things. Rosemary Barnes: Oh, all right. That, that hurt, that hurt my ears as an Australian. Can we just clear one thing up? It's emu, emu. It's not an emu, it's an emu. You, you Americans, you know, like you don't get to take an Australian animal and give it your own, your own name. Just respect, respect the emu. Allen Hall: Well, you're getting a new friend in Australia. I'm going to send that emu right back. Enefit Green along with GE have been looking at an incident or accident that happened at the Akmene wind farm in Lithuania back in May. And they've been conducting a series of evaluations over the last couple of months, where they finally have come to a conclusion and, looked at the findings and determined that this wind turbine fell over and it's, it's about a, I think it's a five megawatt machine fill up in Lithuania. And there was 14 wind turbines total that the root cause analysis revealed that a malfunctioning sensor provided incorrect data to the turbine controller, resulting in excessive stress on the tower structure and the subsequent collapse of the turbine. So that sounds like, to me, everybody, a single point failure in some GE turbines, and they didn't turn it back on until, actually, this week, until they got it all figured out.

This week's News Flash covers Vattenfall considering selling its Norfolk Boreas offshore wind project in the UK due to rising costs. Plus a UK project is attempting to extract rare earth magnets from retired turbines for reuse in new ones. Finally, Ariel Re rebranding its clean energy division as Ariel Green, which provides technology performance insurance policies to protect against production shortfalls and a discussion on how this type of insurance could see increased demand, especially from owners of turbines with known issues. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intel Store, Phil Totaro. This is your News Flash. Vattenfall is in early stage talks to sell its Norfolk Boreas offshore wind project in the UK due to soaring costs. The negotiations are with potential buyers and the discussions are in early phases with no guarantee of a deal. Selling the project could contribute to the UK's clean energy goals of tripling offshore wind capacity to 50 gigawatts by the end of the decade. Phil Vattenfall is making some pretty large changes recently in regards to existing wind farms. Phil Totaro: That's right, Allen. And with this offer for sale, I think it's reflective of what's going on in the wider you know, offshore wind market globally at this point. Inflation's biting and companies are looking for partners, if they can find them, to either take a portion or an entire project off their hands to free up some cash. Allen Hall: EMR, HyProMag, ORE Catapult, and Magnomatics, along with the University of Birmingham, have partnered to create Re-Rewind, a project focused on extracting rare earth magnets from retired wind turbines. And using them in new onshore and offshore wind turbines. The partnership aims to establish UK's first circular supply chain for rare earth magnets used in wind turbines. Phil, this sounds like a really genius idea. I'm not sure why it hasn't been implemented elsewhere. So this, this is kind of a cool recycling project going on in the UK. Phil Totaro: It is cool, and I think the reason why it's come up now is because you've got a lot of the older turbines in the UK that were particularly some Siemens turbines that utilized permanent magnet generators that are, you know, coming up for retirement or refurbishment and replacement. So you're, you're now seeing you know, this industry group supported by the, the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult undertake this project at this point to also anticipate additional turbines that are going to be coming up within the next 10 to 15 years for, you know, replacement refurbishment and this is technology that they can possibly even license elsewhere in the world. And it's a, it's a great thing if we can extract the neodymium, the dysprosium and the terbium from these, these magnets and reconstitute and reuse it in, in, you know, new new magnets for, for onshore and offshore wind as well. Keep in mind, just real quick, that also in China there are a significant number of, like, Goldwind turbines, for instance, that use a lot of permanent magnets that are also coming up for you know, repowering within the next five to ten years, so... They've also made strides in materials recycling as well and so this project in the UK is just kind of acknowledging a market trend that we see only continuing.

The wind industry relies on heavy lift cranes and transportation equipment to construct and maintain massive turbines. Our guest today is Brian Thomas, Vice President of Business Development at Barnhart Crane & Rigging. Barnhart specializes in providing crane services for some of the most challenging lifts in the wind industry, from blade replacements to initial turbine assembly. Brian discusses Barnhart's specialized engineering capabilities, their work erecting some of the earliest US wind farms, and innovations like their "tri-block" system for more efficient tower lifts. He also provides an inside look at logistics challenges as turbine sizes increase, the complexity of repowering projects, and Barnhart's focus on safe lift engineering. As offshore wind ramps up in the US, Brian shares how Barnhart is partnering to bring their onshore expertise to this new frontier. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Barnhart Crane - www.barnhartcrane.comPES Wind - www.peswind.comPardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Barnhart Crane Allen Hall: Welcome back to the Uptime Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall. Heavy lift cranes and transportation equipment are vital to the construction and maintenance of wind turbines. From hoisting colossal tower sections to delicately placing turbine blades to the hub, people who operate these massive machines are the unsung heroes in the wind turbine world. Our guest on this podcast is Brian Thomas, Vice President of Business Development for Barnhart. And Barnhart began as a small family-owned company in Memphis, Tennessee, but has since grown to be a major player. And the heavy lift and transportation industries with operations. across the United States. For over 20 years, Barnhart has provided major maintenance services for blades, gearboxes, generators, yaw bearings, basically anything that is really heavy. And Barnhart has also assembled wind turbines and worked directly with the OEMs to construct some of the early wind projects in the United States. Brian, welcome to the program.  Brian Thomas: Allen, it is a treat to be here. Thank you. Thanks for having us on.  Allen Hall: So I'm not a crane expert and so it's great to talk to someone who is just because. It is true, the cranes, without the cranes, wind industry doesn't exist, and without that expertise, we would be nowhere. And you want to describe some of the early things that Barnhart participated in in the United States in terms of wind turbine construction? Brian Thomas: Sure, I will tell you that our, our, for being a crane provider that really came out of the heavy industrial market where we were operating in refineries and power plants, nuclear plants. And then we get to a wind farm and they say, okay, we're going to, we're going to put up this turbine here and then you're going to walk across this field and, and put one up on the, over there. And I'm like, excuse me, you don't walk across the field. And, and so the early days that where we stepped in was in the, kind of the 1.5, 1.8 megawatt range. They were still erecting V47, you know, the 640 kilowatt machine, and that was a con, typical construction crane, like an M2250, like a, you know, 250, 300 ton crawler. And those would generally be more favorable to to walking across the field. But you know, it obviously turbines have grown you know, to. amazing heights and sizes now. And so, you know, just from being a, from a crane provider perspective, that's been,

In the picturesque landscape of Prince Edward Island, Canada, a growing problem has emerged involving 10 Acciona turbines, installed back in 2014. These once-reliable turbines now have significant main bearing issues, necessitating extensive overhauls. This development has created tension, given that these turbines come equipped with a robust 15-year warranty, yet power production has plummeted by a staggering 70%. In the most recent edition of PES Wind Magazine, Eleven-I takes center stage to shed light on the advantages of in-blade accelerometers and CMS monitors. Rosemary and Phil join forces to dissect the engineering intricacies, delving into both the benefits and associated costs of augmenting blade sensors. The burning question of whether flow batteries can make a meaningful contribution to the energy grid is also on the table. Notably, the US Department of Energy (DOE) is extending a generous offer of nearly $400 million in loans to EOS Energy Enterprises, with the aim of establishing a state-of-the-art factory in Pennsylvania, capable of churning out a staggering 8GWh of flow batteries annually. Rosemary, our resident expert, takes the reins to elucidate the physics underpinning flow batteries, while Phil introduces Allen to the myriad potential applications these innovations hold for the power grid. And, as the cherry on top, we shine the spotlight on the Timbermill Wind Project in scenic North Carolina, our Wind Farm of the Week! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  PES Wind - www.peswind.comPardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Uptime 182 Allen Hall: Well, Phil, did you get a new helmet for that crazy electric scooter that you have?  Phil Totaro: Oh, I, I've got a helmet. Don't worry. It's a fancy, it's a fancy one. And it's very aero. It's I, I won't give, give them shameless product placement, but it's, you know, if, if you've watched the Tour de France or you're watching the Vuelta España right now cycling race. You, you will see them wearing the same ones in the individual time trial.  Allen Hall: Well, we were just at a NASCAR race and one of the things I was paying attention to was the helmets that they wear. And recently there was an accident in NASCAR. This car literally just spun end on end for about 10 rotations and then hit the dirt. And the guy walked out of it and I thought, my gosh, helmets have really improved over the last couple of years. I'm not sure several years ago to be able to walk away from that as well. And hopefully they're using the same technology in your helmet, Phil, because. You're going really fast. You're like probably going too fast. Phil Totaro: No, I'm actually, it's, it is for, for where I live, which is Santa Barbara, California, it's a fantastic way of getting around town and any place that actually has the infrastructure with a lot of bicycle lanes and, and you know, just good infrastructure for being able to do this, it's a, it's a much better way for me to be able to get around town than a car and it's faster. Less time and less money parking, et cetera. So it's it, it works  out all right.  Allen Hall: See Phil saving the planet one scooter at a time. So up at the Hermanville wind farm in Eastern Prince Edward Island, Canada, they're having a big problem with wind their wind farm, which is only producing about 10 percent of the power that it's supposed to, the farm opened up in 2014 and despite having a 15 year warranty.

The renewable energy business is heating up around the world! Greatcoat Renewables builds a long-term strategic agreement with FuturEnergy Ireland with an expected investment of €1B! Octopus Energy invests in Deep Wind Offshore furthering Octopus' commitment to invest $20B in offshore wind globally. And, Thailand's EGCO is expecting big returns from its investment in Apex Clean Energy. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com News Flash September 11 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intelstor, Phil Totaro, and this is your News Flash. FuturEnergy Ireland, a joint venture between Ireland's Coillte and ESB, has entered into a long term strategic framework agreement with Greencoat Renewables. Under this partnership, Greencoat will acquire stakes in FuturEnergy's onshore wind projects in Ireland as they reach commercial operations with an expected investment of over 1 billion euros by 2030. This collaboration will facilitate the commercialization of renewable energy projects, supporting Ireland's climate goals and leveraging the country's renewable electricity support scheme and corporate power purchase agreement market. Wow. That's a mouthful. Phil, there's a lot going on there for a billion euros.  Phil Totaro: Right. And that complements investments that have already been made by Greencoat in Ireland, the UK, continental Europe and elsewhere in both onshore and now they're starting to dabble in in offshore wind investments as well. So. They're, they're starting to get serious and this just continues to enhance that portfolio. Allen Hall: Octopus Energy is investing in Deep Wind Offshore to fund its expansion. Deep Wind Offshore, originally founded in Norway, aims to build 10 gigawatts of new offshore wind capacity by 2032, with 2 gigawatts exclusively in South Korea. The company has grown rapidly since it's launch in January 2021,  partnering with major energy companies like EDF Renewables and BP. Octopus Energy's investment will accelerate Deep Wind Offshore's growth, supporting the development of fixed and floating offshore wind projects, potentially in other markets. Phil, Octopus Energy really going big in offshore wind.  Phil Totaro: Well, and if I can maybe make a quick joke, they're extending their tentacles even further. You know, they... They've really, I mean, interestingly too, I mean, Octopus invests in obviously onshore wind and solar again in the UK, throughout continental Europe but also they've been active in investigating markets like Australia, this new partnership with Deep Wind gives them that foothold in South Korea. They've also been quite active in the past with investments in Simply Blue Group which is developing a lot of floating. Deep Wind is presumably also going to be developing a significant amount of floating capacity in South Korea and other markets, so. This is kind of the, the beginning of, of the, the growth opportunities for, for both Deep Wind Offshore and Octopus Group. Allen Hall: Electricity Generating Company, a subsidiary of state run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, anticipates significant revenue from its investment in Apex Clean Energy Holdings. The company's president expressed optimism about the potential benefits generated by Apex in the coming years, especially since the, in the United States where Apex runs its projec...

Not all instances of leading edge erosion and blade surface damage warrant immediate attention. Nevertheless, many operators and owners tend to overspend on repairs that may not significantly enhance power production. Enter Denmark-based PowerCurve, creators of a robust software tool that leverages existing drone data to precisely evaluate a turbine's power production potential. The AeroVista API has now been made accessible to drone inspection companies and operators across the globe. Drone inspection metadata is seamlessly uploaded to the cloud, where AeroVista skillfully interprets blade damage and harnesses cutting-edge CFD algorithms to pinpoint areas on the blades where power efficiency is compromised. The outcome is a user-friendly heat map illustrating blade damage, accompanied by an accurate assessment of the Annual Energy Production (AEP). This breakthrough empowers owners and operators to strategize their repair efforts, ensuring maximum power recovery. Join Uptime host Allen Hall as he engages in an insightful conversation with PowerCurve's CTO, Nicholas Gaudern, to delve into the fascinating details of AeroVista. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! PowerCurve - https://powercurve.dkPardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Leading edge erosion is a massive power losing problem for most wind farms. Almost every wind turbine blade that has been in service more than two years has some level of leading edge erosion. I'm your host, Allen Hall, and I'm here with our guest, Nicholas Gaudern, CTO of PowerCurve. In this episode, we are discussing leading edge erosion, how it reduces average energy production, and when to address it for maximum revenue generation. And just a brief background on PowerCurve. PowerCurve designs, manufactures and installs power upgrades for wind turbine blades that help their clients make their wind projects more profitable. PowerCurve's Technology has been thoroughly tested and validated, and they continue to work closely with universities to refine it even further. And the upgrades have been installed on blades worldwide. Nicholas, welcome to the program. Nicholas Gaudern:  Hi Allen. Really nice to be back talking to you.  Allen Hall: So you have some new software tools at your disposal, and anybody that knows PowerCurve knows you guys are really good at aerodynamics to understand how blades produce power. You wanna, you wanna describe what this little software breakthrough  Nicholas Gaudern: is? Yeah, I'd love to. So, so what I want to talk about today is, is our new tool that we're calling a. It's it's an a p i, you can call it, it does something and you'll get some really insightful data back. Maybe just take a, a step backwards. It's all about taking a, a data driven and an engineering driven approach to understanding the performance losses that you will get from damages and particularly leading edge erosion on a blade. So, We're about modeling those losses and telling you how you can deal with it. Yeah,  Allen Hall: because there's a lot of information on the internet today link. You see a lot of it on LinkedIn talking about leaning edge erosion and, and how you should repair it and it should be repaired and how quickly should be repaired. Those are really interesting data points. Right. But I think the real critical decision is if you should repair it and how. How, how far how many years can you wait?

Major offshore wind developer Ørsted's ambitious U.S. projects are being battered by a perfect storm of supply chain breakdowns, soaring interest rates, and evaporating tax credits. The dire situation has already led to lengthy delays and billions in potential losses on high-profile projects like Ocean Wind. Down in the Gulf of Mexico, the three BOEM offshore auction plots only received 1 bid...Phil Totaro walks us through the bidding and what lies ahead. Rosemary Barnes explains the innovative next generation of sails for transport ships to reduce emissions. And our wind farm of the week is the Twin Groves Farm in Illinois! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Uptime 181 Allen Hall: I assume everybody has seen the full self-driving 12 that Elon Musk put on X the other day where the car was essentially driving itself and I thought, well, Rosemary is gonna put in our order for the cyber truck. All will be right with the world.  Rosemary Barnes: It's, I'm not the biggest fan of, of the aesthetics of the cyber truck. Allen Hall: Well, you're probably the only person on the planet. 'cause they have a five year wait list for those trucks.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Yeah. I, I actually, I I can barely believe that they have orders for that, but it's just been an example where I've had to. To accept that I don't, I don't have my finger on the pulse of what truck drivers want, want their trucks to look like. Allen Hall: Yeah. Well, Phil, have you, have you placed your order for the new Tesla cyber truck? Phil Totaro: I have not. I went in probably the opposite direction. I bought myself an electric scooter. It goes 40 miles an hour. About what? 65, 70 kilometers an hour. Which is extremely fast and it's fun.  Rosemary Barnes: Wait, do you mean a scooter that you stand on? Like you know, not, not like a little tiny motorbike, but a,  Phil Totaro: A standup scooter Rosemary Barnes: That's too fast.  Phil Totaro: I'll tell you what, if, if you, if you look at the side of my face, you might see the remnants of a face plant that I did about three days after I got the thing, but, I'm better at riding it now, and it's, it's, I got one and it still didn't, didn't matter, but it's, it's great actually. So I, I have not I don't know that I'm planning to invest in a cyber truck anytime soon.  Allen Hall: Phil, please, please buy a helmet. Phil Totaro: I have one. Allen Hall: Well, Ørsted is having a very bad month or so. Number of problems going on there. They have, their stock has dropped the most ever. About 20, a little over 20%. Do some, some problems mostly in the United States. Supply chain challenges on projects like ocean, wind, ones, sunrise, wind revolution, wind, and having deliveries for mod piles is evidently is a problem. There's a delayed, there are so many things happening with or at the moment, Phil, and a lot of this. It seems to be things that are out of their control, supply chain issues, interest rates, also investment tax credits are not coming out to what they thought they would be. And so Mads Nipper, the CEOof Ørsted in a call and when you're, when this podcast comes out, have been a couple days ago he was not happy. And they're considering abandoning future projects. In the US because of profitability criteria is not being met. And they do plan to finish up the projects they signed up to in the northeast of the United States becaus...

Siemens Gamesa secured financial backing from CaixaBank at a critical time as the wind turbine manufacture deals with a potential $4.5B in expenses. Aeris Energy in Brazil is on a slight losing streak but Phil Totaro believes their huge backlog will provide a financial windfall in the near future. Also in Brazil, EDPR is selling new wind turbine farms to Norwegian based Statkraft. Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelStor - https://www.intelstor.com News Flash September 4 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intelstor, Phil Totaro. And this is your News Flash. CaixaBank renewed the financing and, and working capital to Siemens Gamesa in the first half of 2023. Now this is important because Siemens Gamesa, and Siemens Energy just announced about $4.5 billion of upcoming expenses. So having a working capital line for Siemens Gamesa is really important right now, right, Phil?  Phil Totaro: Absolutely. And there, look, with the situation that Siemens Gamesa finds itself in, there are two ways out of it. Either sell off an asset strip or invest and pull yourself out of this hole that you've sunk yourself into. And I, I. You know, continue to get this kind of support from their banks and other, you know, finance partners to be able to pull themselves out of this out of this situation and out of this hole. So this deal with, with CaixaBank is, is important.  Allen Hall: Will the banks ask Siemens Gamesa to divest of some their assets to back those loans? Phil Totaro: Potentially, yes. And there are things that, you know, Siemens Gamesa as a whole and Gamesa in particular, still kind of owns that could be desirable to be divested. The question is how far do they go with that? You know, I think a lot of what they have, they probably want to keep it for operational or potentially sentimental reasons. But the bank may in fact require those kind of guarantees or the asset divestiture to ensure that they've got the cash flow necessary to keep making debt service payments absolutely.  Allen Hall: Well down in Brazil, Aeris Energy has reported about a $3.9 million loss in their second quarter down about 14% from last year at the same time. Accumulative losses for the first half of the year are about eight and a half million dollars, which is up about 50% from the previous half year. Aeris is investing obviously because there's a lot of activity down in Brazil and they, they poured in about six and a half million dollars into machinery and equipment to boost production capacity at their blade manufacturing plant. Phil Aeris has a huge backlog with Vestas on blades.  Phil Totaro: Exactly. They are, I believe, the exclusive supplier for the Brazilian market for the V150 Vestas product. And Vestas is also looking at bringing the the V162 production online. In the coming years as they start getting some orders for the bigger machines. So I think even though their Aeris is showing a net operating loss in a few quarters here in 2023 long-term, I'm actually quite optimistic about their You know, their long-term prospects, their financial health and, and their order book as it relates to their relationship with Vestas.  Allen Hall: Renewable Energy Company EDPR announced that it has sold two wind farms with a combined capacity of 260 megawatts in Brazil to Norwegian Power Company Statkraft. The $320 million in assets were commissioned over the past 12 months. So Phil, these are new wind farms that are exchanging hands down in Brazil.  Phil Totaro: Yes. And it's enhancing Statkraft's position in the market where I believe they've already got, I wanna say about five or six different wind complexes where they were. They are the owner or they were at least partially involved in the development phas...

As the wind maintenance season comes to a close, it is time to plan for the spring! Safety and efficiency are critical investments for every wind site. In the United States, and most of the western hemisphere, technicians must climb ladders to get to their job sites. This is an unnecessary task and also leads to injuries and down time. Uptime hosts Joel Saxum and Allen Hall visited with Gio Scialdone, President of 3S Lift Americas, in New Orleans this spring to learn more about their Climb Auto System and how it improves efficiency and reduces technician wear and tear. 3S Lift - https://www.3sindustry.com/product/climb-auto-system/Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelStor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  3S Lift Gio Scialdone Allen Hall: Welcome back to the Uptime podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall. Well, we've been busy here at the Uptime Podcast this summer and we thought it would be a good idea to relive or re-listen to, uh, earlier podcasts with guests that you may have missed. We thought that it would be great to bring Brack Geodon in three s Lift, and we spoke with Geo at American Clean Power, uh, earlier this spring in New Orleans of all places. That interview I think is really good 'cause it highlights all the things that Three S Lift is doing to make technicians safer and to get up and down those wind turbines easier with their climb auto system. So if you have missed this episode earlier this spring, no problem 'cause we're gonna bring it back to you. Here is Geo Schone with three s Lift. Gio Scialdone: We're here again at  Allen Hall: uh, a C P 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana with Geo Shaone from three s Lift. If you don't know three s lift, you're missing out on so much. Uh, three s Lift is about saving technicians and making sure they get up and down, uh, towers safely and, and uh, efficiently.  Gio Scialdone: Gio, welcome back to the program actually. Thank you for having me, Allen. Joel, nice to to meet you. You as well.  Allen Hall: This has been a really busy show compared to San Antonio last year. Yeah, I think so. Uh, I think much roughly doubled the amount of people from what I can tell. You, I assume you guys have been busy. I've been by your booth a couple of times. So there's a lot of people thinking  Gio Scialdone: about technicians this week. I think people have to be thinking about technicians. If you, if you, you look backwards and you look forwards in terms of the operational existing towers. You have to think about technicians for your existing fleets. Yeah. You look at the forward projections of the, the, the build out plan. You have to think about who are the people that are gonna work at these places. Um, We talked about the the competition, indirect competition that some of these workers could. Go be an Amazon truck driver and make 25 or 30 bucks out. Yeah, absolutely. They don't have to climb a winter on a tower. Yeah. You know, that's tough work. So there's some competition out there, not just inside the industry, but certainly outside.  Joel Saxum: So we know that, like across the industry, of course, it's been the word for a long time. We've talked to a lot of people around the show about just the shortage of technicians. Yeah. Right. And everybody, and you're starting to see, which is great. A lot of companies pop up, trainee. Hey, we're opening a G W O training center. We're opening this training center. We're gonna,

Siemens Energy is in turmoil as warranty claims spiral out of control. Insiders say an internal investigation has been launched into potential wrongdoing, and rumors are swirling about a possible fire sale of the struggling onshore division. Meanwhile, Equinor is popping champagne bottles to celebrate the grand opening of its futuristic Hywind Tampen floating wind farm. EDP Renewables is bringing the wind power revolution to the American heartland. The company just opened a state-of-the-art training center in Bloomington, Illinois that aims to create an army of 100 wind turbine techs over the next year. But the winds of change are blowing in another direction in Alberta, where Premier Danielle Smith has slammed the brakes on new wind and solar projects. The controversial move has the industry on edge and sets up a showdown with the federal government. At the same time, researchers at NREL and GE are cooking up radical new offshore wind turbine designs using superconducting direct drive generators that could dramatically cut costs. It's a sneak peek at the floating wind farms of tomorrow! The DOE is betting big on carbon capture, doling out a whopping $1.2 billion in funding. The lion's share is going to high-profile projects by Occidental and Battelle. But some are questioning whether carbon capture is a smart investment or just an expensive distraction. In wacky wind power news, a Dallas doctor wants to harvest electricity from the gusts generated by jets and propeller planes at the city's Love Field airport. Is this genius or crazy? Our Wind Farm of the Week is the just-completed Viking wind project in the gusty Shetland Islands. SSE Renewables finished this 103-turbine wind farm a full 6 months early. Raise your mugs - the winds of Shetland are blowing strong! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 180 Allen Hall: So college has started in the States, which means I am building IKEA furniture. It seems like IKEA should give you a Swedish citizenship certificate when you complete one of those things. It they are What is with Swedish engineers, are they some sort of state of mask or something? Because there are some installations which. That can only be done in the most painful positions. It is insanity.  Rosemary Barnes: I actually knew quite a few engineers when I was living in Europe. I, I, I, you would run into engineers at, at parties that were working for IKEA or doing their master's projects on, you know, simulation. The, you know, they've got finite element analysis engineers working for them and, and, and stuff. Allen Hall: What  Rosemary Barnes: They really are engineered, they spend a lot of effort on those products. Phil, would you agree with that? Now I sound like an ad for ikea, but I, I had never set foot in IKEA before I moved to Denmark. That was the first time that I ever entered in ikea.  Allen Hall: Let's all try to pronounce Ikea in the way they would pronounce it in Sweden. And the rosemary has to go last. Phil, give it a shot Phil Totaro: isn't it? Ikea, Ikea.  Rosemary Barnes: Rosemary. I just said Ikea. As long as you just don't say I, you say E. That's, that's the only change that I made and that was understood. But I was in Denmark, not Sweden, and it's not exactly the same. You, they definitely laugh at you if you say, I Ikea, see am part,  Allen Hall: I am part Swede. You wouldn't know it. But I am part Swede and I, I was paying attention. I knew that IKEA could not be a Swedish word. So there you go. Ikea is not a Swedish word. It's an American word. Ikea.

Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and transportation giant Crowley are joining forces to build a massive offshore wind infrastructure empire. Together they'll dominate everything from ports to vessels to keep those ocean breeze generators spinning. Meanwhile in Brazil, Vestas has created a dream team with drivetrain maker ZF Wind Power and service firm ABS Wind to optimize turbine maintenance. By sharing expertise, they aim to make Brazilian wind power run smoother than a bossa nova beat. Stateside, Ohio's homegrown wind firm One Energy just scored a $300 million mega-merger to bring wind turbines to factories across the heartland. With funding from investment firm Tortoise Ecofin, One Energy wants to make American manufacturing run on wind power. Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelStor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  News Flash August 28 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intelstor Phil Totaro, and this is your News Flash. Major players in infrastructure, investment, and maritime logistics are joining forces to tap into the growing offshore wind energy market. In the, in the United States. Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners has announced a new joint venture with maritime and logistics firm, Crowley. To provide essential services to offshore wind farm developers through the partnership, Morgan Stanley will hold a majority stake in a newly formed entity called Crowley Wind Services Holdings. Crowley will operate the business leveraging its expertise in maritime operations and port services. And Phil, we're seeing a lot of emphasis on the infrastructure to the infrastructure. And that's where a lot of cash is flowing at the moment.  Phil Totaro: It's interesting too because we actually highlighted this as the play to make about a year and a half ago to some of our, our clients and, and other companies who wanted to invest in offshore wind, but maybe perhaps didn't wanna invest directly in the project development. Vessels were one area where we, we touched upon that, you know, there's huge demand for, for vessels, so that's a, a solid investment. But the the port infrastructure is another area where this is highly needed especially in the United States where, you know, Crowley already has a, a commercial relationship with the port up in Northern California in Humboldt to support the Northern California offshore wind projects. And this relationship with Morgan Stanley gives them the opportunity. To have a vehicle to, to do more investments in other ports that require a significant upgrade to be able to handle the water depth for the vessels that draw to the vessels. And the you know, the, the key side manufacturing and fabrication capabilities that are, that are gonna be required. Allen Hall: Vestas has partnered with drivetrain supplier, ZF Wind Power, and Brazilian service provider, ABS Wind. Together. They aim to improve efficiency and response times for wind farm maintenance across the region. Under the agreement ABS Wind will handle repairs and upkeep of drive, train components produced by ZF Wind Power that are used in Vestas turbines installed in Brazil. ABS will utilize its specialized facility and expert technician space. In the northeast of Brazil re Vestas, the partnership has an agile solution to serve customers, especially those in the key wind region of Brazil....

IntelStor is a market research and business strategy consulting firm that focuses on the renewable energy industry. Founded in 2010 by renewable energy industry veteran Philip Totaro, IntelStor is regarded worldwide as the foremost experts on innovation strategy, competitive intelligence, and technology trend analysis in renewable energy. Joel Saxum and Allen Hall sit down with Phil to discuss the state of the wind industry, the need for analytics, and how the IntelStor platform can dramatically improve the wind business. Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  IntelStor Guest Allen Hall: I am Allen Hall, and I'm here with my co-host Joel Saxum for the special edition of the Uptime Podcast. In the rapidly evolving renewable energy market, market research is essential for stakeholders to make informed decisions. Market research provides insights into the revolving dynamics, consumer preferences, regulatory landscapes, and God knows there's a lot of those, and all the emergency emer and all the emerging technologies. Research can also help identify untapped opportunities to get risks and foster innovation. Well, today we're shining a spotlight on IntelStor. Founded in 2010 by CEO and founder Phil Totaro, IntelStor has become a global beacon of expertise in innovation, strategy, competitive intelligence, and technology trend analysis within the renewable energy sector. Phil, welcome back to the program.  Phil Totaro: Thanks for having me, Allen. I appreciate it.  Allen Hall: Well, there's, there's a lot happening in market analysis and I, I know I have seen behind the curtain a little bit and what all Interstore does, but you are a real powerful player in that space. The market research you have done in wind in particular is remarkable. Phil Totaro: Well, thanks. It's born out of going on, what, 13 years now of being in business, the company being in business. But it's actually more than 20 years since I left university with an aerospace engineering degree and, and plenty of enthusiasm and found myself in originally starting in the aerospace sector and then transitioning into wind. And I actually worked for Clipper Wind Power for some, it's a fondly remembered name for others they have never heard of it before. But it was a wind turbine manufacturing company that was based in the United States. And we were actually dating back to 2007, 2008. We were the number two wind turbine manufacturer in the country behind GE. At, at that time. So, you know, I, having started the company, I really just started doing kind of one-off consulting projects just as a, you know, a one-man show. And then over time what happened is we started getting repeated requests for things where we needed to build tools or we needed to build data sets. And these would be around kind of commercial market analysis, technology, benchmarking, you name it. We even did a patent landscape where we, we literally went through something like 60,000 patents and cataloged, and classified all of them. So that, that was actually quite helpful, to be honest, in familiarizing us with a lot of the technology that is not only in use in the industry, but the technology that could be used in the future. And so what happened is, you know, going back many, many years, I always wanted to build kind of an online data platform for all this. But it, we didn't, the technology didn't really quite exist to do what we wan...

From lightning strikes zapping insurers to swirling debates over turbine setbacks, offshore wind PPAs blowing in the wind, and the path to 100% clean power - this week's news spans the gusty landscape of the wind industry. Rosemary, Joel, Phil and Allen cover incentives to get wind farms permitted faster in Sweden, the pushback on bigger setbacks in Iowa, a $1.5B renewables acquisition, why more expensive offshore wind will still have a role, and more. Plus, our featured Wind Farm of the Week: Luverne Wind Project in North Dakota! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 179 Allen Hall: Well, Rosemary, we were in San Diego last week and we happened to stop in the Lego store and we were amazed at the number of Lego projects that are made for adults.  Rosemary Barnes: I'm not, I'm not surprised  Joel Saxum: I'm gonna be, I'm gonna tell you right now, I buy the race cars and build them myself, just like after dinner some nights. Phil Totaro: Kids of all ages. Allen Hall: They had a really cool Corvette and the Magic Kingdom castle and the Titanic, which, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of pieces and it would take you probably weeks to do. I don't, I don't Rosemary you seem like a Lego expert though.  Rosemary Barnes: I did live close to Lego in Denmark, so I guess, you know, obviously absorbed. Some sort of expertise, but yeah. During the pandemic, my part, my partner and I discovered that you don't have to have kids to buy Lego. Yeah. You, you can as an adult, buy, buy a kit and not worry about your kid doing it wrong. You can just, just do it yourself and you could, you can give it to them afterwards.  Joel Saxum: There's a connection between Ørsted and Lego, like the ex CEO of Lego was at one point in time, the CEO of Ørsted, like the two, two CEOs ago or something like that. I don't remember exactly what it was.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, it doesn't surprise me. Allen Hall: That's gonna be a prime job, right? Like when you're looking for jobs in the newspaper in Denmark, when Lego pops up, that's gotta be one of your top choices, right?  Joel Saxum: Just build Legos all day  Allen Hall: since we're in the Scandinavian countries. Phil, why don't you kick off?  Phil Totaro: So this week we're talking about new incentives that the Swedish government is putting in place to build onshore wind farms. And lightning strikes are responsible for 70% of the catastrophic losses in the first half of this year.  Rosemary Barnes: Then we head over to Woodbury County in Iowa where they're debating the setbacks for wind turbines and them to be increasing and increasing and increasing the distance. And then over to Australia where we're talking about tariffs on products like steel and cement if they have carbon emissions associated with them to support green versions of those industries. Joel Saxum: And in the states here, Invenergy is purchasing aeps unregulated assets about 1.4 gigawatts for about 1.5 billion with a B dollars. And then jumping offshore in the us, go to the East Coast. Commonwealth Wind Is exiting their PPA and there's about a $50 million penalty on the table. And a couple of the Massachusetts state agencies can't quite agree which direction they want to go. And then Ottertail Power Company over on the border there of Minnesota and North Dakota. Luverne Wind Farm is our Wind Farm of the week.  Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall. I'm here with my good friends, Joel Saxum, Phil Totaro and Rosemary Barnes, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

In this News Flash: Brookfield plans to invest $30B in Australia. As Phil Totaro explains, Brookfield's partnerships with Envision may bring wind turbine manufacturing to Australia. Pearce Renewables is acquiring Natron Resources which adds engineering services for solar PV and energy storage systems to the Pearce offerings. Cubico is being proffered by the UK's Public Sector Pension Investment Board and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan for $6B. Joel Saxum provides insight in Cubico's EBITA multiple and what could lie ahead. Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelStor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  News Flash August 21 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall and I'm here with Joel Saxum and Phil Totaro. And this is your News Flash. Canadian funds management giant Brookfield plans to invest $30 billion in new renewables and storage assets in Australia. Brookfield aims to take control of Australia's largest energy, utility, Origin Energy, and invest heavily in new renewables and storage projects. The $18.7 billion offer for Origin Energy has been accepted by the board and awaits regulatory approval. Now, Phil, there's a lot. About this acquisition and, and all this transfer of funds that is under the surface. You wanna explain what's actually happening here?  Phil Totaro: Yes. So this is a really exciting and fascinating deal. So it's opening up a door into the Australian market for Invision Energy, which they've never been active in, in that market, certainly in the power generation side of their, their business before. But now that Invision has, you know, a well-established wind turbine manufacturing capability, a well-established battery storage and ev battery manufacturing capability, and they're investigating all kinds of power to x type of applications like hydrogen and green ammonia production. This fits very well. With a company like Brookfield that's looking for, for that type of technology to, to exploit. And a market that, you know, as, as we've talked about on, on the show before Australia's definitely interested in, in trying to cultivate a market for some of these power to X applications like hydrogen and green ammonia for export purposes. So this is all told this package is a very impressive very impressive deal.  Joel Saxum: Yeah. One thing not to miss here is Brookfield staying true to what their business strategy is. Origin that they're buying for that 18.7 billion has a large liquid natural gas business. They're gonna spin that off. They're gonna sell it over to us-based, EIG. While Brookfield is gonna continue on with the utility business and they plan to build 12 gigawatts of new wind, solar, and storage projects by 2030 in Australia. So that's, that's big time for the country of Australia.  Allen Hall: Pearce Renewables division of Pearce Services has acquired Natron Resources, a leading provider of design and engineering services for solar PV and energy storage systems. Natron resources headquartered. The San Francisco Bay Area offers comprehensive electrical, civil and structural engineering services for renewable energy and commercial customers. So Pearce is growing again. Joel?  Joel Saxum: Yeah. Pearce. I mean, we talked with them at ACP. They were great. Great group of guys. Over 2,800 employees over there. So this is gonna broaden their scope into being able to do more design work, right?

Rosie Barnes is the CEO and Founder of Pardalote Consulting which is based in Canberra, Australia. Rosie holds a PhD in composite material structures and worked in blade design engineering at LM Wind Power focusing on blade de-icing systems. Rosie is known internationally for her Engineering with Rosie YouTube channel and co-hosting the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Pardalote Interview Allen Hall: I am Allen Hall, host of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Our guest today is Rosemary Barnes, founder and CEO of Pardalote Consulting. Pardalote is based in Canberra, Australia, and as we well know, Australia is a leader in renewable energy. Pardalote Consulting provides consulting services to wind developers, asset owners, and inventors, and Pardalote specializes in technical due diligence, technical. Assessments and patent evaluation. They have a deep understanding of the clean energy industry and are able to provide clients with accurate and unbiased information. Rosemary is also creative force and host of the widely popular. YouTube Channel Engineering with Rosie, and she is co-host of the world famous Uptime Wind Energy podcast. Rosemary, welcome to the program. Rosie Barnes:  Thank you. What a great intro. Your best. Your best ever.  Allen Hall: Well, Rosemary, we wanted to have you on the podcast because we've never highlighted your consulting business, which is extremely popular in Australia and around the world because you are one of the world's blade experts. You want to describe what Pardalote does, and I'll give a little intro there, but you can describe a little bit better than I can. Rosie Barnes: So we work with all kinds of energy transition technologies, not just wind. But I guess today we might as well focus on the, the wind energy part, all aspects of the technology development lifecycle. So that goes right from. Conceptual design all the way through to implementation and claims assessments.   Allen Hall: So, Rosemary, your background is in structural engineering, most particularly composite engineering for blades. Rosie Barnes: I did all of my degrees in Australia. I did one year of my undergraduate degree in the US at uc Davis. I, at the time, I had this idea I wanted to be an aerospace engineer. And UC Davis is a really good a school. So I went there and completed all of the core aerospace subjects in one year which was just a, a lot to do all at once, but also really fun. And I learned in the process that I didn't really want to be an aerospace engineer. I. Mostly 'cause I, I'm not so driven to work in defense, which is where most of the money is, but I am lucky enough that coincidentally all of the same science and, you know, analysis that you use for airplanes and spacecraft is very closely related to wind energy. So I went back to university and did a PhD, a structural design project on Yeah. Composite material structures specifically related to wind turbines. It was, yeah. Or new, new ways to design wind turbine blades and other complex composite structures. And then I handed that thesis in one day, and literally the next day I was on a plane to Denmark to go meet the team of a company. I had a job offer with. And yeah, I ended up accepting that and, and living in Denmark for five years.   Allen Hall: And you were working with LM Wind Power, which obviously is a huge company in terms of ...

Siemens Energy's latest updates are pushing their quality driven costs closer to €5B! Phil Totaro looks at the public relations roadmap and what may lie ahead. Fabric ply wrinkles appears to be part of the quality issues at Siemens Energy and TPI - Rosemary Barnes explains the root cause and what can be done about them. GE Vernova is still looking to build two new factories in New York along with upgrades several other facilities in the US. GE is also continuing its partnership with ORE Catapult in the UK with a new investment! ERCOT is proposing new rules that may require hardware upgrades to keep the Texas grid stable, while renewable owners are pushing back on the costly update. And discover our featured Wind Farm of the Week: Patton Wind in central Pennsylvania! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 178 Allen Hall: Rosemary, Australia may not be the dangerous part of the world. It looks like parts of Texas are. There was a lady just recently who was out mowing her lawn and a snake fell on her from the sky. Just landed on her out of clear blue sky landed on her arm, wrapped around her arm. She starts screaming, help me Jesus, and starts shaking, trying to shake the snake off. The snake starts attacking her face. Starts hitting, but thank God she had glasses on. So the snake is hitting her glasses and broke her glasses. Meanwhile, a hawk just happens to be by now why the hawk is there. We'll answer later, but the hawk comes down, sees a snake on this woman's arm, and attacks this lady's arm with a snake on it, and after three or four times, eventually gets the snake off the lady. She and she lived to tell the story about it. But Rosemary, it's just, I thought this has to be Australia, right? This is not an American situation.  Rosemary Barnes: I assume the hawk, the hawk dropped the snake on her and then went back for it. Is that the, is, is that the conclusion?  Allen Hall: Yeah, I, I think so. Yes. That almost happened to me over the past weekend actually. We have a lot of hawks in the area, and I'm out, when I'm out mowing the yard. There's a lot of like scurrying in the yard of what we call volees, little kind of ground mice things. A hawk loves to come watch when I do that. And the other day I noticed there was a hawk had picked up a little critter in the yard and was on top of the telephone pole and decided to fly over me. And he dropped that, dropped that animal, and I thought, oh my God, I'm gonna get hit by this dead animal because this is right up right over top of me.  Rosemary Barnes: Did you call for Jesus to save you?  Allen Hall: I almost did, but you know what? The hawk did? The hawk dived down and caught that. Dang vole and then flew away. Thank God, because if it had hit me.  Rosemary Barnes: Could've been attacked by a vole! Allen Hall: It would've been attacked by a vole and then attacked by this hawk and that that hawk, those hawks are big. Yeah, it's crazy. It's amazing, you know, when you're mowing outside, I was mowing just like this lady was obviously, but man, mowing is a lot more dangerous than I thought it was.  Rosemary Barnes: Glad you survived to tell the tale. Allen Hall: So we're always looking for those dangerous things in Australia, right? And we, we, we couldn't really find one this week, so it actually turned to America to look for the. With a crazy situation last week it was that Chinese bear.  Rosemary Barnes: It's insane that people are so, so stressed about Australia, like I've been to, to Canada and Bears will just, you, you know,

In this News Flash: Adani Group's new 5.2MW wind turbine will be introduced as part of Adani's larger expansion into wind, solar, and green hydrogen. Nike is suing Avangrid for the $30M in ERCOT incentive payments received after the 2021 ice storm in Texas. And, the Venterra Group is acquiring the vibro-piling company CAPE Holland. Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  News Flash August 17 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intelstor Phil Totaro, and this is your News Flash. Over in India, the Adani group will be unveiling its new 5.2 megawatt wind turbine, which it just received a provisional certificate for. The turbine will be built with technology from W2E or Wind to Energy which is based in Germany. Turbine is touted as India's largest wind turbine and one of the world's largest onshore machines. Adani Group is emphasizing local sourcing for projects for this wind turbine, and it's also involved in solar and green hydrogen. And Phil, it seems like part of the output of these wind turbines and 5.2 megawatt is a big machine, is that they're headed to create green hydrogen over in India. Phil Totaro: Absolutely. So Adani Group, for those that don't know, is owned and controlled by one of the wealthiest families in in India. And they've made significant strides in investing in project development through Adani Energy in various subsidiaries there as well as other countries throughout. Southeast Asia. They definitely have an interest in kind of expanding what they're doing. But this is interesting because they're, they're kind of adopting the same type of business model that a lot of the western European OEMs had going back a few decades where they'd, they'd have their development arm and then they'd have like a, a turbine or in their case, they're also pursuing a significant amount of solar manufacturing capacity. They actually, it's, it's gone largely unnoticed. And I, I'm glad we're talking about this today. 'cause it did come out in, in the news but they also raised more than $300 million to support this wind turbine manufacturing capacity and their solar manufacturing capacity in India. So, they have very big designs on expanding their capability and, and being a serious player in a global market. Allen Hall: Avangrid seeks dismissal of Nike's $31 million lawsuit related to the Texas freeze in 2021. Avangrid is defending itself and maintains that the wind farm, that was, that did get frozen and the payments that happened from ERCOT, which it received almost $30 million for, belong to Avangrid. Nike disagrees. Nike thinks part of its virtual power purchase agreement that Avangrid owes them that money. Now, Phil, can you explain where this money is coming from ERCOT to begin with? Phil Totaro: wYes. So this goes back to, as you mentioned, this issue in Texas where there was a freeze in. You know, kind of average temperatures wind energy, a lot of wind energy tripped offline. Solar and natural gas pipes froze. There was a, you know, unfortunately a few people died from this. And it was a, it was altogether a terrible situation. Where the money's coming from is basically, ERCOT has said that. Alright, we'll cover. Certain fees up to a point. 'cause you know, the intraday price for, for power on the merchant market spiked to like something like $9,

ONYX Insight is a world-leader in continuous monitoring systems for wind turbines. They are continuing to modernize the monitoring of blades with their recent partnership with the South Korea-based drone inspection experts at Nearthlab. This week’s guest Megan Rotondo, Service Development Manager for ONYX Insight, discusses the latest advancements in blade monitoring and how advanced drone imaging can reduce O&M budgets and yield happier turbines. ONYX Insight - https://onyxinsight.comPardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Megan Rotondo Interview Allen Hall: I am Allen Hall, host of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Our guest today is Megan Rotondo, service development manager with ONYX Insight, and if you don't know ONYX Insight well you're missing out because ONYX Insight is a global renewable technology business that provides predictive analytics and wind turbine monitoring services to owners and operators of renewable energy assets. Solutions deliver increased energy production and reduced operations and maintenance costs, enabling wind turbine operators to minimize unplanned downtime and maximize investment returns. ONYX Insight are technology agnostic and work across all types of turbines and CMS systems to optimize turbine efficiency. And you probably, if you do know ONYX Insight, you probably know them from all their drive, train, vibration monitoring equipment, which they're excel at. Megan has a lot of experience in blades, so Megan has a previous experience with GE and Envision on Blade design, so she's a real blade person, and this is why we love having Megan on the program because we can geek out on blades a little bit. Megan, welcome to the program.  Megan Rotondo: Thank you. I'm glad to be here.  Allen Hall: So, ONYX Insight had a recent announcement with Nearthlab, and if people are not familiar with Nearthlab, Nearthlab is based in South Korea and they do drone inspections at a, at a really cool and a couple cool things there. That partnership when it was announced, like, wow, that's super powerful. It, it sounds like it was a blade engineer. It's gonna give you a lot more access to data and information from the field. Right? Isn't that where, where it was going?  Megan Rotondo: Yeah. Yeah. We announced the partnership end of March, early April of this year. And really just to, I mean, really coming from our customers, I mean, as part of our expansion, you know, I joined ONYX in 2021 and like you mentioned, best known for drivetrain, CMS. So really focused on bearings, gear boxes more of the drivetrain on the turbine. However it came from our customers that, you know, we really need to consider the whole turbine when we're talking about predictive maintenance. So this is just another part of that story is, you know, we offer, you know, you do borescopes on gearboxes, you do end of warranty walk down inspections. We go to tear downs for bearings. So for blades, we need to be able to offer a similar service. So instead of reinventing the wheel, and like you mentioned, we like to be pretty flexible in our technology. This partnership with Nearthlab allows us to offer a more streamlined, like turnkey service. So if someone's working with us on an end to warranty campaign instead of the customer having to search for another company or multiple companies to handle the blade inspections,

Siemens Energy's scrutiny of Siemens Gamesa unveils fresh worries - costs may surge past $5B! TPI highlights unforeseen expenses tied to blade issues, raising concerns about larger outlays. Tragic incident: Technician trapped in turbine hub in Spain. Legal hurdles emerge for EDF Renewables in Nebraska due to post-installation noise rule change. Phil Totaro addresses escalating restrictions on wind development - could ACP be the solution? After 18 years of permits, TransWest Express Transmission project, spotlighted by Joel Saxum, finally breaks ground. Discover our featured wind farm: Bison Wind Energy Center in North Dakota! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 177 Allen Hall: Joel, this bear in China that everybody's talking about. It does look like a guy in a bear suit. I gotta be honest, it moves like a guy in a bear suit.  Joel Saxum: I'm gonna tell you guys a story. I was gonna tell you this earlier, but this is a short one. So this is a very American thing and a very hillbilly in living in the sticks northern Wisconsin. When I was a kid and growing up, we convinced one of our classmates that Bigfoot was real, Bigfoot is real well, that he was real and lived in the county that we were from. So one of our friends dressed up in a monkey costume, and we were, we were out looking for deer. And one night during the fall before, before the season, and we had this shining spotlight out, and a dude ran across the back of the field in a monkey costume. Buddy freaked out, and then he was like, wait, we've gotta have proof of this. We gotta have him. And like, tried to grab a hunting rifle and was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We're kidding, man. We're kidding. Like, it's not real. It's, it's, you know, it's so and so in a monkey costume. And they're like, he was like, I don't know. That looked like Bigfoot to me. Like, no, no, man. We're messing with you. Only in Wisconsin. Yeah. I gotta look for you gotta make your own fun. You gotta make your own fun.  Allen Hall: Well, this week we have some fascinating news. Siemens Gamesa is having huge quality issues, which we all knew. But the, the, the amount which it may impact Siemens energy is growing higher and higher by factors of. One x two x three x at this point. And we're not sure where the pain is gonna stop, so we're, we're trying to keep track of that and, and figure out where Siemens and Siemens Gamesa are headed. And then TPI has had some recent blade issues and some warranty claims, repairs they have to go do that at this point are in the tens of millions of dollars to their bottom line, but they may be a lot higher based on noise we're hearing back from the industry. Rosemary Barnes: And we are gonna talk a bit about health and safety, following the unfortunate death of a wind turbine technician in Spain.  Phil Totaro: This week we're going to also discuss the Milligan One project in Nebraska owned by EDF, which is facing noise curtailment restrictions after the project was already permitted and has been operational for years. This reflects a growing issue in the United States where moratoriums and restrictions are being put in place in more than 44 states around the country and counties and townships, and it's having potentially financially disastrous consequences for project developers.  Joel Saxum: So then after we discuss about some of these issues that are happening to curtail development we're gonna talk about a victory. So Wyoming Trans West Express Transmission Project finally permitted and moving forward,

In this News Flash: ReNew Power forms a joint venture with Gentari Renewables targeting 5GW in renewable energy in India. Capital Energy plans to sell its 4.3GW portfolio of onshore wind and solar project in Spain along with 48 projects that are ready for construction. RES, the world's largest independent renewable energy company, will acquire Ingeteam's Renewable Service division. Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  News Flash 7 August 2023 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall and I'm here with my Uptime co-host, Joel Saxum and this is your News Flash. ReNew Power and Gentari Renewables India are forming a 50/50 joint venture in clean energy solutions. The joint venture aims to achieve a target of five gigawatts in renewable energy capacity in India, focusing on solar, wind, and energy storage. Gentari Renewables India is a subsidiary of Malaysian clean energy solutions provider, Gentari, which is part of Malaysia's state owned oil and gas major Petronas. Gentari's initial investment for a 49% equity stake in ReNew's 403 megawatt Peak Power Project in May, 2023, led to this collaboration. So Joel, this is a, a, a, a really unique collaboration in India for renewable power. ReNew is, is just a huge renewable energies company, and Gentari is headed that way. So this is fascinating where two really powerful companies are joining forces again to increase their scale.  Joel Saxum: Yeah. You know, in India there's a lot of different regions that have really good wind resource. So as, as Rosemary talks about on the show a lot is that, you know, if you have wind resource, it's all tied together. You know the wind blows the same. If the wind shuts down, it shuts down for the whole region. That's problematic. In India, they don't have that problem. So they have a lot of different regions and, and as we know plagued for power production there in India. So this is great for the country of India and the, the economy over there as well to have a couple of big players invest in some money and build some assets.  Allen Hall: So the partnership with Gentari will expand ReNew's energy portfolio and they're planning on having 30 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030. So that's pretty massive. Over in Spain, spanish based renewable energy investor, Capital Energy plans to sell a portfolio of 4.3 gigawatts of onshore wind and solar power plants in Spain. The portfolio is estimated to be upwards of 1 billion US dollars, but you know, it's subject to due diligence of the projects, obviously. The sale known as Project One includes 48 projects ready for construction within 15 months, and a couple other solar sites of, of almost about a gigawatt. So there's a lot of assets in this that Capital Energy is planning to sell. Again, Joel, it seems like a lot of existing renewable energy providers are selling their existing portfolio to move to the next generation of portfolios. Yeah.  Joel Saxum: Taking that capital and reallocating it. Right. So they, these, these wind farms are up and running. They're good to go. But this is a little bit different because Capital Energy here is also selling some of their pipeline. So the, the pipeline of construction projects ready for you know, getting, getting closer to shovel ready. And that's something different than we've seen in the US right? When we saw, say Duke Energy sell their assets.

Brazil's wind turbine market is surging! From an installed capacity of 24 GW in 2022, it's set to soar to a massive 45.20 GW by 2028. But with the majority of turbines in the northeast region facing relentless rainfall, ensuring top-notch blade performance is crucial. Join us as Armando Costa Rego, Founder and CEO of Arthwind, shares insights on how they're keeping the wind turbines spinning flawlessly amid the boom. Arthwind - https://arthwind.com.brPardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Arthwind Interview Allen Hall: I am Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the Vice President of North American Sales to Wind Power LAB, Joel Saxum. And today we're talking about the need for wind blade inspections and repair planning with our guest Armando Costa Rego, founder and CEO of Arthwind. And Arthwind are the blade doctors of Brazil. Now, if you've been around wind turbines long enough, you know that wind turbines are a critical part of the renewable energy infrastructure, but they're also complex machines that can be susceptible to damage. And wind blades are particularly vulnerable to damage from ice, wind, and other environmental factors. And that's why it's important to have a comprehensive blade inspection and repair plan in place. This plan should include the schedule for regular inspections and a process for identifying, repairing any damage that is found. And Arthwind is really key part of that. By following a regular inspection and repair plan, you can ensure your, your wind turbine blades are operating safely and efficiently, and you can also definitely extend the lifetime of your wind turbines, which will save money in the long run. So on this podcast, we're gonna discuss all of the importance factors of wind blade inspections and repair planning. We'll also talk about some of the latest technology that Arthwind has used to inspect and repair wind turbine blades. Armando, welcome to the program.  Armando Costa Rego: Hey guys, thank you very much for this introduction. It's really a pleasure to be here the first time after meeting you several times around the world. So now we are here now.  Allen Hall: So Arthwind's based in Brazil. You guys are located just outside of Sao Paulo. And you, you, you formed a company because you had a lot of blade expertise. You may, you may wanna give a brief description of, of where you learned about blades. Armando Costa Rego: Yeah, that's right. We are located in, near to Sao Paulo actually, Sorocaba. Sorocaba is a a city where Texas has built more than 50,000 wind blades since 2007. So we have here a hub of expertise of the all kinds of blades and all that. At, at 37 meters, 40 meters, 48 and any longers blades. My, my expertise started in Europe, actually. I was running wind blade maintenance through a, a company, a local company there since 2009, up to 2015. Then I returned to Brazil to manage the operation in South America and decided in 2007 to create my own project called Arthwind to bring the technology to the way how things are getting done, you know, so I was like a terrific critic of how blades is used, being inspected, inspecting that time, taking pictures from the grounds. So I joined partners around the world to, to bring this new technology to Brazil and so far since 2017, we, we had successfully inspected more than 45,

Exciting wind energy updates this week! Rosemary's away, but GE Vernova is tackling quality issues and refocusing its workforce for onshore projects. Short-term pain, long-term gains? Rhode Island rejects Orsted/Eversource PPA pricing for Revolution Wind 2 - project fate uncertain! Brace for a 9% electricity price hike in New York this August - can offshore wind from Maine save the day? Cost increases halt Vattenfall's British Norfolk Boreas offshore project, raising concerns for others. Will Bill Gates and Richard Branson backed Fervo Energy make geothermal less-expensive? Joel gives a class in drilling holes and making energy. Don't miss our wind farm of the week - Flat Ridge 1! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 176 Allen Hall: Joel RELA the insurance adjusters based in the uk. Just put out that nice little summary of all the types of damages that wind turbines suffer. It was quite, Fascinating to read through that I didn't realize, you know, gearboxes and some of the other issues are so massive right now. Joel Saxum: Yeah, man. It's, it's really eye-opening to read that report. Martin Dobson, their technical director over there at RELA puts up, he's, they're, they're always putting out great stuff, but the, the really, really interesting one, if you haven't looked at it, it's on the Wind Power Lab, LinkedIn channel but the lightning damages, right? I mean, we're always talking about lightning. So weather guard, lightning tech, of course, lightning. Company and Allen, the, the expertise that you bring to that space. When you read through this, this little article that they put out, this little presentation, you see how many damages are related to Lightning? It's, it's it'll blow your mind. Allen Hall: It's a hundred million dollars. I would just quickly add it up back to the envelope is a hundred million dollars. Like, that's a lot of insurance adjustment to be done. And it, a lot of it's preventable. It's, it's crazy. I know. We, we get requests all the time at Weather Guard here to. Upgrade the Lightning Protection Systems and most wind turbines we can upgrade relatively inexpensively and quickly. So these, this a hundred million dollars of, of insurance money being spread around should be cut in half easily at this point. And, you know, you, you and I, Joel. We have conversations all the time about how we can inform the industry on what can be done, and we finally decided to put together a webinar. Joel Saxum: Yeah, absolutely. So here, coming up in, in August you guys can dial on, we'll of course share it here on the podcast platform and. Through all of our other email platforms as well. But we're gonna have Morton Hamburg, the chief Blade Specialist from Wind Power Lab, and of course, Alan Hall here. We're talking about lightning. So Alan will bring the, bring the physics side and all of his knowledge and, and Morton share the blade side. And we're gonna have put a webinar together, some live q and a and be able to engage directly with the Audience. Yeah.  Allen Hall: So keep your eyes open for that. Morton is gonna add a tremendous amount. So if, if you're not sure what kind of damage you're seeing on your blade, or why are you seeing some weird things happen in your blade, Morton will know, and it's a great opportunity to, to, to pick Morton's brains or to pick my brain about lightning. And it's all gonna be on LinkedIn. Joel Saxum: Yeah. And, and to be honest with you, more importantly, to the listeners out there, we're gonna talk about why, how, what the damages are, what,

In this News Flash: Engineering firm PD&MS has been acquired by RSK, Total Energies takes full ownership of Total Eren, and opponents of offshore wind projects in New Jersey are suing Orsted over $1 billion in tax breaks. Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  News Flash - 30 July 2023 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, President of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the Vice President of North American Sales for Wind Power LAB, Joel Saxum and the founder and CEO of Intelstor Phil Totaro, and this is your News Flash, Aberdeen based engineering firm PD&MS has acquired, been acquired by RSK, a global leader in sustainable solutions, PD&MS has been operating since 2002 and expanded with Synergy Environ and Optimus joining in 2021 and 2022, respectively. The company serves prominent names in the energy industry like Vattenfall and Seagreen Offshore Wind Project. This is a merger of engineering companies. It seems like every engineering company, is involved in any offshore or global business, right at the moment is trying to grab another engineering business to make themselves more powerful. Phil Totaro: Yes. This makes two weeks in a row that we've been talking about this. But it's also interesting to note too, you know, how involved both companies are in,,insurance advisory as well. This was probably not necessarily highlighted in in. What they put out publicly, but they, both companies have actually done a lot with, UK insurance companies. in particular in underwriters. So I, I think everybody that's involved in the offshore wind value chain just wants to understand what the emerging risks are, a lot better than, than what they currently do. So I think this, this makes sense and the consolidation is likely to continue. Joel Saxum: To follow on with what Phil's saying there with the insurance industry is you have London. The reason London has is making money and always has, it's a financial center right. it's like Singapore or, or New York. I mean, they, they produce things, but the really thing they produce is the movement of money. So London as a financial center is also where the London markets are. All of the insurance companies are there, but you also have a lot of bankers there. So if there's a, you know, and they, they drink beer at the same pubs. They hang out with the same people. So when you start listening to people, Oh, well there's, there's some financial companies here. There's, there's quite, to be honest with you, there's quite a bit of dry powder sitting around in London that is looking at investing in, in renewables because they see it as the future, right? You always follow the money. I. Um, so those, those same circles playing together, if you can see, hey, we should tie this person up or tie these people up, um, that's how they're creating these monster engineering groups and they're gonna, this, this is gonna continue to happen. Total  Allen Hall: Energies has acquired full ownership of renewable energies, company total. EEN increasing the state from approximately 30% to 100%. The acquisition evolves a net investment around 1.5 billion euros for total energies. Total EEN has about three and a half gigawatts of renewable capacity and operation worldwide. What the pipeline of over 10 gigawatts of projects in 30 countries. Joel Saxum:, I think it's a smart move by Total, Total,

PES Wind is the leading provider of news and information about the wind energy industry. With over 26,000 print copies and 35,000 digital copies distributed each quarter, PES Wind is the go-to source for industry professionals and enthusiasts alike. In this interview, PES Wind Director Stefann Perrigot discusses the company's high standards for content, its growing reach, and the future of wind energy. Stefann believes that wind energy is a bright future, as it becomes a more affordable and reliable source of renewable energy. If you're interested in learning more about the latest trends in wind energy, then you need to check out this interview. PES Wind is the voice of wind energy, and this interview is your chance to hear it straight from the source. PES Wind - https://pes.eu.com/wind/Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  PES Wind Allen Hall: I am Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and today's special guest is Stefann Perrigot director at PES Wind and PES Wind is a website that provides news and information about the wind energy industry. It is part of the Power and Energy Solutions network, which also includes websites dedicated to solar energy, energy storage, and other renewable energy technologies. PES Wind's, website features, articles about new wind projects, technology developments, and industry trends. In addition to its website, PES Wind also publishes a quarterly magazine, which is beautiful. The magazine features in-depth articles about wind energy topics, as well as interviews with industry experts. If not familiar with PES Wind, you should be. So, Stefann, welcome to the program.  Stefann Perrigot: Appreciate being here. It's been a long time coming. Yes, it has actually. And I've been asked a few times by a number of my clients on the, you know, especially at the recent global offshore wind on the, on the floor itself to say, you know, when are you getting on? So Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do it at the show itself, but you know, here I am now and it's a pleasure to be here. Allen Hall: Just a couple of touch points here where we get started. I think when you read PES Wind, you realize, wow, this is, this magazine is brilliant, right? There's a, a lot of good information in every magazine Plus has beautiful photos. The magazine itself looks exquisite. How long have you guys been at this making this magazine? Stefann Perrigot: So a bit about us. You know, we've been going sort of nearly 20 years now, but it used to be a renewable energy publication. And then we soon realized that we needed to essentially split it into a pure wind publication and a pure solar publication. So we did that. And then ever since then, it's just sort of grown in terms of the, the, you know, the content, the quality, and we're refining it all the time. So it's just been getting better and better and, and, you know, and the sort of type of companies we work with. And the type of you know, interviews and people that we're working with is getting stronger, which is increasing, you know, the value of the content. And yeah, so for that we're really, really pleased.  Allen Hall: Yeah, your magazine does not include press releases, which I think is very fascinating because a lot of information you get in regards to wind energy or just press releases. Stefann Perrigot: I mean, that's a,

As offshore wind technology continues its global expansion, a noteworthy collaboration has emerged between industry giants GE and Toshiba, who are now partnering to deploy cutting-edge Haliade-X nacelles for Japanese offshore farms. Meanwhile, in Louisiana, discussions are underway for the establishment of up to 5 near-shore wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico, a strategic move that would keep these projects out of federal waters. However, the wind industry and WindEurope have expressed their disapproval of the recent negative bidding process that unfolded for German offshore sites, which has sparked debates. On a brighter note, Swiss-based RigiTech is revolutionizing drone deliveries to offshore turbines, promising improved efficiency and effectiveness. In US waters, tensions arise between worker groups and developers due to the Jones Act, posing challenges to offshore endeavors. In the realm of corporate innovation, Shopify is taking a novel approach to reduce meeting times with an innovative calendar update. Lastly, let's shine a spotlight on our Wind Farm of the Week, the impressive Fowler Ridge 1 project. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 175 Allen Hall: Joel, I had a meeting with nascar Xfinity Driver, Kyle. Weatherman. He is a really interesting character. I have never talked to a NASCAR driver before. Super talented and we went to watch the race this weekend up in New, well, when you hear this, it's been a week past, but it was up in New Hampshire, which was fascinating. I haven't been that close to a NASCAR race before. I've watched it on television for years, but it never really been to one. It, it was really cool. It's loud and powerful and there were a couple of really. Significant accidents right, right in front of us near know the start, finish line. It was quite the scare there at the end. But a really, really good time. So we're just gonna keep track of him the next couple of months. It's just interesting to talk to somebody who actually races cars for a living. It's. It's pretty cool. It's kinda like being a lightning engineer. They're cool. But, so this week we talk about a woman being hit by a meteorite in France and then GE and Toshiba are partnering together in Japan to make NA cells, which is  Joel Saxum: really cool. And the state of Louisiana taking advantage of its three mile economic zone to install some offshore wind down there. And then we're gonna stay in the offshore wind world and take a peek at the. Auction that just happened over in Germany, and we do call it an auction instead of negative bidding via Rosemary. And then also staying again in the offshore world of RigiTech or RigiTech. We're not really sure which one it is, but drone deliveries right from the vessel all the way up to the nael dropping parts, and most importantly lunches off to technicians  Rosemary Barnes: up there. And we're gonna talk about the Jones Act with suspicions that foreign flagged vessels might be being used instead of us made ones in off the US coast, we're gonna talk about Shopify's plans to reduce waste of meetings with unnecessary people involved. Our Wind Farm of the week this week is the Fowler Wind One upgrade. I'm Allen Hall  Allen Hall: president of Weather Guard Lightning Ticket. I'm here with the Vice President of North American Sales for Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxon and International Renewables expert Rose Murray Barnes, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Well, Rosemary, a French woman, was hit by a meteorite while having coffee on a terrace with a friend in,

In this News Flash: Offshore Wind Consultants (OWC) is acquiring Delta Wind Partners, a specialist in offshore wind turbine solutions, to expand its technical offerings and consultancy services for offshore wind projects. The move is seen as a strategic partnership to acquire more engineers and capabilities, leading to market share growth. Equinor is set to acquire Rio Energy, a prominent onshore renewables company in Brazil, through an agreement with Denham Capital. This move allows Equinor to establish a leading role in Brazil's rapidly growing renewables industry, enhancing its production cash flow and project pipeline. TPI, a blades company, has hired Neil Jones as its Chief Quality Officer, a newly created position. The company aims to address quality issues in its wind business and reassure investors, operators, and insurance companies about its commitment to quality. TPI has also experienced management shuffles, indicating a potential realignment of upper-level management and a shift toward implementing a higher level of quality control, considering their transition to a build-to-print business model. Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  News Flash - 24 July 2023 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the Vice President of North American Sales for Wind Power LAB, Joel Saxum and the Founder and CEO of Intelstor Phil Totaro, and this is your News Flash. Offshore Wind Consultants is acquiring Delta Wind Partners to expand its technical offering in wind turbines and consultancy for offshore wind projects. Wind Partners is a specialist in all kinds of solutions involving offshore wind turbines. Now. Now Joel, this seems to be an obvious partnership just because everybody's looking for engineers. Everybody's looking for offshore wind experience. Joel Saxum:  Yeah. Grabbing, grabbing engineers, grabbing capabilities, and growing market share. So, Right. It's the same thing. We talk about this, this kind of grouping of companies that are complimentary to each other. If your culture matches a bit and, and they've got 10 engineers and you've got 10 engineers, let's put 'em all together. We got 20 engineers. Now we're, now, we're a big company that can be entrusted more  Allen Hall: and Delta Wood Partners has a couple of projects that has worked on some projects in the UK, Ireland, Japan, and South Korea. Now, Phil, South Korea is a big growing area for offshore wind. Does bringing in some expert expertise for a group that has worked in South Korea help out offshore wind consultants? Phil Totaro: Absolutely. So OWC has some of their own contracts on some of the kind of projects that are in the pipeline. But even generally, like OWC's Parent Company, ABL. They have been kind of expanding their capability throughout offshore wind over the past, you know, five, six years. So this is just adding one more piece to that, that puzzle that gives them kind of a a market leading position. Allen Hall: Everybody's looking to grab the market position. At the moment everybody's getting bigger. More of this to come. Equinor will acquire Rio Energy, a prominent onshore renewables company in Brazil through an agreement with Denham capital. Deal includes selected assets and the team while denim capital will retain. Certain assets. The move allows Equinor to take a leading role in t...

Rain erosion wreaking havoc on wind turbine blades stands tall among the toughest engineering challenges to conquer. Tackling this tempestuous problem head-on, R&D Test Systems, hailing from Denmark, emerges as the pioneer behind cutting-edge rain erosion test rigs, extensively employed worldwide to meet the exacting demands of both the wind and aerospace industries. Niels Pedersen, the esteemed Key Account Manager at R&D Test Systems, takes Uptime listeners on an expedition through the labyrinth of rain erosion quandaries, offering a breakdown of the inner workings of the erosion test equipment and glimpses into the forthcoming generation of rain erosion weaponry that will soon find its rightful place at DTU - a leap forward into an even more resilient future. R&D Test Systems - https://www.rd-as.comPardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  R&D Test Systems Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and today we're talking about a major issue facing the wind industry. Leading edge erosion. Leading edge erosion is, is damaged, caused by leading edges of wind turbine blades that hit raindrops, hail, dust, sand, all kinds of particles. It can lead to a decrease in efficiency, power output, and even premature failure of blades. Engineers and scientists are working on new materials to mitigate leading edge erosion, but they need to be thoroughly tested before being used on a wind turbine. That's where R&D Test Systems come in. R&D Test Systems builds the whirling arm rain erosion test equipment that many of you have seen on LinkedIn and YouTube. Now, this test equipment simulates raindrops impacting a wind turbine blade or aircraft up to 170 meters per second. That's about 600 kilometers per hour. That's really fast. To discuss this remarkable piece of equipment we have Niels Pedersen, Key Account Manager with R&D Test Systems. Niels, welcome to the program. Niels Pedersen: Thank you, Allen.  Allen Hall: So leading edge erosion is this massive issue, which affects pretty much every operator in the world. And the, the, the one complaint is there's, it is just everywhere and we don't know what to do about it. Right? That seems to be the big concern is that as they don't know where to go about it and there's, there seems to be. All kinds of solutions in the marketplace at the moment. From coatings to tapes to these new shell devices. It's really hard to discern what is working at the moment.  Niels Pedersen: Yeah. Yeah, it really is. And there's, we see a lot of of coding manufacturers, of tape manufacturers of poly European shield manufacturers tapping into this business because it is such a massive problem. And, and the business case is essentially really good. If you can solve this problem, then you have a, a really great business case. That is, that is the key thing that, that this is just increasing the, the cost of energy that we need to go and do repairs on the blades offshore especially, and currently you need to do repairs every eight year or something like that. Depending on the location of the site.  Allen Hall: Yeah. That, that is key, right? Is that as the, the tip speeds have increased, the blades get longer, there's, there is more and more leading edge erosion and, you know, numbers vary,

In the realm of offshore wind installations along the East Coast, the US has set its sights on nothing short of monumental goals. Yet, as the winds of progress push forward, they encounter formidable obstacles that impede their journey. Enter Phil Totaro, a seasoned expert from Intelstor, who generously provides Allen and Joel with a captivating insider's perspective on the intricate web of infrastructure challenges and formidable financial headwinds hindering this ambitious mission. Don't even think about missing out on this enlightening podcast! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Phil Totaro Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the Vice President of North American Sales of Wind Power LAB, Joel Saxum and the CEO and founder of Intelstor, Phil Totaro. And we are here to discuss offshore wind development in the United States because we get a lot of questions about that via LinkedIn, via chat, via text messages that there's, there's a lot of concern about where the US is going because there appears to be delays and. You know, as the offshore wind is rapidly a growing industry and the US has a potential to be a major player in it, but there are several supply constraints that are going to be holding back development that includes a shortage of vessels and ports, the lack of a domestic manufacturing chain for the turbines, foundations, and ships. A shortage of skilled workers and also, you know, there's just regulatory issues, transmission lines, all of that. These constraints are, are our major challenge to the US schools of developing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. So to meet this goal, the US will need to invest and. All kinds of efforts to even get close to the 30 gigawatt number. So this discussion today is to try to highlight some of the issues and, and, and make our listeners aware of what's happening out there because large players on the US East Coast are starting to try to delay projects or asking for different PPA prices or trying to roughly trying to raise prices about 20%. Why are they trying to do that? So Phil, hey, welcome back to the  Phil Totaro: program. Thanks, Allen. Thanks for having  Allen Hall: me. So there is a, a supply constraint and, and we're, Joel and I have gone back and forth about how big that constraint is. Are we 29 gigawatts out of 30 or are we more like 15 gigawatts out of 30 by 2030? Phil Totaro: We're leaning more towards the 15. If, if that, and unfortunately The one answer to your question about why, you know and, and why are people trying to slow down? Why are people trying to raise prices by 20%? The short answer is inflation. The bigger question though, is it, it looks like we're not actually quite ready to pull the trigger on some of the investment commitments that have been made. You know, there are nael factories that need to be built. There are blade factories that need to be built foundations, et cetera. And while there have been many public statements about it which have excited and delighted, you know, local politicians who are interested in jobs and tax revenue, It. We haven't actually seen money, a whole lot of money get spent yet. I think of the 10 to 15 factory commitments or expansions let's throwing in, you know, some, some other domestic facilities. There's about 15 or so facilities today that are ...

SeaTwirl has a contract to develop a new VAWT based on their earlier designs - Rosemary provides insights. Wind and solar jobs are abundant in the U.S. with a significant portion in construction with Texas and California leading the nation. Rosemary, Joel and Allen then look into a Siemens Gamesa 5X blade failure at a new wind farm in Brazil. What can done to repair the 5X blades and where there issues during the blade certification? Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 174 Allen Hall: We kind of got sidetracked a little bit because of the Siemens Gamesa 5X blade breaking down in Brazil.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, but that's interesting. Everyone wants to hear about that. Allen Hall: I do because I have a, a real bone to pick about the way that that blade was tested. And, and I I just need to understand from Rosemary in this episode, you, you hear me question her like, what is going on? Why didn't I catch it in testing? And Joel's being very sly cause I feel like he knows more than he's telling us, but. Between Rosemary and I, we actually have a bet and I'm gonna end up sending her $20. I know that I am. To Australia, but I think it's a good bet. I think we need to hash out what's happening. Right. Rosemary? I think we need to figure out what's happening with Sema Ga Meza.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Yeah. So we, we speculate a lot about what's going on. We're kind of piecing it together. Nancy Drew's story Nancy Drew's style from the little reports that we're, we're hearing, and I, I think, you know, we got a lot more information in the, the latest one that we talk about in today's episode. Allen Hall: Yeah. And we also talk about renewable technicians being in huge demand in the United States, particularly in construction. And then, The SeaTwirl vertical axis wind turbine that looks like they have another project up in Europe. So it's pretty exciting. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the Vice President of North America and Sales for Wind Power LAB. Joel Saxum, an international renewables expert, Rosemary Barnes on this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Sea Twirl and Kontiki winds have signed an MOU to explore opportunities for electrifying offshore assets using sea twirls floating wind turbines. So this sounds interesting because we haven't heard a lot outta SeaTwirl lately. So SeaTwirl makes these vertical axis wind turbines. But SeaTwirl has received a purchase order, which is the first step to making money, and that's where they need to get right to develop. They're gonna develop a smaller wind turbine they call an S 1.5 to, to, to withstand all of the torture of the North Sea. It's SeaTwirls first commercial revenues, and it's a milestone for the company. So that's fantastic. Now Rosemary, this is a little bit different. So what's happening here is they're going to, the contiki wind is gonna combine SeaTwirls vertical axis floating wind platform with an existing farm. So it's basically gonna plug in a turbine into an existing farm not create a farm for these SeaTwirls. So it sounds like it's sort of a one-off, but it's on a trial basis, but they're getting paid to go make this turbine. That's a really good first step, right? To actually get a part in service.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I think it is a logical next step.

The Uptime News Flash is a short form podcast to discuss wind energy mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships. This week in the news Joel Saxum and Allen Hall discuss Germany's dynamic bidding process for offshore wind, CS Wind acquiring Bladt Industries, and Vestas moving their Asia Pacific headquarters to South Korea. Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  News Flash 17 July 2023 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the Vice President of North American Sales for Wind Power LAB. Joel Saxum, we're the host of the Uptime podcast, and this is your newsflash. First up, Germany's first dynamic bidding process for offshore wind zones has generated 12.6 billion euros in proceeds. The auction received several zero subsidy bids for the three North Sea areas and one Baltic sea area leading to a dynamic bidding stage. Now, this, Joel, this is unusual for Europe. In, in America it's, it's as commonplace, but. Zero subsidy bids are a problem for the industry,  right? Joel Saxum: Oh, it says that the costs are either gonna be passed on somehow, right? They're gonna be passed on through the supply chain, which is kind of already struggling or to the consumers, right? So at the end of the day, someone has to pay for non subsidy wind. Like if you look at wind in the us, you're say, if we did away with ptc, well, it makes these projects not that feasible unless PPA prices rise, which eventually. Passes that cost on the consumer. So the same thing with these bids going here offshore in Germany. They're not, there's no subsidies at the round that ended up winning these bids. So all of those costs must be in a tra basically a traditional business model passed on to someone. Allen Hall: The real trick here is are are they gonna continue on with this process? Cause I think the industry wants not to do this. I think when Europe put out a statement earlier this week saying they would prefer not to go down this pathway and, and these. Zero subsidy. Bids need to stop. But I think the countries in Germany, one of them I think. Other countries would like to have some cash right now. And so this is an easy way to get it. It just skews a marketplace. Joel Saxum:  Yeah, I mean if you read any of the press releases, one of the big, not one of the biggest offshore offshore wind player in the world, Ted, they backed outta the auction. Now we don't know when they backed out of it at what stage, but at some stage they backed out. And there is a part of a press release from Reuters that says earlier this year, Nipper, who's Mads Nipper, the CEO of Orsted had warned against. The German pricing model for the auction saying it could ultimately raise cost for consumers. So that's the, the, you know, Orsted backed out when they saw the prices getting too high. They don't want to be, you know, a part of a, something that is an upside down business model before you even start. And, you know, in US dollars, this 14 billion euros for seven gigawatt, or 14 billion US dollars for seven gigawatts of of space in the ocean is a, that's a lot of money. Allen Hall: Orted is playing it close to the best. You see that happening in the United States at the moment on the East Coast, and now you're seeing it over in Germany, and rightly so, they're pretty smart at what they do.

Lightning is a leading cause of death for wind turbine technicians. The risk of lightning strikes for wind turbine technicians is even greater during the summer months, when thunderstorms are more common. Allen discusses the lightning dangers with Vaisala lightning experts Hans Loewenheath, Product Manager for Xweather Lightning at Vaisala, and Ryan Said, Senior Scientist at Vaisala. The Vaisala Xweather system detects lightning in real-time and provides near instantaneous alerts to technicians in the area. These alerts allow technicians to get to safety before tragedy strikes. When thunder roars, go indoors! Vaisala Xweather - https://www.xweather.com/Vaisala Annual Lightning Report - https://www.xweather.com/annual-lightning-reportVaisala Interactive Lightning Map - https://interactive-lightning-map.vaisala.com/Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Vaisala (1) Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, host of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Our guests this week are Hans Loewenheath Product Manager for Xweather Lightning at Vaisala. And Ryan Said, Senior Scientist at Vaisala. If you're not familiar with Vaisala, Vaisala is a global company specializing in environmental and industrial measurement solutions. Founded in 1936 and headquartered in Finland. Vaisala has grown to become a leading provider of reliable and accurate instruments, systems, and services for a wide range of industries and applications. Ryan and Hans, welcome to the program.  Ryan Said: Thanks for having us. Hi. Happy to be here.  Allen Hall: Just reading some news stories this week unfortunately of people attending to a soccer field. I got hit by lightning and, and they were clearly out in, in a time when it wasn't raining, right? This is sort of the clearer lightning strike scenario. There's, there's thunder off in the distance, but they don't think twice about it. And next thing you know, you're in an ambulance going to a hospital and then, and the wind turbine technicians. I think the case is so much more risky because if you're up in a turbine or around turbines, turbines are lightning magnets for the most part. And you don't have a lot of advanced  Ryan Said: warning. That's right. Lightning is chaotic and unpredictable. There's really no safe place to be outside when there's a thunderstorm nearby. A lightning can even strike several miles from the thunderstorm core. There are general guidelines in place that reflect this unpredictable and unsafe environment. The National Lightning Safety Council has a motto when thunder roars go indoors and advise not to return outside for at least 30 minutes after lightning passes by. So for these reasons, it's really important to be aware of your environment and surroundings in particular. Be able to track thunderstorms in real time, right?  Allen Hall: What is a safe position? If you're, if you're around a wind turbine, where are you gonna go? Is the vehicle enough?  Ryan Said: Usually the safest place to be during a thunderstorm is in a modern building. The electrical wiring and plumbing. Serves as a Faraday cage, or it safely guides the electrical energy from a lightning flash that hits the building through these wires into the ground. Now, of course, you don't want to be touching any of these wires or, or plumbing during a thunderstorm. If you can't get to a modern building,

The Uptime News Flash is a short form podcast to discuss wind energy mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships. This week in the news Joel Saxum and Allen Hall discuss Scotland-based Edge Solutions seeking another funding round for their Armour Edge leading edge shell solution. Renantis and Ventient Energy are merging in 2024 to build a more powerful energy company, and PelaStar and FibreMax are working together for their innovation tension leg offshore floating platform design. Edge Solutions / Armour Edge - https://armouredge.comRenantis - https://renantis.comVentient Energy - https://www.ventientenergy.comPelaStar - https://glosten.com/project/pelastar/FibreMax - https://fibremax.nlPardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  News Flash 12 July 2023 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Ticket, and I'm here with the Vice President of North American Sales for Wind Power Lab. Joel Saxum, we're the host of the Uptime podcast, and this is your Newsflash. Edge Solutions, a Scottish company is looking for additional funding for their Armour Edge leading edge erosion solution and the company is, is seeking to raise 2 million pounds in new funding to expand its team meet, demand and finance research and development. And Joel, they had noted earlier that it had closed a 1 million pound enterprise investment scheme funding round which was participated in by private investors. But now it's, it's trying to expand itself. The company has hired  Stuart MacLean former senior partner in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance at law firm, CMS who becomes the head of corporate development and Richard Scullion, a former global marketing director for Palla Pharma, has been appointed as head of business development. So Joel, we know that the Armour Edge product from Edge Solutions works really well. It sounds like they need a little bit of funding to, to really kick off this product. Joel Saxum:  Yeah. They're on that scale mode, right? They've got, they've, they've been in, out in the world. They're installing it. It's on turbines. They've got the, it's proved right. We know it works. They claim a 50 year lifetime now. It hasn't been around that long, so we don't know if the 50 year lifetime is correct yet. However they're out there in the market, they've have acceptance by the market, and now they're ready to hit the ground running. They've, they've done the walk and now it's time to sprint. So it's get some cash in, grow the team grow the ability to scale up by building product. And. They're on it right now. They're ready to go. Allen Hall: Why is it so hard for a physical product to raise money? This has gotta be the number one or number two issue for every wind turbine operator on the planet. Well, I think  Joel Saxum: part of the problem is, is that you have to attack the asset owners, right? That's who you have to go after with the hard, with the hard product. And when you're going with the asset owners, their budgets are a little bit smaller. So if it's not a solution that gives tangible feedback. Now to me, this is tangible, it's easy, it's gonna reduce my o and m budget by X amount. The ROI is pretty easy to calculate. You know, I won't have to do a million dollar campaign in year one, and then year five, and then year 10. It's easy to see. But those are, that's money down the road.

Rosemary leads off this week with a drag-based wind turbine design from Xenecore - are drag-based turbines making a comeback? Equinor and bp are investing in the NY area with the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub - will the companies selected for the incubator change the wind industry? The Mass CEC expands their structural test capability - will this lead to fewer blade failures? And, our wind farm of the week is the Wild Horse Wind Farm in Washington State! Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 173 Allen Hall: So Rosemary in the United States, it's, it's sort of golf season, so every weekend you turn on and there's some crazy golf tournament. I, I'm not a golfer. I think Joel is actually,  Rosemary Barnes: are you serious? They show golf on tv. I know.  Allen Hall: It's sad, isn't it? We  Rosemary Barnes: show cricket on TV here and that's probably, probably close. But  Allen Hall: in Australia, in Australia, they're having problems because I guess there's a lot of wildlife on the golf courses like kangaroos. And I, I saw a picture this week of like 30 kangaroos hopping around this golf course where this caddy is. I'm thinking, my gosh. Is it just the wilderness in Australia or what? Like you can't even golf in peace in Australia. You can't swim in pe you  Rosemary Barnes: can't golf in peace. Kangaroos love golf courses because, you know, they're like, they're like open grasslands. Traditionally there wasn't that much open grassland in Australia, and so they've really thrived where we've come and made, made lawns. They, they absolutely love that. You know, they they don't drink water. They, they just eat it off the, the dew on the grass and, you know, then they. Hang around eating, eating grass, and. They're like, great, these people have come here and put in, put in all these lawns for us, and they keep them nicely Moaned, soften our feet if you're a kangaroo. Isn't that why you'd wanna hang out? I, I  Allen Hall: totally would. Yeah. I would stay away from the other dangerous areas of Australia, like pretty much everywhere  Rosemary Barnes: else. Well, a kangaroo can mess you up,  Allen Hall: you know, that It's probably one of the most TikTok things that I've ever seen, or kangaroos fighting people weirdly enough. I don't know what it is in America. We think like that we can manhandle kangaroo, but you're outta your, you're outta your mind. Those things are powerful. You're crazy. And then don't they have sharp, sharp hooks or whatever on their feet? I claws. Oh, they have c they call  Rosemary Barnes: claws. I don't know. I wouldn't worry about their about their claws. I guess they've got claws on their hands, but their arms are, are not that strong. No, you gotta worry about getting kicked. They. They sit on their tail and then they you know, kick kick you with both legs at once. Can't  Allen Hall: wait to book a trip to  Rosemary Barnes: Australia. Yeah, well if you do, just don't pick a fight with the kangaroo. Allen Hall: All right, Rosemary, hold on tight. This one's gonna be a good one. Xena Core is a company that develops materials and processes for composite parts, and they have a, a new technology or, or one of the company technologies I'm using Thermoplastic Microspheres. And I don't know if you've seen Microspheres in use Rosemary, but it,

In this episode, we dive into the world of ultrasonic inspections—a crucial need for damaged wind turbine blades. But here's the twist: turbines have been set up in some seriously remote and offshore locations. Join us as we uncover the exciting partnership between Chris Cieslak of BladeBUG and Lars Boye Vesth of FORCE Technology. They've joined forces to conquer the challenges of performing ultrasonic inspections in these hard-to-reach spots. Get ready for a fascinating discussion that reveals their innovative approach to this demanding task! BladeBug - https://www.bladebug.co.ukFORCE Technology - https://forcetechnology.comPardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  BladeBUG FORCE Interview Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall host of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast and we have a great discussion today with BladeBUG and FORCE Technology from the show floor of global offshore wind in London, England, where it's also about 30 degrees Celsius and Sunny, very unusual day there. BladeBUG is a UK-based company that develops robotic devices for the inspection repair of wind turbine blades. The company's flashing product BladeBUG robot is a self-powered autonomous robot that can climb and inspect wind turbine blades without the need for human intervention. BladeBUG was founded by our guest today, Chris Cieslak. And Chris, welcome to the program. Chris Cieslak: Thank you for having me back again. Yeah, pleasure to be here. Allen Hall: Thank you. And we have Lars Vesth with FORCE Technology with us also. FORCE Technology is based in Denmark and also Office of Variety of consulting and engineering services in several industries, including the renewable energy industry. Course technology is also a leader in ultrasonic inspections and inspection devices. Lars, welcome to the program. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. So you have a really interesting partnership going and, and Chris, why don't you start off and describe what the, this partnership is.  Chris Cieslak: So this is, this is a continuation of, of BladeBUG's robotic platform integrating, like really high quality ultra non-destructive testing systems. And we have collaborated, we've teamed up with, with FORCE Technology. To use their equipment, which is used for the last 20 years on inspecting wind turbines in factories and mount a sort of reduced version of that within the BladeBUG robot to enable the same inspections to be formed out in the field. Yeah,  Allen Hall: and that's remarkable because as we all know, there's a lot of damage blazes out there, and one of the most difficult tasks is to understand how deep that damage is and how large this damage is. Paint and coatings cover up most of the damage, so a lot of times. When technicians get out in the field and they start looking around at blade damage, they realize this is a lot worse than I thought. And that's where FORCE Technology comes in because FORCE Technology can see, see the things that the human eye can't see. And, and Lars your technology and your sonic knowledge is remarkable. Just I've, I've heard about your company for quite a while. I just, I've been researching it more recently. You want to describe what ultrasonic technology you guys possess right now? As  Lars Boye Vesth: Chris said, we have been working with the industry for many years. We have been supplying equipment for manufacturing quality con...

The wind industry was stunned by the Siemens Energy announcement of $1.1B in unexpected costs to correct design issues with Siemens Gamesa onshore turbines. All the OEM engineering groups are under extreme pressure to control costs while delivering exceptional turbines. Joel, Rosemary and Allen discuss the Siemens Gamesa issues and how engineering organizations can be successful in difficult times. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 172 Allen Hall: This Week's episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is pretty exciting because Joel, Rosemary and I take a, a deep look into the Siemens Gamesa issues. Obviously, they're going through a little bit of turmoil at the moment, and. We have a discussion about what, what that means for engineering and, and for the company in, in a larger context. The discussion is not necessarily focused on Siemens Gamesa. I think we really get into a lot of good discussion back and forth then maybe a little bit heated at times about how engineering should function. And wind turbine companies have had some real significant design issues and, and some manufacturing issues to go along with it. Those are really tough to overcome. But Rosemary, Joel and I have worked at a lot of different companies and we've seen a lot of different engineering management styles and organizations, and we, we think sometimes those have a big influence on the quality of the product that goes out the door. So this discussion is really interesting and good. And it, it's, it's meant to pick off a lot of discussion in the, in the industry of how to run an engineering organization, how to create a quality product. And to avoid some of the, the costly decisions that Siemens Gamesa is going through. So it's a good episode, so stick with us. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the Vice President of North American Sales for Wind Power Lab. Joel Saxum and International renewables expert, Rosemary Barnes, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. So the big news this week, if you haven't seen it already, is that. Siemens Gamesa had an eternal review to look at the status of their existing onshore and offshore fleet, and during that review it was identified about $1 billion in offset, which means that they, they're gonna have to set aside about a billion dollars to take care of some of the, I think, design issues is what I'm hearing, and some manufacturing issues. And these are just coming to light after having about a half billion dollar write down in early this year, like January, the same sort of thing had happened. Preparing for warranty claims and repairs they're gonna have to happen in the, in the near future. This, of course set Siemens stock tumbling. About 25, 30% by the time you hear this podcast. It may have recovered some because I do think there, obviously there's value in Siemens and Siemens Gamesa but it does set everybody in the, in the wind energy space to become really concerned because you don't want to hear that a large player, such as a Siemens Gamesa, is having the stock drop and Siemens stock drop. That kind of drop is dramatic and can. Really injure a company, not in the short term, but really in the long term. And Joel, I know the other players, the Vestas, the GEs, the Suzlons of the world didn't seem to get too rocked by that.

Aerones is making robot repairs of wind turbines a reality. Their new robots repair leading edge damage, apply leading edge protective coatings, measure LPS resistance, and even clean towers. Dainis Kruze and Greta Krumina discuss how Aerones can dramatically reduce maintenance costs and improving performance of wind turbines all over the world. Aerones - https://aerones.comPardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Aerones Allen Hall: We are here at American Clean Power 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana. With Aerones, and if you don't know Aerones, you have been missing out on a lot because Arons is the robot repair company, company four blades and towers now. So I have Dainis Kruze and Greta Krumina here to tell us all the great details that have happened over the last year and all the new technology because we are looking at your booth things. And there are 5, 6, 7 different robots here. This year, which some of them I've never seen before. So you would've described what you have brought to New Orleans?  Dainis Kruze: Yeah, we brought our internal crawler and we brought our cleaning robot and all of the set for leading edge repair. Okay. And since the leading edge repair needs like lot of steps to do the jobs, yeah, we help. Lot of attachments for the robot to do those, those steps.  Greta Krumina: Basically, a modular system for the leading edge repair. That's what we have launch now in the  Allen Hall: us. Okay, so let's talk leading edge repair. As we know across the United States and the world leading edge repair damage is so widespread that basically every winter has some level of leading edge damage. Dainis Kruze: Yeah. Yeah. So let's say if it's level, like if you build a new turbine Yeah. And it doesn't have the leading edge, like protection. Our technology is faster for application of the leading edge protection than for the humans on the ground, like uptower, we can do the job uptower faster than the humans on, on the ground. Okay. So  Allen Hall: you're saying if you use like the, the 3M tape kind of material that we've all seen, or the shells or the other possibility there, you're saying your system can, you can put your system on faster on turbine and they can't put their shell system on on the ground. Dainis Kruze: Yeah. Wow. That's if it's level zero, like, like basically new turbine, if it's level one erosion, like new turbine a few years. Level one, level two. We need approximately one to maximum two days to restore the leading edge and apply a new layer of leading edge protection to, to protect the, the, basically the blades. Okay. And if it's level three, we will probably need two to three days because there's a little bit more of sanding, a little bit more of fill application and unevenness. Yeah. So to make it even and smooth again. Okay. And so on. So it's fairly, very, very fast. Process apply.  Greta Krumina: What I'm saying and comparing to is that instead of having two human arms, you have at least four human arms working at the same time. That that's what the robot does.  Allen Hall: So there's, there's a, there's a stage process to this, right? We, you're going to try to fix the damage that's there. I assume you're gonna apply some sort of filler and try to provide some, get the aerodynamic smoothness back. Yeah. And, and is that one robot application to do that?

A busy week in wind energy! IdentiFlight's bird detection system was approved for use in France - Rosemary has great insights into the effectiveness of the system. BP and Equinor test the ocean floor off the coast of NY, and the US Government Accountability Office promises to look into the effects of offshore wind. GustoMSC is moving towards Modular SOV's to fill the growing need for multi-tasking ship. Massachusetts and New York are dealing with offshore projects in limbo - will the states move to save the projects? Wood Mackenzie has studied the offshore wind supply chain in detail with some eye-catching results. And, our wind farm of the week is the Twin Ridges Wind Farm in Pennsylvania. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 171 Allen Hall: Up in Canada last week, there was a wind turbine, then it was on fire. Everybody saw it on LinkedIn or TikTok or wherever you get the news from. And then they got struck by lightning and then they got struck by lightning again, from what I could tell. So that wind turbine had a really horrible day because it just completely burned down, unfortunately. And in the aftermath, a lot of people were calling me like, well why are these wind turbines burning? I think, and this is word to the wise. If you have a lot of oil or grease or debris in your wind turbine just kinda laying around, if you walk into the top of a wind turbine and you see, you know, your ankle deep in, in oil, you probably ought to clean that up because the first lightning strike that happens, that turbine is a torch. There's your safety tip for the week. Clean your turbine. Well, this week we have a, a, a very short list of topics for a really good episode. We are talking about birds, whales, ships. An offshore wind and maybe some politics, but very little. Thank goodness. So it, it's a, a packed episode. Rosemary has some really good insight into a bird detection system that got approved over in France. And then we, we get into some Joel things about how we take samples from the ocean bottom and some really cool o v stuff that GustoMSC is working on. So stay tuned. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the Vice President of North American Sales for Wind Power Lab. Joel Saxum an international renewables expert Rose, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, IdentiFlight Has received acceptance from the Grand East region authorities in France and IdentiFlight is a US based company, I think it's based in Colorado, that provides bird detection systems for wind farms. And their system has, and Joel, I don't know if you've seen this thing, but it's basically a series of cameras wrapped around a, a pole that's looking at all directions. Then it has a camera that swivels around. The, the, the cameras that are sort of fixed are looking for the bird, and then the, the swivel camera, which has stereo vision, locates it, zooms in on, identifies it. The acceptance of identify is the first time that French authorities have validated an automated system for reducing bird collisions in wind farms. The system can identify multiple species of protected birds, including the red kite, which is a big deal in France. So the success of the system in reducing sys mortality rates supports obviously French and EU regulations for protecting bird species. And, and Rosemary,

Joel and Allen meet with Blade Aerodynamics Expert Nicholas Gaudern to discuss the aerodynamic upgrades available from PowerCurve. There are multiple simple improvements that can dramatically improve the AEP. Don't miss this episode! PowerCurve - https://powercurve.dkPardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  PowerCurve Allen Hall: Well, we're here in New Orleans at American Clean Power 2023 with Nicholas Gaudern, CTO of Power Curve. And one of the discussions this week, Nicholas, has been about repowering. Obviously the IRA bill has a lot of money bout repowering discussions revolve around what's involved in repowering, like what can be considered as part of the, the tax credit. Mm-hmm. And one of those items is aerodynamics, fixing the blade structurally, which is what Wind Power Lab does, and giving, you know, understand repair plans there, which everybody's doing right now. Right. But while you're on the blade, you might as well get some AEP back and, and get some aerodynamic performance back. What, what are, what are the people saying here this week?  Nicholas Gaudern: You know, I think that's a really good point, Allen. We've had some great conversations in the last couple of days about what is applicable. Yeah. For the tax credits. Right. You know, and basically everything by all these aerodynamic upgrades that you can put on, it's all worthwhile doing. If you're on the blade doing other  Joel Saxum: work, it's just a dollar value. Right. At the end of the day. Absolutely. You gotta spend so much  Nicholas Gaudern: to qualify. Yes, absolutely. And if you, if you get AEP back in, in beautiful. In the same time. Perfect. Yeah. So something that we've been talking about a lot is vortex generators. We've had a lot of interest in VGs as part of that work because. It is a bit of a no-brainer really. It's easy to do. It's easy to do. Yeah. It's cheap to install, and you can not only recover AP that you'd be losing through, say, contamination and erosion. Right. You can also just improve the baseline aerodynamic performance of the blade, and it's one of those things that is, it's a very low risk, it's a low risk investment. Sure. Mm-hmm. Tried, tested, proven, and I don't think anyone's gonna argue that a, that a VG works or doesn't work. Right. Right. But we've also talked about things that you could maybe consider a little bit more exotic. Things like tip extensions, Okay. For example.  Allen Hall: So just basically making your blade a little bit longer. Yeah, exactly. Especially where the most of the powers generator anywhere anyway. It's on the outer third, so Yes. Making another meter, two, three on  Nicholas Gaudern: the tip. Yep, exactly. So I think with a tip extension, it's all about getting more swept area. Mm-hmm. The bigger swept area, the more power. It's, it's kind of obvious. So it's an easy thing, I think, for customers to understand. There's not any particularly complicated physics around. It's just no bigger array, bigger rotor,  Joel Saxum: more power. Yeah. Those are, those are formulas that we all know and love. Yes. Right. That's not a hard one.  Nicholas Gaudern: We can take, you know, take, take a, an older turbine, let's say, you know, a 60, 70 meter turbine that might be knocking around and, and eligible for some, for some credits. If you just put a meter of blade length on.

Rosemary, Joel and Allen discuss the Duke Energy sale of its renewables business to Brookfield Renewable for a massive $2.8B. The RWE merger with Con Edison makes it the #4 renewable energy company in the US. RWE also locked-in ship provider Jan De Nul in a multi-year deal - will other operators make similar moves? Balmoral has a new product to prevent scour at fixed bottom offshore turbines. Kansas State goes back-to-back in the Collegiate Wind Competition and our Wind Farm of the Week is Vattenfall's Hollandse Kust Zuid 1.5GW offshore farm! Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 170 Allen Hall: So Rosemary, I know you're a big, uh, soccer fan or football fan. Uh, I dunno if you saw that man said he won the trouble. I'm sure you were watching diligently, like every good football fan does. I watched that game. I made myself watch it. Why? It was important to the people of Manchester. Rosemary Barnes: Oh, the people of Manchester. Important to you, Allen.  Allen Hall: It is because that's the home of Oasis. That's valid. They had a really good time in Manchester over the weekend. Let me tell you. It was. Party Central. So,  Joel Saxum: so this week on the podcast we're gonna talk about Duke Energy selling some assets to, uh, unregulated assets to Brookfield, uh, renewables, and for 2.8 billion, which is a couple more dollars than the city of Manchester spent on their celebration. Um, Oh, after that, we're gonna get into R W E, becoming the number four renewable company in the US after their, uh, merger or acquisition with ConEd. Uh, and then also staying with r w e, the, the, the big German player there. Uh, tying up with Jan Renewal and some installation vessels for offshore wind in the future. And  Allen Hall: then we head over to the UK in particular, Scotland with our Mor and their Hex defense Scour protection, which is, uh, a new design and a, and a patented. Designed to get rid of, scour around, uh, fixed bottom foundations.  Rosemary Barnes: And then we're gonna talk about the 2023 Collegiate Wind Competition, which was won for the second year in a row by Kansas State University's Wildcat Wind Power, and then Wind Farm of the Week. This week is in the Netherlands. It's of the South, throughout the Netherlands, LAN se. I'm  Allen Hall: Allen Hall, president of Weather Garden, lightly taken. I'm here with the Vice President of North American Sales for Wind Power Lab. Joel Saxon and renewables expert Rosemary Barnes, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Duke Energy has announced an agreement to sell its unregulated utility scale commercial renewables business to Brookfield Renewable for approximately 2.8 billion. Joel, that's a nice tidy amount. Brook Brookfield Renewable, uh, is one of the world's largest owners in operators of renewable power, and we'll acquire the business including about 3.4 gigawatts of a utility scale, solar, wind, and battery storage across the United States. Duke Energy, obviously Will, will book a profit of about 1.1 billion before this whole thing is settled. So I think it works out for both sides. Joel. Uh, the approval's gonna end up finishing up the end of this year, so there's, there's a lot of legal going around and contracts and right, and oversight that has to happen before you can close in this kind of business.

We are only beginning to understand the dynamics of airflow through large wind farms. Greg Poulos, CEO and Principal Atmospheric Scientist with ArcVera, talks with Allen and Joel at ACP 2023 about the complex nature of the winds at offshore and onshore wind sites. Billions in revenue are at stake! ArcVera Renewables - https://arcvera.comPardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  ArcVera Interview Allen Hall: Well, welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. We're here at American Clean Power 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and we have a couple of special guests this week. But right now we have Greg Poulos from ArcVera, and Greg is the CEO and principal atmospheric scientist with ArcVera, which is based in Colorado. Greg, welcome to the program and the. Thank you. We really wanted to have you on because, because we had Jessica on about a year ago. Mm-hmm. In San Antonio. Yep. At ACP in 2022. The data and the information and the analysis Arc Vera does is outstanding. You stand apart from a lot of the other atmospheric companies and because you're doing predictive aerodynamic assessments of wind farms and the, the one that was big last year was the Bight. At the New York Bight on the leases and what kind of power production you were going to see out of those wind sites. Because the prediction was one thing from the operators, potentially, I think the Equinor Orsteds of the world, and what you were coming up with is like, well, maybe not as good as, as we have wanted it to be. Maybe a deeper dive here. Yeah. And mostly be due to wakes and interference and the way that the, the winds are pushing. So the. The auction areas are not optimized for wind. Right. So you wanna describe some of the process you, you have gone through and, and what information you've found about the winds, particularly in the bite area. What's new there? What are, what are the winds really gonna be in the bite when they all, all these wind turbines are installed out in,  Greg Poulos: in the waters? Yeah. Yeah. So, The study we presented last year was more preliminary than what we're presenting this year, where we looked at the long term effects on energy production. Mm-hmm. Right. From the three lease areas of key importance that were auctioned in the, the last Boeing auction, 4.2 billion was spent. Big money. Yeah. Yeah. You know, leasing those. And so we wanted to look at the potential lost revenue associated with the misorientation of. Of those three lease areas, we call this the Misorientation penalty. Right. Yeah. So if they had instead oriented those lease areas north, south, they wouldn't interfere with each other as much. They picked southwest to northeast and the wind happens to blow from southwest to northeast. Yeah. And so the Southwestern most lease area wakes the next one. And those two together wake the third one, which is most heavily affected. And in this year's version of, of taking that study further, we found that's between a half billion in loss revenue, conservatively calculated for the, the two that are in the Northeastern most This is unexpected, but it comes from this new technique that we validated called Windfarm Parameterization modeling. Okay. It's an extension of what's called mesoscale modeling, which is a numerical weather prediction method that we u have used for decade.

Blades fail faster and more frequently than expected - and DNV has done a lot of research on how, and why, that's true. Allen, Joel and Rosemary discuss in detail what DNV describes as Thechallenges of wind turbine blade durability. Since Equinor has more experience in floating wind than anyone else, is the company's decision to postpone its Trollvind offshore initiative "indefinitely" a setback to the industry or a reasonable decision? In the UK, National Robotarium and Fugro are partnering on UNITE, a £1.4m project to develop autonomous and semi-autonomous ROVs capable of conducting subsea inspection, and maintenance and repair tasks. What's so new about it? Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.comDNV Report - https://www.dnv.com/Publications/the-challenges-of-wind-turbine-blade-durability-243601 Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Episode 169 Joel Saxum: All right, Allen, I gotta tell you some news. I was floating through LinkedIn today. FabricAir bought Borealis Wind. Borealis Wind's been acquired. Allen Hall: Get out. Joel Saxum: I'm telling you, and, and the, you know, what makes me, I'm, I'm super happy for Borealis Wind but Daniela Roeper, if you're listening, why we didn't get the exclusive to, to let this out. Joel Saxum: We don't know.  Joel Saxum: Where's the love? Allen Hall: Where is the love? Exactly.  Joel Saxum: So we're, we're, we're gonna jump into some things this week. Maybe talk about this FabricAir and Borealis tie up here later on. But what we're gonna discuss now is Equinor actually pausing an offshore floating wind farm just kind of based on basically commercial right now. Joel Saxum: Is what it looks like, the technical side and the commercial side not lining up to be the project they want right now. And then also just a quick segment on e r for wind turbine services. So a project that Fugro's involved with and some other government agencies. To basically electrify and autonomize some of the offshore wind farm maintenance activities in the North Sea. Joel Saxum: And then we take a look at the recent publication from DNV on the challenges of wind turbine blade durability, and we ask Rosemary and Joel their thoughts on the industry leading publication from DNV. Talking about all the, the blade problems that exist and what to do about them. And Joel and Rosemary provide some really good perspectives on that. Joel Saxum: And then our wind farm of the week is the Rattlesnake Road Wind Farm up in Oregon. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the Vice President of North American Sales for Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxum and renewables expert Rosemary Barnes. And this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Joel Saxum: Up in Norway, Equinor has put the Trollvind project on hold due to technical, regulatory and commercial challenges. The project was aimed to address the electrification needs in the oil and gas industry and provide power to the Bergen area. And obviously in Norway, anything offshore is gonna be floating. Joel Saxum: So the, the problem appears to be that the floating technology that they were going after, Wasn't fully developed enough for Equinor and obviously the project financing everything got more expensive over the last couple of years and, and the project didn't make any sense anymore. So they're, they're not necessarily killing it,

Allen and Joel had a great time in New Orleans talking to Gio Scialdone, President of 3S Lift Americas. 3S Lift has 7,000 Climb Auto Systems across America, helping technicians to get the job done quickly and safely. 3S Lift - https://www.3slift.comPardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  3S Lift Interview Gio Scialdone: We're here again  Allen Hall: We're at ACP 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana with Gio Scialdone from 3S Lift. If you don't know 3S Lift, you're missing out on so much 3S Lift is about. Saving technicians and making sure they get up and down towers safely and efficiently. Gio, welcome back to the program. Gio Scialdone: Thank you for having me, Allen. Joel, nice to meet you. Allen Hall: You as well. You know, this has been a really busy show compared to San Antonio last year. Yeah, I think so. I think roughly double the amount of people from what I can tell you. I assume you guys have been busy. I've been by your booth a couple of times. There's a lot of people thinking about  Gio Scialdone: technicians this week. I think people have to be thinking about technicians. If you, if you, if you look backwards and you look forward in terms of the operational existing towers, you have to think about technicians for your existing fleets. Yeah. Yeah. You look at the forward projections of the, the, the build out plan. You have to think about who are the people that are gonna work at these places. Yeah. Um, you know, last time we talked about the, the competition, indirect competition that some of these workers could. Go be an Amazon truck driver and make 25 or 30 bucks now. Yeah, absolutely. They don't have to climb a winter run tower. Yeah. You know, that's tough work. So there's some competition out there, not just inside the industry, but certainly outside.  Joel Saxum: So we know that, like across the industry, of course, it's been the word for a long time. We've talked to a lot of people around the show about just the shortage of technicians. Yeah. Right. And every and, and you're starting to see, which is great. A lot of companies pop up. Training, right? Hey, we're opening a GWO training center. We're opening this training center. We're gonna, there's a blade repair center opening up in, in Tennessee, so that's fantastic to bolster the whole fill of, of technicians into the industry. Well, once they're there. So 3S Lift is taken care of 'em in another  Gio Scialdone: step. I think. I think one, you know, workforce development is, is something that we talk about a lot. Our customers are talking about a lot. You, you're the, the recruitment, like you're talking about I is, is step one and the retention is really the hardest part. Yeah. Right. Um, you could recruit people with probably a good paying job and an exciting job to go up and down a tower and you get to do mechanical, electrical work. Um, every six months maybe.  Joel Saxum: Yeah. Make it tired. It's hard. It gets hard, it  Gio Scialdone: gets tired. It's a war of attrition, right? It is. Indeed. Has 700 and something open Wind tech jobs today in, right now, in America right now. Yeah. Um, and, you know, our, our product is Climb Auto System, lift Retrofittable to every ladder. Um, we see customers improving their ability to retain tech. Yeah. And, and, and, and that's, you know, ultimately that's leading.

Rosemary is back in action to discuss Suzlon's new 3MW machine and SGRE designing a 4MW turbine for the US. It's good to see new turbines and new orders! Scotland is concerned about floating turbines being dragged to Rotterdam for repairs, and discussions are underway for an offshore HVDC cable between Canada and the US. The Gode 1 wind turbine was amazingly back in service 24 hours after being hit by a cargo ship - Joel does a back of the envelope calculation. The new Lisheen III Wind Farm in Ireland is our Wind Farm of the Week! Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  168 Allen Hall: We just got back from New Orleans and we spent a little time on the road after New Orleans. Just checking out the general area. I have never been to Mobile, Alabama. I haven't been to Pensacola in a long time. Boy, the Gulf of Mexico is a nice place to hang out. Uh, some parts of America are really cool. Yeah,  Joel Saxum: you know, it, uh, my better half and I, Kayla, we always talk about traveling. Oh, let's travel here. Let's go to, we want to go, you know, south of Spain, we want to check this, we're gonna go to India, check this up. And like, man, the US is so big and it's so beautiful in all corners of it. Like you could spend a lifetime traveling around just these freaking 48 lower states even and not see it all. Allen Hall: Yeah, that was amazing. And, and we. Did enjoy New Orleans quite a bit. We had some really good food in, in fact, Joel, you're the one who took us to this really great restaurant. I don't know if we would've found it otherwise, but we had a, a great time there. Hopefully everybody else is recovering from ACP 2023. There's gonna be an offshore, uh, wind conference in London, and about a week from when this episode releases, that's gonna be a huge deal that that one's a, a, a big one. So these wind conferences are getting to be massive and. Just like this week's episode, this is a massive episode cause we have so much, uh, good news about wind. Denmark has a massive tender for offshore wind, like it's gonna put America to shame. This, this thing is huge. And, and Rosemary and Joel talk about the implications. Uh, In Denmark and the surrounding, uh, countries, and also what it means for America, uh, because there's a lot of activities is happening in Europe on offshore wind. Then Sulan down in India has a new three megawatt machine, and they are attracting orders right now, and it's, and they're. Turning a profit, their stock is up. Really good things happening in India with Sulan and Siemens. Ka Mesa has announced a new megawatt turbine for the US for some sort of US weather conditions, and we're not sure what that is. Joel talks about what possible wind situations exist in the US that don't exist elsewhere, but. Ira Bill is playing a lot into that Siemens S Sch Mesa decision. Yeah, absolutely.  Joel Saxum: And as we are always talking about what's going on in the new, in the industry, we're gonna be visiting one of the, uh, oldest floating. Wind farms. There's a Scottish turbine up by Aberdeen that actually gets tow, is being towed to Rotterdam for some repairs. Um, which is kind of odd, but, we'll, we'll jump into that one. And then also, uh, Rosemary lends some, some, some really good insights to a proposed US Canadian transmission corridor. So the, there's a.

Alex Jones of RNWBL stopped by to talk with Allen and Joel at American Clean Power 2023 about their new app for wind technicians, DSPTCH. The free app gives technicians routes to every wind turbine in the US, Canada, and Mexico, saving hours of travel time. Not only that, but technicians can store their training certifications right in the app! The app even has payment features so you can get paid right away. DSPTCH - https://dsptch.app.link/Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  DSPTCH Allen Hall: Well, we're here with Alex Jones of RNWBL. RNWBL, if you're not familiar, is a, a big repair company based in Texas.  Alex Jones: That's right. Allen Hall: And does a lot of wind turbine repair business. But we're not talking about RNWBL today. We're talking about a new piece of software DSPTCH. And it's a technician based software. It's, it's software for technicians.  Alex Jones: That's right.  Allen Hall: And we had talked a couple of weeks ago, a a about this app, which you can download on your phone.  Allen Hall: And it just sort of blew Joel and I away because -- Joel Saxum: It's fantastic.  Allen Hall: It's fantastic for technicians because there's not a lot of good software apps for technicians and you know, how difficult a job that it is. Joel Saxum: Yeah. And like the traveling passport and all these, the great ideas, and you'll share it with us, but we've gotta start with this. Yeah. It's not renewable, it's, well it is, but it's RNWBL. Alex Jones: We have to buy vowels around here.  Alex Jones: And DSPTCH is DSPTCH. There we go. I wanna make sure that the people listening know that as well,  Alex Jones: right? Alex Jones: Yeah. So welcome to the program, Alex.  Alex Jones: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.  Allen Hall: Glad to have you . You wanna describe what DSPTCH is?  Alex Jones: Sure. So we really wanted to sit down with all of our technicians. We've taken, you know, a, a playbook of go live the life of a tech. So we have this very unique perspective inside of RNWBL where we get to go be a traveling wind tech. Alex Jones: We get to be a traveling solar tech and learn what it is that's a pain point in their lives. And, In prior life, we came from the oil patch. Most of the, the team that came came over and we learned that, you know, if you, if you make the guy in the field more productive, it's a thousand times more valuable than making the 10,000 bean counters in the back office more productive. Alex Jones: Yeah. No offense, my wife is an auditor for reference between auditor and I started as data science. We're about the most exciting people you could ever meet. There you go. But no So we focused on that. And right now the thing that's driving a lot of DSPTCH's usage is we have one certifications. Alex Jones: When you sign up for the app, you put on your GWOID, we pull in all your certs and then we do turn by turn navigation to every wind turbine in the us, Canada, and Mexico. And what's neat about that is we've mapped half a million roads don't exist in Google, apple, or waves. Yeah,  Joel Saxum: cuz it's all lease roads, basically just Yeah. Joel Saxum: Dirt tracks out in the middle of field and  Alex Jones: it's made cuz you know, Gertrude here didn't want to go through her where she buried her dog 50 years ago. So you. Stop a road or you go across a ranch line and any...

Allen and Joel are LIVE from American Clean Power 2023 in New Orleans! Over 8,000 people in attendance with representatives of wind, solar, and energy storage industries. Allen and Joel discuss the news from the floor including the merger of Ping and eologix. GE Vernova had a large presence on the show floor announcing a new parts business and the opening of a 6.1 MW nacelle production line at their facility in Schenectady, New York. In other news, Siemens Gamesa is pushing European regulators for faster access to cash, and technical schools in the US are having a difficult time recruiting future wind energy technicians. And then Joel and Allen discuss how wind energy is a great vocation for military veterans such as Prometheus Wind's Will Friedl. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 167 Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm Allen Hall, president, CEO of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the VP from Wind Power LAB, Joel Saxum. And Joel. It has been an insane week. Yes. Yeah.  Joel Saxum: ACP 2023 New Orleans. Absolutely. If, if you can hear this, you'll hear it on today's episode. My voice is a little gruff shot. I wasn't smoking cigars as my team. Thought from from Copenhagen this morning on our morning meeting. It's actually just from talking, right? Right now it is Thursday of the show. We've been here since Monday. So Monday evening, co course opening, reception and stuff. But Tuesday, Thursday, or Tuesday and Wednesday, Absolutely packed. I'm, we're, we're on one, kind of one end of the Yes. Of the conference. We're next to ge. Yeah. And I'm looking and I can't see the other end. That's how long it is. That's how many  Allen Hall: that's, it's a good here, it's a quarter half mile. Yeah, it's huge. It's down  Joel Saxum: the other end. It's, it's, it's a six block walk from one end of this building to the other. But yes, as Allen was saying, absolutely busy here. I think in my. ACP experience? Probably the busiest, not probably the busiest ACP clean power that I've been to. Oh, yeah, by far. Yeah. Yeah. The setup here in New Orleans is great too. If you've, if you've frequented trade shows, it, it can be kind of frustrating navigating through the people. And, but they have a big, nice, like 50 foot wide aisle going, the whole main street going the whole way down. And it's, it's easy to get around. So this has been a great show. American Clean  Allen Hall: Power does a nice job of feeding the people. Yeah. Also, some of the conferences we've been at, We were talking, not wind, but in aerospace. The food option has been almost zero. We're just eating hot dogs all week. And here they actually have some nice, oh, we're food  Joel Saxum: Dumbo and PO Boys. Yeah. And there's, there's plenty of food to eat here. DJ's, coffee, some beignets, all kinds of good stuff. Yeah,  Allen Hall: it has been tremendously good. Rosemary is obviously in Australia this week so she's not gonna be here, but she has been texting us. I got a bunch of text from her this morning. So she's here at Spirit. There's some. Pretty big announcements and then some underlying things that haven't been announced yet. But there, when you get to see everybody on the show floor, you hear a lot of whispers of what's about to happen this summer. There's activity 

Wind turbine composite blades can cleverly conceal damage beneath the paint, evading detection by drone inspections. Enter BladeBUG: equipped with ultrasound sensors, this innovative robot uncovers hidden faults lurking within the blade. In an exclusive interview at WindEurope 2023 in Copenhagen, Denmark, Allen and Joel engage with Chris Cieslak, the Director of BladeBUG, to delve into the world of BladeBUG. PowerCurve - https://powercurve.dkPardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Bladebug Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, where we feature the latest advancements in wind energy technology. I'm your host, Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, along with my co-host Joel Saxum vice President of North American Sales for Wind Power LAB and we are here at Wind Europe 2023 in Copenhagen. Denmark and we are fortunate to, fortunate to have with us Chris Che, the director at Blade Bug, to give us an update on all things Blade bug. Chris, welcome back to  Chris Cieslak: Thanks very much. I thought fortunate it's the right word, but yeah, pleasure to be back here. I'm very fortunate to be here.  Allen Hall: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so there's a lot has happened since we have spoken to you last, you've been a frequent guest on, on the podcast. Thank goodness. I'm glad to have you, but, Yeah, blade Bugs made a number of improvements. Since the last time we've seen you, we, we saw you last in Hamburg, Germany. You wanna give us an update on things that are happening? Yeah,  Chris Cieslak: so when we last spoke in Hamburg, we were presenting our robot and we've been developing and refining our ultrasonic non-destructive testing capabilities on blades. And so we've spent a couple of, we spent winters basically hunker down refining a couple of different OEM systems in our. Platform. So our robotic platform, we've got a, a form of ultrasonic inspection using a, a technology called like four Matrixx capture, which is really interesting. It gives a, a very nice visual indication of, of defects and composites. And then we're also using a more classical ut approach of phased array. Okay. Which gives us, you know, a very consistent approach of inspecting composition that's been used for 20, 30 years. So  Allen Hall: why one  Chris Cieslak: over the other? Because I think it's, there's, there isn't one shoe that fits all. So it's a case of the ability or the beauty of having a platform such as Blade Bug is you can have a solution, be it with different equipment to overcome a challenge that you're looking for on a blade. Yeah. So if you have a particular issue on a blade in a certain location, it might be that laminate is too thick for the frequency of the probe of one type of equipment. You can change it to your other Thing and go, right, this is, yeah. For this particular area for, for this particular inspection task, I can use this equipment. And for the other one it's, it's that, so okay. It's about having the flexibility to ensure that you can do the job at hand essentially. Right? Yeah. For those  Joel Saxum: who don't know blades that well, I mean, you can be in the root section and you can have four inches of, of material. Yeah. You can go out to the tip and you can be down to a quarter inch. Yeah. Right. So having the right tool for the right job gotta have  Chris Cieslak: it.

Meet Joel and Allen at ACP in New Orleans! Visit the Weather Guard Lightning Tech and Ping display at Booth 810. Rosemary kicks off this episode with an analysis of a 14,700 ft high wind farm southwestern China. Do the blades need to be designed to handle the less dense air at high altitude? AES is getting out of coal fired plants and plans to triple its renewable capacity - Yay! Q1 for Nordex wasn't great but Joel think the future is much brighter. GE and NREL explore Low-Level Jetstreams (LLJ) off the US Atlantic coast using super computers. Will these air disturbances create massive power losses?In the land down under, RWE wins an eight-hour energy storage bid with a battery, beating out several pumped hydro projects. Rosemary provides insights in to the shift to lithium battery storage for the grid.Aaron Barr of Wood Mackenzie gave his thoughts on the state of the wind energy in a recent article. Is the future for wind brighter in 2024? Our wind farm of the week is the SeaMade Offshore Wind Project in Belgium! Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 166 Allen Hall: Well, everybody's preparing to go to New Orleans. That's where the big American Clean Power Conference is going to be. And it is going to be huge.  Joel Saxum: Everybody I talk to in the wind industry is going, so it's going to be, I think the attendance is gonna be fantastic. I'm excited for it.  Rosemary Barnes: You guys won't have any fun though, cuz you'll miss me. That's right.  Allen Hall: We'll, think of you while we're at the great New Orleans restaurant,  Joel Saxum: hanging on to B Bourbon streets and music.  Rosemary Barnes: The music I play, grace and why I wanna. We go there,  Allen Hall: We can FaceTime it to you. How about that? Please do. So when this episode release next week, which is be Tuesday, ACP will just be starting. And fyi, there's gonna be some exciting stuff happening on the show floor from what I can hear already. So stay tuned. Next week this week we talk about a, a number of, of. Topics from all around the world. In China, they're building a wind farm at about 14,000 feet 4,500 meters. And Rosemary talks us through like, what does that mean to build a wind turbine farm that high? Do you get to change the blades, air density is less? It's pretty complicated actually. So there's some good input there from Rosemary. And then we move over to AES in the United States and they are really investing in renewables. They're offloading their coal assets and really trying to, to move into the renewable energy economy, which is good to hear. We talked about nordex. Their first quarter report came out, didn't look so hot, but the future is going to be brighter. And then GE and NREL in the states are looking at something new, low level jet streams and what that means off the Atlantic Coast.  Rosemary Barnes: And then we're gonna talk about long duration energy storage or at least eight hours. Yeah. Duration, energy storage. There was a battery that won an auction in Australia, and we talk about how. Energy storage technology is going in general.  Joel Saxum: And then we're gonna touch in with Aaron Barr here from Wood Mackenzie, and he's gonna give us a little bit of a, or he's not gonna be on the show. I'll, I'll be clear on that. But we're gonna re read a little bit about some of his comments on...

For our bonus this week, Allen talks with Nicholas Gaudern, CTO of PowerCurve, at WindEurope 2023. In a new breakthrough process, PowerCurve leverages drone inspection photographs from SkySpecs and 3D laser scans to create highly accurate aerodynamic models of wind turbine blades. These high-resolution models allow PowerCurve to predict the AEP of blades in-service. This new offering is being used by operators world-wide to leverage blade aero upgrades and leading edge protection devices. PowerCurve - https://powercurve.dk Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  PowerCurve Allen Hall: Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, president and CEO of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and we are here in WindEurope 2023 in Copenhagen with Nicholas Gaudern, CTO of PowerCurve. Welcome,  Nicholas Gaudern: Nicholas. Hey, Allen. Nice to you. Back on with you.  Allen Hall: So the, there's a lot happening in Copenhagen this week. there are so many operators here. And, and OEMs. so the first time we've seen GE Renova show up and, and a number of shows, but I've met so many new operators or, and that are really just diving into when they're buying assets and they're now, they're trying to figure out how to maximize those, those, assets. And one of the things that we hear at our booth is we need to get the aerodynamics cleaned up. Yes. And I said, well, you need to go down a couple of. Blocks in this conference center and talk to power curve because, power curve knows about your blade and can make them more efficient. So I, I know you guys have been totally busy. We've pretty much give, got handed out. Every handout we brought, it's already been distributed. This is only the second day of three. so it's been a tremendous conference. What, what are you hearing from some of the operators in OEM this week?  Nicholas Gaudern: Yeah, it's, it's really interesting and, and, yeah. It is a huge conference. The attendance is great. I think the atmosphere is really nice. There's a lot of positivity, I would say around the industry at the moment, which is really nice to be part of. I think one of the biggest things we've been discussing with, with people visiting our booth is how do you understand, how best to manage your blade over its lifetime? So there's a lot of attention being paid to. So how'd you get the most out of your blade at, at all points of its life? So not necessarily, you know, getting the very best blade at the beginning or the end, but just, just kind of tracking progress, tracking performance, and taking appropriate mitigation methods at, at the, at the best possible time. And that's something that we've been focusing quite heavily on for the last couple of years. So if you understand the. The blade aerodynamics in, in great detail, you can start to map on the impacts of the real world blade conditions. Yeah. So when a blade's out in the field, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's suffering. It's suffering. It, you know, it's in this really a aggressive environment sometimes, particularly offshore. You've got heavy wind, rain, dirt, bugs, ice, and all of these things are, are really. Challenging from a performance perspective, and if you want to optimize how much energy that blade's producing. Yeah, yeah. So one way you can, look at that is to take,

Wind energy strives to work alongside nature as Greece-based nvisionist leverages Artificial Intelligence with their bird detection and avoidance equipment. Joel explains the latest in vision tech and how rapid development is lowering costs. Australia seems poised to benefit as multiple countries try to find alternate sources for critical minerals. Rosemary brings great insight into this shift. Danish researchers invented a new method of recycling wind turbine blade epoxies - what does Rosemary think of the effort? Ørsted takes the initiative in New Jersey to train future employees for the renewable future. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 165 Allen Hall: So, Joel, have you seen this news article about this lady that got lost in Australia and lived on lollipops and wine?  Joel Saxum: No, but it sounds like a, an ex-girlfriend of mine.  Allen Hall: Is she in Australia? No, I don't, I don't know where she is. Allen Hall: It's a national, well, international story cause I saw it here in America. But this poor lady was was gonna go visit her mother and it threw a bottle of wine outta the car and then got sidetracked and got stuck in the mud and, It was outside cell phone coverage, so she couldn't reach anybody. She was, she was hanging out there for a couple of days and she lived on lollipops and wine until they tracked her down via helicopter. That's amazing. People in Australia are tough. Joel Saxum: It wouldn't be a bad way to go out, you know, as long as it's a good bottle of wine, I guess. Allen Hall: But the crime scene will look kind of weird, like, what's all these lollipop wrappers and this wine bottle here? Is there one bottle of wine? Yeah. You know, you never know, but all the people I know from Australia are. Pretty darn tough. So this is another example of Australians that survive some of the worst conditions. And speaking of worst conditions, we have a, a packed show for you this week. We're not sure how it's gonna turn out. Actually. It's been kind of a struggle to get this episode out. But if we do. Talk about this week bird detection system that was highlighted in PES Wind and in Copenhagen. So I've seen it in two different places recently. So we talk about a camera system that detects birds from pretty far out, and I actually identifies the, the species of the bird. So really interesting technology there. And then we look at really the separation of China on the rare earth minerals from the rest of the world. And how that's affecting all the other countries involved. Australia being one of them in the middle of this because they do have some of those minerals and processing and who's gonna do all that processing? There's a new place in the United States. It looks like it's gonna do some railroad processing and. Now everybody's scrambling at the same time to look for minerals that are just the byproduct of mine waste. So not only we pulling outta China, we're like scraping the bottom of the barrel in some cases to find where these minerals are gonna come from. So, really interesting discussion about that with Rosemary this week. So  Joel Saxum: then we're gonna talk about the University of Ahu. Pioneering another way to break down epoxies. Now, in the last few months, if you follow this as we do, you've heard from Vestas that they've got a solut...

In this bonus episode, Allen and Joel sit with Daniela Roeper, CEO and Founder of Borealis Wind, in Copenhagen to discuss the importance of anti-icing solutions for wind turbine blades. Borealis Wind is a leading company in the wind turbine blade anti-icing sector, and Roeper's innovative technology has helped to increase the efficiency and reliability of wind turbines, making them more viable in colder climates. Daniela explains that icing is a significant challenge for wind turbine operators, as it can reduce energy production by up to 40%. Most turbines are sensitive to ice buildup, and the turbine will stop automatically when ice buildup is detected. Ice can cause fatigue and early life fatigue to the blades and also cause ice throw, which can be hazardous. Borealis Wind offers a solution to the icing problem with blade heating, which is more effective than the solutions offered by some OEMs. Borealis Wind - https://www.borealiswind.com/ Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Borealis Wind Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, where we feature the latest advancements in wind energy technology. I'm your host, Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, along with my co-host Joel Saxum, Vice President of North American Sales for Wind Power Lab. We are at Windy Europe 2023 in Copenhagen, Denmark, so celebrating all the new technology and industries in wind energy. Today we have a very special guest joining us. Daniela Roeper, founder and CEO of Borealis Wind a leading company in the wind turbine blade anti-icing sector, Borealis Wind has been in the forefront of developing cutting edge anti icing tech solutions for wind turbine blades. Their innovative technology has helped to increase the efficiency and reliability of wind turbines, making them more viable in colder climates. In this episode, Daniela will be sharing her expertise on the importance of anti icing solutions in the wind power industry. The challenge is faced in developing these solutions and how Borealis Wind has been able to overcome them and become a leader in the field. So join us as we learn more about the exciting work being done by Borealis Wind and gain valuable insights from Daniela. So Daniela, and welcome to the Uptime podcast.  Daniela Roeper: Thank you very much.  Allen Hall: So it's been a, it's already been a busy week in Copenhagen and. We're in a place obviously where it's cold. Yeah. Yesterday though, weather it was mi miserable  Joel Saxum: this morning too. Yeah. The wind was blowing and it was people head headdresses on and Right. Hats and jackets and  Allen Hall: everything. So we see a lot of icing, I assume up here in Denmark and Sweden and Norway we're just in Sweden. A lot of icing, lot of problems. It seems like the not coming from an extremely cold climate where you are from in Canada. Icing is a regular occurrence.  Daniela Roeper: Yeah, I think when Canadians are particularly, we work in Quebec, when we look at icing in the rest of the world, it doesn't look that bad. But yeah, it definitely, in these colder climates, there are icing problems.  Allen Hall: So the, the operators are losing somewhere upwards. I've seen numbers at, at times of 20, 30, 40% in a particular month in terms of energy production because it just shut down. Yeah. Once ice accumulates, that's it.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast team covers a variety of interesting stories this week. The first story is about a ship carrying 1500 tons of grain that hit a wind turbine in German waters. The team discusses how such accidents can be avoided in the future. The next story is about DNV starting a joint project to investigate geotechnical and design considerations for earthquake protection for offshore wind in different areas of the world. The team also talks about NTPC in India requesting to build nine gigawatt hours of battery capacity and Ming Yang's development of fish farms in offshore wind jackets. In addition, they discuss Nabrawind's financial backing to get their ideas into reality, and RWE selecting Siemens Gamesa for a large number of wind turbines. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 164 Allen Hall: On my trip back home, I seem to. Have caught some sort of Danish infection and I'm, I'm gonna struggle through this entire episodes. I do not blame the Danes, I blame the American. That's my own damn fault. Joel Saxum:  Is the Danish infection gonna take cause you to take a month off this summer or something? Or what? What happened?  Allen Hall: I may have to go to Costa Rica to recover. Yeah, there you go. I went to the doctor today and said, Hey, I was over in Denmark and he gave me that little kind of scared look like scared doctor look like, oh really? This could be serious. And I thought I was in Denmark. Denmark is full of nice people. What, what could they possibly have there that could kill me? You know what I mean? It's a beautiful country. It's, I I, yeah. We had a great time in Denmark. We had a great time in Denmark. We really did. And we saw a lot of sights and I was very, Pleased that the weather was good. So, uh, my kudos to everybody in Copenhagen and Denmark for throwing a great event last week. We really enjoyed it this week in the news. A bunch of, uh, interesting stories.  Joel Saxum: So the first one we're gonna chat about is not too far from Denmark, actually, just to the, uh, the East Easter in German waters. Uh, a ship carrying 1500 tons of grain hit a wind turbine. So we're gonna talk about that a little bit and try to understand how we can avoid these things in the future. And then we're gonna go and talk about DNV, uh, starting up a joint industry project to look at geotechnical and design considerations for earthquake protection for offshore wind, offshore wind, um, in, in some different  Phil Totaro: areas of the world. Next we talk about, uh, National Thermal Power and NTPC in India building or requesting to build nine gigawatt hours worth of battery capacity and Ming Yang developing fish farms in their offshore wind jackets. Allen Hall: And then we take a look at Nabrawind based in Spain and some backing the financial back in they received. That's going to, uh, hopefully. Uh, get some of their great ideas into reality. And RWE has selected Siemens Gamesa for a huge number of wind turbines. So congratulations to RWE and Siemens Gamesa. Our wind farm of the week is High Banks Wind in Kansas, so stay tuned for that. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the Vice President of North American Sales or Wind Power Lab. Joel Saxum and the CEO and founder of Intelstor Phil Totaro,

WindESCo's Intelligent Swarm system maximizes wind farm output with revolutionary wake steering technology. VP of Products, Danian Zheng, and Director of Software Engineering, Pete Bachant, share their success story at the Milford I&II Wind Farms in Utah with Joel and Allen. WindESCo - https://www.windesco.com Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  WindESCo Allen Hall: Welcome to an exciting bonus episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, where we explore the latest innovations in the wind industry. I'm your host Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, along with my co-host Joel Saxum of Wind Power Lab. In this episode, we'll be discussing the WindESCo Swarm System, a proprietary software platform designed to optimize the performance of wind turbine farms. The Swarm system uses advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms to provide real-time data analysis and farm optimization, helping the wind industry operators and owners maximize the productivity and profitability of their wind farms. We'll take an in-depth look at how the Swarm system works, is key features and benefits and real-world examples of how it's being used to improve windfarm performance. Joining us today to discuss the WinCo Swarm system is Danian Zheng. VP of products at WindESCo and Pete Bachant, Director of Software Engineering whether you're a wind energy operator, investor, or just simply interested in the future of clean energy, this episode is for you. Danian and Pete, welcome to the program. Pete Bachant: Thank you, Allen. Thank you, Joel. Thanks for having us.  Allen Hall: So today we, we see a lot of operators that are really struggling to maintain a profitable farm. They're being squeezed from every possible side. And, WindESCo, you guys have been around since 2014 and have worked with a number of operators. What are you hearing from operators today? Danian Zheng: So the biggest thing we hear is the, without PTC, a lot of people cannot even get profit at all, especially for the older farms. And then the income of those IPPs we call them, are really under pressure because of the High cost of the turbine side and the, and the maintenance side, and also high cost from the weight loss from the site. Allen Hall: Wow. And, and if we don't do anything to correct this, what happens? Do some of these operations eventually shut down because they're just losing money? Absolutely.  Danian Zheng: You, you can see farms, they're really only getting PTC as their margin out of the revenue and the day, typically after 10 or 12 years when they lose their PTC or the production tax credit. Economic money, then you have zombies, sides just running there, nobody wants. Wow.  Allen Hall: Okay. So our discussion today is really in important then because the Swarm system helps bring some power back into their pocketbooks. And I, I, I. I wanna understand exactly what Swarm is. I've read a lot about the, the trade study with the Milford Wind Farms in Utah, which was fantastic by the way. But I, I need a little more information. Like, h how does this system work? What does it do? How do operators implement it? Can you give us a, a brief description of  Danian Zheng: that? Definitely. I'll try first and then I'll leave some of the more high end stuff to Pete for Pete to us also. So it's very high level.

Joel Saxum and Allen Hall report live from Wind Europe 2023 in Copenhagen, where Maersk and GustoMSC have joined forces to develop an innovative solution for lowering the cost of offshore wind installations. They are designing a cost-effective jack-up vessel and simple feeder barges. Meanwhile, the US Coast Guard is warning captains of supply vessels carrying wind turbine blades to ensure that the blades do not block the view from the bridge. EDF is betting on 20+MW offshore machines, while Norway is investing in both fixed-bottom and floating wind farms. Nordex is expected to restart its Iowa factory, Kansas requires red lights to be turned off, and Colorado is celebrating a wind turbine tower factory expansion. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 163 Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm Allen Hall along with my co-host in Denmark this week, Joel Saxum  Joel Saxum: but we're here at Wind Europe 2023 in Copenhagen. So it is the, if you're an American listener, it is like acp. But it is the the yearly one here in Copenhagen. Next year, it'll be in the Basque country, kind of bounces around. But yeah, it hasn't rained on us yet here today, so. No, I know.  Allen Hall: It's been really sunny Copenhagen. Yeah, the weather, the weather has been good. We took a tour of downtown Copenhagen yesterday. Very exciting lot to  Joel Saxum: see there. Yeah, absolutely. So if the list, if you're a regular listener, you heard us kind of engage after we were in Hamburg about how that show was if you remember correctly, that show was bonkers. It was, it was so big. There was it was so large so many people going around this one. Beautifully done. Not quite as big but still fairly busy. I mean, we've had we're here with the, you know, we got the Weather guard booth, we have the Wind Power Lab booth, the ping booth. We're all kind of in the same area. Some of the friends we have and, and we're, we've all been busy. We've had a steady stream of people interested in what we're offering all day long, and some, even people talking about the Uptime podcast, maybe even a picture. Yeah. That's right. Allen Hall: Walk around the show today, Joel. And we were here yesterday taking a look around as, as all the booths were getting set up. The main emphasis in Copenhagen is offshore wind. Yeah. Yeah. That's offshore wind like, doesn't even really  Joel Saxum: exist on some level. Yeah. As you fly in, right? Like if you're coming to the airport, there's offshore wind turbines right there. So if you're coming over from the US or somewhere else that you don't normally see offshore wind turbines, you get to see some as I flew in on Sunday afternoon, they were spinning like crazy. So good to see that. But yeah, so the, I mean, we're here in Denmark, right? So you have Germany and going in towards the Baltic Sea and then the North Sea. There's a lot of Dutch companies here. So a lot of offshore wind focus at this show. Definitely there's a lot of vessel companies. Yeah. There's a lot of sub sea service companies so cool to see that we don't normally see in the us for sure.  Allen Hall: Well, I, I think one of the, the big takeaways from me is, is that, Big, heavy industry and in wind, particularly offshore. It is happening here in Europe. Oh yeah. There's almost no American presence. 

In this bonus episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, hosts Allen Hall and Joel Saxum delve into the complexities of bolt connections in the wind industry with Pete Andrews, the Managing Director of the UK-based company EchoBolt. With bolted connections being a key area undergoing significant changes in terms of efficiency and cost-effectiveness, EchoBolt has introduced a new approach to bolt inspections that is faster and more accurate, transforming the way the wind industry thinks about bolts. The discussion covers the common issues facing bolted connections and how EchoBolt helps customers focus on problem joints. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com EchoBolt - https://www.echobolt.co.uk Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EchoBolt Allen Hall: Welcome to an exciting bonus edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, where we explore the latest innovations in the wind industry. I'm your host Allen Hall, along with my co-host Joel Saxum, and today we have a game changing topic that's sure to spark your interest. As we know, the wind industry is relentlessly striving for greater efficiency and cost effectiveness, and one of the key areas that is undergoing significant changes is the bolted connections. Today we have the pleasure of hosting Pete Andrews, managing director at EchoBolt, the UK based company that is revolutionizing bolt inspections instead of traditional re-tensioning methods. Echobolt has introduced a faster and more accurate approach that has the potential to transform the way the wind industry thinks about bolts. So join us as we delve deeper into the complexities of bolted connections in in wind, and discover the cutting edge technology that EchoBolt is bringing to the. Pete, welcome to the program Pete Andrews: Hi, Allen. Thank you very much. It's good to be here. Allen Hall: So one of the, the concerns out in the industry at the moment is what is happening with all these bolted connections and some of the problems we're seeing in bolted connections, in particular in the United States. We're seeing a lot of issues with blade bolts and foundation bolts. Are you seeing some of the same things over in Europe? Pete Andrews: Yeah, I think so. I think it's really a story of two halves with bolted connections on wind turbines. Either your bolts are, are behaving in a static manner and a fine, and you can almost leave them alone for the life of the asset, or you have persistent problems and it's exactly the same story for us. It's blade to blade bearing connections. Sometimes foundations where. Degradation of concrete, et cetera. And so we are really helping customers focus in on those problem joints and hopefully engineer ways and investigate and. Help 'em solve the issues that they're having. A question for you, Pete.  Joel Saxum: So when we talk bolted connections, right on the wind turbine, we're ma mainly talking tower to foundation. We're talking tower section to tower section and usually tower to bolts, or I mean tower to blades. Sorry, tower to bolts. Is, is, yeah, that's gonna happen. But to the blades. So do you run it, when you talk about, like, there, it's a dichotomy, right? It's either you're having problems or you're just beautiful and everything chugs along in its business as usual. When you guys are out there and you don't have to name any, cuz we don't want to,

Volkswagen just invested in EnerKite's airborne wind turbines. How practical are they? Allen, Rosemary and Joel discuss the possibilities. RWE just bet on  small wind and Ryse Energy, with about 400 installations. What would make small wind more viable? Hint: certification would help. Can the right software cut out the middleman in drone inspections? North Dakota's Thread is on it. Scotland's SSE has installed the world's deepest offshore wind turbine. The 2,000 ton turbine sits in 58 meters of water. Meanwhile, DNV has deemed Entrion's 100-meter FRP monopile feasible. How do these developments change the floating vs. fixed bottom argument? Joel explains how rock bags work and why scour protection is important. Our Wind Farm of the Week has 377 GE turbines in 4 locations. Listen to find out why it's a big deal! Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 162 Allen Hall: We have a packed show for you this week. To start off, we talked about Volkswagen connecting with EnerKite and Rosemary has done a bunch of research on these kite projects that generate power and what it means and is it a good idea. And then we look into small wind power with Ryse Energy, which has been supported by RWE. Joel Saxum: We're gonna talk to about our friends in PES Wind Magazine. This month or this quarter I should say over from North Dakota Thread and what their software solution and, and drone enterprise looks like.  Rosemary Barnes: And then we're gonna head offshore. Scotland is installing the world's deepest fixed bottom offshore wind turbine. At, I think it was 68 meters. And there's also a hundred meter monopile from Entrion that they're proposing. And we delve into a little bit about floating offshore as well, and about how, how that's going to compete with fixed bottom in the long term.  Allen Hall: And then our wind farm of the week is Western Spirit Wind in New Mexico, so stay tuned for it. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxum. And Australian renewables Rosemary Barnes, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Allen Hall: Rosemary, I know you have talked about the flying kite power generation systems and Volkswagen must have seen your videos. So Volkswagen Group charging in EnerKite have submitted a proposal to the federally funded. Techno high project which involves using airborne wind turbines to generate electricity for mobile charging points and anarchy will provide flying wind turbines, which the company claims could yield twice the annual energy compared to ground lodge turbines. The the system uses wind catching kite to pull a rope producing large forces that are converted into electricity. And the project, it's called ric Mobile Charging infras. And it will run through the end of 2024. EnerKite is led by former World Champion in speak, hiding Christian Gephart, and they're working on the first product stage for the E K 200, which is the model of this kite. And Rosemary, you had done a bunch of research on this on your site. Does this make sense to use Kite to power up mobile? Car charged ports.  Rosemary Barnes: Maybe. Maybe it does. It's interesting to see EnerKite with this agreement, cuz they're, they're not the front runners. I mean, they're one of the, one of the front runners I guess.

We are thrilled to be speaking with Martin Kristelijn, the brilliant mind behind the game-changing technology company, IntoMachines. This innovative company has developed a range of cutting-edge products that are set to revolutionize the way wind turbine technicians work, starting with reducing the fatigue of technicians while working on bolted connections. From the torque tool trolley, which is set to make moving heavy equipment a thing of the past, to their advanced dual torque tool robot, IntoMachines is on a mission to make a significant impact on the lives of technicians worldwide. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com IntoMachines - https://intomachines.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Bonus: IntoMachines Allen Hall: Welcome to this bonus edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech. In today's wind, turbines, as we all know, have several hundred bolts that are subjected to massive loads and stresses. Worldwide, there are more than 20 million wind turbine tower and foundation bolts. That's a lot. Keeping these bolts tightened is a monumental task, and as we know, technicians are in high. So in order to keep up, we need to provide technicians with the tools and resources to torque bolts faster and more reliably. That brings us to our guest, Martin Crystalin. Of Into Machines. Into Machines is a relatively new company based in the Netherlands, which focuses on making technicians more efficient with tools to make torquing easier. Martin, welcome to the Uptime Win Energy Podcast. Martin Kristelijn: Thank you very much for the invite. Very happy to be here. Allen Hall: Well, as we know, as wind turbines have grown, there's been more bolts and it takes longer to assemble and maintain those bolted connections. It's a big problem, right? As we have seen, we're just not able to keep up with the demand for technicians. We're kind of stuck right now on. Martin Kristelijn: Yeah, it's absolutely. We we saw this problem already three years ago. And our goal was to, to focus on optimizing the bolting procedure in wind turbines, both offshore and offshore. And we're trying to do that for both both tensioning and both torquing. And our solution is to provide very lightweight, easy to operate trolley solutions. As well as fully autonomous robots, which can help the operators in speeding up the process. And getting less fatigued by handling all the heavy bolting equipment in the towers. Allen Hall: So that's, that's one of the issues Martin we're seeing is as these equipment gets heavier and the bolts get bigger, it becomes more of an effort by a technician to actually tighten bolts. And I, I, it sounds like we're seeing some injuries from that. Is, are you hearing the same thing? Martin Kristelijn: Yeah, exactly. We we talk a lot with technicians. So we go to wind turbines ourselves to try out a product. And yeah, the most hurt feedback we get is that the back starts to hurt after a couple of hours working with a tool weighing 40 kilograms or 50 or 60 even. And that they like to have a trolley in order to help them lift the tool and transport it from one boat to the other. And yeah, we're trying to, to provide those tooling to the technicians, to to make, make their lives much easier. Allen Hall: Yeah. Because the issue right now,

Let's dive into some of the exciting stories that have been happening in the wind industry this week. From the use of prefabricated foundations for repowering projects in Germany, to the milestone of a US-built offshore wind service ship reaching 50% completion, there's plenty of innovation to explore. And that's just the start – we'll also be discussing the use of non-US flagged vessels for site exploration work, liquid air energy storage technology, and a breakthrough in hydrogen boron plasma fusion. And of course, we'll be highlighting the wind farm of the week, the Red Barn Wind Park Project in Grant County, Wisconsin. So, buckle up and get ready for an exciting episode of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 161 Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. Just a couple of show notes here. Joel and I are headed to Copenhagen for Wind Europe and we're gonna be enjoying all the sight and sounds of Copenhagen and it's gonna be a big event, Joel?  Joel Saxum: Yeah, exciting. We've got a bunch of meetings scheduled. I know the, the insurance world is gonna be to the wind world innovation. OEMs a lot of ISPs, asset owners, all kinds of new technology. So always excited to see what that one, that show looks like. And it's gonna be just a precursor, just a couple weeks, right before our big ACP show in the United States. So we'll be able to see what are the Europeans doing? What is the rest world doing on that side of the pond? And then, Three weeks later, come back and we will both as be in for ACP in New Orleans as well for that week. And it's always interesting to see. We'll see if we can't bring some bring some technology back with us, maybe. Allen Hall: Yeah, well, Wind Power Lab, Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and Ping share booze at these events. So there's always some activity around us. They'll stop by if, if you're in Copenhagen or we're gonna be in in New Orleans, we. We would love to see you. Well, and this week we have a, a bunch of really interesting stories The wind industry's picking up because it's springtime in America and, and springtime in Europe, and all the projects are starting. So Joel, why don't you give us the highlights of what's happening this week?  Joel Saxum: So we're gonna talk about RWE, so a German company, RWE, using another German company for an innovation project. They're looking at prefabricated foundations for a repowering. It's a pilot project. I don't know if it's technically Repowering because. They're tearing the old turbines down, putting new foundations and everything in, but they're gonna use pre-fabricated foundations, which is really cool. And then we'll jump back onto this side of the pond as well. We'll talk about the first US built offshore wind service ship reaching a milestone, 50% complete Edison West down in Louisiana, doing their part for the transition. And on the. Coattails of that conversation. We're gonna talk a little bit about Dominion Energy's use of non-US flagged vessels and some of the site exploration work that they're doing for their projects  Rosemary Barnes: South Virginia. And then we're gonna talk about tel getting into liquid air energy storage and talk about how that kind of technology fits into the energy storage ecosystem as a whole.

In this podcast episode, we delve into the latest DOE report on offshore wind energy in the US, which presents four key initiatives to achieve ambitious targets of 30GW by 2030 and 110GW by 2050. The report focuses on reducing the costs of fixed bottom offshore wind by 30% and floating wind by 70%. The pressing question is whether these goals can be achieved within the specified timeline. Phil Totaro of Intelstor, offers his expert insights into the ups and downs of the offshore wind supply chain and discusses strategies to drive down costs and pave the way towards meeting these critical targets. Tune in to gain valuable knowledge on the current state and future prospects of offshore wind energy in the US. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com DOE Report - https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-03/advancing-offshore-wind-energy-full-report.pdf Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 160 Bonus Allen Hall: Welcome to this bonus edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and in today's episode we'll be discussing the Department of Energy's ambitious strategy to lower the electricity prices of offshore wind energy. As you may already know, the DOE has recently published two significant Efforts, the NOW Program and the Forward program that present a set of technology and financial goals for offshore wind energy production. The NOW program seeks to reduce fixed bottom wind prices from their current rate of roughly $74, a megawatt hour by 30% to $51 per megawatt hour. While the Ford program aims to lower floating wind energy prices by an astounding 70% from the predicted rate of $150, a megawatt hour to $45 a megawatt. Both programs are focusing on achieving these energy price reduction goals in the near term by 2030 and 2035. Respectfully, however, with only seven offshore wind turbines currently in the United States and limited offshore wind manufacturing in place. Meeting these now and forward goals will be a significant challenge to help us understand the Department of Energy's goals and what can realistically be done to lower offshore electricity prices. We have Phil Zaro, c e o of intra with us. Phil,  Phil Totaro: welcome back. Thanks, Ellen. Great to be here.  Allen Hall: So there's, there's a lot to this d OE effort and I, I wanted to bring you on in specifically to, to hash through some of the financial questions that pop up when we, when, when the DOE is asking for a 30% reduction in fixed bottom offshore and a 70% reduction in floating offshore. Those are big numbers for a relatively developed product line. First  Phil Totaro: of all, the. Turbine price still has room to come down. Right now, outside, let's ignore China for a second, because they're, they're a pretty special case. But for offshore wind outside of China, right now you're talking on average turbine prices, somewhere between 1.4 and 1.6 million per megawatt. And, you know, steady to slightly climbing the. Effects of inflation on offshore wind hasn't been as pronounced because turine prices in offshore were already pretty high. So there, there are, you know, the same type of supply chain issues that you see in onshore are also prevalent in offshore, just not as pronounced. So that's, that's one area of reduction. So I mean, from, you know, between 1.4 to 1.6,

How much of a threat are the four Federal lawsuits against Vineyard Wind? All of the cases charge that the BOEM's environmental review was inadequate. We discuss what's at stake and how we see the cases progressing. Legal cases may be harder to predict than wind: GE and Siemens Gamesa just settled their patent dispute. Meanwhile, the US DOE has released its Offshore Wind Energy Strategy to reach 110GW by 2050 and lower PPE by a third. Allen and Joel wonder how the DOE plans to do it. Will there be R&D grants? Does DOE have a wondrous new technology up its sleeve? Or will we buy Chinese turbines?  Speaking of innovation, RWE and BP are both looking for projects to fund. RWE is looking for innovations that improve circularity and reduce waste and also for systems integrations that improve system flexibility. The winners get to test their concepts with RWE team and other experts. Similarly,BP's Offshore Wind Innovation Challenge wants to see concepts that reduce waste and other potential negatives of wind while balancing energy supply and demand. See show notes for application details and deadlines. Scottish Power Renewables has ordered 95 SG 14-236 DD wind turbines for the East Anglia 3 wind power project in the North Sea. There's a great repowering project (actually, eight!) going on in Texas, thanks to the IRA and a new partnership between ACEN and PivotGen, to be completed in less than a year. And our Wind Farm of the Week is Rattlesnake Creek Wind Farm, in Nebraska, which will power both Adobe and Facebook facilities. But are there any rattlesnakes? Grab your earbuds...there's a lot more in this episode!  Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com BP Innovation Application Site - https://innovation.bp.com/offshorewindcircularity RWE Innovation Application Site - https://www.rwe.com/en/research-and-development/project-plans/innovation-competition/#competition-2023 Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 160 Allen Hall: Joel, we just celebrated our third. Of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast, Joel Saxum: Man, time flies when you're having fun.  Allen Hall: Yeah, we're entering year four. I can't even believe it, that we've been doing the podcast that long every week pretty religiously. And bringing our faithful listeners the information they want to hear in regards to win energy. It, it, it's a lot of work. Joel, you, you've seen me deep dive into the, the news effort that goes on every week. We're trying to bring everybody the, the latest and greatest. And the news you probably haven't seen in regards to wind energy, not only in the United States, but a across the world. And this week is no e exception. To start off this week, we have a, a couple of legal items. Vineyard, wind is involved in. Four different lawsuits at the moment that are dealing with fisheries and landowners. And those are coming to a close here shortly, we hope. And then GEs and Siemens cesa have finally settled their patent dispute. And then that's good news for. Both sides. And then Joel and I take a, a, a deep dive into the Department of Energy and their new US offshore wind strategy and what that means for the wind industry over the next couple of years.  Joel Saxum: And sticking with the talk on the US trying to sh ha put forth the strategy with offshore wind. We also chat about R W E and bp both launching offshore wind innovation challenges.

The world's first compressed air energy storage, in China, is now in operation. It's expected to power up to 60K homes. The technology is solid but it's less efficient than other energy storage systems. We consider the pros and cons. What did European Commission President von der Leyen and US President Biden agree to in their meeting last month regarding incentives in green tech? Joel and Rosemary speculate, and offer some suggestions for a stronger renewables market. (Hint: they're not fans of hydrogen subsidies.) A unique partnership between Onyx Insights and Nearthlab could pay off for both companies and for operators, too. GE is investing in carbon capture - is it worthwhile? Ask 3 engineers, get 3 perspectives. In Germany, Nordex is knocking down four 4.5MW turbines. What do we know about why? In the Gulf of Mexico, Shell and Gulf Wind Technology are working to develop, test and deploy a Cat 5 Hurricane-proof turbine by 2024. What's at stake, and what will we learn? Our Wind Farm of the Week, the Strauss Wind Energy Project in Lompoc, CA, has been more than 20 years in development. Find out why its time is now! Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EP 159 Allen Hall: Well, I am in Åre, Sweden at the moment for winter Wind, which is the icing winter blade conference held in, in Sweden every year. And Joel, it's just like I imagine Sweden. It is beautiful, but it is ultra cold and very  Joel Saxum: snowy. The people are nice, though. The people are nice. Oh  Allen Hall: yeah. It's a lovely people actually enjoying the food. And the company here, and it's a pretty well attended conference. It, it starts off tomorrow. They had some, a little bit of adventures this afternoon, but the, the conference itself starts tomorrow. Really looking forward to learning a lot about wind turbine anti icing, some of the issues they're having with a e p and icing, and trying to keep these wind turbines running in these really harsh winter conditions. And, I'm used to cold. It's cold here. This is beyond cold. So this, this week we have a number of great topics. China has a compressed air energy storage system, 100 megawatt system that is pretty unique, and Rosemary goes through some of the details there. Then we look at the, the the EU and the United States are doing battle on, on how much money they can pour into renewable energy and, and how that's gonna end up as, as both United States. And the European Union try to keep their technologies in their countries. And then GE is demonstrating a scalable director capture system for CO2 removal. And we, we look into that and where that technology may be used, and we're  Joel Saxum: jumping back from in directly into the wind world with Onyx Insights, a company that we know for some CMS monitoring, but also starting to partner up with Nearthlab. South Korea with their drone technology to help some of their clients with blades. Alan and I've been talking in the background about some Nordex towers made outta concrete that are gonna get actually blown and have a demolition due to some defects in the towers themselves. So. Little, little bit of trouble there with the concrete towers. And then jumping down in the Gulf of Mexico, talking about a cat five hurricane proof wind turbines that that Gulf wind and shell are teaming up on to be able to deploy in the Gulf.

Were you at Blades USA last week? This episode was recorded live in Austin!We saw a lot of progress and heard about the need for more data and better solutions, especially for predictive analysis and predictive maintenance. Rosemary and Allen break down how data gathering and management are helping to find blade faults during the warranty period. Which is obviously good for owners and operators, and maybe in the long run, good for OEMs too. Speaking of OEMs, Rosemary offers great insight into the many ways blades can be at risk before they're even installed, and what operators need to know, and do, to minimize their liability. She may have a little advice for OEMs, too. Tune in for that, and also to find out what the industry is beginning tounderstand about lightning damage. Our Wind Farm of the Week segment returns next week. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 158 Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm here with Blade Guru and Australian renewable expert, Rosemary Barnes. This particular episode we're going to dedicate to the Blades USA Forum and some of the, the presentations I have seen today wrapped around sort of blade maintenance and how. keep your blades as as good as you can, working to produce energy. It's a tough business if you're an operator or an independent service provider. It's rough. There's a lot of work to keep blades running. So we're gonna hear about that and, and then we'll talk a little about some of the secondary. Problems with blades, mostly lightning, which was a very hot topic this week, so stay tuned and it's gonna be a great show. Rosemary, I'm in Austin, Texas for the Blades USA Forum this week. It is packed. And you're missing out. You should be. You should be in Texas.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Yeah. I I, I'm a bit jealous. But maybe, maybe next year. Yeah, there's,  Allen Hall: there's a, a lot of good presentations. This is the first day, there's another day tomorrow. So this is Wednesday when we're recording. And there's all kinds of. Vendors and different kinds of presentations. And I, I really wanted to talk to you as a blade expert because this is a Blades US Forum, U usa blades USA Forum about all the different activities around blades and whether you can kind of shed some light on whether some of these things are gonna become reality or is it just nice to haves because the presentations were really. Had a lot of different perspectives. So let, let me, let me give you some, gimme some general highlights. There was a really, actually a really good presentation on all the data and there that seems to be a, a big emphasis here is we need more data. And I came to the same conference last year. It's in Austin also. And the, the, the emphasis last year was, Hey, we gotta do two things. We need to get more data and we need to be able to categorize damage. . So that's like a, a mostly a universal standard to holes in blades. Like is it a level one? Not, so don't worry about it, I'm just gonna monitor it. Or is it a level five? I gotta do something immediately. Those are the two big ones. On the data side, it was by getting more drone images and and instrumenting blades. So over the last. , there's been a lot more drone images and more emphasis on actually putting in sensors in these blades. Now, now, now the engineers who,

GE Vernova is changing course to reduce complexity and costs of its wind turbines. What are the effects on the US and international wind turbine markets? Will simplifying the product line bring GE Vernova to profitability in 2023? Phil Totaro of Intelstor.com joins the podcast to hash through the details. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 157 Bonus Allen Hall: Welcome back to the Uptime podcast. This is a bonus episode, and I have Phil Totaro here from Entel Store. Welcome back Phil. Thanks. Y. We are here to talk about GE Renova and GE had a recent investor meeting and GE is essentially two divisions at the moment. GE Aerospace. GE Power, which includes the renewables business and of, of all the businesses that remain within GE until they split up at the end of this year. The, the aerospace is pretty profitable. The renewables business is one of those sore points. So the Renew renewable business, if you look back in 2022, lost a little over $2 billion. And that was mostly blamed on some warranty claims and complicated turbine designs that really hurt them when they got out in the field. That is something that GE is looking to change right now, and that investor relations meeting, they got to the point of saying, by the third quarter of 2023, GE renewables, GE Renova will be profitable. And that hasn't happened in about eight quarter. Did you watch that meeting, Phil? Did you see some of the interaction there? Phil Totaro: I did Allen, and it was, it was interesting. So there's, there's kind of a couple takeaways that I had. One is they're obviously quite serious about wanting and frankly needing to turn things around because they're getting so much investor pressure. The other thing is some of the changes that they've already made and some of the announcements they've already. Definitely underscore a sea change in their approach. I think in the past, you know, if, if we look back to their most profitable time in, in renewables, for instance after the acquisition of the Enron Wind and Taka assets they went on a tear between 2005 and 2012 ish. Where. O obviously dominated the US market, but they did so with, you know, what they've even referred to as their workhorse product. And, you know, from about 20 14, 20 15 onwards they spent a few years unfortunately I think you know, their, their management just allowed. , you know, their middle management to spread themselves a little too thin, chasing a lot of, you know, potential opportunities and products and services and a lot of things that, that got them away from a core unified focus. and I think that's what they're really trying to do now with, you know, again, bringing back Vic Bait for instance. And some of the other changes that they're talking about making, this is all geared towards getting back to that, you know, the good old days, so to speak. The, the profitable times when, you know, they had unity of purpose  Allen Hall: and with ab bait coming back into that sort of leadership role for onshore, right? So he. Taking over the onshore business and there's the head of GE Vernova. It's gonna be doing the offshore piece, but let's just talk onshore for a minute cuz onshore is where GE has been really successful in the past. They have a lot of issues at the moment. Not only do they have turbine issues, design issues,

Rosemary and Allen are shocked by the EU stopping over 30 offshore wind projects in Denmark. In the UK, a variety of policy decisions exasperates wind developers. The new US green policy tsar unloads on Europe and creates chaos. Edge Solutions' new leading edge protection solution (Armour Edge) may change the industry. SGRE reopens their Kansas nacelle plant and Arcosa wins $750M in new orders. Zeitview (formerly DroneBase) raises $55M. And, our Wind Farm of the Week is the Sweetland Wind Farm in South Dakota! Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 157 Allen Hall: Rosemary, you just got back from fully charged live in Australia, in Sydney, in the, in the big. How did that go?  Rosemary Barnes: I think there were like 15,000 people-ish there. And yeah, the live sessions were mostly packed with all seats filled and a few rows deep of, of standing people for, for most of the sessions that I did. And it was actually, it was. Time that I got a chance to, you know, meet a lot of the, the viewers of YouTube channel. And it's funny because, you know, like YouTube attracts a, attracts quite introverted people I think because you just, you know, like I just sit in my office and make videos on my smartphone and I was a bit surprised that you know, that can lead to people. Interested enough to, you know, stand in line and, and wait to talk to me. Enjoyed the show and I'm looking forward to next year. They've already, yeah, already announced that they're coming  Allen Hall: back next year. Wow, that's fantastic. Well, just like the fully charged live event, it was packed full of people. This week's uptime is packed full of news. And a, a couple of different things here. And we we're getting a lot of requests to do more news from the European Union. So we have today is your day. And some of those top items are Denmark is being stopped by the EU on about 30 wind farms because it's possibly violated some EU law. So it's putting a. Denmark offshore, wind on hold for the moment. And, and in the UK there's a lot of concerns about funding an investment for a number of offshore wind projects and onshore solar projects because the economy is just a little bit in chaos and, and there's too many forces at play at the moment. And meanwhile, the United States, cause this has to do with the eu, the Clean Energy Czar in the United States is sort of telling off the eu. And I'm not sure that's a good idea because I thought we were all partners in.  Rosemary Barnes: And then we're gonna talk about maybe a consequence of ira, which is a Siemens CESA wind farm opening or, you know, coming out from its moth balling in the US and at the same time closing one in Brazil. And then we're gonna talk about our leading edge protection solution, which is just finished a, a big rollout on a wind farm in Europe.  Allen Hall: And we take a look down in New Mexico where Aosa is announced a $750 million. Order. For Towers down in the southwest of the United States. And then we also take a, a quick look back at Drone Base, which is now Zeit View and the 55 million they received in funding our Wind Farm of the week. You have to listen to the end of the program and hear it, but it's based in South Dakota. So if you're in South Dakota listening, make sure you listen because you may be the wind farmer of the week.

Rosemary Barnes and Allen Hall review the latest employment data from the Airswift Global Energy Talent Index. 31% of survey respondents have been approached about a position with another company SIX TIMES OR MORE in the past year! That indicates a big boom in wind energy for technicians and site managers. However, oil and gas salaries and benefits continue to be a big draw out of wind. The full report is available here - https://www.airswift.com/geti/ Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 156 Bonus Allen Hall: This is a special bonus episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, and I'm here with Rosemary Barnes. And Rosemary, the Global Energy Talent Index Report came out and it's a product of Air Swift. Air Swift is a company that finds talent for your company, and they do research into what's happening in renewables in terms of employees and what they're thinking, what they're feeling, what they're getting paid, and who's moving in, who's moving out. Allen Hall: So I, I took a kind of a deep dive in this report. I wanted to talk to you about it today and kind of get your thoughts because a lot of people in wind in particular have a lot to think about over the next. Because wind energy is expanding so quickly, there's a lot of opportunities and that's good, but it also creates a little bit of chaos. Allen Hall: if you're looking for talent. So I'll throw some numbers at you. Okay. In, in terms of wind Farm project managers, what they make, A year in the, in the United States. The, the report actually gives it by country. I, I'm just talking United States here. It doesn't apply everywhere. Of course project managers in the US if they're permanent the average salary is $74,000, a little over $74,000 a year. Allen Hall: If they're contract workers, it's about $525 a day. Wind turbine technicians permanent ones are getting paid about $57,000 a year, or if they're on contract about four, a little over $400 a day. Those are some good numbers. I, I think they've been going up recently. So at Wind Turine Tech making 58,000 thousand dollars is not bad. Allen Hall: I know a lot of technicians that are making a. Hundred plus those guys are really busting their backside to do it. Does. But as part of this, because Sallys are going up and oil and gas is booming, which is roughly in the same area in the United States, there's a lot of moving around. But I, I want to talk to you in specific about what some of the issues were for employees. Allen Hall: The, it does look like in the renewable sector, a lot of people are willing to relocate, right? Or if half of the people surveyed would be willing to relocate, however if you, if you're, most of the people were under the age of 45, but if they have family, they're less likely to move. So it seems like once you establish yourselves somewhere and have a couple of kids that probably get 'em in school, You're not likely to move around. Allen Hall: So it tends to be kind of a younger scene on the technician side. I, I'm guessing because of that, because of all the travel?  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. The wind turbine techs that I work with. Oh. I don't know. It's a, it's a mix. I guess. There's a lot more really young ones, but you definitely have. to have some experience in there as well. Rosemary Barnes: So I say a mix. 

Rosemary and Allen dig into the use of black paint on wind turbine blades to prevent bird strikes. Painting blades black is not a simple fix - there are structural concerns from Rosemary. Washington State and many other states are passing laws to abolish wind turbine blade disposal in landfills. Are old blades toxic? Philip Totaro of Intelstor joins the show to discuss BP's latest move out of onshore wind and solar and into offshore wind and green hydrogen. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 156 Allen Hall: Rosemary, your fully charged live event is happening this weekend, so when you listen to this podcast, it'll, it'll have been over, but that's a big event in Australia, isn't it ?  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I'm excited. It's the first one this year, but they've already locked in for next year as well, so I guess that the response was good. Rosemary Barnes: So I'm looking forward to seeing how many people show up and yeah, and checking out all. All the stuff that they've got there. They, you can do like electric car test drives and other electric stuff like electrical lawn mowers and scooters and and other fun stuff like that. So it should be, should be a really good weekend. Allen Hall: Well speaking as an electric lawnmower owner, battery powered lawnmower owner. They are fantastic. So I, I encourage everyone in Australia to buy a battery powered lawnmower is the, it is the most awesome thing because you don't have to mess with the gas change of oil, none of it. You, you charge it, you run it. Allen Hall: It's brilliant. This week we have a, a number of stories about wind turbines have been a problem for birds, or at least thought to be a problem for birds. But a number of studies on offshore wind indicate that the birds. Avoid the wind turbines, which is great. And another study has popped out in regards to painting wind turbine blades and towers, sort of black and white and, and almost a checkup board pattern to help keep birds away. Allen Hall: And it, it may work, but Rosemary has deep concern about the structural impacts to the blades.  Rosemary Barnes: Yep. And we're going to talk about wind turine blade recycling. If it makes sense to require that this that this happens, technologies are available to do it. Should we just do it? We're gonna talk about some of the trade-offs that you might not think of. Rosemary Barnes: It's not, not really the slam dunk that it sounds like.  Allen Hall: Then we have Phil Totaro from Intelstor back to talk about BP's plan to reset its renewable business and focus on offshore wind and green hydrogen. And our wind Farm of the week is Bloom Wind in Southwest Kansas, so stay tuned for that. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with our Australian Blade Guru Rosemary Barnes. Allen Hall: And this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Allen Hall: There has been a number of news articles in the press over the last couple of months looking at birds flying into offshore wind turbines and there, and there's been a number of research efforts to look into that. One of the research efforts was led by vain. And it looked at wind turbines offshore of Scotland in the North Sea. Allen Hall: And for two years they studied seabird behavior at the Aberdeen offshore wind farm.

TUV Nord is employing drones and AI image recognition to inspect hybrid steel/concrete towers during the warranty period. Who will use them, what will they find, and how much will they save? Vineyard Wind will use Charles River Analytics' Awarion system to protect whales and other marine life. The system's algorithms were developed in part using videos taken on whale-watching tours. And in a move to de-risk its business, AEP sold $1.2B of renewables assets; IRG Acquisition Holdings will pick up a capacity of about 1,365MW. Joel explains why he sees more asset flipping in the future. New standards in the US require turbines to be able to operate for at least one hour in extreme weather; the ruling is effective in four years. Everyone agrees it's too little too late, so what's the real solution? Wisconsin's Quilt Block Wind is our Wind Farm of the Week - listen to find out why. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 155 Allen Hall: We've reached 100,000 downloads of this podcast. That's a crazy number. That's amazing. That's amazing. And thanks to everybody out there who downloads and listens every week. Our, our faithful listeners have gotten us to that threshold. It's a, it's a huge number and we more and more people listening to uptime every week, and we appreciate everybody doing that. This week's episode lot going on.  Joel Saxum: T u v Nord does some drone inspections of concrete towers. We talked a little bit about what are they looking for, how can they look forward to more efficiently, you know, kind of following bit of our experience in the Blade World. And then also Charles Rivers Analytics. So they've teamed up with Vineyard wind to work w. With some AI machine learning and some sensor packages, sonar on the, in the, in the water. And basically thermal cameras and color cameras on the top side to look for whales and fishing gear and some other things that keep the impact down during offshore wind farm activities in the east coast. Allen Hall: Then we'll talk about AEP selling their renewables business to invent. And FE matches up with NERC to define extreme cold reliability standards to keep the lights on in places like Texas. And our wind Farm of the week is Quilt Block Wind Farm up in Wisconsin. I'm Alan Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxum, and the soon to be guest host, a fully charged live event in Australia, Rosemary Barnes, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Rosemary Barnes: Joel Allen Hall: T UV Nord is using piloted drones to inspect concrete towers of wind turbines. And when I first saw this story, it's probably been a month or so ago, I thought, uhoh new concrete wind turbine towers have problems, and evidently they do, and they're working. With an undisclosed partner, and I assumed at the time that it was Nordex cuz Nordex uses a lot of concrete towers. A, a quick search on Google. Said Nordex has got a couple thousand concrete towers out in service, so they're concerned about having cracks in these towers as the age and get to the end of the warranty period. Right now they're just taking pictures and looking for cracks, but obviously someone's gotta fish through those and determine if there are cracks and if there are, if there are cracks, what they're gonna do about 'em.

Joel Saxum and Allen Hall review the latest info from the tower tip-over at the Pioneer Trail Wind Farm in Illinois. Keystone Tower Systems completes its first spiral welded tower for GE, and signs a big agreement for many more. The first monopile for Vineyard Wind is shipped from Germany to kick-off the build. SENSEWind developed a new method of assembling a wind turbine - could it be a game changer? The Netherlands is tracking submarines in their offshore wind farms, and our Wind Farm of the Week is Black Rock Wind Farm in West Virginia. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 154 Allen Hall: Joel, I'm working on six different time zones today, , and that's the way it's been for the last two or three weeks. All around the world. We're getting phone calls and Zoom calls Northern Hemisphere, Southern hemisphere. It, it, it does add up for a small business when you're dealing with so many time zones. Joel Saxum: Oh, man. I was, I was thinking before when, before you hopped on here today and I was, we were talking, I was, I have talked through four. and I thought I was busy. And you're over here with six different times. Those under your belt. And then it's, it's not even dark yet. Yeah,  Allen Hall: it's not dark. I, I still have time. Australia will be calling here in a minute. . There you go. You're up to  Joel Saxum: seven. Lucky number seven. Allen Hall:  Number seven. There it is. I think I've set the record at least for this week. There you go. Well, we have a lot of wind energy news this week. The big win in America is that a wind tur been tipped over in Illinois. While that's the, a big talking point, I'm not. But it is all the rage on LinkedIn, so we'll, we'll talk about it. More importantly Keystone and GE connect on the spiral steel towers, and that's something I have been waiting for, for uhno a year or two. And I'm just on Looker, but I think that's a really cool  Joel Saxum: project. We'll jump over since wind and we're gonna talk about this company coming outta the UK that is doing something. Okay. Basically a cli, a self erecting tower, or Alan during the episode has his own New term for this tower technology. And then we'll speak about the Netherlands accusing Russia of spying on some of their offshore wind farms. Not sure why or how Google Earth is your friend to find this stuff out, but the Russians are in that corner of the world peeking around also. Touching again on some tower technology. We speak a little bit about the first monopile that's on its way to vineyard wood one off the CO east coast of the us. So that's happening now. And then to close out the episode our new. Feature is the Wind Farm of the week. We're gonna talk about the BlackRock Wind Farm in West Virginia and what they're doing over there with the new five megawatt Siemens Kamasa machines. I'm  Allen Hall: Alan Hall, president of Weather Guard, lightning Tick. And I'm here with my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxum. And the soon to be guest host, fully charged Live. Rosemary isn't here today, but should be back next week, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Joel officials for R W E Renewables are investigating what caused one of their wind turbines to fall over at its Pioneer Trail Wind Farm up in Illinois. The turbine was taken offline earlier because it was leanin...

Joel and Allen deep dive into WHALES along the US East Coast. Does sonar scans at offshore wind sites affect whale behavior? The East Coast has an uptick in ship traffic - does ship density push up whale incidents? Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  153 Bonus Allen Hall: Welcome to a bonus episode of the Uptime Podcast. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech. And I'm here with Wind Power Lab's Joel Saxum. And Joel and I have been looking at some of the whale incidents in the whale deaths that have been occurring on the northeast of the United States. Allen Hall: And it's raised a lot of issues along, along the East Coast, particularly with state and local governments that are concerned about these deaths, and there's a lot of finger pointing going on right now, Joel, in, in regards to what is causing these well deaths and are offshore wind turbine operations. Allen Hall: Particularly the sonar scans that are happening at the moment, harming the whales. And, and the whales they're, they're most interested in and are most concerned about are Right Whales because there's about 350, 400 right whales left on the planet and we wanna make sure we continue to that species. So when we see a right whale end up on the shoreline, particularly down in New Jersey lately, it raises a lot of concern. Joel Saxum: So, I mean, Allen we, you and I dug into a lot of the data and what the data tells us is that the majority, I think 58% we saw within US water were deaths of the right whales were due to fishing gear entanglement. And then the other large percentage of them was from vessel strikes. And there's a small percentage of them that they're, that, that are kind of mysteries. Joel Saxum: We don't, we don't know. Right. But the majority of them is from, from fishing and it would be commercial fishing of course. And vessel strike. So they've put in, in 2008. A government agency, I can't remember which one, put in a, a law and had certain areas that they blocked out basically during certain seasons, they know where they're doing ca where calving is, they know where the whales are traveling to their feeding ground. Joel Saxum: So they put in and a lot of 'em around ports. These, these areas where they have these 10 knot speed limits for any vessel that's over 65 feet. And the idea is, is they, they found, they went through a bunch of studies and found that between 10 and 14 knots of speed is when the mortality rate of a collision increases. Joel Saxum: So it went up once those 10 to 14 knot speeds and, and higher we're, we're breached. So they want to keep all those vessels under 10 knots. Smart move. Right. I think that's great if you're, Click on any pictures or websites and research. The same thing that Alan and I have been looking at for the last while do it after you've had a meal or something. Joel Saxum: Cuz there's some just not pretty pictures of Right whales on the, on the internet that have been hit by vessels. It's a, it's pretty, it's a pretty sad site to see. So it's not, not something we want to see, but what we're, what we are seeing, and I say we as Alan and I looking through a lot of data here, so we looked at. Joel Saxum: where we see all of the auctions happening for, for the wind off the East coast. We also looked@marinetraffic.com and some of the, the Marine,

What's the most profitable way to manage a wind farm? Should you rely on OEM maintenance contracts, Independent Service Providers, or self-perform? Philip Totaro from IntelStor explains the data that show ISPs provide the best returns, and we consider the warranty and insurance implications. Allen, Joel and Rosemary also talk about Perceptual Robotics. The Greek company, flush with new investments, is evolving and heading to the US. Speaking of perceptive, ThayerMahan's sub-sea system incorporates AI algorithms and synthetic aperture sonar to inspect cables on the ocean floor. Joel says it's potentially much better than human monitors, but are there drawbacks? Other new technology we examine in this episode: how do new retrofit blade-heating systems from Borealis work?  Longroad's Milford I & II are our wind farms of the week.The Utah farms are expecting AEP improvements of up to 4%, thanks largely to WindESCo's Swarm implementation.And as environmental concerns are impacting companies like SouthCoast Wind, an Uptime bonus episode considers new data on whale deaths. What have we learned?   Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 153 Allen Hall: Well before we got on the podcast today, I was just looking through the news and noticing that an Irish guy had been attacked by a chicken and killed. So , you think that the only you know animals out there are trying to kill you? A polar bears, especially in the wintertime, but I guess we have to watch out for chickens now. Allen Hall: Joel, did you see that?  Joel Saxum: I thought you were gonna open up with MidAmerica pausing wind turbines cuz of the Siemens Gamesa blade coming down. But we went to chickens in Ireland. Does it, is it, was it on, was it on a wind farm or something, or, or why is it?  Allen Hall: Well, it, it was near a wind farm, but the thing was that this chicken attacked his legs and like pierced his arteries and he bled out. Allen Hall: So I'm like, seriously thinking about going to Chick-fil-A at night just for a little bit of payback .  Joel Saxum: And, and making sure that you, making sure that your life insurance policy's up to date. Allen Hall: Yeah. Right. I mean, there's only so many animals you can deal with at one time, but, and I'm not a big fan of chickens. Allen Hall: As, as our producer will tell you, chickens are not my favorite animal of the animal world. Yeah. So now I'm on red alert today. I don't know why that, that still sticks in my head. Because there's a lot of windows this week, and I was going through it the last couple of days. Like, oh, there's some really good stuff to talk about. Allen Hall: And then, Irish guy and the chicken pops up. So , we'll see how, how this podcast turns out cuz we're gonna have Philip Totaro on and Phil's here right now. Phil, you wanna describe what you talk about this week? Philip Totaro: Thanks. Allen, it's probably not as interesting as chickens, but it's an opportunity for insurance companies though. Philip Totaro: So. Hi, I'm Philip Totaro, we're here to talk about independent service providers. And the cost effectiveness of their maintenance regime on total revenue output for asset owners.  Joel Saxum: Cool. And after we talk with Phil, we're gonna jump over to the UK to some of our Greek friends, Kostas, Dimitris and Derek Rutherford over at Perceptual Ro...

As spring approaches and wind turbines are repaired, which robot is the best solution for your next job? Joel and Allen discuss the options. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  152 Bonus Allen Hall: Welcome to this bonus episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with Wind Power Lab's, Joel Saxum, and Joel, you and I were talking about all the different robot options on the blade repair side. Mm-hmm. and in the spring gets closer. There's a lot of research going into these companies, and I thought it, it's a good time to, to highlight them and discuss where their strengths are and maybe where their weaknesses are. Mm-hmm. . And if you're in a, if you're in the market for like a leading edge repair, what are some of the things you sh consider? From these robot  Joel Saxum: companies? Yeah, absolutely. As as it's February, right? So in most of the northern hemisphere or the further southern hemisphere right now is the time everybody's getting. getting geared up for the spring to let loose and repair season to start. You know, if you're one of those, those lucky companies or lucky asset owners that gets to work on their turbines year round, you don't have that pain. But I know all of my counterparts in the industry and and friends that I talk to are deep into the tender process. And even at this point in time, right, it's February 10th today, so the tenders. They're coming out, right. They're coming out with, with decisions because you're, you're starting to get, if you haven't got your tender in back in, you know, December or January, the, it's getting slim pickings for, for blade techs. So, yeah. Like we, like we talk about a lot on the show as the blade technician pool gets it, it's, it's hard to build it. It gets smaller and smaller as the the global fleet grows. So all of these companies that are starting to develop robots for, whether it's just for leading edge repair or something that has classically been a technician job like like the Valero guys doing the LPS measurements, and they're. Other than that, you've gotta send guys on ropes to do that, and it becomes very expensive and very time consuming. You can't get that much done. Now, doing it with a drone makes, makes a huge difference. So a lot of guys out there, or a lot of companies out there coming up with new solutions and think there's some that are. A little bit earlier in the game and a little bit more developed and have been out in the field getting some, some time up on blades. And those guys are just like, when we started the, you know, the first autonomous drones out there, there was a lot of people kind of working on it. And then of course, you know, like our, our, the people that we know over at Skys specs, they jumped out and started just, just hammering away once they had a really good solution and they, they quickly became the, the top of the heap as far as. Inspection numbers. I think we're gonna start to see that here soon with the robots. .  Allen Hall: Yeah. So the, you know, I think the industry leader right now in terms of at least public ations and maybe even contracts mm-hmm. is Aerones. Mm-hmm. be, be my guess. They're all, all over the world and they have, they, their robots do many different things. Right.

Can integrated photonic sensing make wind farms more efficient? PhotonFirst says yes. Are Modvian's wood turbine towers really more eco-friendly than some existing manufacturing methods? Vestas and other investors think so. Rosemary and Allen discuss sustainable designs and new recycling technology. Rosemary wants more information on Vestas' announcement that its novel chemical process breaks epoxy back down into virgin materials, as well as some details on Norway's Wind Catching Systems. Vancover's Veer and Pattern Energy would probably agree that more data is always a good thing,as the companies are working together to optimize operational performance. Speaking of which...  O&M is on our minds as we prep for Clean Power's Operations, Maintenance and Safety Conference in Orlando next month. Will you be there? Let us know! Our wind farm of the week is the Budweiser Wind Farm at Thunder Ranch in Oklahoma, where Enel Green Power helps Anheuser Busch produce its beverages more sustainably. Every week, Uptime reviews the industry's news, technology, and cool wind farms. Plus, a bonus episode on robots this week. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com PES Wind Article - https://pes.eu.com/exclusive-article/monitoring-makes-good-sense/ Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 152 Allen Hall: Rosemary, the big news here in America is that there was a balloon floating across the United States that we all watched slowly drift from one ocean to the other. Rosemary Barnes: I can't figure out what on earth that was, it was for, or what the cause was. And I, I agree. I would probably shoot it down too. You know, so, so that you're sure. But that's what I'm saying. Super, super weird, right?   Allen Hall: Super weird. Yeah. It was a very strange week for that to happen. So next time there's a balloon, there's, hopefully they'll send it south. It's tough sending it to America. Cause it's freaking out America at the moment. And, and speaking of freaking out There's a lot happening in wind news this week. It, the every day is just a plethora of, of really cool stuff. This week we're gonna talk about integrated photonic sensing, basic fiber optic sensing in winter blades, and that's, Based on our article we saw in Power and Energy Solutions Magazine, and then we take a deep look at Vestas announcing a method to recycle the epoxy resin in existing wind turbine blades. So breaking down the epoxy into virgin components so we could reuse to make more wind turbine blades. Really cool  Rosemary Barnes: technology. Yeah. And then we talk about another project that investors have invested in, the mod vn wooden wind turbine powers. And I talk a little bit about whether it's really more sustainable than steel will be in the future. And then onto wind catching that it's a new kind of offshore wind turbine with like a, a grid array of small wind turbines. And I try the questionable tactic of hoping that they will hire me to help them with their development by criticizing them a lot. So let's see, let's see how that goes for me. And then we've got the Wind Farm of this week is the Budweiser Wind Farm at Thunder Ranch in Oklahoma.  Allen Hall: Also just to note, Weather Guard Lightning Tech is going to be at American Clean Power O&M in Orlando, Florida in the beginning of March. So if you're down in Orlando, stop and say hi. I'm Allen Hall,

February is notorious for wintry and icy weather in the Northern Hemisphere. Joel and Allen discuss the recent blast of ice in Texas, the problems for blades damaged by ice, and how technicians battle their cold and wet nemesis. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  151 Bonus Allen Hall: This is a special bonus episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, and I have Joel Saxum here. Joel's down in Texas at the moment, and they're having some pretty massive ice storms. It seems like January, February in Texas is quite the adventure, and there's been some blade damage and ice being thrown, and a lot of RCAs and evals happening on blades. Allen Hall: And that'll just be a good time to discuss since it is winter. What to do about some of these icing conditions and how we're handling in them and what's the, some of the path forward. Allen Hall: Joel, would you like to just give us an idea of what you're seeing right now?  Joel Saxum: Yeah, I'll tell you I'll give you the environmental conditions in Texas right now and then kind of talk about some of the things we saw on the field in the last few days. But and this is for people who maybe you're in an area of the world that doesn't see icing or you are, and you may have some great feedback to, to tell us. Joel Saxum: But right now, so I'm in, I'm in between San Antonio and Austin, Texas, and I'm looking out the window, and this is not normal for this corner of. But there's a pin oak tree in the front yard that's probably got, I don't know, 5,000 pounds of ice in the, in the leaves and branches. I mean, there I, there's, there's 14 inch branches that are just boom, bent right down to the ground, right? Joel Saxum: So, All there's power lines failing. There's I mean there's a half inch of ice on the deck everywhere. I drove last night. We had a wind on the wind power lab team. We did an RCA up in Northern Texas. We were up by Up by Wichita Falls. And so we had to do some traveling around the state and the Dallas Fort Worth, metrop just got pounded with snow and ice, something that normally doesn't happen there, right? Joel Saxum: You think Texas, you're thinking, oh, you know, shorts, shorts and long sleeved shirt or something in the, in the wintertime when you're good. But I mean, I, I counted in one stretch of highway yesterday while traveling 19 different accidents because of the icing on the roads. Wow. Right. And so, so when you think about this now, there's some, some general thoughts. Joel Saxum: It rains, it's 32 degrees. If the blades are cold, they're gonna pick that ice up and as they, they travel around, they're gonna get ice and more ice and more ice and more ice. Also that that happens, but it also can happen where you may not even be getting any ice on the ground, any accumulation of rain or sleet or anything like that, but a hundred feet above you, there may be this fog layer and that sometimes is an ice fog. Joel Saxum: And when things spin around in that ice fog, it's almost worse because of the way it builds up on the wind turbine blades, they lose performance. And then once they get kind of jagged and, and spiky with the, the ice build up on the edges, it just tends to build up more and more and more and more. So an ice accumulation that's not shiny and clean tends to build up even more and more ice.

This week we discuss new technology, jobs, and some interesting business developments. Aerones' latest modular robot is 5x faster than humans,repairing up to Level 3 LEE damage and halting progression of up to Level 5 erosion. Then we leap from Latvia to Kentucky, where Nucor's new factory is making Elcyon, "creating the first domestic supply chain of sustainable steel" in the US - and it's specifically for designed for the demands of offshore energy. Rosemary posits that the economics of recycled steel may outweigh the environmental benefits, but it's a win for the state and the industry.   New York could be the big winner in jobs, with BP and GE including new factories in their bid packages, while Invenergy signed a MOU with North America's Building Trades Union to sweeten its bid. Joel thinks he understands why Iberdrola is selling wind sites in the US, but says there may be more to it. The wind industry is not slowing down. Keep up with Uptime!  Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 151 Allen Hall: So we came on the podcast today, Joel, Rosemary checked in and her first comment was about the sweater I'm wearing. It took like maybe five seconds before she's on top of me about my sweater.  Joel Saxum: It's beautiful, Allen. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful cardigan. It's not a sweater, it's a cardigan. It's fantastic. Allen Hall: It's a cardigan, right? There you go. And I'm here to the whaling territory of America. Right? This is sort of like's what the whalers used to wear. It's cold in Massachusetts. It's awful. And it's wets  Allen Hall: too. It's awful. Joel Saxum: If you're new to the podcast, what you'll understand from that comment is that Rosemary usually doesn't have a filter. She's gonna tell you how it is and what she feels, and that's why we love her. Joel Saxum: Yeah. So this, this is a really fun episode, because Rosemary is completely filterless this week. And we're gonna talk about Aerones over in Latvia. Talking about really going after a big marketplace. Joel Saxum: They're, they're going to be doing leading edge repairs with AkzoNobel has the sealant fixed to keep those leading edges clean and making power. And then we, then we shift gears over to New York State and there's a lot happening offshore in New York State with the New York State bid process. All the companies that are just offshore trying to make bids into the state, the state's only looking for two gigawatts, and there's a lot more power offshore than two gigawatts at the moment. Joel Saxum: So, A bunch of shuffling, including GE proposing to, to build two new facilities in New York State, a new blade facility with LM Wind Power, and then an a cell facility right next door. Lot of action  Joel Saxum: there. We're also gonna talk about ebra Jola. So for the technicians in the field that may be working on one and wind farm, and they come to work the next day and it's owned by someone else what we see is that with the availability of capital for, for their developments, that's going to become more commonplace and Iberdrola is making some big moves to shift around their capital base to, to put some more renewable energy in the ground. Joel Saxum: That's actually, that's what we're thinking, right? We don't work for iro, so we don't know. And then we're gonna get back to Rosemary talking losing her filt...

Wind Turbine Technicians are in short supply. A recent report on the US states with mechanically-inclined workers provides insights into where to find future technicians. Joel, Rosemary and Allen discuss the report and the potential salaries for workers willing to move to the east and west coasts. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EP 150 Bonus Allen Hall: This is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast bonus episode. In this episode, Joel Rosemary and I discuss where the mechanically inclined employees are in the United States, and they may be in places you haven't thought of because some of them were surprised to me. So this is a good discussion because wind turine technicians are gonna become one of the primary expanding roles in America. So it'll be a great time to be a wind turbine technician. Question is where are they gonna come from? It looks like mostly in the middle of United States, but not all. So we have a, a good back and forth here. It's stay tuned. This is a, an excellent episode, bonus episode of. A, a really interesting article in construction coverage.com. Not a place that I frequent very often, but they had an article that just popped out called American Cities with the most mechanically Inclined Workers in 2023. Oh. . Maybe my little town's in that. Curious, not like that, but, so let's just, just curious to see. Right. And they've sort of break down the mechanically inclined occupations from laborers and people who move freight stock around to people driving tractor trailers to general maintenance, repair people, construction carpenters, electricians, automobile mechanic. , kind of the general categories there. But if you look at the growth where they say mechanically and client occupations in the energy sector have the highest growth projections, it is in wind turine service technician. There you go. So the two year and tenure growth, they are number one in that list. there. In the 10 year projections, it's wind and wind turbines, number one, solar's number two. Wood pattern makers is number three. I, I guess that's, that's furniture makers probably. That makes sense. Derrick. Workers for oil and gas model makers. More oil and gas. Oil and gas. Oil and gas. So in terms of the growth, it's gonna be wind, solar, oil, and gas. Is that, that's not shocking, Joel, is it? And I guess that would make  Joel Saxum: sense. No. , I would think that the oil and gas wouldn't be, wouldn't be growing as hard or as fast as the renewable side. But makes sense. You know, it makes me think back to Rosemary. You wouldn't know this one cuz you're, you're not in the US but when you are 17, I think in high school they make you take a test called the asvab. And the ASVAB is the military aptitude test. They  Rosemary Barnes: make you do a test to. If you would be good in the military or what you should do. They, they, yeah. They  Joel Saxum: like, they, they literally come, they came, they came to our school and were like, all right, all of the juniors into the auditorium and like 10, 10 guys and you know, two guys from the Marines, two guys from the Navy, two guys from the Army stood up there and they gave you this big speech about the military. And then had you take this test. And the test, you don't know it while you're taking it, but how it scores you basically is, are you.

Why stop at 15MW when you can make 18MW turbines? That's a good question to ask Vestas. In the 150th Uptime podcast (wow!), Allen, Joel and Rosemary discuss the CEO's surprising announcement and the market demands, risks, and potentially sneaky corporate strategy behind the scenes. Also in this show, we consider how those 115M blades will hold up at RWE's Thor wind farm, which will be Denmark's largest offshore development. And on Mt. Santis, researchers have shown that "massive" lasers can protect wind turbines from lightning. Is it scalable, and if so, does it make sense? Meanwhile, in Oklahoma and Colorado, two turbines toppled and the internet raced for the best headline - but we want to know how OEMs, insurers, and asset owners will respond. Can they work together to keep wind energy moving forward? Finally, don't miss a special bonus episode highlighting some surprises places to find US Wind Technicians. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com PES Wind Article - https://pes.eu.com/exclusive-article/driven-by-data-2/ Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 150 Allen Hall: We have a special double bonus episode this week. So now you're gonna get this great episode, your weekly episode. We have a a, a bonus coming behind this, so it's a super great week for uptime. We're gonna talk about R W B E, selecting Siemens sch MEA for the Thor Wind Farm. Now isn't that the coolest name for a wind farm? Thor. Now, why does America have some cool offshore wind turbine names? Rosemary  Rosemary Barnes: and then we're gonna talk about ve who are claiming that they're going to stop at 15 megawatts for their offshore wind turbine, whilst at the same time Ming Yang is already pushing out to 18 megawatts.  Joel Saxum: So in, in Switzerland we're gonna visit some of later laser-guided lightning. We've seen this floater on LinkedIn quite a bit where they're firing lasers to, to get lightning to track down the laser. And Alan will kind of give us a brief overview of why he does or does not think, That it's commercially viable for wind turbines. And then jumping into a little bit of a review of GEs finances from the fourth quarter, what we think they mean and then a Bloomberg article about wind turbines taller than the Statue of Liberty falling over. Wanting to understand what that means for the global market.  Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxum, and soon to be guest host of the fully charged live event in Australia, Rosemary Barnes. And this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. All right. R d B has chosen Siemens ESA 14 dash 2 36 DD offshore Wind turbines. I God, I love that name. And they're sticking with it. Joel? They have not changed the name of their wind turbines, and I can't figure out if someone hasn't like told them, but, all right.  Joel Saxum: That's the king out there,  Allen Hall: so yeah. So the the r w has chosen them for the Thor Wind Farm in the Danish North Sea, and the Thor farm will be Denmark's largest. Offshore wind farm at roughly one gigawatt capacity once it's completed. So those Siemens ga Mesa turbines are using their patented integral blades. So it's all one piece cast as one piece. Rosemary, I don't know if El ever tried that, but Siemens is doing it and they're 115 meters in length now.

Continuum is planning to build six wind turbine blade recycling centers across Europe. In the US, several companies are competing to recycle blades into construction materials. With recycling a viable option for blades made of standard epoxy resins, are new recyclable resins worth the effort? Joel, Rosemary and Allen discuss the options for blade recycling and the low-carbon options for future blades. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Bonus 149 Allen Hall: All right, so this is the bonus episode of the Uptime podcast. Lucky you. Because Rosemary is talking about blade recycling, and there's a lot of new blade recycling initiatives around the world, and particularly in Europe where six blade recycling factors would be built between now and 2030 Now, there's a a lot of questions about what the right approach is, which is the lowest carbon dioxide method to, to recycle blades. Should we bury them? Should we not bury them? Should we turn 'em into furniture? This is a really good bonus episode. Allen Hall: Well worth listening cause there's a, a lot of good viewpoints about this. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxon, and the soon to be guest host of The Fully Charged Live Event in Australia, Rosemary Barnes. And this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Allen Hall: Well, Rosemary, Denmark base continuum is planning to build six large scale wind turbine blade recycling facilities all across Europe. The first factory is scheduled to be built in southwest Denmark. Of course, why we're built anywhere else and. It's gonna be an operation at the end of 2024, end of next year. Allen Hall: The second factory is planned for the uk. It's gonna be all six factories they think are be done by 2030. Right. So they're actually gonna meet a 2030 goal. Each factory can process a minimum of 36,000 tons of blades a year. That's a lot of blades. And they're gonna turn this into construction material. Allen Hall: It doesn't sound like they're gonna burn it. It sounds like they're gonna chop it up and add it to concrete or other. Construction related materials to reinforce them, make 'em better. You got fiber in there, right? So that makes sense. You could chop it up and reinforce different things. Question is with GE slash LM working on recyclable blade resins. Allen Hall: Same thing for Siemens Mesa. They've got this super break DOWNABLE resin for these recycle blade projects. Does this all make sense if you're, if I'm gonna build a factory to recycle blades and they're gonna make blades recyclable in a different way, coming up like now there seems like there's a mix of technology and factories going in the wrong direction. Allen Hall: Which one is the right path?  Rosemary Barnes: Well, I think the eventual right path is to have blades that are really easily recyclable, but in the meantime, the, you know, we haven't got recyclable blades yet, and when we do, it'll be another 20 to 30, or we need to recycle the bulk of those blades. So, yes. Yeah. In the meantime, we need a way to recycle all the blades that already exist, and so this would. Rosemary Barnes: be that method. But I haven't seen too many details of it cuz already, I mean, there's already ways to recycle blades depending on what your definition of recycling is.

In case the US didn't know it was hitting a wall in wind development, some of its European friends are making that point more obvious of late. First, Orsted purchased PSEG's Ocean Wind 1 off the New Jersey coast. The company said the project could only continue with an optimized tax structure. But Allen notes the complicated patent dispute between GE and Vestas didn't help, as Ocean Wind will use GE's Haliade-X turbines. IntelStor's Philip Totaro says there's more to it - a lot more. Helpfully, Siemens outlined a plan for the US to get wind development back on track, onshore and off. Will the US take Siemens' advice? And can changes be made in time to meet those 2030 renewable goals? Joel says "nope."  It will take years to overcome a shortage of experienced workers stateside, with the Jones Act's requirements on using American workers, a lack of training programs, and little clarity from the Federal government. As China prepares to "move beyond the 18MW threshold," when, and how, will the US get wind development back on track? Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 149 Allen Hall: For those of you on the inside, on the, on the podcast we actually have a producer. Now. You don't see or hear her, which is probably good , but, but she, she is doing some really excellent work. So we, she, she did so well. On this episode, we're gonna actually gonna split this into two. So you're gonna get a bonus episode this week and look out for. Allen Hall: This week's topics include Orsted and New Jersey's PSEG for ocean wind, one in the US Atlantic and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy puts together a plan of how to get American offshore wind and on shore wind rolling.  Joel Saxum: On the heels of that, something we've been talking about kind of regularly over the last few months of the Jones Act and some of the other things that the, the US needs to get in shape. Joel Saxum: Making these offshore goals happen. As we talk about this American Offshore Worker Fairness Act, that's a bipartisan act. Try to close up some loopholes to ensure that the people going offshore do have American passports.  Allen Hall: And Phil Totaro from IntelStor joins us for this episode. So it's nice to have Phil back on the podcast. Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxum, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Allen Hall: All right. So big news out of New Jersey. Danish developer Orsted who we know well, has signed a deal with US Energy Company, PSEG public Service Enterprise Groups which was my power provider when I lived in New Jersey. So they're, they're buying the 25% state PSEG has had in the 1.1 gigawatt ocean wind, one project off the coast of New Jersey. Allen Hall: Orsted will now own 100% of that project once this transaction is complete. Pbs egs, chief Commercial Officer, Lathrop Craig said that it become clear that it was better for his group to step aside and allow, quote, better position investor to join the product so that it can proceed with an optimized tax structure that's. Allen Hall: Very weird language but Ocean One is, was, is still planning to use GE Hallide X 12 megawatt wind turbines that have run into patent issues with Siemens Ga Mesa. So we have. Phil Totaro from Tel Store back on the program b...

Between volcanos, unexploded ordnance, and a flash of cash, we can say that the new year has really started with a bang. But seriously, folks - extreme weather may be getting more extreme. When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted last week, half of all the lightning in the world was concentrated there. That ash is now headed your way, wherever you are. The Uptime crew also considers why GE has extended its partnership with TPI. How strategic is it, and what else might GE have planned as the Vernova spinoff looms? Meanwhile, as the Dogger Bank Wind Farm development continues, about 100,000 tons of UXO from WWI and WWII is expected to need to be cleared. Joel explains how they'll diffuse the situation.  Denmark's PolyTech just got a $135M Euro investment and the Uptime crew has some very specific suggestions for how other small companies could find big investments. If you're interested in growing your company in the wind space this year, don't miss this episode! Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 148 Allen Hall: Well in wind energy this week there's been a lot of great news. TPI is hooked up with GE and it's maybe developing some of the next generation blades for, for GE that's an interesting topic. And, and we also look into LM Windpower in India where they've finished their 50000th blade. Allen Hall: Congratulations to everybody there. And, and then the, the volcano in Tonga created a massive number of lightning strikes, but it also puts debris in the air. And I, I asked a couple questions like, do we have to worry about that debris in the air when it comes to wind turbines that are nearby. Joel Saxum: And then we'll, we'll jump up to the North Sea. Talk about Dogger Bank and the unexploded ordinance, like, so it's been a couple of world wars up there. We've had a lot of things going on and what they're doing to make sure that it is safe for. Not only the infrastructure to go on the ground, but for the workers that are out there putting it in. Joel Saxum: And then the last thing we're gonna talk about here is Polytech just, just raised or got a cash infusion for 135 million Euros. So big amount of money flowing there. We kind of dive into if you are a company, What can you do to race cash? Where can you go? What are some of the resources? Joel Saxum: So it's gonna be an exciting episode. I'm  Allen Hall: Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxum. And the soon-to-be guest host of fully charged live event in Australia, Rosemary Barnes, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Allen Hall: There's been some more news between TPI and GE and it's good news for TPI. So TPI announced that they have extended the supply agreement with GE renewables through 2025. That's, that's not actually a long-term extension, but it's a good extension nonetheless. And they plan on working together on next generation blade. Allen Hall: which was a little shocking to me cause I thought that's what LM Wind Power was all about, is that's where all the, the new designs were developed at lm. So GE already has nine production lines with TPI and now they don't, don't make different blade types. At least we don't think that. I think there's multiple lines making the same blade. Allen Hall: But nine lines is a,

If Vestas' HUGE 4th Quarter portends good news for OEMs - wind is a seller's market right now - what does it mean for smaller manufacturers, third-parties and consumers? Allen, Joel and Rosemary look a few months into the future. GE Healthcare is trading now; what can we expect this year, before the energy holdings, GE Vernova, spin off in 2024? The Uptime crew also discusses hydrogen - green, blue, gray and otherwise - and some cool new technology. Could gearboxes and generators work on the ground? It sounds unlikely, but engineers at Purdue University have some interesting designs. And in France, Eolink will demo a full-scale, 5MW floating pyramid turbine by 2024. How have they moved so quickly when others are still in the concept phase? Tune in for market insight, engineering and technology news and stay up-to-date in the wind business. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Eolink - http://eolink.fr/en/ Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  147 Audio [00:00:00] Allen: Rosemary, I saw that TikTok is now the number one advertising source in the world. It's surpassing Google and Facebook, which is very odd. So I guess we're going to have to transition ourselves from the YouTube world over to TikTok, and I was hoping not to do that because, you know, It's TikTok. [00:00:20] Allen: Yeah,  [00:00:20] Rosemary: I'm not, I'm not going to TikTok. Well, it's hard enough to get my video for like 15 minutes. Am I supposed to communicate any kind of meaningful amount of engineerings in 60 seconds? Well, yeah.  [00:00:32] Allen: I, I'm just getting familiar with bereal and I think that has something to do with just engineers have a proclivity to talk about things longer than they probably should. [00:00:44] Allen: And this episode's gonna be one of those cases actually, because we, we, we, we, we talked about vestus sales and they had a huge quarter in the fourth quarter. Last year, 2022 5 billion, over 5 billion euros. That's a, that's an amazing number. And meanwhile, GE Ver Nova's market cap looks to be about 13 billion in total when they break off in GE and beginning of 2024. [00:01:10] Allen: So there's a, a big difference between those two. And, and then we take a quick look this week at Equinor RWE working on some hydrogen projects and of course rosemary has a lot of insight on that. Blue hydrogen, green hydrogen, gray, hydrogen. , no hydrogen, all electric And then we there's a really interesting concept coming out of Purdue and I, I kind of poo poo it, but I don't mean to poo poo it in this episode because it, it is, I like new ideas. [00:01:38] Allen: And Purdue has a new idea about using, essentially a hydro drive using water to drive turbine. Drive generators using the turbines as a power source. Makes sense. And then we, at, at the end here, we talk about EO link. And they're, they have that pyramidal shaped wind turbine, very similar tot Omega here in the States. [00:01:58] Allen: But EEO link is massively ahead and they're gonna make a demonstrator five megawatt demonstrator. That's gonna be a big winter bin. They're hoping to have that in the water by 2024 for an offshore demonst. Genius and glad. I'm glad that they're doing it. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Ticket, and I'm here with my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxon and the Pride of Australia, Rosemary Barnes,

Uptime sits down with Chris Cieslak of BladeBug to discuss the latest additions to their revolutionary crawling robot platform. Then, Greg Lorenz of DroneBase lays out the latest in world-wide wind turbine imagery and data management. BladeBug - https://www.bladebug.co.uk DroneBase - https://dronebase.com/industries/wind Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Allen Hall: This is a special bonus episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Listeners to the podcast know we love to speak with the movers and shakers in the wind industry, and while attending the Wind Industry Hamburg Exhibition, Joel and I sat down with a number of terrific guests. And now we are bringing them to you. Our faithful listeners. First up is Chris Che, director at Blade Bug, and Chris brings us the latest news on the Blade Bug Inspection Robot and how Blade Bug is the perfect solution for detailed ultrasound inspections for blades. And then Greg Lauren, senior product manager at Drone Base updates Joel and me on the latest in drone inspections and how to manage the massive amount of inspection data. This is a great episode, so stay tuned. I'm here with Blade Bug Director Chris Chest, like thank you very much from the uk and you have brought over Blade Bug. This, so I, I actually got to see the Blade Bug robot for the first time in person, but I've only seen it on YouTube . But it is impressive. And, and, and you made some. I'll call item improvements more, more like modifications to them. What's, what's the, what's the new pieces to a blade bug at the moment?  Chris Cieslak: Yeah, so we have the, we've brought with us the new sort of proof of concept robot, which is essentially the same robot that we currently have for field trials and testing. Yeah. But we've been working with a Danish or Scandinavia and industrial design company called Egg Designs. Yeah. Based in Norway and Denmark. Okay. And they've been working with us to. Understand things like user journeys and basically enable them to help us cover the robot in a casing to give it weather protection, environmental protection, but also ergonomic design. So it's got handles handless. Yes. I notice how easy it's it, it's for us. It shows what the, the products of. Blade bug will look like. Yeah. And it just means that people can join the dots of go, okay, this was the prototype, this is now what the, the product can look like. And it's, yeah. It's been really fantastic to have the physical robot here and to show people such as yourselves what it is, because people see, people have seen it for quite a while on, on YouTube, or they might have seen a, a photo of it, but I think people love to be able to physically see it and see the scale of it. The scale of it. Yeah. See it is the size of a hat. No, it's not the size of  Allen Hall: a hat, but no, it, it is a decent size though. I think when you put it in perspective of Blade, it makes a lot of sense. Yeah. That the size you had chosen and it, it, it has evolved quite a bit from, I first saw it and it's now I think in, in two the, Hey, let's get it out there in the world and, and do some damage with it. The, the, the one thing I was noticing at your booth there is it has add-on capabilities and, and like a payload. To do ultrasound measurements. And that is fascinating because there really is,

Joel and Allen discuss Japan's first commercial scale offshore operation. The 33 bottom-fixed Vestas V117-4.2 MW wind turbines, designed to power 150,000 homes, are locatedin an area of heavy lightning activity. (More on that later!) Some savvy new designs like an automated bolt tightener from IntoMachines and GustoMSC's new "Seahorse" trolley systemshould save a lot of tech time and make offshore blade installation easier and less expensive. Also, Allen and Joel explain how German technology helps submarines avoid wind turbines. Now the question is, who's using it?  Last month, robotics startup Aerones secured almost $39M in funding from undisclosed investors. Isn't it about time? For some timely insight into offshore development and the risks US offshore developers face, don't miss the interview with Henrik Stamer of Naver Energy.  Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Naver Energy - https://www.naverenergy.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 146 [00:00:00] Allen Hall: Well, Joel, it's just you and me on, on New Year's. So we're recording this just before New Year's Eve. Rosemary is off on holiday en enjoying the Australian summertime. Meanwhile, Joel Saxum and I are, are back in front of the hot cameras and microphones recording you a a new Uptime episode and we have a lot on the docket this week. [00:00:20] Allen Hall: Japan is, is starting some commercial offshore operations in the Akita prefecture. It's sort of northwest Japan, where there's a ton of major big lightning strikes in the wintertime. So I'll be, keep my eye on that one. And then IntoMachines has introduced a automated bolt tightener that just runs around and tightens bolts on towers so that you kind of keep, keep technicians time better spent somewhere else. [00:00:49] Joel Saxum: We'll talk about GustoMSC plus NOV plus Lyftra and their new offshore blade installation tech is kind of like a, well, we'll talk about some throwbacks to my younger years of shingle ladders, moving blades up the tower to install them offshore. So we think it could be huge for the Jones Act here in the us. [00:01:08] Joel Saxum: And then we're gonna talk about in German waters some acoustic pingers that they have installed on the foundations of all their offshore wind turbines to make sure that submarines aren't running. . So maybe the Germans are operating a little bit differently than the , than the rest of the world. [00:01:25] Joel Saxum: And then we'll, we'll touch real quickly on Aerones and as well their big 39 million haul that they've made to expand the company and scale it up and grow. So congrats to those guys.  [00:01:38] Allen Hall: And then I have an interview with Henrik Stamer Stamer from Naver Energy on the offshore wind supply chain chAllen Hallges and the effects on operators. [00:01:46] Allen Hall: And that's a really good interview, so stick around for that. I'm Alan Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with my good friend from Wind Power Lab. Joel Saxum Saxum. Rosemary is on holiday. And this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. [00:02:19] Allen Hall: Well, Joel Saxum Marubeni has started Commercial Operations at its Noshiro port offshore wind farm in Japan. And actually there's Marubeni has two projects going, one and Noshiro and another one in the Akita port. And so this is really the first sort of commercial scale offsh...

Should OEMs lease equipment? Philip Totaro says the better question is, when will they? The idea may be more attractive to OEMs than it first appears. Crane safety is always important, and new concepts in crane systems should be more efficient and economical, as well as safer. The Uptime crew discusses some of the new designs and RWE's recent investment in WindSpider. In parts of Europe, the average age of a wind turbine is 15 years old, so it's time to talk about repowering - and how to fund it. NREL will award $2.9M to manufacturers of small- and medium-scale wind turbine technology. Meanwhile, NASA is starting to think about wind turbines on Mars. Sure, there are some engineering challenges, but if we can grow potatoes on the red planet, we can do anything. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com WindSpider - https://windspider.com Small and Medium US Wind Turbine Companies: Bergey Windpower Company - https://www.bergey.com Carter Wind Turbines - https://carterwind.com Eocycle America Corporation - https://eocycle.com Pecos Wind Power - https://pecoswindpower.com Primus Wind Power - https://www.primuswindpower.com RRD Engineering - https://rrdengineering.com Sonsight Wind - http://www.sonsightwind.com Windurance LLC - https://www.windurance.com Windward Engineering - http://windwardengineering.com Xflow Energy Company - https://www.xflowenergy.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 145 Allen Hall: Well, as we record this episode, and it is just before Christmas, so as you listen to this, it's just after Christmas, so I hope everybody had a, had a good holiday, an enjoyable Christmas time. In Australia, evidently they don't have snow, so as, and Joel is in someplace where they don't have snow either, but they're trying to have snow.   Joel Saxum: We have 22 degrees .  Allen Hall: That's what they're saying. We up here in the, in the Hardy Northeast will have plenty of snow, it looks like for Christmas. So we'll have a white Christmas. That'll be very enjoyable. And this week we're talking about a number of subjects and the the top one is Phil Totaro comes back on from Interstor of course. And he had an interesting discussion about wind turbine leasing. Does it make sense for OEMs to lease their wind turbines instead of selling them to make the economics work better for the operators? Joel Saxum:  And we'll talk about WindSpider, which is a climbing crane or climbing ish crane that RWE investing in to help some of their offshore operations. And we'll see, is it gonna be better for offshore construction? Can it help some onshore construction? We'll see what happens there. And then as well jumping over to the us en re and taking some federal funds and investing into some of these small to medium size wind turbine companies. So Rosemary gives us some tips on where their, where these small wind turbines are useful and. where they absolutely are not. And  Rosemary Barnes: then we move on to Repowering In Europe, they have a lot of wind turbines that are 15 or even 20 years old. So Repowering is gonna be a big thing in the next few years. And finally, we talk about wind turbines on Mars and yeah, what design changes they would need to make to get them working there and whether that's gonna help us here on earth. Allen Hall: I'm Alan Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech,

Long-anticipated improvements in Fusion energy may or may not be the holy grail, but what's the significance? and when will we really know? While fusion is interesting to watch in the long term, service agreements are changing now. We have a lot of questions, like, does a 35-year service agreement make sense? Will these agreements be good or bad for preventative maintenance? And what other major changes will we see from OEMs this year? Vestas is also in the news because its spinoff, BladeRobots A/S, uses AI-informed robots to provide leading edge maintenance (and a few other things). Skagen Blade Technology ApS is a minority partner. And in Iowa, production lines are back up and running at the Siemens Gamesa blade factory that closed earlier this year. And there's more! Don't miss this episode! Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 144 Allen Hall: Well, hey guys I'm am about to head into one of the worst snow storms of the season so far. They're talking about two feet of snow and, and rosemary, that's like two thirds of a meter of snow, so I can put it in metric terms for you. . Well, you too. Are sitting in warm, comfortable places. And Rosemary, you're probably even near the ocean. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, that's right. It is unseasonably cold though. . Joel Saxum: Oh man. I'm in shorts and I'm in shorts and flip flops. Houston, Texas is 74 Allen Hall: degrees today, I guess. Some people can live in the lap of luxury and us Hardy nor New Englanders, so will just suffer through the winter like we always do. , well, I mean, Well, yeah, not a big skier. Unfortunately. I've seen too many people blow at their knees, hips, elbows, break their thumbs. , it's so, it's getting old roast man. I, I, I try to avoid that. Well, this is, this is true. Old or smart, one or the other. Joel Saxum: It comes one in the same. Stick with one in same, yeah. Allen Hall: So there's a lot going on this week in renewable energy news, particularly in wind. But we want to start by talking about the Lawrence Livermore Fusion effort. And Rosemary and I go back and forth about how great America is or how long this is gonna take. Rosemary's probably right? I'll, I'll grant her that. But it, it's a good discussion. And then we talk about the Siemens Ka Mesa opening a. Over in Iowa. One, they had mothball for a while, so it's good to see that one kick back open again. Okay. Rosemary Barnes: We're going to talk about a Vestas order that's been announced for Southern Sweden and the interesting part of that is that it comes with a 35 year service agreement. Joel Saxum: And then as we all love innovation and we're sticking with Vestas again, we're gonna talk about Blade robots, the company that they started out of their, their venture capital fund and are now releasing to the market. So you'll be seeing some more, more robots climbing blade. Replacing Allen Hall: technicians possibly. I'm Alan Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with Australian Renewables guru Rosemary Barnes. And my good friend Finn Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxon. And this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. The big news of the week is Lawrence Livermore, national Laboratories Niche, national Ignition Facility, created fusion where they had more energy out than energy in.

Allen and Rosemary discuss the California offshore auction that finished below expectations, and discuss the latest news from researchers on whale habitats. MIT engineers pursue microwave drilling to the earth's core for thermal energy sources, and a freak snow storm in NY creates a snow apocalypse with multiple upward lightning strikes to wind turbines. Then Allen discusses PPA's and onshore wind economics with Intelstor's Founder and CEO Philip Totaro. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 143 Allen Hall: Hey, Rosemary. We, we left Joel out in the cold somewhere. He was supposed to be traveling from northern Wisconsin to Texas, but we can't see enough to find him anywhere. I, I, my guess he may be back in the snow. So it's just US two this week, which is super awesome because we really get to do a show, just the two of us anymore. So what do you, what do you have on the list this week? Rosemary Barnes:  Well, we've got the recent auctions for offshore wind in California. So it's gonna be floating offshore wind, and then we have microwave drilling technique to make deeper holes for geothermal power.   Allen Hall: Then we have some discussion about whales off the coast of Massachusetts and how wind turbines can affect the zooplankton. And then we had a thunder, snow, thunder, snow apocalypse off of Lake Ontario recently, and researchers up there have instrumented that whole area and have recorded lightning strikes that happen to wind turbines. So there's gonna be a lot of good information coming out of there. And then I have an interview interview with Phil Totaro of IntelStor. When we talk about. PPAs of onshore wind and the operational risks evolved on some really low PPA prices that some of these operators are, are have in place. So it's a really interesting episode. Stay tuned. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with Australian Renewables guru Rosemary Barnes. Joel Saxon is out in the field doing some good work and will be back next week. And this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Rosemary. We just finished the California auction for all those offshore plots. There were actually five plots that were up for bid. They had about little over 40 different companies that were. We were able to bid. They went through a little process to get vetted. So there's like 43 of them that were vetted to go, and they were off auctioning off about 370,000 acres sort of in central and Northern California. The, the plot up north is really close to Oregon, actually, so it's pretty far north and they think they're gonna generate 4.6 gigawatts off these sites. So that's a lot of power. It's like a million and and a half homes. They're gonna. Well based on predictions, I think they were thinking it was gonna go well over a billion dollars in bids, but it didn't get there. It went to 757 million, which is roughly $2,000 an acre. And the bite auction on the east coast was about 4 billion, and that turned out to be about $8,000 an acre. So the water's. Coast of California over about a quarter of the price of the ones off the East coast, which I guess sort of makes sense just because it's floating California versus fixed bottom New York. So that was an interesting bidding process. Rosemary, it went on for a day and a half,

Vestas and TPI agree to blade manufacturing contracts. Will OEM's subcontract manufacturing of blades to lower risk and costs? Australia is planning for 100% renewable grids. What hurdles remain and what lessons can be learned? Tesla installs grid battery onshore near Dogger Bank offshore wind farm - Rosemary has questions...and an employee was terminated in France for not being "fun". Joel, Rosemary and Allen discuss the details. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 142 Allen Hall: It's almost holiday season. Well, I guess it is a holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving, Joel. I guess we both had Thanksgiving. I, I saw some pictures on, on slack of, of a Turkey slash cranberry. Oh yeah. Delicious Rosemary, you you did see the, you did see that big plate. Joel, Joel was not cutting back at than time. Joel Saxum: You can't see, you can't see my belly underneath the camera here, but it's still big Allen Hall: Yeah, so US Americans are pretty full from the, the Thanksgiving holiday. It, it was actually a really nice holiday. We, we had decent weather in America and there was really no travel hiccups. Thank goodness everybody got home safe. This week for the podcast, we have a lot going on, and again, it's one of these crazy news weeks. Where there's just so much renewable news happening. Vestus is, is working with TPI on manufacturing blades and maybe making some off offshore blades, it sounds like, which would be great for TPI and for Vestus. And then Siemens is gonna be closing a plant in Morocco, a blade plant in Morocco. And it looks like OEMs are starting to get outta the blade business and transfer some of the load onto independent operators and  Rosemary Barnes: more good news for investors with a big order in Australia. And then a couple of other Australian stories. There's one gigawatt wind farm plant in Queensland that's now been announced over double in size to two gigawatts. And also looking forward, Australia's energy market operator has mapped out a route to a hundred percent instantaneous renewables, which they expect to happen in 2025. So we'll talk about some of the engineering things they have to take care of before that can happen.  Joel Saxum: So then we're jumping back over to the UK and we'll talk about Tesla building a, a, what, what would be Europe's largest battery into the grid. And it's right near where the dog or bank Wind Farm is off or coming ashore. So really cool to see the, those additions to the grid in the UK and see what it can happen in the future. And last but not least, a French man wins the right not to be fun at work. So, we'll, we'll dive into that and have a little bit of a prelude to our holiday season around the world, and have a little  Allen Hall: fun with it. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Garden Lightning Tech. And I'm here with Australian Renewables guru Rosemary Barnes. and my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxon, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. All right. Rosemary Vestus has signed a multi-year agreement with one of your former competitors, TPI Composites. And this gets into the future of who's gonna make blades, particularly in the United States, but I, I think this is gonna move worldwide. TPI is already making blades for Vestus, has made them for a little while,

Siemens' offshore wind CEO says failures to understand cost increases and to compensate for supply chain weaknesses threaten worldwide wind energy goals. Meanwhile, policies like the UK's taxing wind farms at a higher rate than fossil fuels producers have met with frustration, and regulators may make US offshore developers gun-shy. The team also explores joint mooring systems design and operational issues, discusses some complexities of the Australian energy grid, and considers how sustainable and scalable Voodin Blade Technology's new turbine blades - made entirely of wood - may be. Spoiler alert: Rosemary has questions.  If you have questions about OEM service agreements, insurance claims and liabilities, don't miss the interview with Intelstor's Philip Totaro. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 141 Allen Hall: Geez, Joel, we've had a really crazy week at Uptime. We've been skimming through all the news that's happening and it's, it's overwhelming all of a sudden. I don't know what happens once the, the summer ends and winter hits. It's like wind energy News Central. The last couple of weeks actually. And, and this week we're gonna talk about a, a couple of different areas. We're talking about a finished company making wind turbine blades entirely outta laminated wood. So that's very, so much to what they're talking about with towers. So we may have a wind turbine that's made entirely of wood. And then we have a really interesting discussion with Philip Daro of Intel store regarding insurance companies and their preference for OEM maintenance contract. Joel Saxum: So after that we're gonna talk about the success and, and kudos to Equinor for getting the world's largest floating wind farm. Started up high wind Tampa in there off the coast of Norway. And then we're gonna jump gears, hop in a plane, go down to South Australia and talk with Rosemary about. About her friends in, in Australia and their grid issues with solar and wind shutdowns. And, and kind of how that affects and what what we think could happen in the future in that market and in the US market and other markets. And then lastly, eight more draft wind energy offshore areas in the Central Atlantic. So we're talking about some that are in. 400 meters plus of water, some shallower stuff. So there's a little bit of floating, a little bit of fixed bottom but more offshore wind energy planning and areas coming to the  Allen Hall: us. I'm Alan Hall, president of Weather, Gar Lightning Tech, and I'm here with Australian Renewables guru Rosemary Barnes, and my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxon. And this. Is the Uptime Win Energy podcast. Rosemary Barnes: All right, Rosemary.  Allen Hall: Finnish renewable product maker. Store Enzo, who is one of the largest private forest owners in the world, is partnering up with German startup. Wooden blade technology. Now it's spelled V o o d i n. So if you happen to Google that, make sure you spell it correctly, and they are going to make sustainable wooden wind turbine blades. Now you say to yourself, that seems a little bit crazy, right? Well, it's not actually crazy because you're doing it right now. The so the two companies are producing a 20 meter blade section, and it's, and they're planning to make an 80 meter. And that 20 meter blade a week is gonna be put in serv...

Rosemary and Allen review the latest news from Dominion Energy's offshore negotiations with Virginia and the Siemens acquisition of SGRE. Low-cost offshore gravity foundations are installed France with great results - will they be the future in offshore? Allen is excited about a YouTube video from ArcVera on wake turbulence. Back at WindEnergy Hamburg Allen and Joel discuss the latest in AeroLightning with Nicholas Gaudern, CTO of PowerCurve. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com ArcVera YouTube Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPz5JN0UBoM Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 140 Audio Pod Cut 1 Allen Hall: Rosemary Joel is enjoying himself in sunny California. So it's just you and me for this episode. And we have a, a special guest here, actually. Rosemary, you wanna introduce everybody?  Rosemary Barnes: Yep. This is my, my little boy who's. Four and a half weeks old and just so, so keen to get started on engineering communication that he's decided to join the podcast today, So  Allen Hall: we're excited to have him along with us. And we, we talk about some really interesting topics this week. Dominion Energy is finally settled with the state of Virginia on their offshore wind costs. And that's good news. Spanish regulators have agreed to let Siemens, me. Be acquired by Siemens in a $4 billion plus takeover. And Siemens is also trying to restructure itself as part of its mystro program to, to really grow that company. And then we have Rosemary. I go back and forth about some gravity based foundations that are being installed in France, which are, is an interesting technology because it just lowers the cost of foundations. It's a little complicated in terms of, of how they're deployed, but it's lower cost and you think you're gonna see that in the United States. And then I, I crossed a video from a ArcVera recently on YouTube, and everybody just subscribed to ArcVera's YouTube channel because they have really cool things there. We talk about wake turbulence on offshore wind farms, and our career has published some of their research in a long webinar. It's about an hour long, but it's well worth the time to, to sit through that and understand the difficulties in the, in the concerns about wake turbulence on offshore winds. At the end of this, we have an interview with Joel and I do over in Germany. We sat down with Nicholas Ern, CTO of Power Curved. We talk about pretty much all things aerodynamics, lightning and wind, Turbin blade, so that's a really great interview. Stay tuned for that. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with Australian Blade Whiz, Rosemary Barnes and Joel living it up in California. And this. Is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Well, Rosemary, it's, it's great to have you back and Dominion Energy. Is resolved their dispute with the state of Virginia. Like I said before, when Rosemary comes back, the world starts to settle down a little bit. Things are, things are calming down, there's less fires to put out, and one of them is this dominion energy state of Virginia issue. And remember that Dominion's gonna to put about 176 wind turbines off the coast of Virginia and the state of Virginia through some of the regulatory bodies, was asking for a 42% capacity factor in domin. Said no and very strongly said no.

In this BONUS episode, Joel and Allen discuss blade pitch alignment with Lars Bendsen of AC883 and blade structural damage with Morten Handberg of Wind Power Lab. Pitch errors create power losses AND bearing damage. Lars explains how a simple laser alignment check can save operators big sums. Resident Blade Whisper Morten Handberg gives us the latest on structural blade issues and the most recent technology to help detect and possibly repair blades. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com AC883 - https://www.ac883.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Allen Hall: This is a special bonus episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. While Joel and I were at the Wind Energy Hamburg exhibition, we had the opportunity to sit down with Lars Benson of AC 8 83. Lars is based up in Canada, and Lars talked to us about blade pitch angle measurements and how to correct them and why pitch angle measurements are so important to extend the lifetime. Of your wind turbine. And then I meet with our resident Blade Whisperer Morton. Hamburg, a wind power lab. And Morton provides an update on blade structural issues, leading edge erosion, always a problem, and how robots can help improve blade damage inspections. So stay tuned for a large and Morton. This is a great episode. We're here with my cohost Joel for Wind Power Lab, and we have a special. Quasi Canadian guest, but , I don't  Morten Handberg: know if you'll claim that. I don't think you'll claim  Lars Bendsen: it either. Canadian. Dans. There you go.  Joel Saxum: Canada with a K. Exactly. ,  Lars Bendsen: yeah.  Allen Hall: This is Lar Benson from AC 8 83 and Joel and I have talked about Lars as this company a number of times on the podcast because Lars does pitch alignment and pitch measurements that dramatically reduce damage to wind turbines. And so we thought we saw Lars here in Hamburg. And we thought what was just corner and find out all the details. So lar walk it to  Lars Bendsen: the program. Thank you so much. So  Allen Hall: can you explain a little bit of what Pitch Alignment is and why it is so  Lars Bendsen: important? Yeah, I think it's thank you for inviting with this podcast. I think it's critical that you need a role that is in balance. Yeah. So all three blades have to have the same pitch angle to keep the road I balance. So there's the aerodynamic balance, and then you have a mass imbalance. Right. They're equally bad. Right. But we can measure it both if we have a mass imbalance on aerodynamic balance, it's important to to distinguish those two things. Sure.  Allen Hall: So how are you actually making those measurements? I assume it was from the ground. I said that's, how about explained to me what is  Morten Handberg: all involved in  Lars Bendsen: this? Yeah. It's a it's a German developed 15 years ago, laser. Ah, two lasers, one in front of the tower up wind. Mm-hmm. and measuring on the root max. Root of the blade. Okay. And on the blade tip. Okay. And that means every time the blade passes the tower, we scanning the blade on the max and on the tip, every time it pass passes the tower. Okay. So  Allen Hall: why, why there?  Lars Bendsen: Because we need to have the laser pointing at the tower as well, because then we are measuring the tower. So as soon as the blade is not in front, the laser, our laser points at the, the,

Joel and Allen dig into Duke Energy dealing their renewables business for $4B, and Intelstor's Philip Totaro provides insight. Meanwhile, blade production ramps in the US with TPI signing a 10-year deal with GE to restart an Iowa plant. Louisiana and Texas are big winners in the future of offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico. Plus, a special interview with WindESCo's Jonathan Kossuth about their Find, Fix, Measure system to improve turbine performance. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com WindESCo - https://www.windesco.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 139 Allen Hall: Joel, we have a really interesting show. So much has happened in the last couple of days, so we're trying just to catch up here at Uptime and give you the latest and greatest of Wind Energy News. Duke Energy is. Putting their renewable business up for sale and there's talks of, of it being around $4 billion and they have suitors already, which is amazing. So there's, there's transactions happening in wind and then TPI composites and GE make a 10 year agreement in Iowa. For reopening a plant. Thank goodness. It's about time we see some blade plants opening in the us  Joel Saxum: so we are gonna jump down to the Gulf Coast and talk about Texas and Louisiana. Why we think that they're gonna be offshore wind winners in the us. It's ready to go down there. We just gotta worry about some hurricanes.  Allen Hall: And then I have an interview with ESCO's, Senior Director of Customer Success Analytics, Jonathan Kath. And we go back and forth about all the technology that ESCO is bringing from SCADA data, enhanced SCADA data, and all the little defects they can find in your wind turbine and how to to improve the efficiency. And it's crazy how. Well, their software analytics are they, They can really improve the performance of wind turbine. So we have a really busy show. Stay tuned. More to come. I'm Alan Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with my good friend from Wind Power Lab. Joel Saxon Rosemary's on a well-deserved break, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Well, Joel Duke Energy has decided to sell its renewable business, which is a complete shock. I don't know anybody in the business community that was No. Heard anything about it. Yeah, right. Everybody figured Duke was in it for the long term, but they, the estimate for the business is about $4 billion and it sounds like they have. Tentative offers or aggressive bidders for, for that business. And it sounds like Duke is trying to bankroll themselves a little bit with the $4 billion. You could do a lot with $4 billion but they're trying to build up cash for. Taking on other projects. So they're, they're doing a lot of energy transitioning through in the next several years and they, they figured they better have some cash on hand, especially if interest rates are higher. They're at the same time, they're actually cutting, cutting costs. They're cutting about 300 million in costs. So 4 billion in the bank if they could sell the renewables business plus another couple hundred millions in savings, they're trying to, trying to protect themselves, and I think rightly so. But is this the first of, of this type of, of business sale or, or such? A large asset of renewables hits the blocks? I,  Joel Saxum: I don't know if it's the first I. This size, man,

Rosemary's back, and the full Uptime crew has a lively discussion about PPAs, wind's political problems, shipping challenges, and the future of QC for offshore blades. PLUS, if you'd like to double your retention rate for wind turbine techs, don't miss the 3S Lift interview. Earlier this month, New York's Arthur Kill Offshore Wind Terminal Project got a $48M grant to begin work on the offshore wind staging and assembly facility off Staten Island, NY - and other ports got funding, too. But all is not well on the US side of the Atlantic: Avangrid said its Commonwealth Wind project is "no longer viable" and asked for a one-month delay to review and renegotiate PPAs. Massachusetts DPU denied the request. Who will blink? What will it take to get the project back on track?  Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com 3S Lift - http://www.3Slift.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 138 Audio Pod Cut 1 Allen Hall: Well, it's been a busy week at Uptime. We have a pack show in Rosemary's back. We're  Joel Saxum: happy to have her as well. So we're gonna speak about Avan grid raising some red flags in their US offshore development plans with pricing and PPAs, and also kind of slide into what that means for the US ship builders and, and what they're thinking about of being a little bit hesitant to start building some of these vessels. And then also along the same lines of the US offshore push is a Staten Island area is getting some. To build out a good port facility to get these New York facilities  Allen Hall: up and running. And China is building the first offshore solar and wind combined facility. And then I have a great interview with RS Lift, America's President, Jill Shone, and we talk about all things lifts. So stay tuned. It's, it's a great episode. I'm Allen Hall, President of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with Australian Blade Wiz Rosemary Barnes, and my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxon. And this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Rosemary Barnes: Well,  Allen Hall: Rosemary's back. After a long break and welcome Rosemary to the show again. . Thank you for being here. We had a really nice break, I take it. We missed  Rosemary Barnes: you. Yeah. Very relaxing. Yeah. , I've got a three and a half old little boy now, so. Yeah, he's been taking up my time, but he's with his dad now, so hope we can get through a podcast without any crying babies. Allen Hall: we have a new policy. We're calling it the Rosemary policy and, and Rosemary, you can't leave anymore because since you left, the Queen died. UK has two, has had two prime ministers, , Right? We're in some sort of conflict in Ukraine. No one can figure out quite yet. And you know, inflation is rampant. The world's practically on fire at this point. You know, it all seems to correlate about the time you. Took off. So welcome back. Maybe the world will come  Rosemary Barnes: back in order. I think some of those things happened before I went away, and others, I'm not a hundred percent sure that I'm directly responsible.  Joel Saxum: And we got no diesel fuel after the United States either. Allen Hall: And no diesel fuel. That's exact. Yeah. Right. Really? Yeah. Pretty much out of everything in the states right now.  Rosemary Barnes: More Allen Hall: electric cars than That's right. It's so, it's, it is a, a great time to have rosemary back because we have a lot to talk about...

After laying off 20% of its US onshore wind employees, there was no good news in Q3 reports from GE's renewables division. Wind executives are worried. Supply chain snags and warranty issues look like problems only BIG investments can fix. What can turn wind around, and how soon? Allen and Joel have some ideas.  In a recent interview, we discussed technology and improvements with Ping Monitor's CEO, and he offered some good insights.  Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Ping - ping.services Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 137 Audio Pod Allen Hall: Joel, we have a really interesting show for everyone this week GE has hit a little bit of roadblock in its renewable business. We'll talk about the details there of, of what's next for GE renewables and GE renova. Big losses in the third quarter, how are they gonna recover from that? And then we'll talk about ACP offshore that happened in Providence, Rhode Island, where we had 2000 people show up and discuss the future of offshore, the United States, and what some of the roadblocks are and what, what the OEMs and operators concerns are. And then we'll have a special. Matthew Stead, CEO and co-founder of Ping talks us about the growth of their continuous monitoring system. I'm Allen Hall President of Weather Guard Lightning Tech. And I'm here with my good friend from Win Power Lab, Joel Saxum. Rosemary is on a well deserved break, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. GE had an announcement this week, they'd. Third quarter results and GE as a whole is doing decently fine. The aircraft division is looking like it's stabilizing and, and picking up some numbers cuz the airlines are flying again. Mm-hmm. Healthcare seems to be doing okay, but the power and renewable business is really in trouble. The renewable part, So power and renewables were actually broken out separately, which is gonna be enveloped by renova. So if you take Renova, take power non-renewable and renewables and look at them separately, their renewable energy part lost about it's $900 million in the quarter and it's based on about 40% plummet in sales. Sale and order, Sorry, 40% plummet in orders and about 15% drop in sales. And GEs talking about restructuring that business to save money. And as we've heard the onshore business win business for ge, they're talking about 20% layoffs. It sounds like Those are in process at the moment. They're trying to save about $500 million annually. But the, the, the numbers are really depressing. If, if you look at what renewables is gonna lose this year, it's around 2 billion. At least that's the way GEs projecting it. So every other part of the GE business is profitable. Depends on how much, you know, it's relative, right? They're all not doing wiz bank, but they're profitable except for renewables. And it looks like some of the bigger pain points are inflation, supply chain. Warranty claims Looks like that's a, another big issue. And just overall lower demand because the production tax credit expiring and now being picked up again finally. But boy, Joel, it does not look good for GE right now. Those kinda losses are really hard to sustain for much longer. You'd think. You know, before  Joel Saxum: we started recording here today, we were talking offline. I'm looking at this chart and anybody that that is knows, you don't have to know anything about economics or accounting or anything to look at th...

Joel has first impressions from the 2022 Sandia Blade Workshop, where engineers and manufacturers talked development, standards, and (just a little) about LCOE. The first California offshore wind auction is scheduled for December 6th. If you like risk, there's still time to get your bids in.  BONUS: in a brief interview with Rope Robotics CEO Martin Bjerge, find out how new tools and techniques can make structural repairs and improve LEP. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Ping - ping.services Rope Robotics - www.roperobotics.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 136 Allen Hall: Hello everyone. We have a great show for you this week. Joel reports on the Sandia Blade conference down in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And then we have a discussion about the California offshore wind auction, how much money is gonna be bid in that auction in December. And then we have a special interview from our time at Wind Energy Hamburg, where I discussed the latest news from Rope Robotics with their CEO Martin Bjerge. Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, President of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxum, Rosemary is on a well deserved break, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Allen Hall: Well, Joel, you're down in Albuquerque at the Sandia Blade Conference. Do you wanna give us a little bit of highlights of what's happening down there this week?  Joel Saxum: Yeah, absolutely. I think the last count, there was about 200 people here which is good turn out for, you know, a technical workshop focusing on just one, one portion. Joel Saxum: So the majority of the people you're seeing here, a lot of owner operators, because it is Sandia. All the, all the smart researchers are here from Sandia and NREL, and Berkeley. And I met a couple of guys from GE that are up by you in the Oh, wow. Schenectady and they're, they're a part of research, but they're like, Oh, we work a little bit in aerospace, a little bit wind, a little bit of this. Joel Saxum: So some really cool smart people here. Of course, but a lot of good, interesting topics. They've got the, the conference or workshops. Kind of neat. I like it because it's four days, right. But if you are just able to come in for, to listen to some panel discussions, all the panel discussions are on Tuesday. Joel Saxum: All the podium talks are on Wednesday, and then it's bookmarked by on Monday. There's like like working group kind of things. And then on Thursday it's the same thing. So they're looking at talking through some standards and some other stuff on those in like more of a, a town hall type situation. Joel Saxum: Wow. Yeah. And then you know, the panels were great. Some of the panels were, one of 'em was full of owners and operators and getting to hear some of their pain points and the things that they're doing was great. And then that led into today, which is Wednesday of a lot of podium talks. Joel Saxum: But one thing I wanted to touch on as well is that this, the people from Sandia put the conference. And, and they opened it with saying, Hey, we're just a bunch of engineers. We threw this conference together in our spare time, in between experiments. But they've done a great job. You know, the, the, the hotel and stuff that we're at has been fantastic. Joel Saxum: They've organized some events put the, the the program together in a very, very good way.

How big can onshore wind turbines get? If it seems like we ask this question every month, get used to it: Nordex says there's no limit. That leaves engineers asking, how do you transport a rotor with a 175m diameter? And will the sites themselves become factories? Speaking of manufacturing, Allen and Joel discuss what's behind Siemens and Airborne's efforts in composites processing and automation. Hint: it may be safety as much as cost.   In Oregon, operations are underway on the Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility, a utility-scale development combining wind and solar generation with battery storage. While it's a first in the US, other countries have relied on combined power plants for decades. Worldwide, changes in the energy marketplace - like the UK's plan to cap power producer revenue - give new meaning to the term power diplomacy. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 135 Allen Hall: Hello everyone. We have a great show for you this week. Rosemary is still on leave, but we're going to talk about Oregon's new battery, solar and wind utility scale site. The first one in America and the UK is talking about capping renewable power revenues to keep energy prices down.  Joel Saxum: And we're gonna jump over to the Nordic countries talk about some wooden wind turbine towers. Joel Saxum: We've talked about these in the past, but now we wanna share with you that they're moving forward. They've got a. Letter of intent from res. So that's, that's cool for them. Also going into 10 megawatt plus onshore wind turbines, do you think it can happen? Do we think it can happen? The CEO of Nordex believes that that is the future. Joel Saxum: And lastly on the show we're gonna talk about Siemens Gamesa partnering with Airborne on some offshore wind turbine blades and looking at automation. So they. Hopefully get the cost of the blades down and the quality up.  Allen Hall: I'm Alan Hall, I'm president of Weather Guard, Lightning Tech, and I'm here with my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxum, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Allen Hall: All right, Joel. There's a new renewable energy plant up in Oregon about 200 miles directly east of Portland. If you know your geography on the northwest coast of America, it's the Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility. It's the first utility scale development in North America that combines winds, solar and battery storage. Allen Hall: And it's hard to believe that that's the first one, but it's the first one. Yeah. And the, the plant. Combination effort between NextEra Energy Resources. NextEra is a big wind provider across the country and Portland, Portland General Electric, which has had some problems with wind TURs in the recent past. Allen Hall: So I'm glad they're hooked up with NextEra. on this project. They have 300 megawatts of wind with generated by 120 GE turbines. They have 50 megawatts of, of solar panels. And 30 megawatts of battery storage and they estimate they can provide power to 100,000 homes. Is this the future for America,  Joel Saxum: man? Joel Saxum: I think so. If I step into some developer shoes, I'm thinking less permit costs less headache. Yeah. You know, developing on one side, if you get permission from this hunk of land, and we can put all these things here. It also in my mind, and, and I haven't seen their, the business model of course, but in my mind,

What did we really learn at WindEnergy Hamburg? Joel and Allen offer more insight and perspective from the show and say the US has a lot to learn from its European wind counterparts. But with those challenges, they see major opportunities as well. What can US companies learn about structuring operations, providing solutions, and other things? Of course Siemens Gamesa and GE have made headlines recently, too. With Siemens' layoff of 2900 employees and GE's 20% reduction of staff in onshore wind, we discuss how the industry may respond. GE Renewable Energy's CEO already responded - by resigning -  and last week, Siemens Gamesa replaced its CEO of onshore wind. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 134 Allen Hall: Hello, Hello, Hello everyone. We have a great show for you. This. We just got back from Wind Energy Hamburg. So we're gonna have a, a big review of all the sites and sounds from WindEnergy Hamburg, and the things that  Joel Saxum: we learned. So one of the other things we're gonna dive into this week is some of the big news from some of the OEMs. A lot of layoffs happening. So ge doing some layoffs some executives leaving Siemens Gamesa as well, and what that means to the general wind.  Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, President of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxum, Rosemary's on maternity leave, and you are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. All right, Joel, we just got back from Wind Energy Hamburg, where we had a really busy show, and I, I just wanted to get your thoughts on what you saw at the show and some of the new technology and impressions from, that big conference.  Joel Saxum: Yeah. You know, I've been around multiple industries of, of trade shows for the last 10, 15 years, and I have never seen one that. I think the preliminary numbers, we saw 30,000 people the size of the show and all the different conferences and, you know, in areas. I mean, it was, Hey, I want to go over to the Danish pavilion and it's a 10 minute walk across this place. Yes. That's how big it is to get there. And, you know, us as Americans as opposed to the Europeans not used to walking as much. So that, that, that factored in. But you know, just, just to kind of give the the listeners and, and the YouTube viewers here, just a little bit of a thought. This is how it was. Sometimes we are carrying, go somewhere to get a cup of coffee to one of the little, you know, canteens or whatever, try to walk back to go have a meeting or, or go to a booth or chat with someone else. And you had to specifically pick which aisle you would walk down. To avoid the people. So you didn't spill your coffee. That's how busy it was. Yeah. So great turnout in Hamburg for everybody that was there. And it was the same from everybody I talked to. Every busy or every booth was busy. I had couple of times, you know, I tried to talk to some of the, the guests we've had in the show in the past, you know, the rope robotics guys and stuff and Yeah. And some of the other cool tech companies, Blade Bug and whatnot. And he would walk by their. Four or five times, and they were busy every time and you didn't want, you know, they don't wanna barge in. They might be talking to a customer who's actually gonna, you know, buy some services. So I don't wanna, I don't wanna mess with that. But then the, the conference was so big that you didn't,

We had a great time at WindEnergy Hamburg 2022 last week; more on that later. In this episode we discuss compelling, but conflicting, new research showing how wind turbines heat OR cool the earth. Scottish company Edge Solutions and US-based Rope Partner created a leading edge protection shield that's gotten high marks in European installations and in testing at ORE Catapult. Joel explains why solutions like this shield make sense. We look at potential impacts of the Biden administration's recent $50M investment in floating offshore wind development. $31M is for ATLANTIS. Did you know ATLANTIS Did you know ATLANTIS is an acronym? Rosemary did. And an already-approved wind project in Nebraska could increase the state's wind production by 25%. BUT, it's too close to missile silos, operated by the US Air Force for 50+ years. Is a compromise possible? Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 133 Allen Hall: Hello. Hello, Hello everyone. We have a great show for you this week.  Rosemary Barnes: We're gonna talk about some research from a couple of different research groups that shows that wind turbines may either heat or cool the surface of the earth, depending on which study we're looking at. And then we're gonna talk about 50 million that's been set aside by the US government to support floating offshore wind. Rosemary Barnes: And then  Allen Hall: we have a standoff in Western Nebraska between nuclear missiles and wind turbin. Row Partners is now installing custom form Turine Blade Shields from Ed Solutions, a really interesting partnership. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Regard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with my good friend and blade expert Rosemary Barnes. Allen Hall: And my good friend put Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxon. And this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. If you're a frequent listener to the podcast, please take a moment and give us a five star rating on your podcast platform and subscribe to our weekly newsletter Uptime Tech News, which can be found by Googling Uptime Tech news. Allen Hall: Do wind turbines heat the earth? My response is based on simple engineering, and when turbines take energy from the wind, which reduces the speed of the wind, and the cooling effect from wind blowing across to prairie should reduce it should be reduced so necessarily temperatures will increased. Allen Hall: So less wind means slightly warmer temperatures. That's my engineering take on it. However, wind farms may warm the earth or they may cool the earth. It depends on the specifics. So there's some really interesting research has just popped out from Harvard University. Harvard researchers Lee Miller and David Keith estimated the effects of wind turbines on local temperatures in the United States. Allen Hall: To do this, they created a computer model, which put roughly 460 gigawatts of wind turbines in the us. The US currently generates about 120 gigawatts, so they basically multiply the wind tur times four and derive the temperature two meters from the ground. So that's like human temperature things we would feel surprisingly millers and key simulated predictions calculated air temperatures will increase by 0.24 degrees Celsius across the us. Allen Hall: And a half a degree Celsius in the Midwest where most of the wind turbines are found. That's an interesting result because I've seen varying numbers and you always think that the temperature would rise a little bit,

While GE just lost the latest round in the patent lawsuit saga with Siemens Gamesa, an appeal is already in the works. We discuss how the process (and politics) will affect wind energy innovation, development, and production. Speaking of innovation, T-Omega's floating wind turbines have a very unusual design, more like a ferris wheel than an iceberg. In small scale testing, models look promising. T-Omega says it's looking for manufacturers who "aren't locked into legacy technology." The company might need more than that, though.  Several US states are collaborating, partly in an effort to replace gas tax revenues, to enable electric vehicles to charge while they drive. And in possibly the coolest product placement ever, Coldplay is taking a wind turbine on tour. It's made by Texas startup Flower Turbines. Rosemary says small wind may inspire change, but questions its actual impact. Allen will try to get Coldplay on a future podcast.   Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 132 Allen Hall: Hello everyone. We have an amazing show for you this week. T Omega creates a wind turbine that looks like a Ferris wheel, and then GE gets an injunction against them by Siemens Gamesa. We talk  Joel Saxum: about electrifying highways to charge electric vehicles and with a specific focus on heavy haul trucks. Rosemary Barnes: And then finally, we're gonna talk about my favorite topic small vertical access wind turbine that looks pretty and doesn't generate only and doesn't generate any electricity.  Allen Hall: Hey, everybody. If you're a frequent listener to this podcast, please take a moment and give us a five star rating on this podcast platform. It makes a. Difference to us, and it allows our podcast to be played in in new places. And to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Uptime Tech News, which can be found by just Googling uptime tech news, and you'll go right to it. I'm Alan Hall, President of Weather Regard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with my good friend and blade expert Rosemary Barnes, and my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxon. And this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Okay, first up Boston Startup to Omega win says it's model tested of a unique floating wind turbine design. So Rosemary, it looks like two triangles, side by side, and in between those triangles is a a three bladed wind turbine. So it resembles a sort of a Ferris wheel design. Two Omega is, is interest in this design because they think it takes a lot less materials to build it. It's a lot simpler to build, and you don't have complicated bearing structures to support the spinning winter blades. The group is out of Northeastern, which is a college in Boston, but they're, they're saying like their sweet spots can be like seven to eight megawatts in. The amount of in sort of energy and cost to build the thing is gonna be like a fraction of what it takes to build a seven eight megawatt turbine right now, just because of the difference in design, they're using simpler design techniques, things that are general walls, steel tubes, everything's lighter. It basically just floats on top of the, of the waves. It doesn't have a, a counterweight at the bottom, like the standard horizontal access wind tur is due. They are getting money. They got funded and free show. We were just talking about our renewable energy companies in Boston getting funded. And this is another one of those they've received. Yeah. $256,

PGE's Biglow Canyon wind farm isn't aging well. Is it due to poor maintenance or faulty equipment? PGE isn't convinced that every bolt failure meets the state's reporting threshold, but a "blade liberation" in January got widespread attention. Some complain that the Inflation Reduction Act does little for climate change - but is it enough to be a catalyst? We discuss how it may affect wind, and the planet. And interesting new designs from Norway show floating turbines with contra-rotating blades that could be more powerful and less dangerous to wildlife. Are they really viable? Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 131 Allen Hall: Hello, everyone. We have an amazing show for you this week. First off is the inflation reduction act. How big of an impact will it have on global temperatures?  Joel Saxum: And the team jumps up to Oregon to talk about some bolts coming out of a blade route and the blade coming off to the ground on one of PGES  Rosemary Barnes: sites up there. Rosemary Barnes: And finally, we had to Norway where there is a new startup making a vertical access wind turbine for offshore. There has some interesting design features that we'll talk about. I'm Alan  Allen Hall: Hall and I'm here with my good friends, Rosemary Barnes, and Joel Saxon. And this is the uptime wind energy podcast. Allen Hall: Hi guys. The, the Biden administration has made a lot of claims about the inflation reduction act and Michael Shellenberger, who is a, is the environmentalist. But he also is an engineer and he writes a lot about the environmental changes that are happening and, and what we can do about it and sort of the costs, reward side of the equation. Allen Hall: So he had an article he put out and, and it was talking about the effect of the inflation reduction act on temperatures and isn't really gonna make that much difference. And the article is, is interesting. You know, I, I, I can't validate everything that Michael says in his article, but let me give you the pieces of it. Allen Hall: So the us saying is gonna reduce carbon emissions in by 2030, around 40% below 2005 levels. That's I think that's true. It's just less in the 50% that the Biden administration's been talking about. So they kind of gave themselves a haircut on reaching the 50% point. and the us has substantially reduced emissions by using natural gas. Allen Hall: And so we were already on a pathway to get to lower emissions just by converting, over stopping coal, using more natural gas. Would've been the pathway. So if we didn't need, if we didn't pass a law, we would've already been at sort of 30% of those levels. Would've, we've been knocked down by 30%, which is most away to 40%. Allen Hall: And with this due law, they're figuring that it Michael's saying that it's gonna add another 7%. So instead of 30%, we're going to 37% and we're gonna lower the temperature down in Fahrenheit by like one, 1000th of a degree Fahrenheit. by the end of the century. So for 300 plus $400 billion, we're gonna make one, 1000th of a degree change. Allen Hall: And also on C levels, aren't gonna change that much based on the predictions. You put it into the model, the UN model and spit out the numbers, and it doesn't really make that much difference. So it's interesting how the administration is talking about this inflation reduction act, having a big impact on CO2 reductions, which it will in terms of relative to the United States,

When companies lose money they often fire their CEOs, but is that what happened at Snowy Hydro? Rosemary says politics and pet projects probably had something to do with it. Dominion's CVOW project is the first (and only, so far) to be "paid for by customers of a monopoly who have no choice in their electric supplier." Those customers want assurances that Dominion isn't willing to give. Now Dominion is threatening to kill the project. Another project facing fierce public opposition and delays is The Port of Albany in New York. The EPA and other agencies are withholding permits trying to protect fish and wetlands. And the Australian Securities and Investments Commission is being forced to focus on energy technology as Santos is facing Greenwashing accusations. Is wind in for a rough quarter? Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 130 Allen Hall: Hi Everyone. We have an amazing show for you this week.  Rosemary Barnes: We've got a couple of Australian stories. The CEO of Snowy Hydro has stepped down and we'll talk about a couple of the controversial projects that Snowy Hydro is involved with in the moment and how that might have led to that decision. And then also there is a legal case that's being pushed against Santas oil and gas company for green washing. Joel Saxum: After that we dive into the dominion win offshore project, again, as we've been talking with the last few weeks and some of what the Southern environmental law center is talking about with the capacity factor guarantees and the possibility that dominion may scrap that project  Allen Hall: and the port of Albany is behind schedule due to a number of environmental concerns. Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall and I'm here with my good friends, Rosemary Barnes, and Joel Saxum. And this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, Allen Hall: big controversy down in Australia at Snowy Hydro. And Snowy Hydro is a, a government owned energy utility, and it's a very odd name. Rosemary Snowy, Hydro. I guess it is what it is. It's a hydro storage project, right?  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. So I mean, there's a bit of history. It's an important part of Australia's history actually. Rosemary Barnes: After world War II, they decided to build this hydroelectric scheme. It's, it's huge, you know, as a nation building project and they brought in a ton of immigrants from. Yeah, all sorts of countries, but a lot of European immigrants after the war. So it was kind of a kickstarted Australian multiculturalism. Rosemary Barnes: I mean, we'd already had waves of, of immigrants before that. So it wasn't the very beginning, but definitely lots of, lots of immigrants came and turned the Snowy River in the, the snow mountains. I know a lot of people are surprised to learn that we have snow in Australia, but we. We do and snow mountains, you know, the peaks are over 2000 meters, so that's high enough to get snowed pretty much anywhere. Rosemary Barnes: And yeah, they put in a bunch of dams, a bunch of pipes and a bunch of turbines and made a bunch of hydropower. So that's where the name comes from the snow river. Hydro Hydro-electric scheme. Yeah, snowing  Allen Hall: Hydro. The CEO was who his name was. Paul Broad was. Quotes. If that's the proper term in Australia, we would call it fired in America. Allen Hall: And he was closely tied with the previous government that was just voted out. And it seems to be a lot of controversy regarding him in particul...

As wind turbines have gotten bigger, turbulence has become a bigger problem. It's always affected production, so why are we just now talking about it now? If we can figure out how to make wake steering work across entire wind operations, will productivity gains be big enough to make owners take a chance on it? Warranties and insurance coverage usually discourage changes to yaw alignment... Rosemary and Joel explain why vertical-axis wind turbine designs make sense for offshore projects, but you'll have to watch on YouTube to see their inspired visual aids. And today's burning question is: would you eat a Gummy Bear made of recycled turbine blades? Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com DTU Top Farm Link - https://topfarm.pages.windenergy.dtu.dk/TopFarm2/index.html Yaw Alignment from AC883 - https://www.ac883.com Jessica O'Connor of ArcVera Interview - https://youtu.be/0gXDHhU9YII?t=745 Agile Wind Power - https://www.agilewindpower.com/en Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 129 Allen Hall: Welcome to the uptime, wind energy podcast. We have an excellent show ahead.  Rosemary Barnes: We've got a couple of stories involving wind turbine wakes and some research and modeling that's been done about yeah. How, how long wakes persist from Avera and also how the wind turbine wakes interact with each other. Rosemary Barnes: And some. Research on optimizing overall output of wind farms. That's come out of MIT and then we'll  Allen Hall: discuss some work from Sandia labs on offshore vertical axis wind turbine and the implications of that design and  Joel Saxum: last, but certainly not least. We'll talk about what Michigan State is doing when diving into some recyclable resins and creating edible gummy bears Joel Saxum: from wind turbine blades.  Allen Hall: it's gonna be a great show. Stay tuned. We'll be back after the music. Allen Hall: All right. Wake turbulence is becoming a more frequent topic in the wind energy community. And it, it seems kind of obvious that when wind turbines spin around, there's probably creating wakes, but I don't think we understood how big those wakes are or how big those wakes are going to be. Particularly when we get offshore and we start talking about 10, 12, 15 megawatt machines. Allen Hall: ArcVera has been looking at it and ArcVera has done some analysis on it and predictions actually more than predictions. They've actually set up a test case in Iowa. So ArcVera predictions are on offshore up to one meter per second, drop in wind speeds due to upstream. Tip fores, essentially that are moving downstream and, and, and disturbing the airflow for the subsequent wind turbines. Allen Hall: And that's on a, on a big 12 megawatt machine. And that's, you know, roughly a 10% drop in the wind speeds, which is significance. So you can see a 10% drop in, in output. And I know we talked about dominion energy on their offshore project, having a, a capacity factor around 42% and I, and Rosemary, and I both agreed that that seems a. Allen Hall: May aggressive because of things like this, the unknown unknowns, well, a fair is saying, Hey, these, these weight losses are, are, are gonna be significant and not, and not just immediately around the wind Turine, which is creating them, but like a hundred kilometers down wind, there's gonna be these significant wakes. Allen Hall: And I think that's new now, the, the piece that I haven't heard before and I is the testing they did in, in Iowa.

Engineers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have created a solvent that has improved CO2 capture efficiency from 90% to nearly 100%. That changes the math for thermal fuel combustion and creates major implications for the energy transition. How and where will the solvent be used? And how soon will it really be ready to use? We have questions. Patent infringement may sound boring in comparison, but it causes plenty of trouble for everyone involved - and it looks like GE could be in trouble. Since a jury ruled that GE infringed on one of Siemens Gamesa’s patents, Siemens is seeking permanent injunction against the use of Haliade-X turbines on offshore wind projects. What does that mean for Orsted's Ocean Wind in New Jersey? Will the US government step in? We'll find out. Meanwhile, off the Taiwanese coast, Orsted is seeding turbine tower foundations with baby coral. Orsted and scientists hope to create viable spawning populations by 2025. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EP128 Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. We have an excellent show ahead for you. Mitsubishi created a solvent that can remove almost a hundred percent of CO2 from large industry emissions and then GE and Siemens Ganesa have been in a court battle and it's coming to a close and GE is in trouble. Rosemary Barnes: And then we have a couple of projects from Orsted they're planning to reduce emissions from their steel supply. And also they have another interesting project with Newcastle university in Australia to seed coral on Taiwanese offshore, winter buyin found.  Allen Hall: Stay tuned. We'll be back after the music. Mitsubishi of all companies has created a solvent that takes CO2 out of the air. And they're calling the solvent Ks 21. It's a trademark actually Ks 21. And it's, it's, it's the summation of almost a decade's worth of work by researchers. And I think this is actually happening up in Norway. So they're testing this in Norway, but it improves carbon capture efficiency or carbon dioxide capture EF. From existing about 90% to practically a hundred percent which is remarkable. So the way this system works and there's a really cool YouTube video that explains it. They have the solvent and they have the emissions coming up. The flu is with the CO2, the solvent grabs the CO2 and it I'll use a chemical term precipitates. So it all falls to the bottom. And then they pull that solvent plus CO2. Out break the solvent and the CO2 apart using heat, it looks like, and then they, then, then they just capture the CO2 and store it and then eventually turn it into rock, bury it. So in a sense, they've created a system in which doesn't require added solvent. Once you have the solvent in place is totally recyclable and they can pull nearly 100% of CO2 from industrial sources. So, if you think about it a steel plant or places where you really have to use a lot of CO2 to make, to make things like steel, you could essentially bring the CO2 emissions almost down to zero. That's crazy. And they're saying that the, the it's holding the, looking at a couple places. Heavy transportation, steel and concrete as being the, the big drivers here. So if the system works, you could actually put it on trains or you could put it on in theory, like aircraft. That's crazy. Right. Is, is this something you ever heard of before? Because it's, it's completely new to me. Rosemary Barnes: I have a lot of questions more than answers. So I think the first thing to note is that you can alre...

US residents in the Midwest benefit financially from onshore wind farms - so will coastal residents see additional income from offshore development? The insurance risks and Virginia's plan to protect taxpayers are just two of "many firsts" for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project. Dominion Energy is being asked for performance guarantees. How will that play out?  How much money can you make with a wind energy patent? That depends on who funds it. In case you didn't read the whole Department of Energy analysis of Wind Energy Technology patents, we did - and the US might be looking for better payback on patent funding in the future. Speaking of innovation, The University of Plymouth and the ORE Catapult have established a research accelerator focused on offshore technology.  Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 127 Allen Hall: Everybody welcome to the uptime wind energy podcast. very packed show. First off, wind. Farms help increase the income and GDP of local communities, particularly in the Midwest. And it's not small, it's over 5%. That's a big increase. And the department of energy issued a report recently that looked at the number of patents that are derived from DOE funded  Allen Hall: efforts. Joel Saxum: So sticking with that, we're gonna go and visit our friends in the UK and see how the ORE catapult is working with the University of Plymouth to drive some innovation on that side of the. Then after that, staying in the water again, gonna jump down to Virginia and talk about how dominion energy's big project out there for 10 billion, has got some, some funny, fine print in the terms and conditions tune the. Allen Hall: So guys, a recent survey went out and study, went out that, looked at incomes and economies where wind turbines are installed in the United States. And obviously United States, most of the wind turbines are installed in the Midwest from Texas to Minnesota. And a lot of those locations are rural and the feeling was on the street that, it putting wind tur is near or on your property has lowered the overall value of the property because of the wind tur is being there. Allen Hall: But that turns out not to be true. In fact, as based on the survey and study, it said that us counties where wind energy was built, so increases in per capita income of 5%, which is a lot per capita and gross domestic product per capita go up by six and a half percent. So when they compared adjacent counties, they saw where the wind turbines were, had basically better income and more economic. the, the second part of this is that the ho housing prices were pretty stable. Didn't seem to make much difference, in terms of whether wind tur were there or not, didn't change home prices much. what they did see also was a shift in the workforce. So the workforce, which was primarily rural, Farmers, some part of them, those people started to be more mechanically inclined and technicians farmers are mechanically inclined anyway, typically, but there were more people working in the wind locally, so they could work the farm and also work at a wind Turman site. Allen Hall: That seems to be the, the shift. so that relates to offshore wind and the big push in the United States for offshore wind. where offshore wind is not gonna be paying local, the local people, anything really? because they're in federal waters, they don't have to pay landowner for anything they're paying the federal government. so are we just gonna see as much acceptance?

Germany's RWE is building the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm in the North Sea, which will be powered by floating solar. The pilot is intended to jumpstart commercialization, which should begin in 2023. Is this a good idea, and if so, where does it make sense? How fossil fuels will continue to be integrated into renewable energy is a sticky subject, and definitely worth discussing. Speaking of integrating technology, Toyota introduced a portable hydrogen cartridge that might make swapping batteries as easy as picking up a new propane tank. Meanwhile, even as Norway’s Petroleum & Energy Ministry is researching energy transition opportunities for the country, it's questioning the profitability of Dogger Bank. And Power Curve CTO Nicholas Gaudern explains how Dragon Scales put a new spin on vortex generators. Visit Power Curve at http://powercurve.dk/ Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 126 Allen Hall: Everybody welcome back to Uptime. We have a great show for this week. We're gonna talk about floating solar and why Rosemary does not like floating solar and then we're gonna look at floating wind that is powering oil and gas rigs off the coast of Norway, which Rosemary again, doesn't like, but then we're gonna talk about something RO Rosemary really doesn't like, which is Toyota making hydrogen capsules. Allen Hall: You can take home and power your microwave with, and then we'll have a guest interview with Nicholas Gaudern CTO of Power Curve where we'll discuss the next generation of vortex generators so stay tuned. We'll be back after the music, Allen Hall: German energy firm, RWE is investing in a pilot project centered around the deployment of a floating solar technology up in the north sea. And they're calling it a floating solar park and it's gonna be installed off the waters off of the coast of Belgium. Allen Hall: It's gonna be a half a megawatt peak plant and the company that's developing this floating solar system, I guess the solar system does that sound right? that sounds odd. This company is named Solar Duck and it's a floating platform. So it's a it Rosemary, if you haven't seen this, it's a, it's a triangular set of solar panels on three legs that float above the, the, the surface of the ocean and they connect together. Allen Hall: Kinda like Legos in a, in a sense they kind of click together. So it's a floating, moving platform with a bunch of floats on it, and then they anchor it to the ocean floor on the corners. So you got this big triangular floating. Oh, I guess they can mix making into different shapes, I suppose. You got this big floating thing out in the ocean that is collecting solar energy so that the goal of solar duct is to use this demonstration to show that they can do this on, on a grander scale. Allen Hall: And I guess other companies are doing it. There's an energy firm. The Portuguese energy firm EDP is is opening a five megawatt floating solar park. So there's, there's more than one company doing this. Solar Duck is based in the Netherlands, at least that's what they show up on, on Google that may be based in other places, but that's what it shows for. Allen Hall: Shows them. Does, but Rosemary, does this make any sense as do we need floating solar?  Rosemary Barnes: I, I have actually just recently put floating solar on my list of things that I have to cover because it, I have never seen the point, but. There are enough projects like this enough serious money going into them that I feel like I have to engage more. Rosemary Barnes: It,

Will the Machin-Schumer bill really change the energy landscape? Tax incentives definitely drive new installations. Speaking of changing the landscape, rare-earth metals do that, in a bad way. We discuss new technology, designs, materials and costs that are wound up in the "rare-Earth free generator."  Should we mine faults in the seabed floor for metals? The Metals Company says it would deliver a "Net Positive" environmental impact. Yes, the energy landscape is definitely changing. Don't miss this discussion and the interview with Josh Rangel of Rangel Renewables. The company has grown FAST, and now, repowering is driving even more growth.  Visit Rangel Renewables at https://www.rangelrenewables.com LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/rangelrenewables/ Twitter - @RangelRenewable Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 125 Allen Hall: Hey everybody. Welcome to the Uptime podcast. Really busy episode. We have a discussion on the Manchin-Schumer inflation reduction act and what that's likely to do for renewable energy. We talk about a company that's developing a 15 megawatt rare earth free offshore wind turbine generator. And, the implications for that in the future. Allen Hall: And then we deep dive in a sense with the Metals Company who is trying to pull metals from the ocean floor and why we need to go do that and what the complications and environmental impact of that going to be. At the end of this, we have an interview with Josh Rangel, president and CEO of Rangel Renewables based in Houston, Texas. Allen Hall: They're a big O&M wind turbine maintenance company. They're busy right now, going around the Midwest, replacing blades and, and fixing up wind turbines and doing repowering projects. So it's a great interview with Josh, stay tuned. It's gonna be an excellent episode. Allen Hall: So the Manchin-Schumer administration is putting together a bill that is supposedly going to pass through Congress. It's called the Inflation Reduction act. I think the first response from everybody in America is like, yeah. Right. Okay. So Rosemary, you don't even know about inflation in Australia, do you? Allen Hall: Because here in America, you know, we are like at 8%, 9% inflation rate, we're talking about a lot too. So the, the, are you, well, we could, we could send you some of our inflation if you'd like, we'd be  Rosemary Barnes: glad. Be pretty cool to not, not going higher. Rosemary Barnes: Thanks. Anyway. so the there, well,  Allen Hall: don't say Americans, aren't generous. so the, the, the, the, the deal is there there's a broad mix of, so pretty much anything you could think of is in this bill. It's the craziest thing. It's like 700 pages long. I was scanning through it over the weekend, thinking my god, who can put all this together, but let me give you a summary. Allen Hall: Of all the things are inside of it. Basically it's gonna have include tax rebates or production tax credits is what it sounds like for wind and solar. And then eventually bring in storage, battery storage as part of it green hydrogen. Is part of this mix where they're gonna give tax incentives to create green hydrogen that is not created by natural gas. Allen Hall: So, but there is, you're allowed to create some CO2 when you create this green hydrogen there's, there's a graduated scale there. I don't know whoever came up with that there are also going to open up some oil sites in the Gulf of Mexico for drilling that the administration had said they, they weren't gonna close but were closed.

It may get a lot tougher to insure wind projects in the near future, and an increase in the number and severity of lightning strikes is one of the main reasons why. And Morton Handberg, Chief Blade Specialist at Wind Power Lab, says nearly 100% of blades have some “production deviations.” Who should bear the cost of those (and other) liability issues? And who will pay? Allen and Joel say that offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico might be a big deal for Texas and Louisiana.  Meanwhile, Hexicon is offering floating wind platforms built like Ikea packs, giving Allen, Joel and Rosemary a lot to talk about.   The lightning insurance article by Robert Bates, Head of Claims at NARDAC, is available here: https://nardac.com/how-lightning-damage-affects-insurance-markets/ Wind Power Lab can be reached at https://windpowerlab.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 124 Allen Hall: Everybody welcome back to Uptime. We have another great episode for you this week. First off, the companies involved with ensuring renewables think covering lightning damage is too risky and they may drop coverage. Rosemary, Joel, and I discuss the reasons behind this move. Then we, we review a new idea from Swedish based wind project developer, Hexicon who thinks the future is building floating wind platforms like Ikea builds furniture. Allen Hall: And then Joel and I have a chat with Morton Handberg of wind power lab about inspecting blades at the factory before the Airship to prevent costly repairs and delays at the job site. Stay tuned. We'll. Allen Hall: All right guys. So the insurance companies that ensure wind turbines for lightning damage are getting a little antsy about it and are starting to do two things that I've seen lately. One. Push operators to keep their wind turbine blades, lightning protection systems, actively working like verified everything's up in order. Allen Hall: And second is they're pushing back on the OEMs because they're paying out too much money in lightning claims. And there's an article recent article from Robert Bates. Who's the head of claims for NARDAC and NARDAC is a insurance broker. And they've looked at a number of lightning. Strike damages to renewable projects, which includes wind turbines. Allen Hall: And so they, they wrote this, this piece describing what the, what the real root of the problems are and what the industry is likely to do. And I think what the industry is likely to do is the interesting piece of this. So what Robert says is that. Lightning activities expect to increase increased by about 12% for every one degree, CEL of warming and they figure the United States could see a 50% increase in the number of lightning strikes. Allen Hall: I've seen differing opinions about that, but it's just take. Take that for what it is and, and Rosemary, as you well know, as blades get longer and longer, the, they eventually add carbon fiber fiber to them to stiffen them up. So as the turbines get taller, they're getting struck more often and they're becoming more of a target for bigger lightning strikes. Allen Hall: So one of the major claims. Insurance claims is lightning damage. So what does an insurance company do? Well, they're trying to figure out how to de-risk this. And since the projections are 50% more lightning strikes, that means 50% more damage. That means 50% more payouts. That's not a situation where insurance companies want to be. Allen Hall: Well. What they're basically saying. And what Robert is saying is, and I don't wanna summarize this for him. He can speak for himself clearly,

"Scaling wind energy ...and automating operations" are important, and those are two things Future Positive Capital wants to see happen after its $9M investment in Aerones. There's more to the explanation worth discussing, so Allen, Rosemary and Joel dive in. They also take a deep dive into the Wind-to-Methanol fray, where there's a lot of discord, and a lot of (grant and investment) money at stake. A flammable liquid that has traditionally been used to make other chemicals like formaldehyde and acetic acid, Methanol is becoming the green darling of the maritime industry. But is it a carbon-neutral fuel? The Uptime crew looks at the issue from several angles, does the math, and tries to work it out. Also, GE has three new names (and one unhappy union) - so what changes might we see? Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 123 Full Allen Hall: Hey, all welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. We have three items on the docket. Rosemary talked a lot, and so we had to just condense everything and, but it's very good. in fact, we got very, she was in a very combative mode today. I, I have to say so she was ready to go - all fired up. First topic is Aerones in Latvia getting 9 million in funding and we, we try look at that funding to what the future marketplace is, and we think there's huge upsides for them. Rosemary Barnes: And then I get on my high horse a little bit about waste to fuel. And to what extent that can be called green, or maybe, maybe it's more towards greenwashing. Joel Saxum: So GE renamed themselves, GE Vernova on the energy side, so renewables in their rest of their energy portfolio. Joel Saxum: And we're. Put on our marketing hats. And talk about that for a little while. Allen Hall: Stay tuned. It's a good episode, everybody we'll be back right after the music. Allen Hall: Well funding news this week, guys, Aerones up in, Latvia received $9 million in investment funding. And I, I bring this up because usually these investment pieces don't make a lot of news, but the company that one of the companies that invested in, Aerones decided to write up a really detailed loan articles, why they invested in a company in Latvia. Allen Hall: And it was, it was a little bit different perspective on the wind energy community in terms of potential now, potential growth, why they think there's gonna be significant changes over the next couple of years. And. Why other companies are not getting invested. I mean, invested into, in terms of wind companies, you don't see a lot of investment in wind companies. Allen Hall: The, the earlier one, this year was Skyspecs, which is 80 million, Aerones is nine. But after that it gets pretty quiet. So the, the funding company was future positive capital. They led the round with a couple of companies. You’ll probably recognize Change Ventures, Skype founder, Jaan Talllinn Vinted co-founder Mantas Mikuckas, Printify CEO James Berdigans, and then Pace Ventures and EcoSummit and Capitalia. Allen Hall: So there's names that I recognize in that list. So they all invested in our own as a potential growth company. And the reason they did was interesting, it said in late two thousands the north America wind fleet was already average seven years old, and it was expected to be 11 years old by 2025. So they're seeing this aging wind turbine market. Allen Hall: And Europe has pretty much the same difficulty where more than a quarter of the wind tubines are gonna be more than 15 years old as of 2020. So they have older wind tubines out in service and they need to keep them running an...

In Massachusetts, Vineyard Wind crews discovered an unexploded WWII-era ordinance on the ocean floor. (History buffs rejoice: more finds are sure to follow.) MISO (Mid-continent Independent System Operator) plans to establish $10B worth of much-needed new transmission lines in the middle of North America. And with the Nord Stream 1 pipeline currently shut down for maintenance, Germany is on edge about its reopening. At the same time, the country is cutting Enercon a check for $500M EU. And why is GE walking away from Teesworks, where it planned to manufacture 107m blades? Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 122 [00:00:00] Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Podcast. We have a packed show this week, top of the list. Vineyard Wind finds a bomb on the ocean floor. [00:00:08] Rosemary Barnes: And GE have shelved plans that they had to make a new factory to supply the Dogger Bank wind farm in the UK while Enercon in Germany have received 500 million euros in state liquidity assistance. [00:00:22] Joel Saxum: After that, we'll speak about some wind energy shutdowns here in the Midwest, over in Minnesota, and then how they tie together with the mid continent independent system operator, otherwise known as meso to expand the power lines and to try to alleviate that bottleneck.  [00:00:37] Allen Hall: It's gonna be a busy week. So stay tuned back after the music. [00:01:01] Allen Hall: All right. So the first story for the week Vineyard Wind, which is off the coast of Martha's vineyard. In Massachusetts they're evidently exploring the bottom of the sea floor, looking for places to put wind turbines. And they happened to stumble across an unexplode ordinance. It says here that the horn Hornbeck offshore services support vessel mystique, and covered a potential unexposed ordinance at about 130 feet of water. [00:01:31] Allen Hall: Why this is important is evidently back in world war II, that whole area was uses training ground. So there's all kinds of ordinances down, down off the coast of Martha's vineyard. In fact, I started digging around a little bit and I guess some of that ordinance just washes up on shore once in a while. [00:01:48] Allen Hall: So you could just be walking your dog on the beach and there there's a, an unexplode piece of organ on the beach, right? Yeah. So it sounds like it's a pretty significant issue. So this is the first warning I've seen. And Vineyard Wind actually puts out these alerts, like, Hey everybody, there's a you know, black hole or an exploit ordinance or some sort of great white shark or something out, you know, in the water. [00:02:12] Allen Hall: I don't know why the coast of Massachusetts is so treacherous, but it is right now. It's crazy. The some, we have some of the biggest great white sharks. I mean, we would, we. Hold our own up to Australia, for sure. These things are massive and they they've been attacking people lately. It, it is like a real life jaws out here right now. [00:02:30] Allen Hall: You can honestly say that but now you got jaws and you have this unex exploited ordinance. It's like this Godzilla movie thing that's happening. I dunno if you saw the last Godzilla, but that's how they woke up Godzilla was that they set off a nuclear weapon. Shark. Yeah. So sharks, shark, NATO, shark, NATO. [00:02:46] Allen Hall: Exactly. We can have a shark NATO. In, in her own backyard. So I, I guys, I'm, I'm expecting to see more of this. And especially if we start going up and down the coastline around long island, New York city, New Jersey,

Nordex has closed its Rostock plant in Germany and is moving all blade manufacturing to India. Vestas' sales are down – way down - and Allen thinks flagging US onshore development is part of the reason. Meanwhile, offshore construction may soon get a new assist: the Bleutec BMIS (Binary Marine Installation Solution) is a Jones Act-compliant concept ship expected to manage both foundation installation and turbine installation. And France's new PM is looking for a compromise between nuclear, natural gas, and palatable energy prices - is nationalizing EDF the way to go? Methanol may be the shipping industry's new green fuel choice, and work to convert old ships to new and dual-fuel systems is underway. The EU is ready to declare that gas and nuclear are green, and Rosemary doesn't completely disagree. Find out why. And, in case you don’t know what a Dunkelflaute is, you can find out here. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 121 Allen Hall: All right. Welcome to the uptime winner energy podcast, big week this week, a lot of news on the show.  Joel Saxum: So we're gonna talk about Vestas wind turbine orders dropping in Q2 as compared to last year. And why some of the reasons that may be also gonna visit France to nationalize EDF completely this  Allen Hall: time and Nordex closes its. Allen Hall: Blade plant in Germany and moves everything to India. Rosemary Barnes: And then we talk about the EU controversial decision to declare gas and nuclear investments as  Joel Saxum: green. So in in efforts as well for the us to hit 30 gigawatts of offshore wind, we're gonna talk about some new concepts in Jones, act compliant vessels that are gonna be. Joel Saxum: Hopefully built here in the us soon. And then also staying on that same trend of vessels methanol, starting to win the hydrogen shipping race to lower emissions globally for our shipping.  Allen Hall: So hold on it's a packed show. We'll be back after the music. Allen Hall: All right guys, Vestas orders and Nordex orders. Some really interesting developments there, Vestas publishes every quarter, their sales numbers, because they're publicly traded company. And so does Nordex, but Vestas actually describes every single order that they have. It's really interesting on the. Allen Hall: So in, in Q2 of 2022, this, this last quarter, they had roughly 1700 megawats sold and that's down quite a bit from where Vestas has been in Q1. They had 2,900 megawats sold and looking back one year ago, Vestas had orders of almost 5,300 megawatts. So year on year. Qu like quarter to quarter Q2, 2021 to Q2 2022, their sales are down about 66%. Allen Hall: That's a big drop for such a large company. And it, it seems very odd cause I know the, the vest is sales group is extremely aggressive. And if you watch the news enough, you you'll notice that they're, they are everywhere. all across the planet. And one of the key pieces, and I wonder if this is what's driving it is that only 20% of the orders. Allen Hall: we're in the us, about 350 megawats was in the us. And we have seen the onshore win purchases and, and agreements in the us are just, are gonna plummet. The predictions in 2023 are totally minuscule compared to where we were. And nor Nordex has a, a sort of a similar situation, even though Nordex sales Rose A. Allen Hall: Little bit, they, they sold 1800 megawatts in Q2. This year versus 1.5 last year the distribution of sales is, is fascinating. Nordex tends to sell mostly in Europe, about 60% to Europe, about 30% in Latin America. That's 90% total.

The SG 14-222DD is headed to Scotland for its first deployment, first power in 2024.  A German engineer envisions 250 meter-tall turbine lattice wind towers; is lattice worth revisiting? Some SPRIN-D designers think so. Meanwhile, Japan has installed its first offshore wind turbines. The country plans to deploy 10 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and up to 45 GW by 2040, including floating wind. While critics say it's not enough, Japan is moving forward - including with a new "clarity" for offshore bidding, and a little friendly competition. Back in the US, the lower 48 states were recently ranked by wind energy potential. Spoiler alert: Joel does the math and says Texas has some serious export potential. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 120 Allen Hall: [00:00:00] Welcome to the uptime wind energy podcast. We got a great show for you this week. Just a couple of highlights. Siemens Gamesa is debuting their SG 14 - 222 DD offshore wind turbine. Mechanical engineer in Germany is talking about building 250 meter tall wind energy towers. Interesting. And we'll look at some of the, the latest gyrations in the United States in terms of untapped, wind energy and the Biden administration hooking up with 11 east coast states to push offshore wind supply chains and ships. So there's a lot on our dock this week. It's gonna be a great show. Stay tuned. So guys, Siemens Gamesa SG 14 dash 222 DD wind turbines are getting some orders and that's good. Right? Siemens Gamesa needed some orders here on those offshore projects. So they had a firm order for 60 turbines off the coast of Scotland, and they are the B 108 blades. So I was thinking the B108 blades is not even the latest generation of blades off from Siemens Gamesa. The latest generation is the B-115, this so it's even longer. But the, the first deployment is gonna be in 2024. And I know they were already generating their from their prototype. Back in 2021, they were generating electricity in 2021 with that same tournament. So it is taking like three years, two and a half years between prototype to actual first installs Rosemary. Does that seem right? Is there, is there a two to three year time lag between prototype and first installations? Or is this a sales / COVID issue?  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, it's not normal. Maybe if you know, it was. I don't know some massive, massive design [00:02:00] change then that might happen. But that would mean like maybe they've gone from a, a three blade rotor to a two blade rotor or , you know, an upwind to a downwind or, you know, something major you would take years, but normally it's six months to one year. Yeah. So, oh, it's a, it's a bit surprising. Yeah.  Allen Hall: Okay. So, so. How long does the prototype sit in development, then how long do they sit it on its on the test site and spin it before they say thumbs up and off, we go to production.  Rosemary Barnes: So hold on. Is it a whole new turbine or it's a  Allen Hall: it, it is roughly, yeah. It's 14 Megawatts so sure.  Rosemary Barnes: Ah, okay. Yeah. Well, in that, in that case then forget what I said. I thought we were just talking about a different blade on a, on an existing platform in that case. Yeah. Then they're gonna want a season of, of validation data. So. Yeah, but it still seems like two, two years after installing a, a prototype to start production seems lengthy.[00:03:00] There must be something agreed. Yeah. So like some new design. feature that they need to, you know, properly test out before they really get started with the, you know,

Rosemary interviews two wind experts, and you're guaranteed to learn from both of them: Jessica O'Connor from ArcVera Renewables describes how wakes from large rotors cause a significant energy loss. Stability is the key - and the amount of loss is stunning. Then Brian Hill from Bachmann Electronics discusses turbine automation, focusing on North American installations, including cybersecurity for and repowering of older turbines. But wait, there's more: like GM Ventures (yes, that GM) pouring $10M, and some project management expertise, into wind catching technologies. Plus, palm-tree inspired wind turbine designs (with the blades in the back?!) may withstand hurricanes. Some of the design elements are already proven, but how powerful can flexible blades be? Visit ArcVera here - https://arcvera.com Visit Bachmann here - https://www.bachmann.info/en Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 119 Jessica O'Connor: What we're seeing is something that is. Really shown in any other wake models that are, you're trying to capture those external wakes is that these external wakes are lasting for over a hundred kilometers. Yeah, that's insane. It's waking the entire array. Just the Southern array is waking the entire. Jessica O'Connor: Collection of array. Allen Hall: Welcome to the uptime wind energy podcast, Rosemary what's first on our list this week, Rosemary Barnes: we're gonna be talking about some wind turbines being designed in Colorado with the university and collaboration with NREL and they have Palm tree inspired, wind turbines to survive. Hurricane forces. And we've got a couple of fun interviews that I recorded while I was at Texas clean power conference a little while ago with Jessica O'Connor of Avera about awake model that they've developed for offshore wind and Brian Hill of Buckman about some of their control system retrofits that they can do. Allen Hall: And then we talk about GM. Yes, the GM and the United States makes all the automobiles is investing in multi turbine technology. Interesting development. We're also  Joel Saxum: gonna talk about a consortium of energy producers in the United States that are putting together $6 billion to invest into someone to make them solar panels here. Joel Saxum: All right, Rosemary.  Allen Hall: Palm tree, wind turbines. I know this is gonna go right to your design engineering instincts. So the university of Colorado, sorry, Colorado university Boulder, which is a  Joel Saxum: beautiful place. Gotta get it right. Get it right. It's a very beautiful place.  Allen Hall: It has a great, it's a great campus by the way. Allen Hall: They're they're doing some research there with, in the United States where they're looking at basically backward wind turbines. what I mean backward wind turbines is the blades are in the back and the cells in the front. And instead of having three blades they've are using two blades. And the, the rationale behind this is that in theory makes them more hurricane resistant, tolerant to big wind gusts. Allen Hall: Now, I, I don't understand that part of it, but it's and Rosemary, this is where you can help us a little bit. Mm-hmm so the blades are supposedly are lighter. They need to be, they can be more flexible because there's less chance they're gonna run into the tower. Yes in the reverse situation. Okay. But that's the claim to fame is with the tube bladed system with. Allen Hall: Pointing backwards. So when turning pointing backwards that they could handle much higher wind speeds and then it would make them possib...

Is it just us or does this show feel more info-packed than usual? The US may or may not see blackouts this summer, and either way, Australia could be the place to look for answers. Rosemary explains why rooftop solar is cheaper Down Under than it is in the States, and describes some chemical-free battery storage options. Joel says we need to stop calling it battery storage. Megan Rotondo of ONYX Insights shares much insight into just how difficult it is to establish standards in the wind turbine industry. More data is good, but even "all" the data may not deliver standards in all operational issues. Rotondo also describes just a few of the variables that affect maintenance and operational issues. Hint: Risk tolerance plays a part in every decision. Visit ONYX Insight here - https://onyxinsight.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 118 Megan Rotondo: we also have a product called AI hub, which kind of takes in a multitude of data is a little more focused on answering, you know, answering the question of once you have the data, you have an alarm now, what do you do? Kind of trying to close that loop. So trying to bring in. Multitudes of data for various components and track, you know, the repair cycle and learning from looking into the damage or alert or alarm that you're getting for your wind farm. Allen Hall: Welcome to the uptown podcast. I'm your co-host Allen hall. I'm here with Dr. Rosemary Barnes and Joel S and we got a very packed show today, probably our best show ever, actually, but we're gonna talk about why we keep hearing that some blackouts are looming in the United States and what we think might be some contributing factors and possibly how we can fix that. Joel Saxum: And then that will flow as well into. Our presidential administration engaging the defense production act to inject half a billion dollars or so into the renewable. Industry to get it moving a little bit  Allen Hall: faster. And then I have a, a guest on mega Rotondo from OnX insight. We have a, a really in depth conversation about blades, blade, design, and predictive blade failure. Rosemary Barnes: And we're gonna talk about a new factory being opened up for an alternative storage technology alternative to lithium iron they're compressing CO2, and they've just opened their first battery facility in Sonia Italy.  Allen Hall: All right. First topic. Blackouts in the United States. So there's a lot of discussion on the news channels. Allen Hall: And even, especially online, there's going to be blackouts in certain parts of the United States, or at least that's a prediction. And the discussion point seems to be laid around two things, climate change and renewables. Solar and wind being the two primary ones, not hydro. Okay. So the there's a, there's a sort of consensus brewing because of the political nature of what's happening in the states at the moment that solar and wind are gonna take down the grid. Allen Hall: Very similar to what happened in Texas during the ice storm. But in this is the hotter side of that. This is a summertime case. And so I, Joel, I think at Joel, you had poked at me about this. So I went and did a bunch of research and I went to the online resources where there's actual data and it's, it's a complicated mix. Allen Hall: If you can imagine a country as large as the United States has 300. 30 ish, million people and the electrical grid for such a large country. It's gonna be a combination of factors and it's not universal. It's not solar and wind. But I think some of the,

This week we discuss Keystone Tower Systems' spiral-welding technology, which should speed up the construction process and drive costs down. The US DOE likes the sound of that. Meanwhile, Modvion's wood laminate towers also have high-profile investors (Vestas, among others) but Rosemary says steel is more sustainable. Find out what's good, and what's still unknown, about both tower technologies. Stephen Steen of Poseidon Systems explains how debris monitoring discovers potential failures that vibration monitoring can miss. With more than 10,000 installations, Poseidon's database delivers intelligence that operators can use to get gear boxes fixed or replaced while they're under warranty. Some OEMs are incorporating the information in new designs, too. Visit Poseidon Systems here - https://www.poseidonsys.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 117 Stephen Steen: You know, we can get a really good understanding of what's happening within that care box from early stage faults, all the way to late stage faults. And so overall that gives us a great opportunity to detect. Relatively early, um, when things are starting to fail and actually track severity of that fault over time as well. Allen Hall: Welcome to the uptime podcast. I am your co-host Allen hall and I'm here with Dr. Rosemary Barnes and Joel Saxum. We got a really event packed  Joel Saxum: show. So we're gonna talk about two, uh, emerging tower technologies, one to do a spiral, welding, a technique borrowed from Newland gas industry, and then also laminated wood towers, uh, being built up in the Scandinavian countries. Allen Hall: And then we have a guest interview with Steven steam, vice president of sales and marketing with post site and systems. And he's gonna talk to us about debris detection and keeping your gearbox running. And  Rosemary Barnes: we're gonna talk about whether Australia is about to face a skill shortage for workers to drive our really fast energy transition. Rosemary Barnes: And finally, we're gonna talk about a portable winter turbine that you can take put in a backpack and take camping with you to charge your devices. All right, everybody  Allen Hall: first topic for the week. Spiral welding of wind Turine towers. And now I, I saw this discuss probably a year, a year or so ago, and it went absolutely nowhere. Allen Hall: Like nobody in the press picked it up. I, I did some, actually a little bit of deep diving on this company. It's called Keystone tower systems and they have developed sort of large scale spiral, welding. And Joel, you may be more familiar with this, uh, work coming on oil and gas. Uh, you ever seen spiral welding where they make pipes and things like that that are spiral welded together real quick and dirty. Allen Hall: Yeah.  Joel Saxum: Yeah. So, yeah, absolutely. But think about, uh, I guess this the E most easy way to think about this is, uh, you ever seen a seamless rain gut? Yeah, sure. Machine. Yeah. Right. So when they have, they have the stock steel, they have the trailer, they run the seamless gutter thing and then kick it out. Right. Joel Saxum: Right. Of course it's a different process, but it same concept on, on site. You're bringing in stock materials instead of a classical pipeline. Um, building is truckloads and truckloads and truckloads of 40 foot pipes, 40 foot pipes, 40 foot pipes. Right. And then that's, you know, heavy, there's a lot of, uh, you know, a. Joel Saxum: Combustible materials used to, to create those, a lot of hydrocarbons burn to, to make it.

Our interview with Prometheus Wind Founder and CEO Will Friedl touches on the somewhat inspirational nature of the industry (really) and explains the literal nuts and bolts of keeping turbines in good working order. Understanding the difference between torque and tensioning is just the beginning.  Also in this episode, Allen describes some of the chemical and mechanical engineering innovations Siemens Gamesa has employed to make recyclable blades, which are expected to be installed this summer. Rosemary expands on what Australian election results may mean for wind (and other green energy efforts), and Joel has some serious questions about the ESG rating system.  Visit Prometheus Wind here - https://www.prometheuswind.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Will Friedl: [00:00:00] So my background is in the Air Force. I started, uh, once I graduated the Air Force Academy in 2012, I started out as a combat rescue officer. And, um, my job was obviously working in personnel recovery and working with small teams, kind of geographically separated and doing some really fun things. Um, were jumping out of planes, riding in helicopters, um, doing all the things that, you know, you associate with, uh, you know, military special operations. And it's a really good group of guys to be a part of Allen Hall: Welcome to the uptime podcast. I am your co-host Allen hall here with Rosemary Barnes and Joel Saxum. And we have a really packed show today. We are talking about the Siemens Gamesa recycled wool blade. That's going to be put out in the [00:01:00] ocean off the coast of Germany coming up this summer. Uh, the Biden Harris administration is proposing offshore leases off shore or California. And then we have a really interesting guest will Friedel CEO of Promethease wind will be here, and he's going to be talking about tensioning and torquing, a Boltzmann like tower bolts that are super  Rosemary Barnes: important. And then after the interview, we're going to talk a bit about the, uh, Australian election that we recently had a change of government. And I explained a little bit about some of the unique features of the Australian electoral system. So how led to that. And then we talk about ESG ratings and how it can be that a green sort of company like Tesla can get kicked out of the S and P 500, whereas fossil fuel company like Exxon mobile can, um, ExxonMobil can remain within it. Allen Hall: Can I see him as can Mesa is since we're producing the [00:02:00] first recyclable blade and actually going to deploy it off shore now, uh, there are factory in whole, in the UK, which is a big factor for Siemens Gamesa in terms of blades is the one producing it. And they're, they're, they're using that, uh, recycled blades technology, uh, and when the blade is finished, it's going out to RWS installation in cus cockies cut costs, cuts, cuts, see? Oh, sure. Wind farm Ks, K a S I C I don't know. Oh, yeah, it's missing a consonant somewhere in there. So it's in the German, German, north sea. It's going out there this summer, Rosemary. So like, like, like it's soon, right? Uh, the resin system is created by here's another name I'm going to murder Adida, Burleigh, advanced materials so that they created this resonance system a while ago. Evidently. And if you go onto the website, like I did, you can actually see some pretty cool, uh, description of what it is, but it does. It's what Rosemary has talked [00:03:00] about and explained to us before Joel, which is you can get a thermoset and it sort of interlinks together.

Is anything more important than safety? We hope the answer is as obvious as the question is rhetorical. This week's guest, Michele Goulet of Petzl, offers insight into fall protection, access and rescue equipment, and tips for managing in emergency situations, plus how to evaluate helmet features to best protect yourself and your workers. Also in this episode, Joel Saxum (of Wind Power LAB) joins Allen and Rosemary to discuss carbon capture. What are the best locations for those projects? How big a role will it play in the future? When will the technology catch up with the problem? Visit Petzl here - https://www.petzl.com/US/en Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Michel Goulet: [00:00:00] So Petzel is really in the, uh, in the business of providing fall protection, access equipment and rescue equipment, uh, for, for many industries, including, uh, the wind energy, uh, sector. Welcome  Allen Hall: to the uptime wind energy podcast. I am your co-host Allen hall and here from Canada. The queen of COVID Dr. Rosemary Barnes. Welcome Rosemary. Thanks. And  Rosemary Barnes: yeah. Thanks you think right. It's not my favorite introduction, but accurate on this particular  Allen Hall: day. we're always truthful on this show. Very truthful and from the largest wind energy state in America, Texas Joel Saxum of Wind Power LAB. Welcome [00:01:00] Joel.  Joel Saxum: Thank you, sir. That's true.  Allen Hall: We have a very busy, busy week. Uh, we're all still recovering from ACP, San Antonio. Uh there was an outbreak of COVID evidently and everybody's still recovering, but, but we're back and better than ever. So let's get, uh, Rosemary's thoughts on this carbon removal technology that the us government is throwing three and a half billion dollars at, and then we have a guest interview. We haven't had those in a. So we're gonna have Michel Goulet from Petzl, one of Rosemary's favorite helmet makers. And Michel's gonna talk about all the different safety, uh, products that they have and what you need to do with your safety gear to check it out, make sure it's working properly and how to dispose of it. This is a lot of good, good information there from Michel. And then after, uh, the interview with Michel, we have we'll talk about the DOE 2022 collegiate wind farm collegiate wind competition. We all saw down in San Antonio, which is [00:02:00] really, really cool. So how Rosemary kind of describes some of that carbon removal technologies. So Rosemary, this is in your sweet spot of, uh, us federal government is, is gonna pour 3.5 billion into carbon capture. So a carving capture. So the department of energy said, uh, it's gonna support four. Large scale, regional direct air capture hubs. And so where those are, we should find out. Cause it doesn't really talk to that, uh, that they hope to remove 1 million tons of carbon dioxide annually at each of these four hubs. So part of the two, two companies get named quite often are carbon engineering and, and climb works. And I think we've talked about climb works. What building, uh, direct air capture facilities. And Rosemary, you and I have talked about what those facilities do and what they, what they try to do. If they're trying to remove 1 million, tons of CO2 [00:03:00] annually, the us produces about 5,000 million metric, tons of CO2. So it's like four out of 5,000. There's a big gap there. What, what are they gonna learn with these 1 million to. CO2 removal systems.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I, I mean, so I think I probably would've said this the last time that we...

Rosemary Barnes and Allen Hall had a great time at American Clean Power 2022 in San Antonio, TX! They sat down down with Matthew Stead, CEO of Ping, to introduce the latest Ping monitor updates for icing, damage detection and lightning! Kenneth Carter, Editor of Wind Systems Magazine, gave the podcast duo the latest news and insights from the exhibition floor. Nicholas Gaudern , CTO of Power Curve ApS, announces their collaboration with SkySpecs which allows operators to leverage drone images to determine AEP losses - this is a game changer! Don't miss these interviews... Check out the latest from Ping at https://pingmonitor.co Wind Systems Magazine is available here - https://www.windsystemsmag.com Power Curve ApS is here - https://powercurve.dk Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EP114 Allen Hall: Welcome back to uptown podcast. I'm your co-host Allen hall. Rosemary and I were down in San Antonio and American clean power. Association's clean power, 2022 conference and exhibition. And why we're on the show floor. We had three outstanding interviews. And so we're gonna bring you those interviews to catch everybody up on all the, the comings and goings of clean power 2020. Allen Hall: First off is Matthew stead. Who's the CEO of ping and Matthew describes some of the new improvements that are going into the ping system. Our next guest is Kenneth Carter. He's the editor of when's systems magazine, and he can, he provides us some insights on all the comings and goings on the show floor that week. Allen Hall: And then last but not least is Nicholas gardener. The chief technical officer of power curve and power curves has been working with sky spec. On a new system to look at the damage to a, a blade, a leaning edge erosion those kind of pieces of damage, and to determine what the AEP loss would be from. Bugs, dirt, debris, leaning, edge erosion, blade damage. Allen Hall: They all have an influence on AEP. And instead of just guessing at it now, Nicholas and the team at power curve are actually gonna take those drone scans and combine it with all the knowledge they have a blades and be able to predict what the AEP loss is. And is it enough to really matter? Do you need to fix it or just let it go? Allen Hall: That's that's a really good addition to the, the teoledge of blade. So these three interviews are, are really interesting. It's worth the time to, to sit through all three they're about 15 minutes each. So as we recover from clean power, 2022, you can relax and enjoy some really good guests on the uptime podcast. Allen Hall: Rosemary and I are here at ACP 2022 in San Antonio with Matthew stead from Bing. Welcome Matthew.  Matthew Stead: Thanks Alan.  Rosemary Barnes: Thanks Rosie. Thank you. We're the Australians outnumbering you today. Yeah, it's two  Allen Hall: to one, right? It's usually it's usually the numbers are reversed typically. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's so we've been walking the floor. Allen Hall: Everybody's been walking the floor today. Kind of checking out all the activities that's going on. There's a  Matthew Stead: good number of people here. It's huge. It's massive. Yeah, it it's big. It's  Rosemary Barnes: overwhelming. In fact, .  Matthew Stead: It,  Allen Hall: it is. Yeah, no, I think you're right. It is a little overwhelming. We've been to a couple of conferences this year. Allen Hall: Nothing anywhere near this size. And as Rosemary has been pointing out, there's just, there's solar, there's batteries. There's all kinds of monitoring systems today.

Rosemary Barnes and Allen Hall are joined by Wind Power Lab's Joel Saxum to discuss the latest news from American Wind Power 2022! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EP113 Allen Hall: We're at American clean power in San Antonio, which is gonna have about eight to 10,000 people from the looks of it. So it's gonna BES gonna be a really, really big show. Allen Hall: Welcome back to the uptime podcast. I am a co-host Allen hall here. Rosemary Barnes all the way from Australia. And we also have Joel Saxon from wind power lab. Yeah. Exciting.  Rosemary Barnes: I came all this way, so that'd be good.  Joel Saxum: in the 95 degree heat. Yeah.  Rosemary Barnes: Was with the heat. I was not expecting this.  Allen Hall: It's really hot in San Antonio this week. Allen Hall: I, I don't know how we manage it. Cause it's, it's the middle of. And it should be in the eighties and it's a hundred plus degrees right now.  Rosemary Barnes: It's high thirties for everybody out there who uses sensible temperature.  Joel Saxum: west Texas set records. The last two weeks, the other weekend, it was the first or the earliest in the year they ever had triple digit temperatures the three days in a row. Allen Hall: Wow. So it's  Rosemary Barnes: too hot. Yeah. And it's interesting cuz I saw when I was just last week, I, it was the first time I looked at the forecast to see what clothes that I should have with me. I saw that they're already, they're giving over the weekend. They were giving requests for people to please, you know, turn your thermostat up and, you know, not use the air con if you didn't need to, because they're worried about the grid already  Joel Saxum: in may. Joel Saxum: I think I read yesterday, Hercu had six plants  Rosemary Barnes: go offline gas plants. Yep. You have to specify because yeah. Gas plants, no matter what it's that happens, you know, it's renewables that are gonna get  Joel Saxum: the blind. Yes, this is true. This is true. Yes. Six gas plants had just kind of cascaded.  Allen Hall: Last  Rosemary Barnes: week. Yeah. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. I think a call line is still waiting to come back line after some, some maintenance as well. So yeah. When week in  Allen Hall: Texas.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Yeah. So it was a good week to have the, the conference what's happening. Allen Hall: so today's Monday, we're recording on the Monday before the conference. There we were ex we are exhibiting on the show floor with P. Allen Hall: We had access to the floor. There are a lot of, of exhibitors at this conference. This is by far, clearly the biggest conference in the United States, not even close. So Vestus GE all the big names are here. Sky specs and all the drone companies are here. It's just everybody. The Dan Danish consulates here. Allen Hall: It's a huge show. And I was surprised. I was thought when we walked in today, it was gonna be a little bit slow, just looking at the number of people on the outside, but it's 105. So you can't really tell cause everybody's in air conditioning, but when you walked in, there was just a massive amounts of people and that was just people registering. Allen Hall: So I'm expecting yeah. Upwards of 8,000 people here this weekend. I, I think that's good because we've had two years of really not seeing anybody mm-hmm yeah. And, and now we are, we're finally back to the point. Everybody seems pretty comfortable being around one another. There was hardly a mask on the floor. Allen Hall: Sorry, rose me.

How to explain sharp increases in power purchase agreement (PPA) prices? According to a Q1 report, PPA prices are up 28.5% over last year - and the trend is expected to continue. It's more complicated than 'just' supply and demand. Allen and Rosemary discuss the global market, regulatory forces, and how governments might respond. Meanwhile, Amazon has announced 37 new renewable energy projects in 8 countries, NREL and GE want to stabilize the power grid with wind turbines, freeze-thaw batteries are taking us a step closer to seasonal storage, and ice-detection has a distinct ring to it. Also, a robot has proven it can perform a bolt check, autonomously, from inside a turbine - which could be huge for offshore operations.  Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

The Orca Plant, opened in Iceland last fall, is an ideal place to test Carbon Capture technology thanks to the volcanic rock (for underground storage) and an almost-entirely renewable energy supply (to power the plant). Allen and Rosemary discuss carbon costs, emissions trading, tax structures, regulations, and a few other challenges on the road ahead. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

Fish do it, can birds do it? Live healthy lives among wind turbines, that is. More than five years of research on fish that live around the Block Island Offshore Wind farm, on the Atlantic coast, shows that – surprise?- the fish are having a great time eating mussels. Migratory birds may not be thriving around wind farms, but they're getting safer. Also, Allen and Rosemary discuss hydrogen. It does not appear to be ready for prime time, even as Siemens Energy begins mass producing electrolyzers in 2023. Now, what about thermal batteries? Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

This week our guest is Harriet Green from Equinor. She serves as Operations Manager for Empire Wind and Beacon Wind, two major offshore projects now in development off the coast of New York (USA). Green brings more than a decade of experience from UK wind projects to the US, and on Uptime she explains how these massive projects roll out and talks about how her background in mechanical engineering informs contract management, supplier selection, and other back office responsibilities. In other news, an investigation is underway to determine what caused all three blades (and the nacelle) of an Orsted turbine to land in the ocean by Denmark's Anholt Offshore Wind Farm. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

This week, blade expert Dr. Rosemary Barnes, Dan Blewett, and Allen Hall discuss a conflict between the EU and the UK, New Jersey to reap $150 Billion in private investment, and Nordex deals with a cyber attack. Plus, is Facebook a source of wind energy misinformation, and a wind turbine noise issue winds its way through the Australian courts. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 107 [00:00:00] Rosemary: I have really strict LinkedIn feed hygiene. So if something has like thousands of, of likes or shares, I immediately like you don't, don't spend time looking at it. Immediately click on the three dots and say, don't show me content like this, the topic isn't isn't [00:00:15] Allen: Whoa. [00:00:15] Rosemary: Relevant. Yeah, and if I have, I have somebody who... [00:00:21] Rosemary: yeah. So, so do do it religiously. You can't even look at it, like don't even let your eyeballs leave. Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your co-host Allen hall with Dr. Rosemary Barnes from Australia. From the land down under Rosemary. [00:00:43] Rosemary: You don't have to call me doctor. [00:00:44] Allen: No. Okay. It's better than mr. I suppose. [00:00:49] Rosemary: yeah, that's true. That's true. [00:00:50] Allen: We ha we have a really interesting show today. There's a lot going on in wind. It seems like the world is awakening and there's just activity all over the place. Let's, let's, let's get started on a, on a, a couple things that happened in Texas. So there was some it's it's that springtime season in Texas, which means there's gonna be tornado. [00:01:09] Allen: And there was a tornado and, and, or a couple of TA tornadoes, 18 tornadoes to be exacted up in north, Texas, just kind of north and a little bit west of, of Dallas, if you know, your Texas geography, and they had multiple wind turbines that were damaged, the blades that were damaged in those, in those tornadoes and Rosemary, it looked like the blades had melted. [00:01:32] Allen: a couple of winter, but it just, everything drooped. [00:01:36] Rosemary: Which, yeah, to me, it looks like you like, if you grow flowers in your garden, and then at the end of the, the season, you know, some of the pedals have fallen off and the other ones are kind of limp. It's got a really, really sad look like that about it. [00:01:49] Rosemary: It's not nice to see [00:01:50] Allen: It's not good. And what, what does that, because there were wind turbines, [00:01:54] Allen: maybe a quarter mile away that weren't affected at all. But there were, in this particular case, there were like three that were closely grouped together and they were. Blades blades down the towers were there, then the cells looked fine, but what causes the blades to come apart like that? [00:02:10] Allen: Is, is it the twisting motion? Is it over speed? What, what, what does that to wind turbine blade? [00:02:18] Rosemary: Yeah, I guess it's, I mean, primarily over, over speed. And it could be that there was some, you know, turbulence and sudden changes in direction. From the pictures that I can see, it looks like the upwind and downward sides are two, you know, halves of the blade shells seem to have been separated from each other. [00:02:36] Rosemary: And, you know, once that happens, even in a small, small part of the blade, then yeah, that is definitely game over. Cuz you just got no stiffness anymore once, once the two sides detached from each other. So yeah. I mean, I have to assume that there was some, I mean there was so many blades affected, right? [00:02:52] Rosemary: That it must have exceeded the design. Yeah, the design load. [00:02:57] Allen: So the, the blades, if, if you haven't looked at a blade before everybody, but the blades are actually built, typically built in as two pieces and they're, they're glued together. How STR in the, in the airplane world, when we do things like that, we, we put a couple, we call chicken fasteners in.

We discuss how Amazon, Google, Meta and other U.S. Tech companies continue to purchase Gigawatts of power in purchase agreements. Plus, Allen and Rosemary discuss a fallen GE turbine in Lithuania and LM Windpower produces a 62m thermoplastic blade in Spain. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

We discuss how the Ukraine war will affect the jobs market and whether or not inflation continues to soar. Plus, Allen and Rosemary discuss the monumental challenges posed by the Sun Cable project's enormous subsea transmission cables, a new wind turbine design and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

With Vestas freezing new activity in Russia, we discuss how the Russia-Ukraine war will impact energy stability and security. Will the renewable revolution come even faster? Will countries move to complete energy independence? How much independence is too much, causing even further risk? Plus, we talk through a storm destroying onshore turbines, new U.S. Jones Act ships and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

This week, we discussed a Maersk vision, called Stillstrom, for off-shore wind farms doubling as charging hubs for electric ships. Can it work? Plus, we dive into the record-breaking New York Bight auction, satellites causing turbine outages, two-bladed wind turbines and industry-wide layoffs from OEMs. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

This week, we sat down with Julia Wolf, a Senior Project manager for wind acquisition and a community outreach specialist for a Juwi Group, a wind project developer in Germany. Julia also has her own podcast (in German), called Windkanal, which helps to demystify wind power for those who may find it springing up in their backyards. We discussed project development and the many steps involved, policies and regulations in Germany, and their outlook for green energy ahead. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

Tom Warner, lightning researcher, talked through the old vs new way of understanding lightning, multiple attachments to spinning wind turbines turbines, upward vs downward lightning, how tall objects actually cause more lightning strikes, and more. Follow up with Tom on his website or watch slow-motion videos on his YouTube channel. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript - Tom Warner, Lightning Researcher 00:00:01:00 - 00:00:09:19UnknownI picture you and like your copilot, like in that scene in Caddyshack, just you're getting pelted by three inch hail, you're like, Well, I don't think the heavy stuff is going to come down for quite some time now. 00:00:09:23 - 00:00:28:11UnknownYeah, it was. It was pretty. It was pretty loud. In fact, they put a microphone right on the on the front of the canopy. We recorded two channels of audio, the pilot's comments and then this other hail Mike, and that scientists could actually kind of gauge the size of the hail just from the loud loudness from that 00:00:28:11 - 00:01:01:06Unknownmicrophone. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett. I'm Allen Hall and I'm Rosemary Barnes. And this is the Up Time podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right. Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. 00:01:01:15 - 00:01:20:08UnknownI'm your co-host Dan Blewett. On today's episode. We've got a great guest here today, a lightning expert. Tom Warner. So Tom has a really interesting background, which we'll get into. He was also a pilot in the Air Force and flew this legendary aircraft that will get into a little bit called the T28 storm penetrating aircraft. 00:01:20:13 - 00:01:37:18UnknownAnd what this really means is that it was someone taking aircraft up into storms with the intention of seeing how they did getting struck by lightning, getting hit by a six inch hail. All this crazy stuff in the name of learning more about storms and lightning and how they all interact with planes. 00:01:38:02 - 00:01:51:04UnknownAnd also, he's done a lot of research and photography, high speed video on wind turbine. So a lot of stuff that you'll see in high speed video. You can see how lightning propagates the leaders. Lots of stuff that has never been seen before. 00:01:51:12 - 00:02:10:00UnknownSo, Allan, give me a little more context into Tom because to say like, you're a lightning expert, but Tom is like the lightning expert for lightning experts. Yeah, he's a resource for a lot of people because he's published so much and he's been involved in lightning reaching up from towers, and it's a whole series of papers and 00:02:10:00 - 00:02:28:19Unknownresearch. If you go to his website, you can download some of them or find out where you can get them that it was research oriented on wind turbines and also tall towers that were propagating leaders up into the sky and creating these thunderstorm lightning events. 00:02:29:04 - 00:02:50:04UnknownAnd also, I think it's one of the early places that I saw where a lightning strike far down field can trigger reactions in the cloud and create the situation where these were tall towers. White light wind turbines can start reaching out to the sky simultaneously, and we've seen a lot more images like that in the last couple 00:02:50:04 - 00:03:11:14Unknownof years. Some of them from Tom, some from other researchers in the U.S. and Spain and around the world. But that knowledge of where things are happening in the cloud and it has an impact on the way lightning approaches, wind turbines and tall towers,

Siemens Gamesa has a new CEO in yet another change at the top of their leadership suite - what's next for them? Can they turn things around? Plus, we discuss offshore wind in Louisiana and the hurricane implications therein, the need for more jackup vessels, a ship colliding with a piling, carbon capture on offshore turbines and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

Siemens Gamesa is proposing new offshore turbines that will generate green hydrogen and pump it back via pipes to the shore. Is this a realistic, feasible solution? We also discuss bond measures for wind turbine end-of-life, bird deterrent systems from Intelliflight and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

We discuss why many Hedge Funds are shorting renewable energy stocks - is a continued downturn expected? Plus, new research on wind turbine wakes that could save millions of dollars, bird detection and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

Dr. Hui Hu, a leading researcher on aerospace and wind turbine icing physics and aerodynamics, joined us to talk about the research his lab is churning out, and the implications it may have for the wind industry. Plus, we discuss the latest TransAlta foundation news - all 50 turbine foundations will need to be replaced in Kent Hills, spelling a huge financial disaster for that project. We also get into a debate on ExxonMobil's net-zero emissions goals and whether offshore turbine foundations should be left underwater...forever. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Show Transcript - with Dr. Hui Hu on Wind Turbine Icing 00:00:00:02 - 00:00:03:02Scientist is not just, you know, 00:00:03:15 - 00:00:06:00after that dinner, just nothing to do. 00:00:06:05 - 00:00:08:10We are looking into something else now. 00:00:08:20 - 00:00:10:19And not only the banana. 00:00:10:19 - 00:00:13:21Also look at the other creaturesthat live in 00:00:14:07 - 00:00:17:00and try to get inspiration for all this 00:00:17:00 - 00:00:20:09interesting observations. 00:00:25:11 - 00:00:26:13Welcome back. 00:00:26:13 - 00:00:28:00I'm Dan Blewett. 00:00:28:00 - 00:00:32:18I'm Allen Hall and I'm Rosemary Barnes,and this is the Uptime podcast 00:00:32:23 - 00:00:36:03bringing you the latest in wind energy,tech news 00:00:36:03 - 00:00:37:18and policy. 00:00:47:21 - 00:00:50:18Welcome back to the UptimeWind Energy podcast. 00:00:50:18 - 00:00:53:01On today's show,we've got a great friend of up time. 00:00:53:05 - 00:00:53:18Our guest 00:00:53:18 - 00:00:58:07today is Dr Hui Hu and he is an aerospaceand mechanical engineer by trade, 00:00:58:07 - 00:01:02:13and he's the director of the Advanced FlowDiagnostics and Experimental 00:01:02:13 - 00:01:07:00Aerodynamics Laboratory and AircraftIcing Physics and A.I. 00:01:07:09 - 00:01:10:21Deicing TechnologyLab at Iowa State University. 00:01:10:21 - 00:01:14:09So he's going to join us todayto talk about his extensive research 00:01:14:17 - 00:01:18:04and icingand deicing different types of ice, 00:01:18:12 - 00:01:21:10some of the inspiration from naturethey've gotten 00:01:21:10 - 00:01:23:10in some of these new coatingsthat are being developed. 00:01:23:20 - 00:01:25:16And it's a really fascinatingconversation. 00:01:25:16 - 00:01:30:02Dr Hu who is going to be with usin just a few moments. 00:01:30:11 - 00:01:32:22And before that,we'll talk about ExxonMobil. 00:01:32:22 - 00:01:36:07They've announced net zero emissions plansby 2050. 00:01:36:08 - 00:01:38:15We'll talk aboutif that's really a relevant goal. 00:01:38:15 - 00:01:40:14They've taken a lot of flak for that. 00:01:40:14 - 00:01:44:04We'll talk about 3D printed magnetsand some of the implications therein. 00:01:44:13 - 00:01:47:13We'll talk about cracksin a wind turbine foundation 00:01:47:13 - 00:01:48:21that they found in a recent forum. 00:01:48:21 - 00:01:50:20We discussed this on a previous episode, 00:01:50:20 - 00:01:51:13but it looks like now 00:01:51:13 - 00:01:54:22they're going to replaceall 50 foundations from that wind farm. 00:01:54:22 - 00:01:58:08And after the interview,we'll talk about Japan's spending $43 00:01:58:08 - 00:02:02:15million on studiesregarding undersea cables, some new uses 00:02:02:15 - 00:02:06:21from Britain on undersea cablesand whether turbine reefs 00:02:07:11 - 00:02:10:00might be a really huge, beneficial effect. 00:02:10:18 - 00:02:14:00Really, the likes of which we haven't seenbefore as far as underwater

With the U.S. making a huge push into offshore wind, how do these projects go from conception to contruction to production? Attorney Kevin Ewing from the law firm Bracewell LLP joined us to talk about how it all works - the legal and regulatory challenges, offshore lease auction process, litigation, environmental studies, public commentary and much more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

Timestamps from the show are below, with a full description beyond it. 1:55 GE Blade Breakage9:35 Offshore VAWTs19:03 Ocean Floor Battery?24:49 Microplastics from Wind Turbines?31:41 Blades Made into Outdoor Seating36:25 Dismantling Wind Farms46:02 New Vineyard Wind Lawsuit The US Department of Energy funded the University of Texas at Dallas via their ARPA-E branch, to get floating offshore vertical axis wind turbines up and running. They're due out in 2022, so we may see the first of these massive structures in operation, and whether or not the hype has been worth it. Plus, we discuss microplastics from wind turbine blades in the atmosphere and waterways, underwater battery storage, and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

Greenboats founder and CEO Friedrich Deimann and Co-managing Director Jan Paul Schirmer joined us to talk about their natural fiber composites and how they have been used in the wind industry to increase sustainability and recyclability, while reducing CO2 emissions. We also discuss news about Dogger Bank wind farm, Ming Yang's plans for a UK factory, and the right to disconnect for employees. Connect with Greenboats here, Friedrich on Linkedin or Jan Paul on Linkedin. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript EP94- Natural Fiber Composites for Wind - With Greenboats' Friedrich Deimann and Jan Paul Schirmer this episode is brought to you by weatherguard lightning tech at weatherguard we make lightning protection easy if your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs install our striketape retrofit lps upgrade at the same time a strike tape installation is the quick easy solution that provides a dramatic long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system forward-thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow learn more in the show notes of today's podcast welcome back i'm dan Blewett i'm Allen hall and i'm rosemary barnes and this is the uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy tech news and policy all right welcome back to the uptime wind energy podcast i'm your co-host dan blewett on today's show number one we've got uh two friends of uptime uh we have Friedrich Deimann from Greenboats he's the CEO and founder and we also have co-managing director from Greenboats and Jan Paul Schirmer they're going to be joining us to talk about their sustainable natural fiber composites you know they've been using them on nacelles and more of their interesting innovative composite work is making its way into the wind industry so we're going to talk to them about what they're doing and some of the innovations and how they've gotten to this point and where they're going before that we'll talk about shell they're buying power from the dogger bank wind farm we'll talk about some interesting um research done by ori catapult about mooring and anchoring systems for offshore wind after our interview we'll talk through the uk's plans for a giant battery which is going to help to manage your uh to manage offshore wind energy we'll talk about ming yang's new factory that looks like it's been approved for the uk and lastly we'll talk about a little bit just general employment stuff which is the the idea of the legal right to disconnect and how that can affect employee employer relationships mental health and all that stuff which is pretty applicable to this market and many others so before we get going be sure to subscribe to uptime tech news which you'll find in the show notes of the today's podcast as well as rosemary's youtube channel and again she's doing live streams every other week and has tons of new content on the regular about wind energy renewables all that great stuff so be sure to subscribe to both you'll find them in the show notes below so first let's talk about uh this dogger bank wind farm so dogger bank c is they've just entered into a 15-year power purchase agreement with shell and that's going to be for 240 megawatts in this final phase of the wind farm so obviously we talked a bunch about fossil fuel companies uh getting involved with wind energy alan is this sort of more the same for michelle or is this uh is this like a new pivot for them or what should we expect from this uh power purchase agreement well shell is going to continue to to expand into renewables and th...

In the final episode of 2021, in which we saw huge growth in offshore wind, Allen and Rosemary give their big takeaways from the year along with predictions for what's to come in 2022. Will we see 20MW wind turbines? A development slowdown due to inflation? Regulatory hurdles? Go here for the video about McDonald's ice cream machines mentioned on the show. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP93 of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast 00:00:37:11 - 00:00:38:13Welcome back. 00:00:38:13 - 00:00:40:00I'm Dan Blewett. 00:00:40:00 - 00:00:44:18I'm Allen Hall and I'm Rosemary Barnes,and this is the Up Time podcast 00:00:44:23 - 00:00:48:03bringing you the latest in windenergy, tech news 00:00:48:03 - 00:00:49:18and policy. 00:00:59:22 - 00:01:00:06All right. 00:01:00:06 - 00:01:02:17Welcome back to the UptimeWind Energy podcast. 00:01:02:18 - 00:01:05:03I'm your co-host, Dan Blewett on today'sshow, 00:01:05:03 - 00:01:08:14we're going to do a sort of 2021a year and wrap up. 00:01:08:23 - 00:01:11:20So aside from a couple topicswhich we're going to talk about, 00:01:12:04 - 00:01:16:00including balsa wood harvesting, obviouslythat's used in wind turbine blades. 00:01:16:00 - 00:01:18:06And as they've expanded in size, 00:01:18:06 - 00:01:21:08that harvesting has sped up,which is threatening the rainforest. 00:01:21:10 - 00:01:22:13We'll talk through that 00:01:22:13 - 00:01:25:16as well as maybe some possiblereplacements for that material 00:01:26:09 - 00:01:27:14in the near future. 00:01:27:14 - 00:01:31:07What about Germany phasing outnuclear power and Siemens Gamesa 00:01:31:07 - 00:01:35:09accepting bids to sell off the winddevelopment arm of their business? 00:01:35:09 - 00:01:37:08And then, as we do our sort of 2021 00:01:37:08 - 00:01:40:16wrap up, we have five questionswe're going to throw to our experts here 00:01:41:05 - 00:01:42:09about, you know, developments. 00:01:42:09 - 00:01:45:13They see predictionsand maybe some surprising things 00:01:45:13 - 00:01:47:07about the year behind us. 00:01:47:07 - 00:01:49:16So look for thatin the second half of today's show. 00:01:49:16 - 00:01:53:15Before we get going, be sure to subscribeto Uptime Tech News, which you will find 00:01:53:15 - 00:01:56:23in the show notes of this podcast,as well as Rosemary's YouTube channel. 00:01:57:07 - 00:01:58:17Where is you doing twice a month? 00:01:58:17 - 00:02:02:03Live streamsand all things renewable and wind energy 00:02:02:03 - 00:02:05:05shows a great job there, so check outboth in the description below. 00:02:05:16 - 00:02:09:22So first thing on the docket today,we're going to talk about balsa wood. 00:02:09:22 - 00:02:13:10So obviously this is used structurallyin wind turbine blades, and the bigger 00:02:13:10 - 00:02:18:08they get, the more this has been usefuland necessary to increase harvesting. 00:02:18:17 - 00:02:21:08And of course, just like anythingas demand goes up, 00:02:21:08 - 00:02:24:16this is putting strainon this natural resource. 00:02:24:18 - 00:02:28:15Rosemary, obviously working for Elm WindPower, you have a pretty good idea of, 00:02:28:16 - 00:02:31:16you know, the vendor relationshipsand all of the materials 00:02:31:16 - 00:02:32:23that go into these blades. 00:02:32:23 - 00:02:35:00Can you take us through this situationwith balsa wood? 00:02:35:00 - 00:02:38:09Like, where does balsa woodfit in to blade construction? 00:02:38:10 - 00:02:38:18Yeah. 00:02:38:18 - 00:02:42:18So Balsa Wood is a sand...

Will we ever see superconductors in wind turbines? Research is being done in the background, but it's proving a difficult problem to solve. The payoff could be huge (reducing size and weight) but the cost and engineering is high. Plus, we discuss Australia's "black box" of climate solutions, blade de-icing, Exxon's purchase of Materia, farmers' payout on land leases and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

Siemens Gamesa's CEO has explained that the price of wind power is perhaps too low, and may have a negative effect on the market moving forward. Is he right? Plus, we discuss Texas' preparations for winter in light of last year's power disaster, offshore carbon capture leases, grid connection bottlenecks, an electricity transport ship and much more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

Byron Martin, CEO of Teknologize, joined us to talk about the Vestas ransomware attack and the great concept of cyber resilience: How companies can rebound after a cyberattack like the one Vestas recently suffered. Plus, we discussed global air pollution levels, India's offshore wind potential and infrastructure challenges therein, the Save Right Whales Coalition and got the engineers' take on the floating wind turbine structure Pivot Buoy from X1 Wind. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript - EP90 - Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience with Byron Martin of Teknologize This episode is brought to you by weather guard Lightning Tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPs upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning 00:00:21:08 - 00:00:48:22Unknownprotection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett. I'm Allen Hall and I'm Rosemary Barnes, and this is the Up Time podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. 00:00:59:21 - 00:01:13:00UnknownAll right. Welcome back to the Uptime Wind energy podcast, I'm your co-host Dan Blewett on today's show. We've got a great lineup and we also have a friend of up time joining us, Byron Martin, CEO of Teknologize, which is an IT firm in Washington state. 00:01:13:00 - 00:01:29:22UnknownHe's going to be joining us to talk about the implications of the Vestas cyber attack. Obviously, we mentioned this on the show in a past episode just recently when the story broke. But we wanted to get Byron, who's one of our our repeat guests now, since he's an expert, it's really kind of walk us through this. 00:01:29:23 - 00:01:47:19UnknownYou know, the response, the cyber attack and his term, which you learn today, cyber resilience, which is not just trying to prevent attack, but also how quickly can your organization bounce back once you have in breach? So really great talk with Byron will jump to that in about 15 minutes before that. 00:01:47:19 - 00:02:03:22UnknownWe're talking about air pollution. We're concerned about India's offshore wind potential and why that still is sort of waiting in the wings. And we're going to talk about Rosemary's neck of the woods with the star of the South Offshore Wind project, which has gotten some new legislation just passed, which is going to help pave the way for 00:02:03:22 - 00:02:18:07Unknownthat one. And then after our interview with Mr. Martin, we'll talk about a self orienting floating wind turbine prototype that's just now being christened and the Save Right Whales Coalition and how that's impacting offshore wind here in the U.S.. 00:02:18:17 - 00:02:34:05UnknownSo before we get going, be sure to subscribe to our uptime at tech news, which you'll find in the show notes of this podcast, as well as Rosemary's excellent YouTube channel on renewable energy. So let's get started. Rosemary, we this crazy article from Al Jazeera. 00:02:34:20 - 00:02:50:10UnknownThey did a great job with it, some infographics and sharing some some data here on the 100 most polluted cities around the globe. And unfortunately, 94 are within India, China and Pakistan. Obviously, you know, you've especially harped on the idea that, look, we're all in this together.

Vestas had a cyberattack recently and shut down IT systems to help contain it. How bad was it? Plus, a recent article pegged microgrids as a potential source of 500,000 jobs by 2030 - is this realistic? And, how do wind turbines protect themselves in high winds - does feathering and idling actually work better than braking? We also discuss underwater drone missions by Rovco seeking out unexploded mines and bombs, and more. TRANSCRIPT - Vestas Cybersecurity Attack; Can Microgrids Create Half a Million Jobs? This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our StrikeTape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightningprotection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett. I'm Allen Hall and I'm Rosemary Barnes, and this is the UpTime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy.All right. Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. I'm your co-host Dan Blewett on today's show. We've got a really full docket number one, we'll talk about Vestas and the recent cybersecurity incident. It's a scary thing for all businesses all around the world. 00:01:13:12 - 00:01:28:22UnknownSo talk about what that meant for them and if they're back up and running. We'll talk about Siemens energy. Their CEO has mentioned that Siemens Gamesa is doing well progressing and their turnaround, and whether we could expect a complete takeover from where they finished buying the rest of their shares. 00:01:28:22 - 00:01:46:23UnknownThey own about 67% of the company now. So about Shell, they've snapped up a majority stake in another offshore wind project off of iron off of Ireland in North Dakota. Some high winds have shut down wind turbines, which we know that this happens, but it's still always a curious about when it does. 00:01:47:15 - 00:02:02:13UnknownWind speeds up to 70 miles per hour. In that case, we'll talk about some unexploded mines from past wars just laying lurking in the North Sea and Rove Co's drones, which are trying to help locate them. We'll talk about microgrids. 00:02:03:07 - 00:02:21:19UnknownThe annual energy storage modeling some interesting stuff there. We'll talk about more supply chain crisis, whether that's going to continue to really affect the transition to clean energy. And lastly, we'll talk about artificial seaweed power. Is this the next big thing? 00:02:21:19 - 00:02:38:17UnknownI'm sure Rosemary has got strong feelings there. Spoiler, it's probably not. But before we get going, be sure to subscribe to the podcast in general. You also find Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update about the show and great news from around the web. 00:02:39:06 - 00:02:51:08UnknownAnd be sure to subscribe to Rosemary's YouTube channel, which you'll find in the show notes and description as well. She's been doing live streams and all of her regular content on everything renewables and wind energy. So let's get started. 00:02:51:11 - 00:03:05:02UnknownObviously, the, you know, cybersecurity is on everyone's front of mind nowadays. It seems like every other week there's another company that's been hit hard this week, it's been investors. So but there still seems like a little bit mum is the word at the moment. 00:03:05:03 - 00:03:22:17UnknownThey have mentioned that their crisis management team is on its. And besides that, I'm not really sure what the extent of of what's happened. Alan, what's your take here? Obviously, there's not a lot of information that we've found in the news cycle yet, but it sounds like maybe investors is OK. 00:03:23:01 - 00:03:33:22UnknownYeah,

As wind energy OEMs scramble to control costs, more and more and forging partnerships. Vestas has locked-in costs with Maersk - is this a game-changer? Plus, Bill Gates is pushing nuclear power hard in the U.S. - is this a safe diversification of power production? And, a thermoplastic 13m blade was recently 3D printed, SGRE is now producing green hydrogen from one of their pilot projects, and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Show Transcript 00:00:00:13 - 00:00:21:08UnknownThis episode is brought to you by weather guard Lightning Tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPs upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning 00:00:21:08 - 00:00:48:22Unknownprotection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett. I'm Allen Hall and I'm Rosemary Barnes, and this is the Uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. 00:00:59:20 - 00:01:11:05UnknownWelcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast, I'm your co-host Dan Blewett. On today's show, we've got a bunch of great topics we'll talk about number one. Bill Gates pushing for a new new nuclear power plant in Wyoming. 00:01:11:05 - 00:01:23:23UnknownWe'll talk about the future of nuclear and why it's getting some pushback from the wind industry and others. We'll talk about Vestas and Maersk. Rosemary is going to come out. She's going to maul me about my pronunciation of this in a moment. 00:01:24:13 - 00:01:42:22UnknownTheir container deal and what that means for transportation for them. We'll talk about a French couple who has won a lawsuit about their health in relation to a wind farm that was installed near their homes. Well, some of the Dominion's explanation of their 10 billion dollar price tag for their coastal Virginia wind projects. 00:01:43:08 - 00:01:55:08UnknownThere was a blade that fell off a wind turbine in Freuler. Maybe I got that one right? Could be over two. We'll see my pronunciation tonight. We'll talk about it. Roll with our 3-D printing approach for wind turbine blades. 00:01:55:08 - 00:02:12:23UnknownThey've got some new thermoplastic stuff that they've just announced. Siemens Gamesa has produced their first green hydrogen from a project. And lastly, we'll talk about a drone attack on a power grid. This is certainly not can be the last attack of its sort, and we've actually mentioned this recently about subsea cables and their potential vulnerability. 00:02:13:00 - 00:02:27:15UnknownSo we'll kind of go back and full circle there and talk through this story a little bit. But before we get going, be sure to subscribe to Uptime Tech News, which you'll find in the show notes or description of today's podcast, as well as Rosemary's YouTube channel, which will also find the description. 00:02:27:23 - 00:02:41:10UnknownAnd Alan, let's start with you. So we're going to push right here into nuclear. So obviously, nuclear power has a bad rap because we get that, you know, big emotional response from Chernobyl. And there's the disaster that it caused. 00:02:42:02 - 00:02:57:02UnknownBut in reality, it's actually quite safe and it does not contribute to CO2 emissions. So, Alan, take us through this this Bill Gates situation. He's backing this experimental nuclear nuclear power plan...

GE, the classic American conglomerate, is finally splitting up for good. How will this go for GE as they prepare to break into three entities? Vestas has had rough financials of late, along with the departure of their CFO - what are they going to do to right the ship? We also discuss the American Bird Conservancy's litigious tactics against wind, China's entrance into the U.S. and UK markets, and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP87 GE Splits Up; Is Vestas Fighting For Its Financial Future?

This week the gang discusses international news from the U.S., France, Turkey, Scotland, Vietnam and more. Is New York killing gas plants a good move, or short-sighted? Scotland is lending a hand to Vietnam, helping them stand up their wind industry - will we see more of this? And, how do floating Lidar studies work in helping to identify good wind farm sites? Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Show Transcript This episode is brought to you by weather guard Lightning Tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPs upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning 00:00:21:08 - 00:00:48:22Unknownprotection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett. I'm Allen Hall and I'm Rosemary Barnes, and this is the Uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. 00:01:00:02 - 00:01:21:21UnknownAll right, welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast, I'm your co-host Dan Blewett on today's episode big global sort of news cycle we're in talk about GE overtaking vessels here in the U.S.. An interesting, cracked foundation issue over in Canada that we'll talk about might have some really expensive repairs due for that wind farm. 00:01:22:12 - 00:01:39:06UnknownWe'll talk about New York state and their contentious relationship now with gas power plants. We'll talk about Scotland lending some aid to Vietnam, France and their next presidential contender and how hostile she is towards wind energy. We'll talk about some funding coming out of the U.K. government. 00:01:39:21 - 00:01:53:09UnknownTurkey's wind power record and last it was a little bit about floating light hours and how they assess wind farm sites. So before we get going on our mind you, no one definitely subscribe to Rosemary YouTube channels you'll find in the show notes of this podcast. 00:01:53:19 - 00:02:09:12UnknownShe's doing live streams and, you know, continues to pump out great content, so definitely subscribe. And check out some of her offerings. Also, you'll find uptime tech news in the show notes wherever you listen or watch. And that's our weekly email update, just letting you know about the new podcast and some other great news around the web 00:02:09:21 - 00:02:29:04Unknown. So sign up for that today and get that update every week, every Thursday morning, so we're going to jump right into it. So first thing is now has arrested that top spot over investors, accounting for 34% of new installations in the first nine months of 2021 versus 30% for Vestas. 00:02:29:04 - 00:02:49:09UnknownAnd of course, that is 2.44 gigawatts of turbines for GE versus 2.2 gigawatts for Vestas. And then, interestingly enough, and Nordics really seems to fly under the radar. But Nordics was third and of course, a German manufacturer with a 20% share of this market, with Siemens Gamesa coming up behind and 16%. 00:02:50:07 - 00:03:10:02UnknownBut you know, everyone talks about GE versus Siemens Gamesa, but Nordics has had some pretty strong year. So I'll start with you. Does it surprise you? I mean, this is, you know, GE is home turf, after all. Yeah, it's a little surprising because he has recently struggle, but they lately have been putting things together and have been

This week, Glen Ryan, Co-Founder of Sunovate, an innovative solar startup with technology to convert solar energy from photovoltaic panels into not only electricity, but heating and air conditioning for commercial buildings and homes. Glen, also the inventor of Bombora Wave Energy shares his entrepreneurial journey and where Sunovate is headed. We also discuss a recent mishap aboard the jack-up vessel the MPI Adventure, in which a full rotor was dropped into the sea. No one was injured, thankfully, but what happened? Plus, Siemens Gamesa's new Virginia, United States factory, Google 24/7 and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript - Episode 85 with Glen Ryan of Sunovate 00:00:00:13 - 00:00:21:08UnknownThis episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning 00:00:21:08 - 00:00:48:22Unknownprotection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett. I'm Allen Hall and I'm Rosemary Barnes, and this is the Uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. 00:00:59:21 - 00:01:19:03UnknownWelcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast, I'm your co-host Dan Blewett on today's show. Number one, we've got a great friend of up time, Glen Ryan, who's the co-founder of Sunovate is going to be joining us to talk about his new startup, which is a fascinating new idea and use for PV, you know, solar panels 00:01:19:03 - 00:01:37:02Unknown, which not just turning solar energy into electricity, but also to potentially heat commercial and home spaces, among other things. So really interesting things all over his conversation in about 20 minutes. first, we're going to talk today about Tesla, some interesting new battery technology that they're waiting for Chinese patents to run out and then they're going to be 00:01:37:02 - 00:01:56:10Unknown. It looks like going after that technology hard to bring to their their cars, and we'll see what Alan and Rosemary think about the trickle down effect of that technology here in the U.S. and other places. We'll talk about a really crazy video of a and you've probably seen it if you're president of the wind industry of a 00:01:56:10 - 00:02:17:15Unknownhub with blades attached falling into the ocean off of the jack of the MPI adventure, a jack of vessel. So talk about the implications there. And then after our interview with Glen Ryan, we'll talk about the Virginia's new offshore wind facility that Siemens Gamesa is building here in the U.S. and some of the implications there. 00:02:17:15 - 00:02:33:00UnknownAnd then lastly, we'll chat about Google's 24-7 initiative, which Rosemary is quite excited about, as this puts us further on the path towards a carbon free future. So before we get going, is one remind you. Sign up for Ultime Tech news, so our weekly newsletter? 00:02:33:00 - 00:02:44:07UnknownGet updates on this podcast and other news around the web. You can sign up for that in the show notes or description below, and definitely sign up for Rose Mary's YouTube channel, which you also find in the description below. 00:02:44:14 - 00:03:01:12UnknownShe's pumping out great new content each week, so definitely follow up.

Morten Handberg from Wind Power Lab joined us to discuss wind turbine blade fatigue cracks and how operators can diagnose and creative preventative maintenance plans. We also explore subsea cable technology, including a 450 mile cable that now ranks as the world's longest - are these cables at risk? Can they be protected from natural damage and even sabotage? Plus, a tidal power consortium hits the news cycle, Vestas talks about turbine size and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Show Transcript - Morten Handberg from Wind Power Lab This episode is brought to you by weather guard Lightning Tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPs upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett. I'm Allen Hall. And I'm Rosemary Barnes. And this is the Up Time podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right, welcome back to the Uptime one energy podcast, I'm your co-host, Dan Blewett on today's episode number one, we've got a great friend of uptime coming on the show. Morten Handberg who is the chief blade specialist from Wind Power Lab. He'll be joining us to talk about fatigue issues in wind turbine blades. So really deep dove on that we haven't talked much about much about that on the podcast yet. So we're excited to talk about cracks and fatigue and loading and all this good stuff with blades. So look for that in about 20 minutes. first, we're gonna talk about GE teaming up with GM on rare earth magnets. Obviously, those are needed for motors, nozzles, etc. So big two big companies teaming up to do some of that mining and some of the legwork. We'll talk about the largest subsea cable, which is now operating 450 miles long, crazy, long. We'll talk about Vestas. They're installing their v 230 6:15 megawatt at the Australia Test test facility in Denmark, and also some more news from Vestas, one of their executives talking about, you know, this race with wind turbines getting bigger and bigger and some of the costs and potential difficulties about that in the future. And lastly, we'll chat a little bit about a consortium led by Orbital Marine, which is the maker of the orbital O2, a two megawatt tidal power machine which we had covered about six months ago. So we'll talk a little bit about tidal power towards the end. So before we get going, make sure you subscribe in the show notes of today's podcast to uptime tech news and to Rosemary Barnes's YouTube channel, you'll find both in the links and description below. Remember, you just get an update from us. If you sign up for old time tech news along with other news from around the web. So first off, let's talk about GE and GM. They are obviously two big American companies, and they are trying to figure out how they can make sure this supply chain of heavy and light rare Earth magnets and materials will be available to them for years to come. You know, doing this forecasting is important work. Allan, what sticks out to you? Why do you feel like these two besides the the short g g, maybe like a g r, they could get like a g g t to their a little. With their little club. Besides the the names. What sticks out to you?

In this episode, we discuss the installation of offshore wind turbines at Hornsea 2, which are being embedded in the seafloor via suction caisson jackets. But, how do they work? We also discuss Australia's future in renewables, the Sami people's legal battle over a wind farm that disrupts reindeer herding. Plus, can Puerto Rico's electricity grid be rebuilt with renewables, or only with fossil fuel sources, as is currently proposed? Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: Uptime 83 - Off-Shore Wind Turbine Suction Caisson Installations - How do They Work? This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If you're wind turbines or do for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a striketape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett I'm Allen Hall, and I'm Rosemary Barnes, and this is the uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right, welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your co-host Dan Blewett. on today's show. We've got a bunch of Australian news we'll start off with. So Rosemary is going to have some a strong presence in this episode, as if she didn't already. We'll talk about some of Australian entrepreneur Mike Cannon-Brookes, and he's the founder of Atlassian, which is an amazing suite of software products. Some of his ideas for Australia's renewable future. We'll talk a little about battery manufacturer Red Earth and some of the things they're doing. Kind of like Tesla's Powerwall. They have a bunch different storage solutions over in Australia. We'll talk about some of the seas and wind in Australia. And then moving on, we'll chat a little bit about this reindeer situation with the Sami people in Norway is a really interesting ruling that could get a wind farm dismantled if their lawyers. Right. We'll talk about crabs and their electromagnetic fields. We'll talk about suction, caissons and some of the new offshore wind turbine foundation jackets that have just been installed. An update on the horn seeta wind farm, a 107 meter, a wind turbine blade mold. And lastly, will shed a little bit about Puerto Rico and their electric grid to rebuild. Before we get going on our mind, you subscribe to Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter. It's growing fast and you can get a weekly update from us with new wind energy news all from around the Web, as well as alerts for about the new podcasts and videos. And definitely subscribe to Rosemary Barnes's YouTube channel, which you'll also find in the description of this podcast. So, Rosemary, come up on stage. Let's talk about Australia here. So might Mike Cannon-Brookes again. He's a co-founder, co CEO of Atlassian. They make Trello Jera, which is their project development software. They had tons of teams work with that, getting projects from start to finish and a lot of other stuff. He's a big entrepreneur in Australia, and he says they should be aiming for 500 percent renewables. Rosmarie, 500 percent seems ambitious. Yeah, but I mean, if you think about it at the moment, the amount of calls with that Australia exports, I don't know what percentage we're at in terms of fossil fuel generation,

Is it possible for wind turbine blade aerodynamics to improve as a blade wears down? Nicholas Gaudern, CTO of Power Curve, joins us to talk about vortex generators, Gurney Flaps and the ins and outs of blade aerodynamic upgrades. We also discuss new migratory bird laws in the U.S. that may impact wind farms, undersea exploration tech, a collapsed Nordex turbine in Germany, and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  TRANSCRIPT EP82 Vortex Generators: How & Why Do They Work to Improve Blade Aerodynamics? This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If you're wind turbines or do for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett I'm Allen Hall, and I'm Rosemary Barnes, and this is the uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right, welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your co-host, Dan Blewett. On today's show, we've got a great lineup. Also an amazing guest, Nicholas Gaudern, who is the chief technical officer from Power Curve, is back on with us today. He's going to chat later on in the show about vortex generators and some other belayed aerodynamic upgrades. He's a whiz when it comes to aerodynamics, so we're excited to have him and his expertize back on the show . Before that, we'll talk a little bit about EC1 or some of their Kedron technology, checking on wind farms and the aquatic wildlife beneath. We'll talk about migratory birds, some new legislation or really just the law. Looks like it's changing again here in the U.S. We'll talk about some of the implications there for wind turbines, Rehame birds. And then after our interview, we'll talk Germany. There was Nordic wind turbine collapse recently. Not much on it as far as causes. We'll talk about that sort of as an industry wide issue, like why do we not know some of these things? And some of it seems like it's kept kind of close to the vest. We'll also talk about blackouts potentially in Germany. Their electricity supplies seem tenuous at times, and some interesting advertisements have been sort of driving that point home with their own people. And lastly, we'll talk about a U.S. congressman proposing some funding programs for wind and solar here in the U.S. So first, I'll start with Equador. Allen, you seem pretty keen on this technology they have been putting out there. There are drone running around and collecting a bunch of data. So tell us, Allen, what's some of the stuff that they're looking for here on these offshore wind farms? Well, they're looking to see what the sea life is right now before they start investing and in a lot of offshore wind and to try to get a baseline for what the sea life is and what the vegetation is and what the migratory patterns are in some cases. So they're basically putting out these looks like little boat drones are about six feet, two meters long, and they have a solar panel onto them and they're self-propelled and they relay data back to shore, but they're just tracking the wildlife in the area. Very similar that we would do on land. When we put wind turbines on land. We track the migratory birds, we track the wildlife.

Is community ownership of off-shore wind farms going to continue to gain traction, thanks to companies like Ripple Energy? Can you really buy shares in a wind farm, and is it a smart investment? Plus, the Ocotillo wind farm in California has been shut down as a turbine collapses - what's going on down there in the desert? We also discuss the Romotion camera, Spanish Gas Tax, re-powering SGRE platforms and the state of leading edge erosion. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EP81 - Own a Share of an Off-Shore Wind Farm? Plus, Romotion Camera: Can it Replace Drones? This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If you're wind turbines or do for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett. I'm Allen Hall, and I'm Rosemary Barnes, and this is the uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right, welcome back to the Uptime Podcast. I'm your co-host and blew it on today's show. Big list of topics are discussed. Number one, community ownership of offshore wind farms. Is this possible? So interesting company called Ripple is one of a few different companies on the Web who are starting to try to break up essentially commodities, if that's the right word, into where you can buy shares of them. There's another company is doing this with artwork. So if you want to buy a share of a Picasso, essentially you could do that. And this is kind of the same concept. So we'll talk about. That's interesting idea. We'll also talk about this new Spanish gas tax. There's a lot of issues with natural gas and and the price of it overseas right now and how that's going to affect the wind industry. So it's an interesting story about the ocotillo wind farm. It looks like it was a pretty rushed sort of project, had a lot of controversy, a lot of native people in the area who are opposed to it. And it's been having consistent problems and it's currently shut down. So we'll talk about some of the implications there. We'll chat about leading edge erosion. There's a new article about a small company getting some funding out of Scotland and raising some questions here about, you know, what what is leading edge erosion look like right now is the current state of these fixes and solutions and kind of where we headed. We'll also talk about Siemens, the Mesa's five platform, how they've upgraded that. And lastly, we'll talk with the row motion camera, which is a pretty cool piece of technology to take photos of wind turbine blades while the wind turbine is still operating and rotating at a high speed. So before we get going, I want to remind you to subscribe to uptime tech news, which you'll find in the podcast show notes or description if you're watching here on YouTube. That's just our weekly update email where you'll get an email of the new episode, helpful links, you know, all the other stuff around the Web if you want to stay up with wind energy news. And be sure to subscribe to Rosemary Barnes is awesome engineer with Rosie Channel, which is here on YouTube. And we have a sponsor livestream with her a couple times a month. So check that out.

Employers are struggling to find qualified, motivated workers despite a surplus of them out there, looking for jobs. A recent Harvard study shows that poor job descriptions, coupled with ineffective filtering and AI may be to blame for screening out qualified applicants. GE partners with Voxeljet AG on 3D printing - the binder jetting technique could be a game-changer. Plus, the Ridley undersea drone system being nurtured by ORE Catapult, Vestas factories closing and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP80 - Voxeljet Partners with GE; Is The Hiring Process Broken? And, Will Carbon Capture Work? This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If you're wind turbines or do for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett. I'm Allen Hall, and I'm Rosemary Barnes, and this is the uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right, welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your co-host Dan Blewett on today's episode. We've got a full full docket today. We're going to talk about Vestas closing three plants in Europe. Some interesting submersible technology coming out of OarI Catapult. Ridley is hoping to contribute a lot of robotics to submersible and undersea development. So we'll see what's going up there. We'll talk about GE renewable energy, partnering with Voxel Jet, some really interesting sand casting and 3-D printing stuff going on there. We'll talk about Chevron and some other shareholder meetings. Their CEO has been talking kind of about their future and it looks like to be in in contrast with what Shell is doing. So we know a lot of the oil companies are moving into renewables and Chevron has a good view of renewables, which doesn't sound like they'll be investing in them. We'll talk about electric electricity prices climbing rapidly in Europe. The world's biggest carbon capture machine now flipped on to Rosemarie's. Got big things to say about that. We'll also talk about at the end some big recruiting and job stuff. A really big topic about interviews, the job description process, algorithms filtering, and whether or not employees and wind and other sectors are suffering, because some of it is maybe the digital hiccups that are going on in hiring right now. So before we get going, I want to remind you, sign up for uptime tech news. You'll find that in the show notes of this podcast today, whether you're on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, wherever. And definitely check out Rosemarie's Engineering with Rosie YouTube channel, which you'll also find in this description here today. So, Rosie, let's get started with you. Vestas is closing three plants in Europe. Is this something that people should be really alarmed about? Obviously, some jobs are going to be cut, but what does this look like for investors in their future? Well, yeah, I mean, it's hard to say what the the business looks like, but I think when companies are deciding where to have their factories and keep their factories, it's mostly to do with one where their sales pipeline looks like it's going to be.

Do wind turbines get damaged by high humidity levels? What can be done about it? This week's guest, Michael Holm from Cotes, explains that humidity control is often overlooked but very much a factor in driving energy costs down. Learn more about Cotes here. We also discussed the GE vs Siemens Gamesa patent lawsuit, pile-driving noise, and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EP79 - Wind Turbine Humidity Issues with Michael Holm This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If you're wind turbines or do for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett I'm Allen Hall, and I'm Rosemary Barnes, and this is the uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right, welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your co-host, Dan BlueT, on today's show, we've got an exciting episode. First, we're going to chat through a couple of different environmental issues. Missouris been having some issues with bats. Amran, which is one of the big electrical utilities out in the Midwest, has had to shut down some turbines due to bats. We'll talk about some of the issues there. We're also going to chat a little bit about pile driving noise as it relates to offshore wind construction, which is a big issue with the R friendly undersea mammals, because obviously sound travels very fast underwater. And while driving is very, very loud. We'll also chat a little bit about a interesting case in Australia where a man living in a remote. Off the grid cabin is suing one of the wind farms out there for just the essentially the wooshing noise that comes from these blades tearing through the through the atmosphere. So we'll talk a little bit about that and what might come of it. And then we have a great friend of the up time podcast today. And Michael Holm from Cotes is joining us to talk about humidity issues and wind turbines. So look for that in about 15 minutes. Great conversation with him on all the ins and outs of humidity and what damage it can do to wind turbines onshore and offshore and some of their technology behind it. And then lastly, we'll talk a little bit about the GE Siemens Gamesa patent lawsuit, which has just gotten a new ruling. And, of course, Siemens Gamesa is going to appeal that ruling. We'll talk through some of the implications there at the end. But a very full show today. And our first friend of up times, we're excited to talk to humanity expert Michael Home and a little bit. But before we get going, let me remind you one last time. Sign up for uptime tech news, which you'll find in the show notes or description of this podcast. And again, that's our weekly update newsletter where you'll just get hey, here's the new podcast. Here's some great insider news around the the wind industry and renewable energy industry. And you can sign up for that in the show notes of this podcast. A great way to stay connected. If you enjoy the show and want to stay up to date on everything, wind energy, renewable energy and tech. No, Rosemary Barnes today, she's out of the office, but we'll look for her in next week. And, of course,

Hyundai has pledged to create a hydrogen-powered version of each of their commercial vehicles by 2028 - is this realistic? Is it necessary? OEMs are reporting increasingly thin profit margins on wind turbine sales - can they improve profitability somehow? Plus, ComPair healable composites and the Siemens Gamesa RecyclableBlade is announced. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: Hydrogen Cars by 2028? And, Can Wind Turbine OEMs Turn a Profit in 2021? This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If you're wind turbines or do for maintenance or repairs, install our striketape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett I'm Allen Hall, and I'm Rosemary Barnes, and this is the uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right, welcome back to the Uptime Podcast. I'm your co-host and blew it on today's show. We're going to talk about right off the bat, hydrogen news. So Hyundai is pledging fuel savings, fuel cell versions of many, if not all of their make some models by 2028, which is going to be an interesting engineering challenge. We're going to talk a little bit about the overall state of renewables as it comes to sort of one drivers, the other that seems to be a lot of infighting on the Web. Of course, that's what the Web is for, it seems like at times. But we'll talk a little bit about, you know, this whole sort of war on renewables and who's best or if we can all just kind of get along. We'll chat a little about distributed wind. And interesting article from the United States Department of Energy, just highlighting some of the different uses here in the U.S. of distributed wind. We'll talk about winter manufacturers who are maybe getting their profit margins squeezed a bit as raw material and other costs rise. And then we've got a bunch of interesting composited news. Talk to a bunch about that last week. But some more here with Compar has this self healing composite. They're a start up and they've got some interesting tech, some interesting belayed techs or some interesting blade rotor size designs. And then some big news from Siemens with their recyclable blade technology, which almost a little bit seems to fly in the face of some of the other stuff we reported on last week about thermostats and reusing them. So before we get going, just want to remind you and no. One, you can sign up for uptime tech news in the description of the show, whether you're on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher or wherever. And that's just our weekly email update. We all get the new show in your inbox along with other great renewable and wind energy news. And definitely check out Rosemary Barnes. Our other co-host, try host. What are you going to call her? Her awesome YouTube channel in the description below. So, Rosemary, let's start with you. So Hyundai is interested in hydrogen fuel cell versions of all their cars by 2028. You're our hydrogen guru here. Does this seem like a reasonable step? I mean, that's only six years away. And I don't we don't have any hydrogen cars on the market. I was surprised when I heard that. I think that they do actually already have a hydrogen SUV.

A train collided with a wind turbine blade while in transport on a flat-bed truck. It was a scary situation, and fortunately no one was hurt. But why did it happen? Sea Floor mapping drone technology is improving - what will this mean for offshore wind? We also discuss the Jones Act being invoked in wind installations off the U.S. coast, and whether or not thermoset composites can actually be re-used. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript - EP77 This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If you're wind turbines or do for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett. I'm Allen Hall. And I'm Rosemary Barnes And this is the uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right, welcome back to the Side podcast. I'm your co-host and blew it on today's show. We are going to talk a little bit about the construction process and some of the things that can go wrong, unfortunately. You know, we've got a recent story of a train colliding with a truck carrying a wind turbine blade. So this is obviously bring a big spotlight to, you know, just some of the difficult logistics and the overall sort of construction environment where there's so many pieces involved, so much going on. We'll talk a little bit about that today. We're talking a little more about wind turbine blade recycling. Vestas has an initiative, as does Siemens, Gamesa for the Future. We'll talk about the Jones Act as it's dealing with offshore wind, some sea floor mapping drones and a little bit about this offshore open hydro tidal turbine that's now being removed from the ocean. And before we get going, I just wanna remind you that in the description on this podcast, you'll find uptime tech news, which is our weekly newsletter update for our podcast and other great news are on the website if you want to stay updated with everything. Definitely jump into the links, whether you're on YouTube or Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, and sign up for uptime tech news. Like I said, we want to keep you updated that way. You have a great newsletter from us every Thursday morning, depending on where you are in the world, just to keep you up to date. And you'll also find Rosemary Barnes's YouTube channel, where she is continuing to put out great renewable energy content. So Rosemary and Allan are here with us. So let's start with this train, Rosemary. How did you feel seeing this train collide with this poor wind turbine blade driver? Yeah, I felt really sick. And in the the first view of it that I watched, the the guy who stuck taking the film is just going, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God. And that is like exactly mirrored what I was saying in my head. So I can't imagine what he was. But the truck driver was thinking, as you know, he's trying to get out of there and then the train comes. And then Allan was kind enough to send me a second angle of it from behind. So I really got the full, full 3D effect. And it's just absolutely shocking, isn't it? But I was so I was so happy to say that no one was injured somehow. No one was injured in that accident except for the know wind turbine blade.

MingYang just released info on its new model, the 16MW MySE 16.0-242, sweeping a 242m area, with 118m blades. It's huge and another surge forward in turbine size. We also discuss gearbox failures and wear issues, as well as solutions that may help, including offerings from Poseidon Systems that monitor wear debris. Plus, how green is blue hydrogen? Why is grey hydrogen, well, grey? Rosemary shares insights on hydrogen, including an explanation of Liebrich's ladder. Cover Photo is a copyright of MingYang Smart Energy Group Co., LTD used under fair use. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript - MingYang's 16MW Turbine; Gearbox Failures & Monitoring; Plus, What's a Hydrogen Ladder? This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If you're wind turbines or do for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a strikeTape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan BlueT. I'm Allen Hall. And I'm Rosemary Barnes And this is the uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right, welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm Dan Blewett on today's show. First, we can shout a little bit about some big news from MingYang They've released a 16 megawatt offshore turbine that they're going to hope is going to be in service in a couple of years. So we'll talk about some of the I mean, the thing is gigantic and obviously now displaces the Halifax and the Siemens Gamesa. Their top turbines as far as size. We'll talk at length about gearboxes today, some about gearbox failures. Also an interesting where debris monitoring system from Poseidon. We'll talk a little bit about what we can do to make those gearbox maintenance periods, you know, extend a little bit longer. And then in our third segment today, we're gonna talk about hydrogen. Rosemarie's got a ton of stuff she wants to share and we're going to chat through how green is blue hydrogen. We'll talk through lyrics, hydrogen ladder and some interesting hot brick technology that could be used to store energy, not really hydrogen related, but also just energy storage related. Before we get going. Be sure to subscribe in the show notes below to uptime tech news. That's our weekly newsletter and podcast update. So if you want to stay abreast of everything, wind energy definitely sign up for that. You'll find the show notes and YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen. And obviously, our co-host Rosemary has a great YouTube channel, so you'll find links to that there as well. So let's get going. Rosemary, kick this to you. So MingYang has a 16 megawatt offshore turbine. The MYSE 16.0-242. So they're going to it will sweep a 242 meter area. That's the rotor diameter, 118 meter long blades. And that's going to be a forty six thousand square meter swept area. So, Rosemary, what are some of the challenges as these continue to get bigger and bigger and bigger, as are ever going to be a cap on on turbine size? It's so funny because that's like the question that everyone's been talking about in our favor as far as far as I can tell. I know when I was working at ILM, every if someone had a 10 year or a 25 year working anniversary,

Chris Howell, Sr. VP of Recycling Operations at Veolia, joined us to talk about their partnership with GE Renewables for wind turbine blade recycling, in which blades can be made into both fuel for cement kilns and cement itself. With more and more blades reaching the end of their usable life, the problem of what to do with these massive composite structures is a growing one. Rather than bury blades in landfills, which caused a media uproar back in 2020, Veolia hopes to solve the logistical problems of transportation with their shredding techniques and more innovations still in the works. 🍃 Learn more from Veolia's partnership with GE here, and visit Veolia North America on the web. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: On Recycling Wind Turbine Blades & A Circular Economy This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a strikeTape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan BlueT. I'm Allen Hall. And I'm Rosemary Barnes And this is the Uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right, welcome back to the Uptime Podcast. I'm your co-host, Dan Blewett I'm joined here today by Allen Hall. No Rosemary Barnes today on the show. She couldn't make it with her crazy Australian time zone. We love having on the show, but sometimes, you know, those 13 hour differences will get you. But look for her back on the show and next week. But today, we have an amazing guest. Today, we are talking with Chris Howell from Veolia. He is the senior director of recycling operations there. He's also a Navy veteran and a graduate of the Navy. And nuclear program is a subject matter expert on mining, metals and power production. And he's been with the oil for twenty seven years. So he knows the company inside and out. And we're going to be talking to him today about our hour, about their partnership with GE on shredding and recycling winter and blades into cement. So, Allen what were some of your takeaways from today's talk with Chris Howell? Well, Chris and Veolia have taken on a really large problem, which is as when turbines become decommissioned, what do you do with those massive blades? And currently, we are bearing in them in some parts of the world, like in Germany, the burying of blades is outlawed. So we need to find another solution in the United States and across the world. And and Chris and Veolia have stepped up to to find a method and an economical method to take the existence of existing Blaize off the turbines, break them down, grind them up and and recycle them, put them reuse them for energy production or creation of cement, which is just totally fascinating and a really unique engineering exercise. So this interview from an engineering standpoint is really cool. Yeah. And, you know, it's one of those things where, you know, on the Web, in the public, in the media, if you will, just like, yeah, recycle these things, you know, like and they just like wash their hands of it. Right. But it's really, really complicated. That's part of the reason everyone's trying to do more and more manufacturing on site, a new wind farms.

The U.S. Senate is proposing Tax Credits for manufacturing - will it work? Plus, business news - GE Stock, Orsted earnings, Vestas guidance and will Iberdrola spin off offshore? We also discuss how to develop young engineers, plus thermoplastic wind turbine blades and their lightning and manufacturing issues, something we didn't cover in episode 73. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript EP74 | GE Stock Climbing? Thermoplastic Blades & Lightning, Plus Iberdrola, Orsted & U.S. Tax Credits This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If you're wind turbines or do for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett I'm Allen Hall. And I'm Rosemary Barnes And this is the uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. So before we get going, let me remind you a thanks for being here be. You can sign up for Uptime Tech News, which is our weekly newsletter, where we'll shoot you a quick email of the new podcast. Some other helpful links, you know, stuff that we find valuable all over the Web. So if you want to stay up and be a win insider. Definitely sign up in the show notes, whether you're listing on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher of today's podcast. Let's talk about this tax credit. So it sounds like Senator Markey, who is from your neck of the woods, Allen and others are introducing a tax credit that's going to create a 30 percent investment for qualified facilities that manufacture when components for offshore here in the U.S.. And it looks like that will eventually be phased out between December twenty, twenty eight and completely around 20, 30. So, Alan, do you think this is going to work or are we going to be able to put up some of these facilities in the U.S.? Well, big corporations will take that tax break immediately and hopefully put it to work. The question is who and where and how? It's easy to make proposals like this. And this is the trouble I think was sort of the Massachusetts delegation, because this comes up quite a bit where they want to make some world altering proposals. And then you check up on six months later, nothing has happened. And it is super frustrating to watch this go into something I'm more familiar with, which is just offshore wind and wind turbines. Massachusetts itself doesn't have a lot of wind turbine manufacturing to so to speak. The university system does some research, and it is one of the national leaders in some wind turbine technology stuff. But in terms of manufacturing, there's very little. And it's unlikely that a lot of that will happen locally in Massachusetts. And there's a variety of reasons for it. Resources, access to roads, all all those things play into it. So in terms of wind turbine manufacturers or component manufacturers for wind turbines, my little company is probably one of the more probably one of the larger ones at the moment. And, you know, what are we gonna do with a 30 percent manufacturing break that'll never come to a company like ours? So it's it is you know, in one sense, I think they're trying to promote the industry. And I get all that. And on the second sense,

New research and work on thermoplastic blade construction has yielded some excitement in the community, and Allen and Rosemary discuss the commercial viability of these turbine blades. Vestas has invested in S&L Access crane technology, and their Salamander Quick Lift looks like a step in the right direction. The small Block Island wind farm now has four of its five turbines stopped for "routine maintenance"...but is something bigger at play? Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP73 - Will Battery Fires Set Renewables Back? Thermoplastic Blade Tech + Vestas Invests in Cranes This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If you're wind turbines or do for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a StrikeTape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett I'm Allen Hall. And I'm Rosemary Barnes And this is the uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right, welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I am your co-host Dan Blewett - on today's episode. We're going to talk about a recent battery fire from one of the Tesla mega packs burn for about three straight days until it burn itself out in Victoria, Australia. So we'll talk about some of the implications and whether we should be concerned about battery technology as it takes off, whether that's going to be a problem for renewables. We'll also chat a little bit about the Block Island Wind Farm, which has five turbines up in New England. Four of them are currently offline, and they've got some subsea cable issues that might need to be reburied. So we'll talk through some of the problems are having there. We're also going to talk a little bit about the fishing sector sector. Get Rosemarie's take here on some new reporting from The Guardian about, you know, whether the UK is sacrificing their fishing sector for offshore wind and whether this is really a Zero-Sum game or if everyone can get along. We'll talk about some new technology in cranes, the salamander lift system and what that means as Vestas investors invests in that technology. And lastly, kind of our big topic today, we'll talk about thermoplastic blades, some interesting technology about how to ban them using metal foils. And, well, this is going to be a sustainable practice, whether it will work with lightning issues and all that. So we've got two great minds on blades here. So before we get going, I want to remind you, you can sign up for uptime tech news in the show notes of today's podcast, no matter where you're listening on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher. Just click below and you can sign up for our weekly newsletter where we'll send you an update on the podcasts and all of the latest news around the market. So let's get going. Alan, I know you want to talk batteries. So this big mega pack fire out in Australia sounds pretty scary. What what was the story here with Tesla on this fire? Well, they don't have any details yet. And Rosemary may have a little more because she's a little closer to it than we are. But it's a big lithium ion pack battery packs out. And they were in construction mode, it sounded like. And they had an accident in a fire.

Rosemary Barnes, wind turbine blade and renewables expert, is back on the show as a permanent host, bring a fresh new perspective to the mix. Form Energy, a startup backed by Jeff Bezos, is betting that their iron-air battery technology can transform the power grid. Can it? Plus, we discuss GE's plans for automated blade finishing, a distressed jackup vessel at sea, and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript - EP72 - Rosemary Barnes Joins to Talk Iron-Air Battery Tech, Automated Blade Finishing & More This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If you're wind turbines or do for maintenance or repairs, install our strike tape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Dan Blewett. I'm Allen Hall. And I'm Rosemary Barnes And this is the uptime podcast bringing you the latest in wind energy, tech news and policy. All right, welcome back to the Uptime Podcast. I'm your co-host, Dan Blewett On today's episode, we've got some exciting news. Number one, Rosemary Barnes will be joining us here today, as are our new co-host. So, Allen, Allen is it, what do we have to do? Tri-hosts now? What happens here? I don't know. I don't know how that works. All right. Three new territory. Yeah, it's going to be great. So we'll hear from her in a second. Today's episode is going to be pretty exciting grants. I was battery tech. We're going to talk about this, really this terrible Chinese offshore installer vessel that has capsized. We'll talk about the implications of that. I mean, so much offshore wind is is getting going now where, you know, there's going to be accidents like this or talk about the implications there. Some projections and some ideas about engineering as we add offshore wind turbines. A really interesting case study of an Oklahoma wind farm that's had a lot of problems with safety and damage. And we'll talk about an SCHUTZE investing in a Wyoming wind farm, which is pretty interesting that more and more of these fossil fuel companies are getting into renewable energy. And lastly, we'll talk about ion air batteries, which is a really exciting development and potentially has major implications for the grid. Before we get going, I want to remind you that we need to get you signed up for uptime tech news. So if you're interested in the podcast, if you've been a long time listener, it's time to sign up in the show notes. You'll find a link. You just get a weekly email from us as, hey, we got a new podcast. Here's what it's about. Here's some other great news from around the Web. So definitely sign up for that today in the show notes wherever you listen. So here are my co-hosts. First, let's introduce Rosemary Barnes. Is your first episode back since you were a guest? Way back when. So, Rosemary, a welcome back to the show. We're excited to have you. Can you give our guests who maybe haven't called your episode or obviously it's been a couple of months, could just kind of give us a quick rundown of your background. And, you know, part of the reason we wanted to have you on the show is your expertize in wind energy and renewable energy. So what do our guests need to know about you and the expertize you bring to the show?

This week, we discuss the proposed 7.9 billion dollars that are needed for port infrastructure improvements to accommodate the surge in offshore wind in Europe, Australia's booming wind power and renewable output, a huge Australian hydrogen and ammonia plant proposal, Mocean Blue X wave energy technology and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Australian Power Output Surgers; Mocean Wave Energy & Port Infrastructure This episode is brought to you by weatherguard lightning tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If you're wind turbinesor do for maintenance or repairs, install our striketape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a strike tape installation is the quick,easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factorylightning protection system. Forward thinkingwind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the shownotes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Allen Hall. I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptimepodcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection and waysto keep your wind turbines running. All right, welcome backto the Uptime Podcast. I'm your co-host, DanBlewett on today's show. First, we'll talk a little bitabout port infrastructure. Over in Europe. It looks like about seven point nine billion dollars is the estimateof some upgrades that might be needed just to handle some of the increased volume of,you know, shipping from offshore wind. We'll talk about spiral welded towertechnology, which could be a major player as far as, you know, construction on sitewithout having to ship these really long towers. We'll talk about the emotion borlooX wave energy prototype, which is now off the Orkney Islandsin testing phase. And the U.S. is actually investing in thatto see if we can get some of this wave power upand running on the West Coast. And lastly, we will talk about Australiabreaking an output, a record with five thousand eighthundred ninety nine megawatts. And some of the while,the plans for this very big energy hub in the southwest side of Australiato potentially create green hydrogen and other fuels for use in heavy industries,power stations, shipping and more. So, Alan, let's start with infrastructure. Obviously, this isthis is was going to be a problem. We've talked about thisjust the need for bigger ships, for installationvehicles, for bigger ports as these things growand there's more demand for it, like this is going to stress everything. So, I mean, I assume youyou just see this as a natural progression for all these countriesjust to to make this work, right? Oh, sure. Can can you. Well, imagine thatif you have an existing port that close in the 60s or 70s,which is probably at least in the United States, waswhat a lot of ports are going to be. All the infrastructureyou have to put in to make them viable, to handle offshore wind,it can be roads, right. Heavy duty roads, a carryheavy things for trucking, all the power requirements, because you maybe putting factories near the ports. So all the on the powerdemand you're going to put there, all the other bits and bobs of buildings. You know, it's just going to be massive amounts of infrastructure,sewer, water lines, the whole thing. I always guess that when they come upwith numbers for infrastructure projects, it's roughly 50 percent ofwhat is actually needed to finish the job. So they probably need twice that thatamount to do it, because it's always so

Companies like BP and Shell are now involved in wind farm projects - this seems like a win for the planet, right? Siemens Gamesa reveals high raw material costs that have caused it to change financial guidance - is this a big deal? Plus, Allen Hall gives his engineering insight into overbuilding structures, and whether digital twin technology can truly help solve the problem of not wasting money on overbuilt structures or machines. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Transcript: Siemens Gamesa Financial Guidance, Plus: Oil Companies Building Wind Farms & Overbuilt Platforms This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at Weather Guard. We make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our StrikeTape retrofit LPS upgrade. At the same time, a StrikeTape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install strike tape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. I'm Allen Hall. I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running. Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your co-host Dan Blewett. On today's show. We'll chat a little bit about some new financial guidance from Siemens Gamesa, a plans for a Scottish offshore wind farm, some really interesting remote controlled rescue boats that could probably play a pretty important role in personnel rescue out on these offshore wind farms. And we'll also talk a little bit about digital twin technology and some new some new studies that have shown that perhaps they can help reduce the amount of steel and other materials needed in these offshore platforms, which is an interesting problem to solve because they're trying to make sure they not only overbuild so they survive, but not under build or waste money as well. So we'll chat about all that today in today's episode. Before we get started, I want to remind you, you can sign up for uptime tech news in the show notes below, whether on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever. And that's just our weekly email update where you can get a notification that we're hey, we got a new podcast out. You know, jump right to it. Also, some insider tech news from around the Web and some other information that you'll find very valuable if you're trying to stay up on the wind energy market. So Allen, my co-host, is here. Let's talk about Siemens Gamesa. So it sounds like along with everything else getting more expensive, steel is really becoming pricey. And so Siemens Gamesa has downgraded some of their guidance on what to expect from them financially for almost a year. Alan, does that surprise you? I mean, everything is more expensive now in twenty twenty one. It doesn't surprise me, but I didn't realize how much of an impact it's going to have on the wind energy business. Maybe because of steel and some of those more massive commodities, fiberglass, carbon, fiber, all those prices are bumping up. And motors, generators, all the copper and anything that involves a, you know, a metal is going to be expensive. Steel obviously being one of those. So the the the problem is, is that you set a contract rate and which operator is going to buy wind turbines for in the hope that you've guessed. Right. On sort of inflation. And some some contracts have some variability in regards to inflation,

Maine announced an indefinite ban on offshore wind in state waters. California, on the other hand, is a step closer to passing laws establishing wind energy goals, setting the stage for a long relationship with wind energy. Why is there such a big difference between states? Can we expect more of this in the future? Plus, the PowerPod by Halcium 1kW wind turbine, off-shore engineering and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP69 - Why are Some US States Different in Offshore Wind Regulations? Plus, PowerPod Wind Turbine 0:00This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. At Weather Guard, we make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our StrikeTape retrofit LPS upgrade at the same time. A StrikeTape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward Thinking wind site owners install StrikeTape today to increase uptime tomorrow, learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. 0:38I'm Allen Hall. 0:39I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running. All right, welcome back to the uptime podcast. I'm your co host, Dan Blewett. In today's episode, we're gonna talk about a lightning storm igniting some natural gas from a leak offshore near Mexico, New Jersey versus Maine some of the different legislation that's going on over there as far as use of offshore assets, you know, federal versus state waters, mains put in a big ban on using offshore wind in state waters. So we'll chat through that turbine validation at the galfer wind farm, offshore and then beyond wind to hydrogen project that's getting a little bit of steam, we'll talk about this unique powerpod wind turbine, which is a one kilowatt prototype for residential use. And also we'll talk a little bit about offshore wind, some of the engineering challenges and how ocean cleanup might have a relatable story to some of this unproven technology. Before we get going, let me remind you, you can easily sign up for uptime tech news, which is just our weekly newsletter in the description, or show notes of this podcast. And that's just getting a weekly update from us as hey, here's our latest podcast, check it out. Here's some other news from around the web. So if you're interested in staying up to date, definitely check out uptime tech news in the show notes below. So Alan, how you doing? Sir, let's talk about lightning, your favorite thing. This lightning storm out in the waters near Mexico looks like it ignited some natural gas leak from a pipe, you know, well below the surface. 2:31So there's a big gas explosion in the Gulf of Mexico next to an oil rig. And one of the byproducts of oil drilling is you get natural gas spots, right? So they had a lightning storm come through it ignite that gas. And it looks like this a big apocalyptic lit the fire in the middle of the ocean like Wow, those water Wow, those fire those two don't go together, there must be something wrong with the earth or wrong with humans involvement with the earth that caused this big thing to happen. No, none of that was true in the Twitter, bouncing around from environmentalists groups, so to speak. And business groups on the other side are pro drilling groups on the other side, which is ridiculous on both ends a little bit. The fire was put out within a couple of hours. And they had a handle on how to go do that. It sounds like because it got it out.

Are environmental and economic concerns posed by fisherman and advocacy groups valid, given commercial fishing's impact on marine life? We discuss the repowering of a 240MW wind farm in the midwest, along with general implications for old wind turbines, and discuss carbon fiber vs glass fiber in the future of blade construction. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EP68 Transcript - Fisherman, Repowering Old Wind Farms, Plus Carbon Fiber vs Glass Blade Debate 0:00This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. At Weather Guard, we make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our StrikeTape retrofit LPS upgrade at the same time. A StrikeTape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward Thinking wind site owners install StrikeTape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. 0:38I'm Allen Hall. 0:39I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running. All right, welcome back to the uptime podcast. I'm your co host Dan Blewett. On today's episode, we're gonna talk about the levelized cost of energy. So renewable, renewable sources, including solar and wind are now the lowest to electricity forms, which is pretty cool news. We'll talk a little bit about fishermen and some of their worries some of their woes as far as offshore wind coming to the US. Siemens Gamesa has their 11 megawatt offshore turbine now certified as typhoon resistant. We'll talk a little bit about glass first carbon fiber repowering for old wind farms, and some of the challenges and just interesting tech involved there. So before we get going wanna remind you that in the description of this podcast, whether you're on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, number one, leave us a review, we'd really appreciate it. But number two, you'll find uptime tech news, which is our new weekly newsletter, you can easily subscribe to that and just get a notification from us every Thursday morning, when the podcast drops. So it's right on your inbox, you can click through or listen to the new episode, as well as get some other interesting tech news from around the web, as well as clips from the past. Pat from past episodes, so be sure to sign up for uptime tech news in the description of this podcast. So Alan, how are you sir, let's start with the levelized cost of energy. renewable sources are now cheaper than ever, and solar is in the number one spot with a $37 cost. And onshore wind is now second with $40 per megawatt hour. So this has been a pretty big change a long time coming, the this cost decrease. And now well below gas and other other other forms 2:40it has in the latest data is interesting to look at. on the solar side, I think there's just an emphasis by China to flood the market with cheap solar panels. And that seems to be the driver because Europe in the United States and other parts of the world are not really producing solar cells. So they seem to be mostly coming down to China, on the wind turbine side that the cost of energy is going down as the turbines get bigger. Think of it that way. There's just producing more power for you know, it's still expensive to install, but you're generating so much power out of a certain part of land, which just makes it more efficient. And obviously, the winter market has made a lot of improvements in the last several years, which is fantastic.

A wind turbine technician fell down the inside of a wind turbine blade, prompting a successful rescue effort despite a scary situation. Will we see more of this with an increase in blade interior diameters? Plus we talk about misinformation and GE's recent press about testing blade tip aerodynamic add-ons. Watch this episode on YouTube here. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: Wind Tech Falls Inside Blade; GE Test Blade Tip Add-ons; Plus New Tallest Turbine? 0:00This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. At Weather Guard, we make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our StrikeTape retrofit LPS upgrade at the same time. A StrikeTape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward Thinking wind site owners install StrikeTape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. 0:37Welcome back. I'm Allen Hall. I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running. 0:57All right, welcome back to the uptime podcast. This is Episode 67. I'm your co host, Dan Blewett. On today's episode, we're going to talk about some disinformation maybe just a good meme. But we'll talk about the continued trend of the internet, sometimes ruining everything. We'll also chat about some, you know, a really scary incident with a wind turbine tech recently out of Iowa fell down the inside of a blade rescue effort and was successful, it was mostly unharmed. But still interesting thing with some interesting implications. We'll talk about some work GE is doing their ta project trying to get a little more aerodynamic efficiency out of their offshore blades, and a really interesting cast in place concrete tower concept. So before I kick it to my co host, Allen Hall, just remember we've got uptime tech news is our new newsletter, you can sign up in the description of this podcast below whether you're on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, wherever. And that's just our monthly, it's not our monthly that's our weekly update, where we're going to send you the new podcasts, some great news from around the web, new tech, all the stuff that we're keeping you up to date on so if you enjoy the show, you'll definitely enjoy just getting our weekly uptime tech news update. So sign up for that in the show notes of this podcast. So Alan, how you doing sir? Let's first let's talk about some disinformation. So first, on Facebook, this thing just started going around. It's like Haha, look at this wind turbine that melted in the Texas heat. And they showed one of those photos which are crazy photos of. So it sounds like this was a turbine damaged by a storm where basically all three blades were damaged and essentially just wilted. 2:46Did you see So? What were your thoughts on on a this photo in general it's a pretty dramatic photo of this whole winter and just wilted it is. The early indications about the photo were that it was a lightning strike. That's the that was the first thing I saw. And then the heat. 3:03The discussion about where it got so hot in Texas that the places melted. Yeah, just just wilted like, right. That was Haha, funny. And then the latest was maybe as wind speeds. But I have none of the other wind turbines in that area had that same fault. So make sure you don't feel like lightning strike broke one of the blades and then it cascaded into vibration, which broke other ones and everything still looks like ...

How well are wind farms protected from cyber attacks? Will ransomware and other attacks potential strike more and more wind energy companies, following the attempted extortion of Invenergy? And, we discuss transmission lines - the electrical engineering needed, AC vs DC power, interstate line projects, Texas and ERCOT's problems, and more. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Wind Farms At Cybersecurity Risk? Plus, a Deep Dive into Transmission Lines 0:00This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. At Weather Guard, we make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our StrikeTape retrofit LPS upgrade at the same time. A StrikeTape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward Thinking wind site owners install StrikeTape today to increase uptime tomorrow, learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Welcome back. 0:38I'm Allen Hall. 0:39I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running. All right, welcome back to the uptime podcast. This is Episode 66. And in today's episode, we're gonna talk a lot about transmission lines. Obviously, our co host, Allen Hall is an electrical expert, electrical engineer, lightning protection, all that stuff. So be prepared to get real nerdy with us today on electricity. And we're also going to talk a little bit about something that's going to be a big growing concern. It's becoming a growing concern in all industries, which is hacking ransomware struck invenergy does a big developer of wind sites and other renewable energy, they are subject to attack recently. So we'll chat a little bit about that. And then obviously, as we get more and more wind farms online, a growing problem is going to be how do we transmit that power to the grid? And where does it need to go? And do we have enough capacity in the transmission lines to get it there. So that's going to be a big topic for today. But before we get going, I want to remind you again, in the show notes of today's episode, whether you're on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, you'll find a link to subscribe to uptime tech news, which is just our new weekly email sent every Thursday morning, that's going to let you know, hey, we got a new podcast. Here's what it's about. Here's our guest. Here's our topic. Here's a clip from another show. Here's some other great wind energy news, always on the tech side of things just right in your inbox. So if you're already a regular guest on the show, or a listener of the show, thank you. And we think you'll really like our to the point concise, not time waster very upfront email. So sign up for that in the show notes. So Alan, let's start today with invenergy. They were hacked, they discovered the the breach. And this wasn't a typical ransomware where they encrypted all their data, really, it seemed like it was just an extortion attempt on their billionaire founder. And of course, the guy was kind of just like, Hey, here's the middle finger, we're not paying you. And you're not going to extort me. But this is a scary thing. And I'm sure, you know, as our previous guest, Byron Martin from Teknologize, who's a cybersecurity expert and an IT expert, as they mentioned in our podcast, so definitely check out that episode with Byron Martin and Dan Morgan, if you haven't, this is going to become a bigger bigger thing like the colonial pipeline was hit. You know, government agencies are getting hit.

GE Announces a partnership with LafargeHolcim to recycle old wind turbine blades into concrete - will it work? Plus, the DARC system vows to protect bats through a smart curtailment system, and we discuss a new 1000ft tall offshore prototype that purports to replace dozens of turbines in one installation. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  TRANSCRIPT - EP65 - Turbine Blades into Concrete? Bat Protection for Towers Plus 1000ft Offshore Turbine? 0:00This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. At Weather Guard, we make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our StrikeTape retrofit LPS upgrade at the same time. A StrikeTape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward Thinking wind site owners install StrikeTape today to increase uptime tomorrow. Learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. 0:37Welcome back. I'm Allen Hall. I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running. 0:57All right, welcome back to the uptime podcast. I'm your co host Dan Blewett. On today's show, got four really good topics number one we're gonna talk about GE working with with Lafarge wholesome on winter and blade recycling and mixing some of the, you know shredded up winter and bleeds into cement, which is a really cool idea. We'll talk about a new tool called dark that's going to help protect bats while hopefully keeping energy production up for some of these winter minds with their curtailment curtailment solution. We're gonna talk about this as my favorite thing of the week is the 1000 foot, it looks like a huge box fan. That's potentially going to be a an offshore solution, this new prototype said to be really, really powerful, and can essentially take all this sort of swept area and put it into one sort of condensed package. And then lastly, we'll talk a little bit more about these prototypes, a GE floating prototype, and all that stuff. And when before we get going, I want to remind you that you can subscribe to uptime tech news. So if you're a regular listener of the show listener to the show, number one, thank you. Number two in the show notes whether you're on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, you can just check right below there's a link and if you sign up, you'll just get an email from us every Thursday saying hey, we got a new episode. Here's some other great articles who found the web including the stuff that we discussed on the show. So if you want to stay current on what's happening in the wind industry, definitely sign up for uptime tech news again, link is in the show notes below. So Alan, how are you sir? Let's get started with GE in cement. So we had, you know, the founder of CO BOD Henrik lon Nielsen on the show and they had a great partnership with GE and Lafarge wholesome. Lafarge was providing the unique, 2:43you know, concrete cement mixes for their 3d printers, which they're printing, you know, winter and blade, foundations and towers and all that stuff, actually. So I've watched a pretty cool video, they built the first Habitat for Humanity home down Arizona this past week. So a lot of good stuff coming out of the forest wholesome, but they're teaming up with GE to potentially recycle wind turbine blades. And my big question for you here is, 3:06as you know, an expert in composites. What does this mean for the strength of cement? I mean, it seems like this is probably a really good type of aggregate to mix into ce...

Rosemary Barnes from Pardalote Consulting and the popular YouTube Channel, Engineering with Rosie, joined us to share her take on wind energy. Ms. Barnes has a Ph.D in composite materials and structural design, and has worked for LM Wind Power, where she oversaw blade heating systems, among other projects. In this episode, she shared her insights on how wind turbine blade design has evolved, what the future of wind power might look like, vertical vs horizontal wind turbines, and how we can make more efficient energy transitions. Follow up with Rosie on Linkedin, visit Pardalote, her consulting firm, and be sure to subscribe to her YouTube channel. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP64 - Rosemary Barnes of Pardalote Consulting talks Wind Turbine Blade Design & Sharing Her Knowledge on YouTube Dan Blewett 0:00This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. At Weather Guard, we make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our StrikeTape retrofit LPS upgrade at the same time. A StrikeTape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward Thinking wind site owners install StrikeTape today to increase uptime tomorrow, learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. Allen Hall 0:37Welcome back. I'm Allen Hall. Dan Blewett 0:39I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running. Dan Blewett 0:58All right, welcome back to the uptime podcast. This is Episode 64. And we have a great guest today, Rosemary Barnes is joining us on the show. She is a consultant with Pardalote. And she also runs the YouTube channel Engineering with Rosie where she educates the public on all sorts of topics in wind, wind energy, on wind turbine design, on blade aerodynamics, lots of really interesting stuff, tons of new videos on green hydrogen. So we wanted to have Rosie on the show to share her expertise. And let me run down a little bit of her background. So she has her PhD in structural design and composite materials from the University of New South Wales Canberra campus in Australia. She was worked for lm wind power as a engineer, and she just has a lot of experience a lot of different areas in the wind industry and as an engineer. So Alan, what were some of your takeaways from our talk with with Rosie, Allen Hall 1:59just like the way she thinks she thinks in terms of systems, not in terms of components. And I think that's a for an engineer is a good way to think about bigger problems. And if you've watched some of our YouTube videos, she talks about different parts of the what I'll call the renewable energy or green energy economy and how that can function and whether we can do the things that are being promoted by in some cases, politicians, and whether that really can come from reality. And if you start looking as a whole system of components, green hydrogen or tidal power or vertical wind, turbans, there's a lot more to it, then then you would think, and it's a normal person who's not an engineer would think about and she's an engineer and she's been around for quite a while and so she can connect the dots for you and and it's extremely helpful to make it make it more realized. Is it realizable? Or is it not aware that wrote are the real costs in doing this and they may not be just in the component themselves, like a vertical winter, maybe all the other things and like, how, how much does it operate? Is it efficient? Can you can you scale it up all those different aspects and and that's what makes her approach a...

What happens when a hurricane rips through one of the off-shore wind farms soon to be built in the U.S.? Can wind farms actually obstruct, absorb and decrease the destruction of a hurricane, as some researcher say? The Carolinas to the Gulf of Mexico encompass a third of U.S. coastline, and so in this episode we discuss wind turbines and hurricanes, the engineering, what we've learned from oil rigs, and what the research says. Plus - we discuss the Orbital Marine O2 tidal turbine, a very cool and powerful tidal power generator just now being deployed in the North Sea. Watch this great video on the O2 here and watch today's podcast on YouTube here. ✅ Sign up for Uptime Tech news and get every new episode in your email inbox, along with more wind energy tech news from around the web. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! ✅ Subscribe now to Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. Can wind turbines withstand hurricanes? 0:00This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. At Weather Guard, we make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our StrikeTape retrofit LPS upgrade at the same time. A StrikeTape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward Thinking wind site owners install StrikeTape today to increase uptime tomorrow, learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. 0:37Welcome back. I'm Allen Hall. I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running. 0:57All right, welcome back to the uptime wind energy podcast. I'm your co host, Dan Blewett. On today's show, we're gonna talk a lot about our great oceans. First we're gonna start with not wind energy, but tidal power, the orbital otoo, which is the super cool title power generator, two megawatts just getting deployed now into the Orkney Islands. So we'll chat a little bit about that. And then we're gonna talk about offshore wind and and in respect to hurricane. So this is something that I was thinking about a lot recently did a bunch of research for today's show. Because as wind power continues to, you know, gain traction the US in the offshore market, you know, the US is a pretty favorable environment for typhoons. So, we'll talk today about a lot of the engineering challenges and just the unpredictable nature of installing offshore wind farms in the US, a lot of which might be in the way of Hurricane alley. So Alan, first let's start with the orbital oh two, we were just checking out this YouTube video of the launch of this thing. It's like the size of a 747. It looks super well built looks very cool. I'm pretty impressed by it. What's your take here, it is cool looking. It's enormous in size, it's hard to get a perspective on it until you because it's when you see it in the water, it doesn't have any scale. to balance it off of when you see it mounted to the shipping truck, or whatever you call the moving vehicle what all I know, it must be 100 wheels on this thing. It's it's massive. It's really, it's really massive. It's interesting, but isn't it? I know that there's been a lot of discussion about wave technology and some title stuff over the last 20 years have I ever can recall. But this scoring in a slightly different direction where it's purposely designed vehicle for a particular spot in the world, I think to think the tides there are pretty strong. In the in the just the movement of the water, there's pretty strong. And what do we say it was? How many megawatts? Was it going to be a peak power? Was it?

Matthew Stead, CEO of Ping Services, joined us to talk about the Ping Monitor, a device that attaches to the bottom of a wind turbine, listening to the sound of the blades as they rotate past. The Ping system compares the baseline sound to each pass of the turbine, and alerts wind farm operators when changes are detected. The Ping Monitor is so advanced, it can even differentiate and predict which types of damage have occurred--or are occurring--with high accuracy. Watch today's episode on YouTube here. Follow Ping on Linkedin here; Connect with Matthew on Linkedin Here; Visit them on the web here. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: Matthew Stead, on how the Ping Monitor Can Change Wind Turbine Blade Monitoring https://youtu.be/QtJ5bk4DLV8 Dan Blewett 0:00This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. At Weather Guard, we make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our StrikeTape retrofit LPS upgrade at the same time. A StrikeTape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic, long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward Thinking wind site owners install StrikeTape today to increase uptime tomorrow, learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. All right, welcome back to the uptime wind energy podcast. I'm your co host, Dan Blewett. On today's show, we've got a great guest, Matthew stead, CEO of ping services is here to talk about their ping monitor system. Allen, really interesting conversation with Matthew today, what were some of your takeaways from it? Allen Hall 1:15Well, ping monitor has a great audio recording system, basically data data analyzer system that just magnetically stick to the side of the wind turbine and takes really important data. So you know, if your wind turbine blades are having problems, it's the thing about this. And talking to Matthew is so fascinated, it seems like it's such an obvious solution. But no one's done it until we got to ping and it's it's a fascinating device. And it really interesting company. And if you own or operate wind turbines or repair wind turbines, this is a good a good one. Because not only do we get to see the technology, Matthew actually shows you all the innards of these of this ping monitor, but also describes how the system works. And that's what you need to know. Dan Blewett 2:02Yeah, it is a really cool system, because you think of you know, like drone technology is becoming ubiquitous, right? Like camera technology in general. All those things seem to be like the go to for assessing damage. And of course, they still are. But you know, so the ping monitor system, if you're unfamiliar, it's, it's a little dome about this, it looks like at about the size of a, like a fire alarm in your home. And a large part of that dome is just the windscreen. So it's preventing any excess noise just like you see on our microphones here, the the the foam pop filter, and so it listens to the wind turbine blades as they come through their cycle. Every time it goes whoosh, whoosh, it's, you know, it's listening to that sound creates a baseline. And then over time, it's comparing that baseline to the new normal. So if you're, you know, when Tim gets struck by lightning, if it has leading edge erosion a couple years later, it's gonna sound different. And as you'll hear in this in right, from the get go in the podcast, you know, they got the idea from that winter oven, technicians could hear the difference themselves. So again, we can tell like this, something's up with this blade. Like it sounds weird. And again, that's something that you hear in like the auto industry.

In this episode we discuss Vestas' recent press release about a partnership with resin manufacturer Olin, and their excitement over new technology to break down wind turbine blades into, essentially, their original materials. Is this possible? Plus, we chat about the recent approval of the Vineyard Wind Project in the United States and talk about SkySails and KiteMill kite power generation technology - is it a viable power source for the future? This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript EP61 - Vestas Blade Recycling; Vineyard Wind & Kite Powered Turbines? 0:00This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. At Weather Guard, we make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our StrikeTape retrofit LPs upgrade at the same time. A StrikeTape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward Thinking wind site owners install StrikeTape today to increase uptime tomorrow, learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. 0:37Welcome back. I'm Allen Hall. I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running. 0:57All right, welcome back to the uptime wind energy podcast. I'm your co host, Dan Blewett. On today's show, we're going to talk a little bit about the vineyard wind project just approved here. In the US we're going to chat about drainage hole cleaning and some of the lightning implications for drainage holes and the water that can be potentially kind of reservoir up inside of a blade. We'll talk about kite power, which is something obviously it's not. It's wind energy just have a different type. And we'll also talk a little bit about some new blade recycling tech just announced by Vestas. So, Alan, let's start with the vineyard wind project. So obviously, this was a big thing with the beide administration. And this got approved pretty quick. And it's going to bring a lot of offshore wind power to your neck of the woods. Yeah. And off the coast of Massachusetts and New York and all the eastern seaboard states is that if you've ever been out there, it's kind of windy, especially to get off shore a little bit this like constant wind. So it has been talked about for years, at least 10 years now about having some wind turbines offshore. 2:07Off coast, Massachusetts, because the winds are just good and stable. And it's it's finally happening, there's been a lot of resistance in the state about it, particularly 2:17from fishermen, from people own land on the along the ocean, I've been complaining about it for a long time. So to see it, at least start is a good sign. But until it's in, I kind of wonder if it's really going to happen. So it has a long way to go. I think before we get through all the little tiny details about the the site and what's going to happen and what's going to be installed and how it's going to be installed and what effect that it has on the local economies. And all those things haven't been settled yet. So there's still details to go through. But it's it's a good start. It is a good start, well, potentially up to 4000 megawatts of capacity. And the 800 megawatt of vineyard wind project is going to be a piece of that. But so it's a lot of wind power coming to the US. So it'll be interesting to see how just how fast that comes together. And 3:11like you said, some of the industrial changes that are going to have to happen in factories and all these jobs, they're going to come to fruition, they're up in the northeast, there's going to be a ton of new jobs and training going on.

Chris Cieslak, director and founder of BladeBUG, joined Allen and Dan to talk about his unique vision for robotic wind turbine repair. There are a handful of wind turbine maintenance, repair and inspection robots making a push toward ubiquity in the wind industry, but BladeBUG (follow them on linkedin here) has a design that is unique among all the others currently in use. The BladeBUG robot crawls using six independent legs--like an actual insect--with each leg utilizing its own vacuum system (video of it in action here) to remain stuck to the blade. Watch this episode on YouTube here. In this episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, we dive into Chris' current iteration of his BladeBUG robot, the technology and unique capabilities of it, and his overall vision for wind turbine operations and maintenance. The wind industry is without a doubt moving toward automated and robotic maintenance whenever possible, and we were excited to get his input as a founder of a growing tech startup in the space. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP60 - Chris Cieslak, Founder of BladeBUG, on Their Uniquely Capable Wind Turbine Maintenance Robot 0:00This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. At Weather Guard, we make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our StrikeTape retrofit LPS upgrade at the same time. A strike tape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward thinking wind site owners install StrikeTape today to increase uptime tomorrow, learn more in the show notes of today's podcast. 0:37Welcome back. I'm Allen Hall. I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running. 0:57All right, welcome back to the uptime wind energy podcast. I'm your co host, Dan Blewett. On today's show, we've got a great guest, Chris Cieslak of BladeBUG is here. And I'm also joined by my co host Allen Hall. Allen, how are you sir? Hey, great, Dan. Boy, Chris, brings a lot of information to the table during this episode. And it's really interesting to hear all the robot technology that they've been working on over in the UK. Yeah, so Chris is the founder of bladebug and a former blade design engineer with with Festus and some others. And so he's got a lot of a lot of technical know how about, you know, winter and blade design. And so when they went out to create a robotic solution, you know, he decided that, you know, a vacuum independent leg moving honestly, kind of like a crawling critter. That's why they're called BladeBUG; BladeBUG was their solution. It's a really interesting technology. And they can do a lot of things that some of the other robotics companies won't be able to. 1:54So yeah, I mean, just hearing him go into depth about some of their solutions, and the technology and the redundancy. And just, there's a lot of interesting things that go into such a high tech prototype, it is a very difficult event they're trying to do, right. So they're going to try to go out on physical and a blade, particularly offshore, and do all kinds of either measurements or repair procedures on a blade. That's a very difficult problem to try to solve. But I think they've taken several years to develop this technology. And I think that's one of the benefits to where they're at today is that they spent all the hard work and time evolving to the space they're at now into the robot they have now because without spending those years in development, you don't have a really qualified robot, in my opinion,

Thomas Schlegl, founder of Eologix sensor technology, sat down with us to talk about how their ice detection sensors increase wind turbine safety and allow for more efficient wind turbine management and production via automatic shutoffs and restarts. When turbines on a wind site start accumulating ice, local regulations may call for them to be shut down due to the fear of throwing ice, increased blade noise or other factors. With quality, direct detection, operators can have their turbines shut down and restarted automatically, saving the time and expense of maintenance crews to go perform the same job. Listen in as we talk through how the sensors work and how they're best deployed. Watch this episode on YouTube here. Follow up with Eologix via their website and on their company Linkedin page and connect with Thomas personally on Linkedin. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP59 - Eologix Ice Detection Sensor Technology with Thomas Schlegl Dan: This episode is brought to you by weather guard, lightening tech at weather guard, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator, stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our strike table lightening protection system. Learn more in today's show notes or visit weather guard, wind.com/strike tape. Welcome back. I am Alan Hall. I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. All right, welcome back to the uptime podcast. I'm your co-host Dan blew it. No Allen hall today, but we've got a great guest, uh, Dr. Thomas Schlegl. He's the founder. And managing director from Eologix and they are an ice detection sensor company, uh, with some really interesting IP. So we've talked about, uh, in subsequent episodes, you know, the whole Texas, uh, you know, ice disaster from January of 2021, and we've covered it from different angles. You know, we talked to, uh, Brian from elemental codings talk about some upcoming, you know, ice, um, ice shedding coatings that allow ice to sloth off a blade. A lot faster. We've talked to a laissez Hill. He had to co from Weiss tech with their, uh, blade heating technology. And so we've, we've gotten a good idea of like some of the different ways to keep ice off your blades. Um, but today they're, uh, their technology Eologix is about, uh, ice detection. And, you know, this is going to allow. Operators to automatically stop and start their turbines when it's, uh, you know, safety regulations tell them that they have to, and if they don't have a heating technology, that's going to be their solution rise to stop their blades. Uh, you know, wait till tomorrow warms up or the next day or whatever, and then get them operating again. Um, and that's going to make the most sense for a lot of climates and, and some wind farms. So illogic has, it has interesting technology. Um, there's a essentially, it's, it's almost like a big sticker. They can stick it on the blade. Um, you can put it on every turbine in your site or a handful depending, you know, just on, what's going to be best for it. And you could also put it on, uh, potentially, uh, turbines that are closer to say a, uh, you know, a residential area or a trail or somewhere where again, there might be more human safety concerns from throwing, you know, ice, getting thrown, uh, et cetera, et cetera. So. You know, one of the things that makes this tech pretty interesting is that it's not measuring just atmospheric conditions and sort of predicting or guessing, but it's actually directly measuring, uh, the ice accumulation on the blade.

Martin Huus Bjerge, CEO of Rope Robotics, joined us to talk about their BR-8 robot that currently is capable of repairing leading edges of wind turbine blades. WATCH ON YOUTUBE HERE. Rope Robotics got its start while Martin was working for Siemens Gamesa, and has since grown through various robot iterations and evolutions to the BR-8 model today, which has proven its technology in wet repair of turbine blade leading edges. Listen as he explains the origin of his company, how a great manager at Siemens helped incubate them in the early stages, and his vision for autonomous repair, wind technician jobs and collaboration within the industry. Check out their YouTube channel for more of the BR-8 robot in action. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript EP58 - Martin Huus Bjerge from Rope Robotics Dan: This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech at weather guard, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator, stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our strike table lightning protection system. Learn more in today's show notes or visit weather guard wind.com/strike tape. Allen: Welcome back Dan: I'm Allen Hall. I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running All right. Welcome back to the uptime podcast. I'm your co-host Dan Blewett on today's show. We've got a great guest Martin Huus Bjerge from Rope Robotics is here. He is going to talk about his company, his technology, as they are outward, repairing leading edges of winter and blades all over the world. So Allen really interesting discussion today with Martin. They are doing a lot of cool stuff with robotics, helping to get these leading edges cleaned up. Uh, what were some of your takeaways from today's talk? Allen: Well, Martin and robotics have evolved the robot technology over the last couple, like yours to be very efficient at removing old leaning edge protection, and then cleaning the blade and applying a much more resilient, uh, leading edge erosion surface to two blades. And that's taken several years of. Engineering time technology building two to come to the platform they have today. And that platform is really versatile. And I think that's the key to what rope robotics has done is that they have a technology that can be commanded from halfway around the world. Uh, so not only can I do the repairs and if I had all this data, it can also be commanded remotely. So it's just an extremely versatile tool. And I think that's the part I pulled out from Martin was. How good this technology is because right now we're repairing leading edges with a tech group technicians. That's what we're doing. And it's sort of a manual process and, and, and Martins company is going to make it a lot more Dan: automated. Yeah. So in today's talk, you'll hear a lot about the, the actual sort of nuts and bolts, I guess, quite literally the, the technology in the robot itself, how it works, how they apply their solution, all that sort of stuff. Uh, also about how the company found was founded, which is really interesting. So they were sort of incubated, uh, by Siemens, uh, cause Martin was a, um, a long time employee of Siemens. So he cut his teeth, learning about all the. All the ins and outs of a, of a big, uh, obviously wind energy company. And when he had this idea of brought to his management and they said, yeah, we actually support you. Um, you know, getting your company off the ground and, you know, doing some R and D and they were really, like I said,

The job of wind turbine technician, or wind tech, will continue to be very in-demand in the future. But what exactly does it entail, and what can job seekers expect down the road? In this episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, we discuss the future prospects for wind techs as the industry grows technology, safety equipment, and the turbines themselves, evolve. Read our in-depth article on wind turbine tech jobs here. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript - EP57 So You Want to Work As a Wind Tech? Outlook, Salaries, & Future of this Evolving Job Dan Blewett 0:00This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech. At weather guard, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator stop settling for damage turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our strike table lightning protection system. Learn more in today's show notes or visit weather guard wind calm slash strike tape. Allen Hall 0:28Welcome back. I'm Allen Hall. Dan Blewett 0:30I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running. Unknown Speaker 0:47Alright, welcome back to the uptime podcast. I'm your co host, Dan Blewett. On today's show, we're going to talk about wind turbine technician jobs and what the outlook like look what the outlook looks like for the future. So first, let's say hello to my co host, Allen Hall. How are you sir? Allen Hall 1:04Hey, good, Dan, Allen Hall 1:04boy coming out post COVID things are looking positive wind turbine industry is still rolling along. Good stuffs happening. Dan Blewett 1:12Yeah. So obviously, with the new presidential administration here in the US, you know, wind power is getting a big boost. And obviously, offshore wind especially is growing really, really fast all over the world. And when you start to look at the jobs outlook, you know, wind turbine technician is one of those really hot jobs at the moment. Because obviously, more and bigger wind farms are going up. And we need people with that expertise to help maintain them, you know, service them, repair them, inspect them, all that stuff. So Alan, let's start here today with a little bit of the job and how it's evolving. So obviously, you know, in the past, if you talked about, you know, what does a wind turbine tech do, you know, aside from, you know, climbing up, you know, through the tower up to the nwsl, doing all the, you know, the ground based checks, you know, monitoring, inspecting all the equipment, and then the cell itself, but there's also the rope access part of it, which is really hazardous. It's a pretty interesting job, because it's highly variable, depending on maybe your narrow focus, like you might be more into, like the hydraulic side of it, or the electrical side or the blade side. But that job is also going to evolve a lot. I mean, what do you see a wind turbine technician doing in the future as drones and robotics, and a lot of automation starts to take place? Yeah, I Allen Hall 2:34think what you're gonna see is more and more automation and computer interfacing with computers and electronics to run the turbines. And so not only do you have to and understand power electronics and and sort of power distribution, transformers, those kinds of things. You're also need to know how to program a programmable logic controller or PLC, you need to be able to dye diagnose digital equipment, network lines, that kind of stuff. So there's a lot of more computer technology and winter runs, and there has been in the past 20 years is becoming more and more of a data accumulator. And,

Jeff Grabner, managing director for wind at Technostrobe, joined us to share the story of those mysterious flashing red lights that we all have seen blinking atop wind turbines. These aviation obstruction lights--which are FAA mandated to keep aircraft safe--have a contentious history with local residents and are often brought up in town hall meetings where concerns are voiced about new wind projects. Companies like Technostrobe help reduce light pollution and allay residents' concerns, while still meeting FAA requirements for aircraft safety. Like all wind turbine parts, quite a lot of thought and engineering goes into making these lights are effective, powerful and efficient while also being as unobtrusive as possible to neighboring communities. Listen in as Jeff explains the technology behind Technostrobe's aviation obstruction lights, their unique LIDS system that dims them when weather conditions allow, and how the industry as a whole is moving to making living near a wind farm as easy as possible for local residents. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

Can you 3D print a wind turbine blade out of thermoplastic? Cole Nielsen and Amolak Badesha from Orbital Composites believe that YES - you can, and we need to start moving that direction as an industry. In this conversation about the future of wind turbine blade manufacturing, we discuss fiber placement, 3D printing, blade recycling, how cloud, robotic and IT technology can change everything, and the need for mobile manufacturing as automation becomes more important for long-term financial viability of wind farms. Watch this episode on YouTube here, and Follow up with them at 🚀OrbitalComposites.com, 🌌Add Cole Nielsen on Linkedin and 🌎Add Amolak Badesha on Linkedin. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

In this episode, we discuss Orsted's new 518MW wind farm plans, the Biden administration's proposal to put 30GW of wind energy in the ocean off of New Jersey, a Chinese company's plans to connect floating wind turbines with seabed offshore turbines, plus offshore inspection drones in both seagoing and aircraft versions. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript - EP54: Orsted's Wind and Solar Plans; Biden Administration Pledges 30GW plus Autonomous Offshore Inspection Drones? this episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at weather guard we make wind turbine lightning protection easy if you're a wind farm operator stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime get your uptime back with our strike tape lightning protection system learn more in today's show notes or visit weatherguardwind.com striketape welcome back i'm Allen Hall. I'm Dan Blewett and this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running all right welcome back to the uptime podcast i'm your co-host Dan Blewett on today's show we're going to talk about a new new plans for a GE uh wind turbine blade manufacturing plant we're going to talk about the bite administration and their plans they've got some ambitious ideas to get 30 gigawatts of power into offshore wind by 2030. talk about a uh orsted project that's really interesting it's a hybrid 518 megawatt project that's combining wind turbines and solar some interesting technology being used in china connecting a fixed bottom offshore wind turbine with a floating wind turbine of course they're also installing their first one their first floating turbine there and lastly we'll talk about some interesting technology about drone swarms both by land or i'm sorry by sea and by air so Allen first how are you sir great dan how are you i'm doing well a lot of travel last week but we're back it's exciting um we've got ge offshore uh well not offshore but uh they're creating a new plant for lm wind power to manufacture their 107 meter long blades for the halle 8x course 107 meters is second best now because they have 108 meter blades you know it seems mesa and of course vestas it's it's so funny they're all just going to add like six inches to each blade but um this is up in t side which is uh that's pretty close to scotland isn't it alan it's way up north in england on the sort of the north sea coast on the on the eastern coast of northern england yeah which is getting to be the norm lately dan is that as these wind turbines get bigger and bigger and bigger and require uh ships to move them around and offshore obviously offshore is going to be the biggest growing marketplace then a lot of facilities that are located near the shoreline are going to be big opportunities a lot of towns that may not have seen that sort of industry in a while uh in terms of large industrial growth industries like that like wind turbines will be are going to see a boon right it's going to employ hundreds or thousands of people uh to make wind turbine blades that big and to get them on ships and to get them where they got to go that takes a seaport town so it's it's is fascinating that we're seeing um this sort of sort of growth along the shorelines that we hadn't seen in a long time yeah don't you think it's gonna be a big big business there right along the coastline yeah i mean you could by i mean potentially in the future see whole towns i mean be built around these industries just like ship building yards you know i mean with uh you know we're gonna talk about the buying administration trying to put you know 30 gigawatts of offshore wind in the us and the new jersey ar...

Can wind turbine blade anti-icing coatings help prevent downtime and power loss? Brian Huskinson, CEO of Elemental Coatings, says yes. In this episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, Brian explains how Elemental's anti-ice coatings help increase the speed at which a blade can shed accumulated ice, where it will make sense for wind farm operators to apply it, expected durability, the underlying technology, safety and non-slip applications and more. Watch this episode on YouTube here. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript - Brian Huskinson, CEO of Elemental Coatings on Wind Turbine Blade Anti-Icing Coatings Welcome back i'm Allen Hall; I'm Dan Blewett and this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running all right welcome back to the uptime podcast i'm your co-host dan blewett and i am joined here by my other co-host or did you say other co-host your host Allen how do we do this Allen how are you good good interesting guest this week huh yeah so Brian Huskinson is here with us today he is the CEO of Elemental Coatings, a Houston based company and let me run down a little bit about about Brian's background he's uh an impressive guy um Harvard educated also has his Ph.d in Materials Science from Harvard where he did a lot of research on grid scale energy storage so at the very end of this podcast definitely stick around we talk about some of that and some of the research he's done and talk a little bit about the the grid scale energy storage after college he went to work for McKinsey and company the legendary consulting firm worked for them for five years and today he is the CEO of Elemental Coatings uh which was founded back in 2018 and they're really getting moving on this anti-icing coating that has applications in wind energy in aerospace i mean in slip and fall like all sorts of safety issues uh you know this coating can help because it helps ice uh shed quickly where it'll fracture and sort of slide off and you can you know get rid of it and get on your way so alan what were some of your takeaways from our conversation with Brian well Brian's company has very very interesting technology because of the way that they de-iced uh structures surfaces it's not the typical uh sort of hydrophobic things you see at home depot it's a lot more technology into it and it has a lot more applications so it can be used in aerospace it can be used in on wind turbines it can be used on homes uh so the the applications are are nearly endless but Brian's company has really positioned themselves i i think uh to to be uh going into wind turbines and to apply the coating to a winter blade to help keep ice off the wind turbine blades would be huge particularly in the united states and the midwest of the united states where a lot of wind turbine blades don't have ice de-icing technology this coating can be added secondarily on an existing blade and help keep the ice off the blades that's huge yeah and obviously since the the texas power outage disaster back in uh i guess was it january now i'm losing track of time february february earl earlier this year in 2021 you know we we wanted to have some different experts with potentially different solutions to what might be done about this because it's not clear uh you know we had la say yet to go from WICETEC out of finland and they supply blade heating technology right so that was one you know bona fide solution and then uh Brian with Elemental Coatings this is a solution that maybe makes sense for those where you know the expense of blade heating isn't isn't going to add up because it's not going to be right for every and there might be potential where...

Germany built the world's tallest wind turbine, which features a unique design--a combination of water tower and turbine. We dive into the Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy B108 blades, which are the largest ever produced, and discuss some of the technology involved in protecting the leading edges and blade tips from lightning. Also on the docket are vertical axis wind turbines being installed on the O2 arena in London, and a review of global wind power commissions from 2020. Watch this episode on YouTube here. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! EP52 Transcript - World's Tallest Turbine; SG B108 Blades; Digisec Bird Deterrent System & More this episode is brought to you by weatherguard lightning tech at weatherguard we make wind turbine lightning protection easy if you're a wind farm operator stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime get your uptime back with our strike tape lightning protection system learn more in today's show notes or visit weatherguardwind.com striketape welcome back i'm alan hall i'm dan blewitt and this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running all right welcome back to the uptime podcast i'm your co-host Dan Blewett on today's show we've got a bunch of interesting trends from the news world this week number one uh the world's tallest turbine was built in germany so we'll talk a little bit about the engineering there um offshore blades are getting bigger we're going to talk a little bit about the Siemens Gamesa or about Siemens Gamesa's new 108 meter blade which has a couple interesting features that we want to talk through we'll talk about global wind turbine commissioning which was actually up by 59 in 2020 which is pretty crazy considering we had a pandemic it was a insane year for everyone in every industry but apparently wind energy did pretty well we'll also talk about a really interesting bird deterrent system from Digisec some interesting vertical axis wind turbines potentially being installed at the o2 arena in london and a couple other little items so al let's start with germany and this incredibly tall wind turbine so max bogle wind ag has installed the world's tallest turbine in stuttgart germany hub height of 178 meters total height of 246.5 meters that's really tall that's really tall yeah gosh hey get this out of my backyard like what are you guys doing it's really tall uh but the technology is sort of a combo between wind energy and and water storage like a water storage battery where the bottom of the wind turbine is actually a water tower so they're pumping water into this tower and then when they need energy they pump it out and create electricity so it's like a water storage battery which therefore increase the heights of the turbine so that the germans are they're ge turbines right they're ge turbines like three megawatt turbines on top of the this water tower structure which is a very interesting concept because you're kind of combining two technologies into one and and trying to utilize the best best out of both of them uh it just gotta wonder what the the mechanical stress loading is on something that tall which is being pumped full of water and then drained of water all the time you kind of think that's a really significant engineering project to accomplish i'm surprised that they could pull it off because this i haven't seen this anywhere else have you seen this anywhere else it's common this is the first one but it's interesting kind of in the same vein as the offshore platforms where they have you know there's a offshore wind turbine and then they have aquaculture lab like they've been talking about all these different ways to combine stuff right it seems like the sa...

Lasse Hietikko, Business Development manager at WICETEC, joined us to talk about the big problem of wind turbine blade icing, and how their WIPS wind turbine blade heating systems can prevent it. In Texas, the lack of foresight for potential freezing conditions led to disaster, causing wind power to come to a halt with ice-covered turbines. ✅Learn more about WICETEC and their WIPS technology here. 🖐Connect with Lasse on Linkedin here. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  TRANSCRIPT: EP51 - Wind Turbine Blade Heating - How Does it Work? with Lasse Hietikko of WICETEC https://youtu.be/3tSSjat2QnY welcome back to the uptime podcast i am your co-host Dan Blewett no Allen hall on the show today but we've got a great guest Lasse Hietikko from WICETEC is here and he's going to talk to us about blade heating technology so obviously we were looking for someone for the show to talk about you know some of the issues that happened in texas right obviously terrible disaster with you know all forms of electrical energy of electricity going out in texas obviously wind uh turbines were a part of the problem right they iced they had winterization issues they froze and uh they lost power so we want to have someone come in who actually has a solution to this so Lasse is the business development manager for WICETEC and WICETEC is a Helsinki Finland based company and what they do is they have blade heating technology so it's essentially a carbon fiber mat that they lay on the leading edge that has you know resistive heating similar to what's in the rear view windshield of your car where they'll kick on when temperatures when you know the sensors on the turbine say hey this is a icing condition you know those will kick on and they'll prevent ice from forming on the basically two-thirds of the blade the most important aerodynamic region so not the root but the outer two thirds almost all the way up to the to the very tip so it's really interesting um the fact that this is a it's been out there this is not new technology um and he as he he speaks to that this is something developed in the 90s and they have the IP this at WICETEC but it just isn't always deployed in all these new sites so a lot of it's done in the factory they do a lot of installations in the factory and they're just now getting into retrofits which is obviously going to be of of significant interest now that we've had this texas disaster we've seen the damage it can do um if uh you know winterization is a problem and you get one of these sort of black swan event kind of uh winter storms so you know Lasse has a uh he's a masters in mechanical engineering from what is now Aalto university in in Finland um and you know he's an expert on on this technology on blade heating on the economics of it and whether it's going to make sense for either a new win site in development because this probably does need to be part of the discussion going forward right hey are we going to have icing issues and also companies that are having you know wind turbine issues with icing with winterization they're getting more and more calls daily now because of obviously people don't want this to happen on their site so we're really excited to have Lasse here so without further ado we're going to jump into our conversation with Lasse Hietikko from WICETEC in Finland so Lasse thank you so much for joining us on the podcast really appreciate it good to have you thank you very much for uh inviting it's really nice to be in here yeah so obviously there was a really big incident in texas here in the us and so we're you know looking of you know who are the experts in this field and you know with wind turbine blade icing and de-icing and trying to keep th...

Henrik Lund-Nielsen, founder and General Manager of COBOD International joined us to talk about their company's 3D printing construction technology, and specifically how it might be used in the future to help wind turbines grow taller. GE is in partnership with COBOD, developing the project knowledge to print their own concrete wind turbine bases that can help extend their on-shore turbines. Watch the YouTube version of this podcast here. COBOD has partnered with Peri, a company specializing in construction and formwork, and LafargeHolcim, a leader in cement and materials, helping it rapidly improving its technology and print bigger structures, faster. In this talk we discuss the implications of 3D printed concrete in on-shore applications, off-shore applications, how it can help worker conditions, reduce tariffs and import barriers, as well as get younger generations of construction workers interested in the field. Check out COBOD's YouTube channel for more videos on their 3D printing. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP50 - 3D Printed Wind Turbine Bases: Are They The Future? with COBOD Founder Henrik Lund-Nielsen Dan Blewett: This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at weather guard, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator, stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our StrikeTape lightning protection system. Learn more in today's show notes or visit weatherguardwind.com/strike tape. Welcome back I'm Allen Hall. I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. welcome back to the uptime podcast. I'm your cohost, Dan Blewett on today's show. We have a great guest. Henrik Lund-Nielsen is here. He is the founder and general manager of COBOD International. So let's first talk about, uh, the company a little bit. So COBOD is a really interesting, uh, it's a, it's a disruptive 3d construction printing company. So they're creating the technology, the 3d printers themselves to do concrete, 3d printing, which is currently being used for, uh, interest in the general construction sector, building, uh, houses. They built a two story apartment building. Um, so they're capable of building all sorts of structures. There also, this is one of the big things we'll talk about today, uh, in the wind industry building a wind turbine basis so they can build a wider base, uh, onsite that is going to allow wind turbines to get significantly taller because they have that wider base. So that's currently a bottleneck in the construction process of on shore wind. So. It's a really interesting solution COBOD as partnering with GE on the, uh, the winter and base project. Uh, they're also partners with, uh, Lefarge for, which is the largest concrete manufacturer in the world, uh, for their different, um, types of concrete, because it has to be a flowable, um, you know, high strength, like. There's a lot of really interesting things that we'll, we'll talk about today in the show. Um, a lot of interesting aspects to the concrete material itself. You can't just take something off the shelf, uh, from your local hardware store and expect that to work. Um, so there's a lot of high-tech stuff, not just the 3d printer technology itself, but also the materials, like I said, the concrete and the additives to them. And then, uh, you know, just what different types of projects can, can they complete and the architecture of all those really, really fascinating. All right. So a little bit more about our guest today. Henrik Lund-Nielsen.

The power outage disaster in Texas in February of 2021 proved to be a calamity with multiple variables to blame and countless fingers to point. But with many conservatives claiming wind power a failure...is this really so? What could have prevented it? Is there technology to winterize wind turbines? In other news, South Korea and Spain both announced big wind farms in the works, and Dan and Allen also discuss natural composite nacelles made by Greenboats, de-icing technology, wooden wind turbine towers backed by Vestas, and broken down conductors. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EP49 - Did Wind Power Actually Fail Texas? Can Turbines Work in Cold Weather? Plus, Big Off-Shore News welcome back i'm Allen hall i'm Dan Blewett and this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running all right welcome back to the uptime podcast i'm your co-host Dan Blewett our fearless host Allen hall is back with us today so excited to have him here and in today's episode we got a pretty wide range of guitars obviously one of the big ones that we'll cover at the end is what happened in texas right really big news wind turbines uh very much in the spotlight uh but before we get there we're going to talk about Iberdrola building a pretty or potentially building a pretty big uh wind floating wind farm off of the coast of spain south korea on track to build the world's biggest offshore wind farm um vestas investing in some wood tower technology we'll also talk about down conductors there's been some issues with some breakages we've kind of been peeking at on linkedin and we'll also talk about a couple of composite upgrades to both blades and the cells and lastly we'll circle back to the texas uh power nightmare that really uh took over the country by well took over the press cycle in the us recently so Allen welcome back glad to have you back on the show first and foremost yeah good to be back so let's start with uh with Iberdrola so obviously floating wind we talked about that a bunch it's starting to pick up um speed right there's more and more of these popping up and that's a good thing long term because now they're going to be able to hey we've got more data more of these out there bobbing in the ocean like cauliflower right and so some you know see how well they work because they're obviously seems like pretty well proven but not nearly as proven as other means of uh offshore wind right the off the offshore part is interesting in the sense that uh we're not really limited on the size of turbines right so the growth of wind turbines in terms of output size going to the 20 megawatt plus is going to happen offshore and the capability to have literally gigawatts of power generated offshore is is really right on the precipice of that so there's so much technology and energy being pumped into offshore wind right now and that's where the growth is going to occur in that offshore wind sector we're going to see a lot of great engineering changes and engineering improvements and just attacking a problem which is really difficult which is as these turbines get bigger and bigger and bigger how are you going to handle the loads how you're going to be able to distribute the amount of energy coming off them what are the failure modes look like how you're going to be able to service them there's a lot of engineering problems that come along with it so it it will be the next two to three years is going to be really exciting in terms of the growth of the wind turbine industry yeah so this is these 300 megawatts of power which is going to come with an investment over over a billion euros as spearheading what the company says will be up to 2 000 megawatts in new developments ...

Paul Dawson, VP of Business Development from EOCYCLE, joined us to talk about the distributed wind sector of the market. Small wind turbines have a large market, with studies identifying 49 million potential sites that could benefit from and support a turbine. EOCYCLE has two models that are fit the power needs of small businesses, with a specific focus on farmers who can benefit from generating their own electricity and reducing or eliminating dependence on the grid. Learn more about distributed wind and EOCYCLE's technology on their website, Linkedin page, Facebook page or YouTube channel. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript - EP48 Paul Dawson from EOCYCLE on the Future of Distributed Wind Dan Blewett: [00:00:00] This episode is brought to you by weather guard lightning tech at weather guard, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator, stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our strike table lightening protection system. Learn more in today's show notes or visit weather guardwind.com/strike tape. Welcome back. I'm Allen hall. I'm Dan Blewett and this is the Uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. welcome back to the uptime podcast. I'm your co-host Dan Blewett. No Allen Hall today, he'll be back with us in a couple of weeks, but we have a great guest today. Paul Dawson vice president of business development from EOcycle. It we'll be here with, uh, with us for a great conversation. So our talk today is about distributed wind. EOcycle is a distributed wind company. They sell their flagship, uh, wind turbine is the EO25, a 25 kilowatt model. That can provide power for about 10 to 15 homes, but they're not really in the residential market. They're really in the small business market, specifically targeting lots of farms in the Midwest and in other areas where a small wind turbine is going to work. So distributed wind is an interesting segment of, uh, the wind energy market. We want to talk to someone about us. We could get a feel for. You know, the, the, the smaller space that GE and Siemens Gamesa investors really aren't paying much attention to. So, you know, if you, if you float around social media, uh, Twitter, YouTube, you'll see lots of really interesting designs, uh, whether it's these traffic vertical turbines, which is a new prototype out of Turkey or any of these little things where we're trying to capture excess energy, you know, wave a wave is a thing, right? We're trying to find ways to squeeze more energy out of the world, essentially in so small wind is sort of like mid rain solution for that, right? It's not this tiny thing that's going to do one kilowatt a year. It's, it's a pretty significant solution for small businesses. Um, and farms is, is one of their main target markets. So Paul is a, a wind energy lifer. He's been in the industry for the past 15 years. Uh, currently again with EOcycle as vice president of business development. But he's also worked for, uh, switching gears. Uh, he was the director of business development and sales for Northern power systems. And he was also the global sales manager of energy systems to name a few, so really great conversation. And I think you're really gonna enjoy it on distributed wind. So without further ado, let's jump to our conversation with Paul Dawson. So thanks for joining us on the show. I really appreciate it. Great to be here. So let's jump right into it. Uh, you know, EOcycle, I kind of mentioned this on our last podcast. I think the distributed wind sector is really interesting.

What's exciting in 2021? What trends and new technology will continue to grow? What innovations should we look forward to? In this roundup episode, Dan discusses a few of his projected trends and interesting pieces of tech in 2021, and what to expect from it going forward. We also discuss the Vestas V236 15MW wind turbine and it's crazy new stats. Check out traffic-powered wind power here. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

The IT and cybersecurity experts from Teknologize sat down with us to discuss the needs of both modern and aging wind farms. Byron Martin, CEO and Daniel Morgan, CTO, discussed the major problem of upgrading older software systems to modern standards and the myriad problems and challenges involved. With a projected 20-year lifespan, a wind site will see massive changes in technology and infrastructure needs over that span of time and will need to see their systems upgraded numerous times. Cybersecurity is also a major concern with the recent Solarwinds breech, and Byron and Dan share their insights on what companies need to implement going forward. Reach out to Byron and Dan at Teknologize through their website, social media, and check out their YouTube channel. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 

Vestas V150 wind turbines have had failures and blade quality control issues lately, and we chat about what this means for the company, including their recent shut down of 150 wind turbines with suspected quality control issues. We also discus blade transport physics - how in the world do some of these massive blades not tip trucks over as they're hauled through the mountains pointing into the sky at a 45 degree angle?! This and more on this week's Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP45 Vestas V150 Blade Problems Plus the Physics of Blade Transport I'm Dan Blewett and this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. welcome back to the uptime podcast. On today's episode, we're going to get down the rabbit hole on. Vestas a V one 50 blades. They've had to stop 150 turbines. They've had some quality control issues where a chat through some of that. We're also going to talk more about the logistics of blade transport. Some really interesting photos have come out recently of a blade, pitched up in the air at about a 45 degree angle. It seems, uh, not only gravity to find, but just, it almost seems like they're fake. So we're going to chat a little more about that, even though we've talked some about that in the past and our tech segment, we're gonna talk about floating hydrogen. There's, uh, a generation plant concept for out in the middle of the ocean. And it's got some interesting, uh, some interesting ideas there. And then lastly, we're talking more about checklists, which we've also covered in the past. Um, a man wrote a great article about. Checklists as far as a drone safety and all this other stuff. And we'll talk about how that can apply to other areas in the industry. So, Alan, uh, let's, let's first talk about blade transport. So some of these photos, um, floating around the web or blowing people's minds, they, it, it legitimately blows my mind as well. I mean, in this blade, it's, it's a two piece blade and you can see like the root of it is, you know, bolted to this special truck and the truck can't be more than. 40 feet long, I guess. And the blade itself, this, this half of the blade is probably what 50 meters. You know, this is probably a hundred meter blade. And it's just pitched up in the air at about, uh, maybe a 30, 40 degree angle. How did the, how does the physics work on this? Well, they didn't have to have lot, a lot of weight in the bottom, which the blade does and at the top slider than the bottom, and otherwise this thing would tip over, but essentially they got to try to keep the center of. Of gravity of that blade somewhere between the wheels on the trailer. Otherwise the whole thing is toppling over. So it's gotta be a very slow rising tilting process. And then combined with , he's a center of gravity. So you're kind of raised in the center of gravity up and you think of it that way. And if you've ever. Um, had something in that back of a pickup truck that was really top heavy and it wants to tip over all the time. This is just like that scenario where you you've raised this mass way up in the air and you don't want it to go left to, right. Because it's going to take every, it's just, it'll flip over the truck and everything's going to be totaled anywhere around it. So it's a little bit of complicated process. I always, when we see these images of where they've tilted the blades up in the air, I think that's a very European thing to do because in America there's. There's power lines and telephone lines on poles everywhere in America. So it's free, pretty hard to do that. I think,

Nicholas Gaudern, CTO of Power Curve, joined the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast to discuss his company's performance upgrades for wind turbines. After analyzing a blade using a laser scan, Power Curve recommends an ideal placement of either vortex generators, gurney flaps, trailing edge serrations (or a combination of all three). Mr. Gaudern shares his view of the performance upgrade market and where he sees the industry going as wind farm operators fight to increase Annual Energy Production (AEP) and prevent performance degradation over time from leading edge erosion, dirt, blade misalignment and more. Check out their YouTube channel for more. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EP44 - Nicholas Gaudern, CTO of Power Curve, Explains Blade Aerodynamics & Power Curve Upgrades Welcome back to the uptime podcast. I'm your co-host Dan Blewett on today's episode. We have a great guest. NicholasGaudern,  CTO of Power Curve is here. And we had a really fantastic conversation, all about a wind turbine, power curve, upgrades, blade, aerodynamics, all that good stuff. So, Allen, I'll kick this off to you. What were some of your takeaways from our conversation with Nick? Well, I was shocked. Allen Hall: [00:01:08] And how much performance improvement that a power curve can offer to existing blaze that that even have damage to them. So leading edge erosion damage, uh, hail, whatever, they can basically eliminate the, the additional dragon power curve loss by the addition. Of, uh, vortex generators, gurney flaps, um, and bring back that power and make the blade somewhat insensitive to a lot of the dirt and contamination and issues that happen typically on winter. Dan: [00:01:41] Yeah, it was a really interesting conversation. I think it, uh, I think it really demystified. A lot of the air dynamics stuff, especially which can get pretty complex, uh, regarding, you know, air flow over wind turbine blades. And it's not a Allen Hall: [00:01:52] one stop fix. They are tailoring the aerodynamic improvements and modifications to the sites particular. A wind turbine manufacturer and blade style, and what would be happening on those blades at this particular moment? So it's, it's not, VGs everywhere. It is selective use of the proper solution to improve those particular turbines. And they go through this comparative phase where they upgrade. One turbine next to another turbine and show that the power curve increase, the AEP has gone up and they can actually monitor that. So they're there, they're proven their technology onsite before they implement it on a, on a larger scale, on a particular site, which is the right way to do it. Show that it works, demonstrate its durability. And then when we. Cross that threshold. Now we can do the rest of the Germans and bringing our whole site up in terms of AEP. It's still it's the right way to go. Dan: [00:02:48] So without further ado, let's kick it off to our conversation with Nicholas Gaudern, CTO from Power Curve. All right, Nick. Uh, thanks so much for joining us. We really appreciate you coming. Yeah, you're very welcome. Nice to speak to you guys. So obviously today we're gonna talk a ton about power curve and blade aerodynamics and all that stuff. Um, but first I want to talk about, you know, when blades roll off the factory floor. Um, you know, obviously the air dynamics are as good as they're ever going to be. And then after that, you know, with wear and tear and the accumulation of dust and dirt, and just all those things that, you know, happen over time, you know, the performance will begin to degrade. Um, so one of the lesser known things that we've chatted a little bit about with other guests on the show, um, is dirt buildup. So. Uh,

Angela Krcmar, Global Sales Manager for Firetrace International, joined us on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast to discuss the relatively unknown danger of wind turbine fires. A fire occurs in 1 out of every 2000 wind turbines, on average, and with the cost and size of these machines rapidly increasing, the need for fire suppression systems is growing. Ms. Krcmar has recently written a pair of articles on wind turbine fires: The Burning Issue of Wind Turbine Fires (Powerengineeringint.com) andThe True Cost of Wind Turbine Fires & Protection (windpowerengineering.com). This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP43 - Angela Krcmar of Firetrace on Fire Suppression Systems for Wind Turbines All right welcome back to the uptime podcasters episode 43 and on today's episode we've got a great guest Angela Krcmar from Firetrace is here and she's going to talk to us all about fire suppression technology in wind turbine cells well and just in wind turbines in general so alan is a great conversation with Angela what were some of your takeaways from it well i didn't realize the number of fires that were happening in wind turbines it's a lot more than you think just because it's hard to keep track of their random events and so you just don't see them all the time but fire traces suppression systems are amazingly one simple and effective and and so as you as i essentially was describing how the system worked and how it was laid out and how it didn't affect electronics afterwards and it didn't infect any employees that were could have been in the area at the time the fire had started and suppression system kicked off you realize like this system is really well thought out and effective and it's surprising that it's not used in many more places than it is today and so the the hope is that as fire suppression becomes standard and wind turbines as we go forward because it's just one of those systems you really don't want to do without yeah well and we've talked at different points uh about insurance claims and force major and all these different aspects of owning and operating a wind turbine and as they get uh bigger and more expensive and especially as they're located way offshore it's just really hard and this is one of the kind of not funny but you know she's just talked about hey if you don't have a fire suppression system or if you have a assistant that alerts you but doesn't actually put it out you're just going to get a notification that your turban is going to burn to the ground it's just like you're just not going to be able to get there and do anything about it it's just going to burn out of control if it gets to that point which is crazy to think about because these machines are so expensive so it was really interesting to hear just about the solutions the way they've evolved um how it is pretty friendly because like you said if you sort of think of some of these uh retardant foam situations where they're just like filling a room full of foam but that's not what they do at all they do something that's way cleaner and simpler and and uh safer than that so it was a really interesting conversation well i think as you as you listen to the episode you realize that fire safety is just one of those aspects that we need to be implementing and i hope that a lot of operators around the world hear this and can reach out to fire trace and understand how that system works and how it can be used on their particular site all right so again our guest today is Angela Krcmar she is a global sales manager at fire trace international she's been with the company 12 plus years she's pre previously a senior business development manager and uh she just has a ton of expertise we read a couple of her ...

Dainis Kruze from Aerones joined us to talk about their unique robotic technology that today is servicing, cleaning, repairing and inspecting wind turbines all over the world. Aerones' robots originated from their time at Y Combinator, working on drone technology that they later pivoted to working on robotics. In this fascinating talk, Dainis addresses the company's incubation in Y Combinator and lessons learned there, why they pivoted away from drones, how they tackle wind turbine maintenance problems, and how they're focused on solving problems in new, more time-efficient ways. Visit their YouTube channel here. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EP42 - Dainis Kruze from Aerones on the Future of Wind Turbine Maintenance & Cleaning Welcome back I'm Allen hall. I'm Dan Blewett and this is the up-time podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running.All right, welcome back to the uptime podcast. We've got a great guest today. Dainis Kruze is here from Aerones. Allen, what were some of your takeaways from our call with Dainis? Well, Dainis says bringing his robot technology. It's, it's not drone technologists, sort of a tethered robot technology, uh, to the world, uh, to do a variety of tasks that were.Typically done with, uh, people on ropes from, uh, measuring the lightning protection system, uh, resistance measurements to cleaning out drain holes, to, uh, repairing leading edges and detecting structural issue with blades, uh, his robotic platform and own. Robotic platform is doing, uh, astounding things and very quickly and efficiently.So it's just like a new frontier of robotic technology that they're bringing forward. Yeah. So without further ado, let's jump to our conversation with Dainis crews from Aerones.Yeah. So a first, first line of business here, and we were just talking about this off cameras. Uh, I really want to hear about your experience with going through Y Combinator. So as a, as a company and as a, I mean, all three of us are entrepreneurs in this conversation. Um, Y Combinator is, uh, is a, is a very wide, widely regarded, um, you know, startup incubator.So can you tell us a little bit about how your company got started, you know, with you and your co-founder and, um, how you've gotten to, uh, we're going to go all the way through your story in general, but tell us about the origins of Arizonans. Yeah. So me and the honest, we know each other since we were 18.Uh, so, uh, we were studying together physics and mathematics, computer science, and that's actually where we met and where we built our first startup. We were. We we built, uh, GPS devices, uh, and the platform, uh, we put the GPS devices on the wheels. So the owners of the wheels could see where the weak links are like for the companies basically business the business.So this is how we started, uh, and that company has actually grown, uh, to several other projects, IOT projects, uh, it's called intelligence systems. Uh it's it's it's yeah. Latin company. So, um, yeah, and like five years ago, Uh, is, uh, uh, exited the company and, uh, and, and like a year later came back and said, Hey, I have a new group.Great idea. Let's build a heavy lift drones. Uh, there are a lot of helicopters. There are planes, there are lots of small drones, but nothing in between. Let's let's build heavy withdrawns, which can do it. Some kind of a job. So it kind of started as a fashion and kind of, uh, we didn't have, you know, like, like the nice business stories where you see the problem and then you start to build the solution.We started to build these drones, uh, but. Uh, during the development. And, uh, we did a lot of different kinds of trials, like human rescue, firefighting, drones, um, and,

Michael Johansen of Anemo Analytics joined us to talk about his company's work analyzing and optimizing wind turbine power curves. He shared insight into how data analytics can be used to drastically shorten the time and manpower needed to make major improvements to a wind turbine's output. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP41 Michael Johansen of Anemo Analytics welcome back to the uptime podcast. Uh, we have a really great guest today. Michael Johansen from Anemo Analytics is going to be joining us. And Allen, what were some of your takeaways from our call with Mr. Johansen? Well, Michael has, uh, a series of really great innovations that technology on monitoring of wind turbines, and then using that data to do some predictive analysis and also, uh, Determine where when terms are not operating at their peak efficiency, uh, which is, uh, a very unique set of skills that, uh, in today's world is really becoming more and more valuable.As we try to drive the efficiency of wind turbines towards the optimum. It's going to take the, the knowledge base that, that Michael has in his company has to push everybody forward. So this is a really. Fascinating technical and sort of business-related, uh, discussion. Yeah. To hear him talk about going from a long time, Siemens, uh, employee, uh, and finally, you know, taking that leap of faith and going out on his own and starting his own company.And now how he works alongside some of these really big companies in a very complimentary way, which is, which is interesting because as you and I have discussed sometimes. The big companies just want to snuff out the small ones. Right. But, uh, he's found a really interesting way of just working alongside them and helping to sometimes internally train their employees. And, and it seems like he's married, uh, what he does really well at his company with a lot of what these bigger companies do, skill set is really unique that, uh, it's one of those skill sets that are going to be a larger company wouldn't want to have on hand. Uh, just because he's. Deep diving into data, a lot of data, and then doing MSI predictive analysis of where, uh, energies leaking from.Uh, so obviously working at a large wind turbine manufacturer, you get all the play with all the toys and all the cool stuff. Um, but it also kind of ties you into having a nine to five. Kind of job where you have to be there Monday through Friday, and you don't necessarily have some of the freedom you have of running your own company and sort of doing your own thing.And, and Michael's taken that initiative and moved on to his, to his own own business. And there's as much, it's very similar to ours from the, from the sounds of it. And the, the really key point I. Pull out of all that is, is for his company to be able to offices resources to the world and to work for a variety of different, a wind turbine manufacturers and wind turbine operators and provide his knowledge set to a lot of different places, because that's what it's going to take to really, to make the wind turbine industry at its maximum production.It's going to take a lot of good ideas from a lot of different places, working very hard to, to make wind as, uh, profitable as we know it can be. Yeah. So without further ado, we're going to take you to our interview with Michael Johansen of Anemo Analytics.I, I want to talk, uh, uh, kind of circle back and talk a little bit about your business and why you started your company. So you have had a ton of experience working for Siemens Gamesa. And at some point you decided that, Hey, I, I think, and I want to do this on my own. Can you tell us about your experience in the wind industry prior to this prior to starting your company a...

What kind of technology is behind the new GE Cypress 6MW wind turbine? How will Orsted's new onshore partnership with Siemens Gamesa pan out? Allen and Dan also discuss the potential of 3D printing for blade prototypes and new technologies, as the ORE Catapult invests in the technology. And, does ocean acidity cause more lightning strikes? Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP40 - The New GE Cypress 6MW Wind Turbine; Orsted Partners with SGRE on Onshore, 3D Printed Blade Prototypes This episode is brought to you by weather guard, lightening tech at weather guard, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator, stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our strike table lightening protection system. Learn more in today's show notes or visit weather guard, wind.com/strike tape and blew it. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightening protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. all right. Welcome back to the uptime podcast. This is episode 40 and on today's episode, we're going to talk about a recent, uh, article in wind systems mag that featured weather guard, lightening tech. So cool, little quick hit there. Some news on the Nobles to wind farm. Uh, Siemens Gamesa now partnering with Orstad on their first onshore project, which is, uh, really commercially interesting. Um, some. Interesting topics out of Australia. One of their coal plants, um, has been essentially written down as worthless. So we'll talk about the tax implications and just the story in general, which seems a little bit strange. Um, and then in the last, in our new segment, we'll talk about ocean acidity and does this actually. Um, purport to increase lightening strikes on water in our tech segment, where it's all about the GE Cypress, their new C uh, six megawatt wind turbine. And then lastly, catapult, uh, the, or either doing some additive, they're adding an additive sell potentially exploring new 3d printing technologies for wind turbine blades in the future and other aspects of technology. So, Alan, let's start with Noble's too. They've had some issues with, uh, lightening. It seems they have, they have some brand new Vestas turbines and the site just got turned on a couple of days ago, from what we can tell it's up in Minnesota. And they've had seven blades already damaged by lightning. Six of them are going to be removed and re repaired slash replace. Uh, it sounds like one's going to be trying to repair in situ on the turbine is what it sounds like. So that the site has barely even started and they have six blades that are getting essentially replaced for some lightening protection issue. And the press release is funny because it does say that Festus knows they have a, the B one 36 blades, as it's described, have a known lightening issue once which. What we reported earlier a couple of months ago on the, wasn't it Dan? $175 million right down from Vestas for lightening issues. Yeah. So it must be all tied together is, but we haven't heard exactly what the lightening issue is. Besides her seeing lightening damage. Have you seen anywhere where it's discussing what the engineering issue. Is no, they're keeping it pretty close to the, to the, to the Vestas thing. Uh, and yeah, I I've we've you and I both scoured the web and haven't really found much on it. So it seems like it's a. Trying to keep it proprietary, I suppose. It's but all the, the operators must know at this point, uh, or at least you think that Vestas would have reached out to the effected operators to tell them to keep an eye on this situation, because you just don't want a blade breaking off and hitting the ground.

Veolia has partnered with GE on wind turbine blade recycling, which hopefully means big things for the environment. Amazon committed to buy 250MW of renewable wind power from Orsted, Wood Mackenzie predicts market share 10 years from now on the big three turbine manufacturers - are predictions like this even...useful? And, Timken is investing $75MM in the wind energy market - is this a big deal and a boon for the reliability of turbine bearings? Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript EP39 - Veolia Wind Turbine Blade Recycling, Timken, Amazon and 10-Year Predictions welcome back i'm Allen Hall i'm Dan Blewett and this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running all right welcome back to the uptime podcast i'm your co-host Dan Blewett and on today's show we've got a bunch of great topics number one uh GE choosing Veolia wind turbine blade recycling - it's actually a really interesting story about the way they intend to use that in cement mix an interesting article uh by the consulting firm would mackenzie predicting siemens gonna go mesa renewable energy vestas and ge and how they'll increase their market share over the next decade uh interesting article about amazon committing to buy uh 250 megawatts of power from orsted in europe and then our tech segment we'll talk a little bit about timken and their uh commitment to invest 75 million to increase their uh capacity and wind energy and lastly we'll talk a little bit about green ammonia and vestus backing a wind plant to do that so al let's start with uh ge and veolia so obviously we've talked before about wind turbine blade recycling being a big problem because these things are enormous and there's no good way to put a good place to put them and they don't really just like mold well into the environment i mean we're just burying them at the moment and trying to find places to put them so uh tell us about this article about violia and their agreement of how to process these so ge has been working for the last couple of years on how to recycle the blades because some of those blades are starting to come out of service and they've they've been looking at recycling for a while but obviously it's you know where do you recycle it where is it going to go where are you going to put it back into the ecosystem and it it looks like they found a home in the cement industry and the article is interesting uh because it was addressing sort of two different pieces to the cement uh when you manufacture cement it kind of goes to a killing process so they're using the the first of all they grind up the blades which is a it's a massive problem because when anything that's made out of epoxy and fiberglass is inherently tough and to grind that into usable chunks or pieces is not easy so it's like putting it through a gigantic paper shredder but on the on the world's most largest paper shredder industrial scale paper shredder it's got to sit there and just kind of chew at it uh if you ever try to cut yeah you ever try to cut uh fiberglass uh with like a a grinder or something it's just it gets hot and it melts and it gets gooey so you can't there's only certain ways to attack that problem so grinding it up first the big problem but once you get it ground up now you have all this fiberglass which is a great additive to any sort of cement mix because it actually prevents the cement from cracking and coming apart because you got this these fiber binders that hold it together so you have this engineered cement system which is really useful but the second part was they must be burning off the epoxy and epoxy does burn so in that kiln process it sounds like they're reducing the amount of coal used to heat these kil...

Bjorn Hedges, Chair of ESIG’s Wind, Solar, and Energy Storage Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Users Group, joined us to share his vast experience as Plant Manager of two wind sites in Washington - Harvest Wind Project and White Creek Wind I. In this episode, you'll get Bjorn's insight into hiring, working in wind power, arc flash safety, how wind power tech has changed over the years, COVID-19's impact on the wind industry and much more. Learn more about ESIG here. Bjorn manages both the Harvest Creek wind site and White Creek I. In addition to his work keeping 132 Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy 2.3MW wind turbines running, he's passionate about his work with ESIG. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript | EP38 - Bjorn Hedges, ESIG Chair & Wind Farm Plant Manager, on Site Safety, Wind Power Jobs & More All right, welcome back to the uptime podcast. This is episode 38. I'm your co-host Dan Blewett. I'm joined here by a lightning protection expert. Allen hall, Allen, how are you, sir? Allen Hall: [00:00:55] Hey, great, Dan - boy, a really fascinating interview with Bjorn Hedges, uh, who has been in the wind turbine industry for quite a number of years now, and is also involved in the ESIG group, uh, which is really fundamentally changing the way that wind turbine operators. Do their business. And is that, that sets up a community of operators that can share information about their particular situations and make the industry better. So not only is he very knowledgeable about wind turbines and how they operate and how the intricacies of running a turbine, but he's also involved in a sort of a volunteer basis of spreading the good news. So it's really great to have him on the show. Dan Blewett: [00:01:40] Absolutely. So. Like Allen said, our guest today was Bjorn Hedges. He is the plant manager for two wind turbine wind sites in Washington state, the Harvest Wind Project and White Creek Wind I sites. So he's been there for 14 years. which, as we all kind of talk through a little bit on the show is pretty abnormal in today's corporate world, right? People are bouncing from one job to the other, every two to three years; even five years seems long nowadays, but he's been there for a long time and obviously has a ton of experience in the industry. And, and he's also seen just tons of changes in those 14 years. And as Allen alluded, he's the chair of ESIG, which is the Energy Systems Integration Group, the wind solar and energy storage, operations, and maintenance users group. So he's heavily involved with that. And as you be able to tell, he's clearly passionate about sharing information, helping others in his industry solve their problems. Um, which is really cool. It's, it's a unique thing. Wouldn't you say, Allen? Allen Hall: [00:02:42] It is. And the discussions around COVID are very fascinating; that they had plans in place to deal with something like a pandemic, as severe as COVID, but there are certain aspects about it, which they hadn't prepared for, which are kind of funny, but yeah, it's, it's great. I just love talking to people on the ground, uh, because they're real, they have knowledge. They've been working at this a long time and they have things to provide back to the industry, which is what I like about the wind turbine industry; it is a very sharing group. They want to spread their knowledge and, and all the things that they're doing for the community. So it's great to have you on, on the, on the podcasts. Dan Blewett: [00:03:23] Yeah. So again, Bjorn's the plant manager of the Harvest Wind project and White Creek Wind one. Those are, again, both in Washington state and in today's show, we covered, you know, his wind farms, his experienced with ESIG,

Paul Gipe, a career green energy advocate and prominent author on wind power, joined us on the podcast to talk about electric vehicles, wind power policy, changes in technology and policy he's seen over the year, vertical axis wind turbine design, ducted turbines, small wind turbines, solar power, off-shore wind and more. His most recent book is called Wind Energy for the Rest of Us. Grab a copy of Paul Gipe's books on Amazon and be sure to sign up for his newsletter here, and visit his website here. This podcast is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript EP37 - Paul Gipe, Author of Wind Energy for the Rest of Us Hey, great. Uh, great interview with, uh, Paul Gipe this week, really knowledgeable person and been around the industry for a long time and has a lot of great insight into wind turbines and electric vehicles. It was just a really fascinating discussion. Yeah. So our guest today is Paul  and if you're not familiar with Paul, then. I guess, where have you been? I mean, Paul, Paul's been all over the web for a long time, uh, covering, uh, wind energy. He's been sort of like a wind energy lifer, uh, has worked as, I mean, I'm looking through his bio here. It's hard to know where to start, but a policy analyst for numerous organizations over the years. Um, he's been a principal in firms, uh, evaluating wind turbine technology. He's written eight books on wind turbines, his most recent one, Wind Energy For The Rest of Us: A Comprehensive Guide to Wind Power and How To Use It, is a, just a huge reference for everything when energy. I mean, it's, if you want to know about small wind turbines, big wind turbines, ducted, the history of them, all the, you know, materials failure, like easily got so many case studies in there. Um, so we, we reached out to Paul Gipe because he's just seems like one of the, again, like the wind energy lifers who has spent a significant amount of his career, you know, fighting the good fight essentially for wind energy. Yeah. And it's, it's one of those really nice people to come across a that you meet in the wind turbine industry that just has a lot of history. And especially the technical side he's know he's a good combination of the technical aspects and the policy aspects, because we don't get into too much, but there's a lot of governmental policy and regulations that play in the electric market. Altogether and, and Paul kind of ties the two together, which was really hard. Yeah. So back in 2004, uh, Paul was working or started working as the acting executive director for the Ontario sustainable energy association. He's talked a bunch about his work over in Canada and, and some of the, just the great things they've done with renewable energy over there. Um, and now, like you said, we, we talk, uh, so kind of like the scope of this conversation. We talk a little bit, a bit. In the beginning about, um, electric vehicles. Cause he has a current, a big passion for the electric car he drives. And as a guy who's just overall interested in saving the planet, interested in renewable energy, interested in green energy. And you know, he refers to himself as, as a, as a greenie, uh, which Paul's, Paul's a funny guy. Um, but he's been around the whole, you know, We talk about solar. We talk about wind and small wind, and there's been a lot of challenges. And like you said down, and there's not only mechanical and engineering and technology challenges, but he talks a lot about the fights and, uh, just the, the difficulty in getting policy changes that are going to make wind more viable. And, and one of the things he speaks to is, uh, the fact that we should be farther along today. Then we are, yeah, we should always be farther along or that's al...

In this special episode, we went into depth on our views of content, marketing and branding in the wind energy sector. As one of the most active online educators in wind, we wanted to share a glimpse of why we do what we do and what we've learned in building an online audience. Though we have a long way to go, 2020 was a fascinating year to look back on. We're sharing the lessons we've learned in hopes that you might run with them and view your company's web presence in a new light. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! EP36 - Wind Energy Content & Marketing: A Glimpse into What We Do and Why We Do It I'm Allen Hall. I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. All right, welcome back. This is the uptime podcast, episode 36 and in today's episode is actually gonna be a special format. We're not gonna hit all the typical news. What we're going to talk about a little bit is sort of our company branding and strategy, and some of the interesting things that we've done. That'll probably apply to a lot of you who are in the, in the industry, whether you're working for wind energy company, whether you're in marketing or content, or you own a business yourself. A lot of stuff that we've been doing is I think a little bit unique to the energy industry, from everything that we've seen. And so we're going to chat about it a little bit today. It's a holiday weekend, so we figured mixing up the show a little bit, uh, will be fun. So, Alan, first thing we're going to cover today is, uh, sorta like the company origins and obviously. Weather guard, lightening tech produces lightning protection systems for wind turbines, but also for aircraft. So let's talk a little bit real quick about how you got from how you made that sort of, not necessarily a pivot because you still covered both markets, but how we got from aerospace to wind turbines and what was the gap in the wind market here? Uh, so we, yeah, we did start with in the aircraft market. Uh, the product itself is used on most airplanes flying today. It provides slightly protection to the non-conductive covers the radar homes that exist on the, the front of the airplane, on the nose of the airplane. And over most of the larger antennas, like the television antenna, the SAC satellite antenna, that's beaming live television into your seat. There's a cover over that. And our product gets installed on that. So, yeah. The years and years ago now seems like an eternity ago. Um, there's, there's some similar products out in the market, but the issue was just durability and making it last a really long time and awful environments and aircraft go through alpha environments, hot, cold rain, snow, sleet, uh, they're exposed to a ton of chemicals, cleaning chemicals, the icing fluids, uh, You name it and you're just going to get hit with all these different aspects. And so he just needed a very durable product, right? So the, it it's the lightening protection. Part of it was the piece of it, obviously, but just the durability. We need to increase the durability of the product so you can install it once and it can take multiple strikes and you wouldn't have to remove it or replace it over the lifetime of the aircraft part. That's how it started. And then as we got going, we realized that the winter market basically has the same problem that, uh, the lightning protection systems are good, not great. And by adding our product to a wind turbine blade, you can greatly enhance the existing lightning protection system. But again, there were similar products on the market long before us that just wore out within six months or a year or so.

In this episode of the uptime wind energy podcast, we discuss robotic technology by Bladebug, drone blade cleaning by Aerones, floating wind aquaculture and more. Can we really build a fishery or lab on a floating wind turbine? Maybe... Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EP35 - BladeBug Robotic Tech, Wind Turbine Blade Cleaning & Floating Wind Turbine Aquaculture Labs? this episode is brought to you by weatherguard lightning tech at weatherguard we make wind turbine lightning protection easy if you're a wind farm operator stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime get your uptime back with our strike tape lightning protection system learn more in today's show notes or visit weatherguardwind.com striketape welcome back i'm allen hall i'm Dan Blewett and this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running all right welcome back this is the uptime podcast i'm your co-host Dan Blewett on today's episode we've got six main topics first off we're gonna chat about Siemens Gamesa potentially uh making a pretty big loss here with uh having to replace faulty gearboxes we're going to chat about an interesting multi-use project for potentially floating offshore wind turbine platforms so i think this is sort of a natural progression so we'll chat about some of the ways aquaculture might come to floating wind we're going to talk about a little bit of lightning news where ai is getting closer to predicting predicting where lightning will strike in advance which is crazy we're going to talk about elf so some electric magnetic stuff as far as bearings and gearboxes we're going to chat about robotic uh blade critters the blade bug pretty interesting technology crawling up wind turbine blades and doing some inspections uh repairs and then we're going to talk about cleaning which is something that i don't think it's enough press when it comes to not only wood turbines just in general but also the lightning effects as well talking about that so Allen let's start here with Siemens Gamesa so it looks like they've lost uh 70 million euros uh article from energy watch on faulty gearboxes ouch that's a yeah right yeah gearboxes you know you see that well Siemens Gamesa is now pushing the their how many is it 14 megawatt direct drive 14 dds right okay so yeah so the gearboxes uh are just a failure point which is why the direct drive starts to make a little more sense the the issue with gearboxes is there's vibration components there's that can happen uh obviously lubrication is a big deal uh any sort of material failure metal failure inside of those things can be a problem so it's just not not a huge news point but i think it sounds like they have some cracks in the case which are i guess probably fatigue related um or material related and they got a material issue with the casting that they didn't expect and you know what are you going to do besides replace them there's really nothing to do about it because once you start there's a there's one thing if you can get inside and start taking out different parts of the gearbox and replacing them but if you start cracking the case it's like the uh cracking the block on a internal combustion engine it's pretty much over there's not a lot nothing to do about that you can't weld it back up that's just not a thing so uh this is a big problem and i think they found it from what i could read they found it actually on their test bed first which is where you want to find those things uh before you start seeing yeah prototype yeah which is where you want to find them right you want to try to this this is a very common engineering thing to do is you can't run the your piece of equipment out for 20 years and then s...

In this episode we chat about long duration energy storage - what does the future hold for these types of batteries and power delivery systems? A small floating wind turbine capsized after being hit by a big wave - is this a setback for floating wind? Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina have banded together on wind power - what does this mean for the east coast? We also talk more about winglets and blade design, spurred by a great user question. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  TRANSCRIPT EP34 - Long Duration Energy Storage, East Coast States Form Wind Energy Partnership, Winglets & More Welcome back I'm Allen hall I'm Dan Blewett and this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running alright welcome back this is the uptime wind energy podcast episode 34 and on today's show got a lot of news to cover and a couple cool engineering things to talk about so number one we're going to chat about Maryland Virginia and North Carolina banding together to help further along offshore wind projects in the future we'll also talk about a recent wind turbine of a floating a small version capsized uh by a pretty big wave so obviously some big engineering implement uh implications there uh we'll also chat a little bit about a wind power uh cargo ship concept that's pretty interesting just here on the topic of you know renewables in general and then our engineering segment we'll talk about uh wind turbine oems pushing services remote uh different offerings that they've got going on just to try to boost revenue some long-term energy storage solutions in theory and lastly we had a great listener question about winglets and wing design and so we're going to chat through a bunch of the aerodynamics of that. So Allen first thing on the on the docket here maryland virginia and north carolina want to basically make their supply chain easier in the future and sort of band together to get offshore wind projects up and running and uh so what are your thoughts on this little alliance well dan i think that makes sense that we some of the states are trying to connect up and utilize resources a lot of times in the united states it's sort of 50 separate countries and it's not supposed to be set up that way but it is it is and some of the uh interstate commerce can get a little funky i mean particularly when you're dealing with offshore projects that will immediately involve the federal government so if you're smart you want to bring in a consortium of states that all have the same approach so you can plead your case to congress so i think it makes sense to do it i wonder if they're going to be developing uh some industry closer to the shoreline they're very similar to what new jersey's talking about because the opportunity to up and down the coastline on the northeast coastline to put big wind turbines out to sea is really good i think that the winds are as we've all been to the beach there there's decent winds out that way so there's a lot of power production could be had it could be out far enough that it wouldn't be necessarily noticeable it has all those upsides to it and uh i think it makes a lot of sense because as we're going to find out very quickly there's going to be a big competition uh to provide power up and down the northeast corridor which is a huge power sucks so if you ever you ever see those pictures dan of of uh the united states at night time with all the lights to see where the population centers are so yeah basically from washington dc all the way up to boston is just one continuous streak of light so there's a lot of power demand there and it makes sense to to add to that power demand by renewable resources if we can but uh it is interesting that the...

Wind turbine bird deaths are--apparently--infinitesimally small, according to a new multi-year Danish study. Vestas bought out MHI (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) from their offshore wind partnership--what will this mean for Vestas as they forge ahead, solo? Plus, Allen and Dan talked about vibration sensing technology and how it can be utilized in wind energy. Vibration sensors are critical in the aerospace world, most specifically on helicopters, but the utilization by wind farm operators seems like a home run. And, will Stripe Climate have a meaningful impact on the planet? Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP33 - Vestas Buys Out MHI; Stripe Climate; New Wind Turbine Bird Deaths Study & Vibration Sensor Tech

A Vestas V150 blade broke and fell to the ground in Iowa, resulting in 46 turbines being stopped for a root cause analysis. Humidity within a wind turbine can cause significant electrical issues; we discuss solutions for keeping turbines dry, even off-shore. ZX Lidar has been approved for Siemens Gamesa turbines, so we talk through the implications of lidar as a primary measurement tool for wind speed. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP32 - Vestas Blade Issues Continue; Humidity Causes Electrical Problems; Lidar Wind Turbine Speed Measurements This is the uptime podcast on today's episode. We are going to chat in our first segment about news. We're going to talk about Vestas blades that are still having problems. It sounds like at this point, they're going to shut down a bunch of turbines in a large wind farm. And so Iowa is kind of like the hotbed for investigatory, um, analysis here. So we're going chat about that a little bit. And our engineering segment today, we're going to talk about. High humidity and some of the issues that can cause especially in offshore wind, uh, LIDAR, this is a not new technology obviously, but the application here, uh, on measuring wind turbine speed, especially in remote locations is really interesting. And lastly, we're going to chat a little bit more about fires and some of the reporting it and some of the, uh, Implications for people's emotions, getting in the way and not allowing their reputations, perhaps to be damaged by saying, Hey, we have had a fire here and, you know, we need to return that, that data to the, uh, the rest of the world. So, Alan, let's jump into Iowa and Vestas. So V one 10, two megawatt. Wind turbines seem to be having some problems. Allen Hall: They are, it's surprising because it's, it seems like it's relatable to that particular turbine or lightning and the lightning protection system from news reports, local news reports in Iowa. They seem to be focusing on the lightning protection system. And in fact, they've shut down about 45 or 46 turbines in which have indications of lightning strikes near them or to them. Because they're concerned about the subsequent structural damage, internal damage to these blades and whether it's causing some other catastrophic effect, because blades breaking off is, is really catastrophic from the structural standpoint. I, I don't know the question really right now is what. Is the possible failure mode. Is it really lightening or is it high winds? Because with lightning strike tends to come high winds, thunder storms bring high winds, and we can sometimes confuse that we've had a recent lightning strike with also having a recent storm pass through and we we've overloaded the AA structure. And then didn't notice the internal damage that was caused the blade. Don't you think that some of this may be just straight? Hi. Hi. Hi wins. At this point, Dan is just, seems like there's just too, too many of these issues. Dan: Yeah. That'd be really curious to see what happens in the root cause analysis when they come back with, you know, a, you know, a reason that this is all happening, but yeah, it seems. I don't know, kind of implausible that lightning is destroying so many of these, right. I mean, they've had a couple of now they're just really nervous that there's some underlying defects, so they want to check them all. But yeah, there's too many turbines around where if lightning was causing this many to fail, it'd be more of a problem somewhere else. So it seems more just like a, either a manufacturing defect, which they probably realize that that's a piece of it at this point or. You know? Yeah. It just doesn't seem like lightning, even though it obviously is an expensive problem to fix it doesn't...

Split wind turbine blade design is something that isn't going away due to transportation logistics - but will it really work? Can split blades hold up? We also discuss carbon nanotube technology and how its RF-absorbing properties can reduce interference with air traffic control, potentially opening up new land tracts to wind farm development. Also in the show is chatter on new solar panel technology that claims to boost power output significantly, a new blade mishap and more. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Transcript: EP31 - Split Blade Wind Turbine Design; RF-Absorbing Coatings & New Solar Panel Tech All right, welcome back to the uptime podcast. This is episode 31. And in today's episode, we're gonna talk about. Pretty wide range of stuff. First thing, New Jersey, there's some trouble afoot as legislators are potentially going to suspend some offshore wind work. Um, it seems like the fishermen, uh, association is involved there also a blade is broken on a Vestas  in Australia. So we'll chat a little bit about the. You know, and go down the investigative trail just a bit. And we're gonna talk a little bit about solar, actually a in today's episode. So panel efficiency is potential improving with a new startup. So we'll talk about the implications of that in our engineering segment today. RF absorbing material might be an interesting new development for wind turbines to prevent some of the interference with aircraft traffic control. Next, we're gonna talk about split blades, which look seems are you gonna be more and more important as you know, these wind turbines get bigger and bigger. Transportation is always a challenge there without further ado, Allen. What's going on here in New Jersey. Well, democratic processes at work right now. There's a big push by fishermen that use the sea where the wind turbines are going to be installed off the coast. You know, the New Jersey governor has been pushing to do a big offshore effort on wind turbines. But inevitably there's going to be an opposing group to that. Like always, and the fishermen were complaining about it and probably rightly so. They see it as an, uh, another thing to work around and don't particularly want it and they have a lot of clout. So it's going to be a, it's gonna be a, uh, a battle in the legislature, for sure. And now in this political environment, we're in right now. We have to, you know, just sort of bear through it. I think once they get past November and into December where, uh, the political atmosphere settles down a little bit and people keep kind of get back to work. We'll see, we'll see this, uh, even out, I don't know if this is a knee jerk response to the governor's proposal. Kind of feels like it, but in any sort of a dispute like this, the, the better approach is to attack it early. If you do think there's going to be some concessions that the, the administration is gonna be willing to make you better start now and start those negotiations too. To get to a final agreements that are waiting until the project is approved, then fighting authentic, because in most cases it's way too late. So the, I think the fishermen are just acting proactively and rightly so, because that's the way state governments work in the United States for the most part. Yeah. So the wind project in question here is the or stead ocean wind project. And basically what they're alleging is the company has failed to deliver on some of its promises of economic development. They're supposed to hire a union labor, provide grants and, you know, in general boost the local economy. But, you know, the, the, the head of the state Senate or the state Senate printed president basically said that the, this isn't happening right now,

In this episode we discuss ducted wind turbines, which have a ring around the blade circumference, wind turbine fire severity and suppression systems, lightning strike density and how deaths are on the decline despite a higher population, and the new patent lawsuit between Siemens Gamesa and GE wind energy. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Full Transcript: EP30 - Ducted Wind Turbines? Plus Wind Turbine Fire Suppression & Lightning Strike Density welcome back i'm Allen hall i'm Dan Blewett and this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running all right welcome back to the uptime podcast and on today's episode we've got a actually really interesting show so first thing we're going to cover today is new lawsuit from Siemens Gamesa kind of firing back at GE uh over their Haliade X uh offshore wind turbines so we'll talk about some of that we've had a bunch of litigation it seems like recently in the news so we'll talk about siemens games versus GE uh we also have we've had a really interesting strange bizarre lightning season here in the us and really all over the world uh so we're gonna chat a little bit about that of course so one of one aspect of it is that you know we have fewer lightning fatalities than ever in part because of covet but yet we also have a just a terrible fire season from lightning uh so we'll chat there and then our engineering segment we're gonna talk about ducted wind turbines so this is a new idea in small wind turbines and obviously this is one of the big things in evtols which we talk about in the struck podcast our aerospace engineering podcast and so ducted fan technology has been around for a while but does this work for little wind turbines and will it potentially work for for bigger ones we're also going to talk about a snafu with a semi truck pulling a wind turbine blade and just some of the transportation issues in general and then lastly wind turbine fires which don't seem to get too much publicity but are going to become more and more of probably an insurable event or something that people are going to want to be insured against going forward as these uh turbines continue to get bigger so alan let's start with siemens gamesa suing ge they're back in the in the ring again so it looks like they're they're suing ge potentially a little bit because they're upset that and this is what ge was claiming that this is just a counter suit they're just upset that we are trying to block them from being in the u.s market over their own property intellectual property infringement but siemens gomes says that no your nacelles your direct drive technology and your Haliade X is infringing on our technology and uh the way they cool their generators is infringing so what have you got on this well i think both of those things can be true that one is infringed on the other and vice versa that that can always be true i think the question is really what drives all this and market factors tend to drive lawsuits to one company to another if everybody's making plenty of cash and they're having great sales they don't really think about suing the other guy unless it's just egregious but in this particular case because cove has hit and things have slowed down and there's really no quick ending in sight you start to feel that cash crunch and both GE and Siemens Gamesa are in that cash crunch category then you start really trying to protect what you have and yeah that's what it seems like right now we just got this sort of combat mortal combat going on and trying to each one protect their own territory it makes sense but the only groups to get rich out of this are the attorneys that tends to be what happens uh i don't think there's going to b...

In this episode we discussed wind turbine yaw misalignment and its common causes and solutions. We also talked through a recent turbine technician death, and what this tragedy means for the wind industry. Lastly, how easily can wind turbines be uprated to an increased power output? We dove into the GE Haliade X turbine's 13MW version, which is uprated from the original 12MW design. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Full Transcript EP29 - Technician Safety, Uprating a Turbine? Plus Wind Turbine Yaw Misalignment Causes Welcome back i'm Allen hall. I'm Dan Blewett and this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running Alright welcome back to the uptime podcast in today's episode the big two nine we're to cover a bunch of different topics number one unfortunately there was a death of a technician falling from a turbine so we'll chat a little bit about the implications for the industry there was also another broken blade on a wind farm out in illinois and uh we're also going to chat a little bit about some i guess there's been some a decrease in lightning recorded in the lower 48 states here in the U.S. So Allen's gonna talk about why that might be happening and some of the implications there but obviously in our first segment here you know there's uh some of the the pushback against wind energy is stuff like this you know safety worker safety uh broken wind farm blades and the safety concerns that they they hold so that's you know as much as wind energy is an important uh green seemingly good for the environment good for everyone there's always some downsides that uh you know pr and we have to kind of cover so in our engineering segment we're going to talk with the halle 8x turbine being upgraded from 12 to 13 megawatts and we'll chat a bunch about yaw misalignment and the power reduction that that causes and how we can kind of uh solve that issue so now let's talk first about the the worker death so unfortunately a 39 year old man fell to his death at the langford wind project in texas um cotton just awful thing but i mean what are the implications here for the for the industry it means this is going to have more regulations coming i mean is this an osha thing or definitely osha definitely oh she'll be on top of it and local regulators will be all over it and trying to figure out exactly what happened and usually when you're going up on a on a turbine you're not by yourself uh so there's probably some witnesses to what happened i i'd be surprised uh with as much safety equipment and and gear that are provided to the technicians that it was a gear problem but maybe it was um but there seems to be if you if you're around the wind turbine industry much at all you realize that there's paramount emphasis put on safety gear falling safety protocols check double check you're working around electricity and you're working at high out height places and it it is you so you got the steel toe twos you got the harnessing you're clipping in everywhere uh you've got the hard hat on safety glasses no joke it's a serious place and you're doing serious work so i'm shocked at what has happened here particularly up tower but hopefully everybody doubles down and takes a quick pause and a lot of places we'll take a safety pause and just refresh everybody hey let's make sure we're clipping in hey let's make sure we're in the harness hey let's make sure we've checked out our safety gear before we start climbing uh as just another added measure so hopefully it it's used for the benefit of the industry right that this unfortunate loss can be can be have some upside to it yeah i'm sure with anything as you get you know more and more experience you just you're you know yo...

DNV GL engineers and wind energy consultants Alex Byrne and Matt Malkin came on the Uptime podcast to talk about wind turbine lightning damage, force majeure, assessments, data & more. With decades of industry experience, they discuss common turbine blade damage modes, how data is helping to better assess the lightning environment of wind farm sites, why on-turbine sensors are so critical, and where the industry is headed. Check out their recent article here, which brought to light many of the contract difficulties that are presented when all lightning damage is classified as force majeure. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Full Transcript: EP28 - Alex Byrne and Matt Malkin from DNVGL Talk Lightning Damage, Assessment, Forecasting & Force Majeure Welcome back to the uptime podcast on today's show. We've got two amazing guests, engineers, Alex Byrne, and Matt Malkin from DNVGL. Alex and Matt are both experts on lightning's effect on wind turbines. And these two are gracious enough to join us, to share their expertise. We reached out to them actually for conversation after reading their really good article titled Lightning, wind turbines, and force majeure - a risky mix. So first let me tell you a little bit more about our guests. Alex Byrne brings over 15 years of experience in the wind industry. Her areas of expertise include understanding and assessing lightning protection systems. Using statistical methods, evaluating blade failures, including performing inspections and identifying root causes, developing, operating wind farm data analytic models and evaluating site-specific turbine loading for broad applications, such as failure analysis site suitability re powering and life extension. Ms. Byrne has also performed turbine certification for DNV GL in Denmark and holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering. And our second guest, Matt Malkin has 20 years of engineering experience and 11 years of experience in wind energy with a focus on blade technology. He has led multiple blade failure, investigations and field assessments of blade damage. Matt has analyzed SCADA and meteorological data in support of blade failure investigations, and is familiar with blade construction, failure mechanisms and failure modes. He has conducted multiple blade and turbine manufacturing and quality surveys in North America, Europe and Asia. Mr. Malkin has participated in the examination and evaluation of composite turbine blades, structural design analysis methods, and manufacturing methods for technical due diligence. So Allen, what were some of your key takeaways from this really in-depth conversation with, engineers, Alex Byrne and Matt Malkin. Allen Hall: [00:02:38] first that Matt and Alex are really knowledgeable about the lightning and wind turbine interaction space. There's very few people who have as much experience in such a broad area of winter been lightning protection. so it's kinda special to talk to them because they have such a huge knowledge base and have worked with so many customers around the world on helping operators with their wind turbines and lightning protection systems and making sure that they're operating at peak efficiency. so that was fascinating. I think, Alex describing her, way of providing, as a field assessment where she has, over time been able to predict what lightning environment will be for new wind turbine sites or, even for existing, wind turbine sites, what to expect in terms of lightning protection, and then, Matt's very knowledgeable in the blade structure and, how that lightning protection system interacts with the blade structure and how defects in the blade structure or damage to the blade structure can, affect later on in the blade's lifetime.

Is using wind turbine blade copper caps for lightning protection a sound engineering strategy? Will they solve Vestas' lightning damage problems? Plus, we discuss Liftwerx cranes and how they can make gearbox and blade swaps a much faster, less costly procedure for wind farm operators. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EP27 - Wind Turbine Blade Copper Caps for Lightning Protection? Plus Liftwerx Cranes for Up-Tower Repairs All right. Welcome back to the uptime podcast. In today's episode, we've got a couple of topics today. First, we're going to talk about Vestas. Obviously they had $175 million lightening damage problem. And it appears that they've tried to solve a lot of those problems with copper sleeves. So we're going to talk about that retrofit and how that might be working and some of the engineering behind it. Uh, we're also going to talk about some different crane options. Um, you know, Liftwerx is one of the crane operators out there. That's sending these small cranes up to the top of turbines to then, you know, swap out gearboxes, swap out blaze doula. It's a really interesting repair work. And then we're also going to chat a little bit about small wind turbines, which will be a recurring theme on our side. And today we're gonna talk about, uh, my best watt. Which is a pretty interesting company out of Europe that allows you to kind of custom design a turbine for your piece of land, which is a really interesting solution. I mean, it sounds almost, I don't want it to be good, too. Good to be true. That you could have something that customized on. I don't know when you get these industrial size. Solutions. They don't seem to be customizable to that extent. So Allen let's jump right into Vesta. So obviously they had 175 million million dollar lightening problem. And what are they doing to solve it? Allen Hall: Well, just keeping our ear to the ground because Vestas didn't really describe where this problem was or what they were doing to correct it. But some of their suppliers looked like they were starting to talk a little bit. So there's a discussion a little bit. Thing on LinkedIn talking about putting copper sleeves on the tips of blades. And I've had seen that for investors in the past that Vestas had created this. Um, no, we'll probably put it in the show notes here, but essentially they got asleep probably about, Oh, how about a half a meter or so tall? And it just slides over the end of the tip and then ended up getting grounded to the receptor that's near there. So they have to stop the turbine. Try to put this copper premade sleeve over top and attach it to the tip. And, uh, grounded from what I've seen, I've only seen it. I've seen a couple of things online talking about how they do this. So, um, I've seen adhesives also seen at one place, it looked like there was fasteners going into the, to the, to the blade. So that basically what they're doing is taking, replacing the receptor with a copper cap. Uh, and so you look at some of the newer blades and they have these little, they have these copper caps on them too, as it's sort of the. Does lightening protect. And does your, uh, the only issue with it and investors has done it for a while? So I think I've seen it all the way back to like 2005 or seven, something like that. So they've been doing this for a long time. So I w I wonder one, if they were having good results from it, they say they had good results from it. There was a, uh, there was a discussion in the United States. When you propose to put in a wind turbine installation, you usually have to go in front of a governing body and describe what you're doing. So you, you see in different applications talking about. The wind turbines. And in this particular application,

Polytech acquires Fos4x - what does this mean for the company? We discuss a broken wind turbine blade in Ohio that smells fishy, and chat a bit about the often overlooked small wind turbine market - can farms and small businesses actually sustain themselves using micro turbines? Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Full Transcript: EP26 - PolyTech Acquires Fos4x, the Small Wind Turbine Market & Broken Turbine Blade Causes All right, welcome back. This is the uptime podcast. I'm your cohost Dan Blewett. And I'm joined here for episode 26, remotely with our lightening expert Allen hall. How are you? Great, Dan. Hey, uh, Just some interesting news out of Germany, about some of the low frequency testing of wind turbine noise and potential health effects. Uh, sounds like a couple of years study just got finished up. So definitely want to talk about that one today. Yeah. We haven't had as much research on the show of late, but I figured you were probably snooping around research gate and, and all those others for, for something. It couldn't have been long. So here we are. Uh, also on the show today, we're gonna talk about, uh, A broken blade in Ohio, which you think is probably lightning related, but they don't really have a strong cause yet. So that's pretty interesting, a really big lightning strike court in Florida. Something like almost off the charts, a little bit of a offshore wind news, uh, from New Jersey. And a big acquisition between Polytech? Uh, well, not between, but Polytech acquiring a Fos4x, which is a sensor technology company. And lastly, we'll talk a little bit about that low frequency noise, uh, study, and just talk a little bit about a small wind turbines because that's one we haven't covered too much. We've covered different types, like the typhoon turbine and sort of different variations, but the small one turbine market is. Out there and it's growing and it's becoming more and more viable as technology increases. So we'll chat a little bit about that. So let's start with this broken blade. So you kind of have like this theory, um, and it doesn't seem like they really know what's going on yet. And like, they just have like one drone photo and they're doing some, uh, but it's, it's a pretty impressive photo. Like the blade broke off very close to the root and it was only what, six months old. So this really should really shouldn't happen. So what's your, what's your take? There was some discussion online about it and, and they were talking about possible overspeeds. An overspeed condition happens when there's large wind speeds, the control system for the turbine. Doesn't address those high speeds and essentially feather the blades and slow down the rotation. Right? Overload structure, overload conditions. That doesn't seem likely, uh, just because the blade, well, it's a new turbine. So usually overspeed conditions happen on failure modes on older turbines as systems don't work like they were intended because of design problems or aging problems. Right. Uh, so to have it happen on a relatively new turbine is unusual and it's a , which is a pretty good size wind turbine. And what we have. I noticed on some wind turbine blades over time. Is that when. A lightening can occur to those blades. And if you happen to damage the carbon fiber, a lot of these have carbon fiber in them. If you damage the carbon fiber spar or the main internal structure inside of it, you can get this delayed damage effect where as it, as a blade continues to span, you got this, this fracture happening and eventually the, the blade let's go and. That is not, especially a couple of years ago, there was a lot more common. So it's, it's surprising to see that now, Dan, it kind of works like this, you know,

In this episode we discuss research that showed a 70% decrease in bird deaths when just one wind turbine blade was painted black—is this a real effect or do we need to do more studies? We also go in-depth discussing vortex generators for wind turbine efficiency, and whether they actually live up to the 1-3% AEP claims made by companies that sell them. We also discuss WhalePower and whether a turbine blade design inspired by the humpback whale’s dorsal fin can make it to market. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  EP25 Full Transcript - How Do Vortex Generators Work, and Do Black Painted Blades Save Birds? Plus, Whalepower wind turbine blades? All right, welcome back. This is the uptime podcast, episode 25. I'm your cohost, Dan Blewett. And I'm joined here by. Lightening protection expert, Allen Hall, Allen, how are you? Dan, uh, just another crazy busy week in wind turbine world. Uh, so when he got on the list of news for the week, well, to start off with news, we've got some bird strike, uh, mitigation techniques, old ones, old school, AKA paint, um, where it's talking about a barrage of a lightning in Oklahoma, which I'm curious on your take about this because obviously. You know, a lot of climates, pretty conducive, delighting somewhere, not so much Oklahoma doesn't strike me as one. That's crazy, but maybe I'm wrong along here. Um, and then our engineering segment, we got some more animal inspiration. So whale power, so well inspired leading edges, which is really interesting and unique. And then we're also gonna talk about vortex, generators, bunch and internet of things, devices that can help detect faults in the field. So. First let's talk about, uh, let's, let's talk about Oklahoma. So 30, 30,000 strikes, uh, within eight miles or flashes. So I know there's a difference there, but what did, what was your take on this story out of the Washington post? Um, why such a barrage of, of, of lightning strikes and maybe because of the Washington post doesn't. See a lot of weather like that, but the Midwest particularly between, so if you know your geography, like a sort of mid middle of Kansas South, all the way down into Texas, um, and even a little bit further North and in Nebraska can be really, really huge thunder storms. I mean, I mean, tens of miles of thunderstorms and if the. If the weather is right and it's hot and you've have enough fuel in the air. And it starts to usually come in from the sort of the Colorado New Mexico area, it starts to build up and yeah, and look out, uh, or in this case, West, Texas, you know, it starts building up and you can get these huge storms if they start to churn and that, and it happens at the right time of day. You get these gigantic hailstorms, which, and then in terms create all these lightning strikes and that is not abnormal. I think we're just paying more attention to it now. But if you ever, if you have the opportunity to drive through the middle of the United States and wonder all the trees are that they're all the trees are small young. You don't see old trees there it's because the hailstorm. Wipe them out. If they get trees of any certain size they're going to come down. And at one point years ago, this is probably five ish, 10 years ago. Now once you start to hit with a huge. Um, hailstorm and just wiped out all the little trees just completely devastated the city. So this is not unusual. I think the number of, and likes to be able to count them as unusual but 30. Was it 30,000 lightning strikes is a lot of lightning strikes that's within, uh, within eight miles of, uh, Oklahoma university is Norman campus. So. That's insane. So when you say this hailstorm wiped out all these trees, was it the hail itself? When you're saying like the lightening effects ...

In this episode we discuss the effectiveness of trailing edge serrations, (branded as Dino Tails by Siemens Gamesa), and how they also change the lightning strike profile of turbine blades. Watch the YouTube version here. We also explored blade testing and what new, bigger facilities might mean for accurate testing of ever-increasing, mammoth wind turbine blades. Lastly, GE has been in a patent dispute with a number of other wind turbine manufacturers, and we explore the ramifications of continued litigation for all the involved companies. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Full Transcript - Uptime EP24: Dino Tails, Trailing Edge Serration Tech & Advances in Blade Testing Centers Dan: This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. At Weather Guard, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator, stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our strike tape lightning protection system. Learn more in today's show notes or visit  weatherguard.com/striketape. https://youtu.be/z54lHfcbBF0 Allen Hall: Welcome back I'm Allen hall.  Dan: I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. All right. Welcome back to the uptime podcast. I'm Dan Blewett and I'm joined here remotely by lightning protection expert Allen Hall. Allen, how are you?  Allen Hall: Great Dan, another busy week, a lot of things in the news. What do you, what do you got at the top of the list?  Dan: So today in our episode, [00:01:00] we're going to talk about, uh, the patent dispute between GE and Siemens Gamesa, renewable energy. Um, there's some interesting news about new testing facilities, potentially opening up in the future. Um, we're going to talk about a pretty interesting wind, uh, prototype that could potentially handle typhoon winds. And lastly, we're going to talk a bunch about dyno tails and their, uh, inspiration from the owl, which Al's are just such awesome creatures. They're just amazing. But anyway, a dyno tales are pretty interesting. They reduce the noise. And a, of obviously turbine blades create a lot of noise or slicing through the air so fast. And if they reduce this noise, then they can potentially operate a higher speeds and still be in compliance with local laws. So we'll chat a little bit about that. So, yeah, it's been busy, Alan. How, uh, how are things up there in Massachusetts?  Allen Hall: Oh, it's summertime we're we're, uh, trudging along, uh, take a little ride up to, uh, Vermont. Uh, check out some of the wind turbine sites up there. There's, there's a number of wind turbine sites have been added in the last five years, I'd [00:02:00] say. Uh, so there's a lot of different varieties of wind turbines locally. And obviously even across the United States, pretty much, uh, within an hour's drive or so you're going to be able to find wind turbines in the States. It's, it's a very active marketplace right now.  Dan: What are the biggest sizes up by you? You see a pretty wide range. Are they all pretty, pretty steady?  Allen Hall: 45 meter, 15 meter blades is, but be about the biggest we see up here. I think that's a factor of, uh, just the weather, the winter conditions tend to limit that and, and the, the mountaintop rural locations that these get installed in.  Dan: Yeah. Gotcha. So, Speaking of, uh, you know, high market share in the U S GE, which is, I think still number one, or they're, they're getting maybe caught by Vestas in the U S uh, GE is defending their, uh, one of their licensing agreements with other turbine companies. So they're in a dispute between Siemens Gamesa.

The University of Maine has secured two investors for a single 12MW wind turbine that will float 14 miles offshore at a price tag of...$100 million dollars? Why is this price tag so insanely high? Plus, Allen and Dan discuss the potential defects that might have caused a 50M wind turbine to bend and crash to the ground in Patagonia. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Full Transcript: EP23 Wind Knocks Over a Big Wind Turbine? And, a $100M Price Tag for Just One Floating Turbine Off the Coast of Maine?

Vestas had a rough quarter, reporting 175MM in losses from warranty claims due to high-intensity lightning strikes. It's not clear what this means, but Allen and Dan dig in. Plus, more wind turbine customers are choosing to bring operations and maintenance in-house. Does this spell the beginning of the end for the profitable service contracts long enjoyed by turbine manufacturers? Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Full Transcript: Uptime Podcast EP22 - Vestas Wastes 175MM in Lightning-Related Warranty Claims, Plus - Are OEMs Out as Service Providers? Dan: This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. At Weather Guard, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator, stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our Strike Tape lightning protection system. Learn more in today's show notes or visit weatherguard wind.com/strike tape. Allen: Welcome back. I'm Allen hall.  Dan: I'm Dan Blewett and this is the Uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running.  In today's episode, we're gonna talk a bunch about lightning strikes. Uh, some articles, obviously it's summertime. So there is electrical energy all over. Our marvelous planets. We're going to talk a little bit about that. Uh, Vestas has been having some lightening warranty issues. Obviously again, it is the summertime, so that's not surprising, but they've reported $175 million loss because of additional warranty issues. So we're going to chat through that. And then our second segment, as we talked about engineering, we're going to talk a little bit more about, uh, O and M contracts and the idea that a lot of these wind turbine manufacturers are maybe going to lose. Service contracts to their own customers who are potentially going to bring operates operations and maintenance in house to save money. So Allen hall is here with us, Alan, how are you doing  Allen: great, Dan boy, uh, this Vestus lightening issue was really surprising when it was announced. I haven't seen any numbers, nearly the high in terms of lightning strikes for any particular OEM. It wasn't that just, it just seemed like off the charts, a massive amount of money.  Dan: That's a lot of dough, 175 million.  Allen: Yeah. I can't. They didn't the one thing that was asked, but I don't think answered was how many blades are we talking about and where, and that didn't get answers. So that will trickle out over time. I think if somebody is really on it, uh, but. In terms of financial numbers. Did you watch a Vesta stock with an after the announcement? It went up?  Dan: No, I don't. Yeah.  Allen: Yeah, it did. It went up well. Okay. So they had a pretty good, I think if you just discount that one time, one time, $175 million, uh, loss, essentially our fee to fix the blades. The rest of it was very positive and invest. This is in a really good position right now. I think that the just. Financially sound. They have cashflow, they got great products, positive things are happening there. But boy, talk about, we've never seen anything like that. I haven't  Dan: well, well, well, I find the cyborg fascinating in its irrationality, which in my limited studies of it, and I should disclose, I, I own, um, Norwegian cruise line stock. I bought a recently at a very, very steep discount. Mind you. Um, and I plan to keep it for a while. So I'm not concerned about its fluctuations. Uh, But I watched them, which is again, fascinating. They're a good exam. So, uh, bought it around 15, a share and recently went down to 13. I'm like, eh, look, you know, and then when there was news,

In this episode of the uptime podcast, we discuss crawling wind turbine blade repair robots and how supercomputers are being used to calculate wind jets offshore to optimize placement of turbines. Lastly, floating wind turbine farms are getting a boost with new loan options. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Full Transcript: EP21 Crawling Repair Robots and Supercomputer Wind Calculations Plus Better Offshore Wind Farm Financing Dan Blewett: This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. At Weather Guard, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator, stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our strike table lightning protection system. Learn more in today's show notes or visit  dot com slash strike tape. Allen Hall: Welcome back I'm Allen hall. Dan Blewett: I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. All right, welcome back. This is uptime episode 21. And on today's show, we've got a bunch of great topics for you. First off, we're going to talk a little bit about financing for offshore wind. So there's a, a new type of loan that's become common on with onshore wind farms, but it looks like it might become viable soon for offshore. So is exciting. We'll talk a little bit about hydrogen. Um, Jeremy's got some things in the works. Uh, GE is also using. Supercomputers to figure out air flow, some of these complex, um, just types of circulation out there in the ocean. Pretty interesting. So they can kind of predict what some of these off shore sites, um, what they might yield. And then we're also going to talk a little bit about crawling robots, flying drones, some new technology in. Uh, when blade, uh, damage detection. And lastly, there's a pretty interesting paper on leading edge erosion that we're going to cover a lot of really interesting takeaways from that. Allen Hall: A lot of exciting things in, in wind news this week. Uh, w what I really want to talk about that G supercomputer, cause I think that's a cool technology, but let's start off with the offshore wind and the financing you want to describe that a little bit deeper? Dan Blewett: Yeah. Yeah. So non-recourse loans could really lower. Wind energies fixed costs. And it's suddenly, this is basically in, I guess, unsecured isn't exactly the right word, but on leveraged loan, is that how you interpret this? Allen Hall: Right? Uh, would be like, uh, getting a mortgage on your house, but they can't come take the house if you don't make it the payments. Dan Blewett: Yeah. So it sounds like it's basically secured by the, by the future profits. So, um, pretty interesting that I guess lenders are starting to feel like the offshore floating technology. Is, you know, to the point where it's, I guess, maturing where they feel comfortable that, Hey, this is not going to just topple over. And our investment will be gone. Cause if we can't take the physical assets, then we have nothing. Like they need this to keep running, to get paid. But that sounds interesting that if the markets getting there that these non-recourse loans will. Tensley paved the way for a lot of offshore floating wind farms. Allen Hall: It will, is there getting confidence in the ability of those off shore sites to produce energy, even late in the lifetime, which is what it's all about. Then the risk goes way, way down. So it'd be like investing in a slot machine. Right. The slot machine is going to put out, put out, put up, put out, no matter what you do. As long as the slot machine doesn't break,

We discussed whether the NRG bat deterrent system works for wind turbines - will it really keep bats safe? Also in this episode: GE news, whether new legislation will help bring a wind farm to reality in the Great Lakes, and whether or not aesthetics play a role in off-shore wind farm approval and acceptance by the public. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Full Transcript EP20 - Does the NRG Bat Deterrant System Work? GE News, a Great Lakes Wind Farm Gets a Boost, and Are Aesthetics Holding Back Off-Shore Wind in the US? Today we've got a bunch of great topics. So first we're gonna talk about. This isn't current news, it's old news, but a little bit news to us and worth mentioning, which is a blade flew off, off of a windmill, a narrowly missing some homes, uh, back in the end of 2019. So we're gonna talk about kind of the implications about in general, what happens when things go wrong with, uh, with wind turbines? Uh, we're gonna talk a little bit about GE. And their different businesses and what their outlook looks like for the future. And a little bit about offshore wind and people's conceptions about it because we know that some opposition, especially here in the U S is about the aesthetics and peoples. Beautiful view out into the, uh, the blue ocean. And then our second segment, we're gonna talk a little bit about the NRG bat deterrent system. Uh, it's berberine recently installed on a few wind farms and obviously in the effort to be a little more environmental friendly, environmentally friendly. And keep these little animals safe that eat all of our mosquitoes for us. And then lastly, we'll chat a little bit about European, renewables and standardization for systems on wind turbines. So Allen, the big two. Oh. Show 20. Allen Hall: Yeah, show 20. And we've got a blade flying off, down in New Jersey. How about that? Yeah, that's an interesting news story. I hadn't seen that news story when it came out, but I don't know why it showed up in the newsfeed again recently, but the videos pretty amazing. Dan: Did you see how far that blade went? Yeah. Terrifying. No. I mean, those things have so much power that, I mean, you see these things in the distance that, you know, the big ones and they look like they're going kind of slow, but the tip speeds are, you know, 180 miles per hour or whatever. So this one was not a massive one. This was on a, on a metal kilowatt. Yeah, but still, I mean, Allen Hall: it's in a neighborhood or two, I think as well. It just depends on what you think of it as a neighborhood, but that's a neighborhood now. There's a lot of homes around there. So when that blade came off, it they're very lucky. I didn't hit a car or a house or a person. So they're just fortunate. Dan: Really fortunate. Yeah. Well, and, and I think the bigger point here is also, I think, especially with new technologies, when something goes wrong, like for example, when one of the Tesla self driving cars, you know, Hit a person everyone's like, Oh my God, this is, this, this can't work. This stuff is so dangerous. Where reality comparing it to all the other things that could potentially kill you or cause destruction. Um, I mean, do you feel like there's a negative misconception about the wind industry or not so much or where you fall on, on incidents like this to these settings, set them back at all. Allen Hall: It used to happen a lot more than it does now. And I think it's just because there's been more oversight and as a Terminus has gotten larger, it's the consequences are higher. So there's more redundancy into there and to all the systems, not just the blades themselves, but on older blades. You gotta wonder how often they're looked at inspected, maintained,

In this episode we discuss the news of New York State soliciting for 2.5GW of off shore wind power, the UK betting on battery storage, and lightning strikes on trees. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Full Transcript: EP19 New York State Adding 2.5GW of Off Shore Wind; UK Bets on Batteries; Lightning Strike Research on Trees Dan: This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning tech. At Weather Guard, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator, stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our StrikeTape lightning protection system. Learn more in today's show notes or visit weatherguardwind.com/striketape. Allen Hall: Welcome back. I'm Allen hall. Dan: I'm Dan Blewett and this is the Uptime Podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. all right, welcome back. This is the uptime podcast. This is episode 19. I'm your cohost Dan Blewett. And in today's episode, we're going to cover a bunch of different news related topics in wind energy. So first New York. Has released some recent solicitation for two and a half gigawatts of wind power to be located somewhere off shore, which is pretty exciting. Um, we're going to talk about a little bit about ways or people are actually still getting struck by lightning, which is scary to think about and, um, self driving cars, all sorts of stuff. Alan, you can't laugh yet. I haven't introduced you. All right. And then, um, the UK has cleared a path for some giant batteries to source some of this solar energy. And wind power energy, which is also something that's, uh, I mean the battery potential in the sector is pretty exciting for the future. I mean, we don't think about homes being able to be powered by batteries and businesses, but that might be reality pretty soon. Um, we'll talk a little bit about lightening strikes and how does credible, how incredible the numbers daily lightening strikes. There are all throughout the world. I mean, 8 million a day, essentially. And then last arranged some Alan's takes, uh, takeaways from the Dallas, um, virtual wind, uh, seminar, the wind operations from this past week. So Alan heard you over there. How are, how are you today? Allen Hall: Yeah. Lightning strikes to people are really serious. And you always cringe when you hear that, because there's so many ways to avoid them today. And some parts of the world's a little harder than others, but, uh, you still read about it and it's a very common event. It's not zero and it's not thousands, but it's somewhere in between. And yeah. I've gotten better over time, but I did, did, uh, attend a number of the wind operations, Dallas, uh, virtual conference, that Reuters events, uh, I had going this past week and that was really interesting. Uh, I got a lot of, uh, new insight into the industry in particular, the. Um, the, the, the monitoring that happens and all the technology that's evolved around it and performance and how the performance of the turbines is monitored and how, how it's interpreted and how they try to maximize, uh, the full power business, the full power of generators. It was, it was interesting. Dan: Yeah. So wind operations. Dallas is a yearly conference this year. They went virtual obviously. Um, so they claim to have a 2,500 virtual attendees, which is pretty good. And it's the mainly for asset owners and operator, uh, and operators and looking for just insights into when O and M. So, um, any particular takeaways, any topics that really grabbed your attention? Allen Hall: It's actually the last presentation that there were a lot of good presentations and I've watched some...

Are wind turbines wearing out faster than the advertised, typical 20-year lifespan? New research says yes, and we discuss what this means for the industry. We also discuss turbine blade engineering and how carbon fiber spar can reduce weight by 20-30% over all-glass blades. Hydrogen power and long distance power transmission cables are also on the docket in this wind energy podcast episode. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Full Transcript: EP18 - Are Wind Turbines Wearing Out Faster than Advertised? Fiberglass vs Carbon Fiber Blades and More Dan: This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech at Weather Guard, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator, stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our strike table lightning protection system. Learn more in today's show notes or visit  dot com slash strike tape. Allen Hall: Welcome back I'm Allen hall. Dan: I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. Welcome back. This is uptime episode 18 Allen. What's a what's the word this week. Allen Hall: The future of wind turbine technology is bright, more, more green shoots, more activity. It's looking better and better every week. It doesn't feel like it, it certainly doesn't feel like it, but the data indicates that positive things are happening. So keep some pause, sort of thoughts, go in and hope for some momentum. And we, we keep moving, especially Europe, Europe's doing seem to be really well and getting through those Cobra nights, teen thing, United States, not so much, which, uh, It gives the EU at a huge advantage. Quite honestly, people are going back to work. Kids were in school, over in Europe. We're still in the United States. We're still not talking about going back to school colleges or my saw some more notes yesterday. Obviously Harvard is not going back to school. I think Prince is not going back. A lot of the Ivy league schools are not going back. There's no in the fall. Um, No, the you's going to have a six month advantage on the United States, so that we're going to have to see how that plays out. What's new in Europe. Dan: Um, yeah. Uh, you know, DC's just chugging along. I think we're doing fine. Uh, it's interesting that we were on the last ones to open back up and seemingly doing really well. The numbers have continued to come down. They're on a very tiny increase, like. 30 cases to 50 cases kind of thing, but it's, it's pretty, it's pretty quiet here. Um, so yeah, I mean, things are, things are feeling more normal, I suppose, but anyway, so in today's show, we're going to cover, get a couple, a couple of different topics. We're going to talk about this a really interesting 470 miles. Uh, underwater cable, um, between Denmark and UK, we're going to talk about hydrogen power a little bit. And the future of that in renewable energy. Um, a little bit more about carbon fiber versus fiberglass, as far as construction of some of these turbine blades, which are just, just enormous, which is a common theme everywhere. And the wind industry. I'm also interesting white paper came out about the lifetime analysis of wind turbine components and kind of measured and discussed some of the simulations. And then versus a little bit of reality that maybe they're not lasting quite as long as we hope and think they are. And so, you know what, maybe some of the, uh, implications are there of, you know, if these are gonna wear out sooner than. Then we think then how do we need to adjust maybe like profit forecasts and other stuff like that. So, um,

Allen and Dan discuss Japan's plan to add 10GW of power in the next 10 years, new wind turbines in India from Siemens Gamesa Renewable energy, and how marine life may be impacted by offshore wind turbines. In segment two, Allen goes into detail on electrical bonding issues in the lightning protection systems of wind turbines. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Full Transcript: EP17 A Great Quarter for Wind Capacity; Electrical Bonding Issues with Wind Turbines Dan: This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech at Weather Guard, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator, stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our strike tape lightning protection system. Learn more in today's show notes or visit weatherguardwind.com/striketape. Allen Hall: Welcome back I'm Allen Hall. Dan: I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the Uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. All right, welcome back to uptime. This is episode 17, Allen. What's going on. Allen Hall: Hey, busy weekend wind, huh? Uh, a lot of, uh, good activity. You see some awakening a little bit on the wind side and, uh, it looks like Japan's doing some good things trying to expand their, their wind infrastructure and Siemens Gamesa is making some inroads into India. Great. This has been a, going to be a great week. Dan: Yeah. So in today's show, we're going to cover a little bit on the, on the news side, like Allen mentioned, um, there's been a good first quarter, uh, for the wind industry. Um, some expansion into India. We're gonna talk about Japan a little bit and, um, kind of briefly. Check on wildlife in the ocean. So there's a new, um, good article came out about offshore wind and, uh, maybe some of the implications on ocean wildlife. Then we're gonna talk a little bit about bonding and grounding, um, and some of the electrical issues that are posed, uh, by winter by Anson. I know Alan, you've had some questions recently with all that. So we'll cover that, uh, in the second half of our show today. So first thing on the docket, I mean, so good first quarter for wind. I'm so sorry, nearly 14 gigawatts of wind turbine capacity, Warbird order globally, which equates to an estimated 13 point $4 billion. So what do you, what do you see with all this? I mean, that's pretty exciting. I mean, this is becoming a, a pretty, uh, main stable in the, not that it hasn't been, but. Things are looking up. Allen Hall: Yeah, that's a good number. Yeah, that's a good number. Right? So one gigawatt equals $1 billion in sales. That's what that says. That's a great number because as we've talked about doing more and more gigawatts, that means a really big drivers of, of local economies. And, uh, the, the, the places where, uh, especially as we're seeing on the shorelines of inspo and around Europe, and now some Suzlon getting back on their feet again. That's great for the world economy to have people working, which is what that says in order to have $13 billion of acts of sales means a lot of people are working. That's a good sign. Dan: Yeah. Well, there's a lot of capacity getting bought up by China. I mean, you look at some of the, the charts here and there just a, it looks like they're getting more and more aggressive and Japan and Taiwan, uh, Orders for their projects accounted for 33% of the quarter, one global offshore wind turbine order intake and 42% of overall offshore demand in Asia. So, yeah, and it looks like, uh, Vestus is a pretty, uh, a pretty big player on all that. So, yeah, they are, I mean, this is something that you just look at it and you'r...

Are segmented turbine towers the future as wind turbines climb higher and higher? Siemens Gamesa named a new CEO recently, and Suzlon has restructured--will the business survive? Some incredible electric storms occurred recently, including a 1.3 billion volt storm in South Africa and a 400 mile long lightning bolt across Brazil. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Full Transcript: EP16 - Segmented Turbine Towers; Gamesa and Suzlon Shake Things Up; 400 mile Lightning Bolt? Allen Hall: Welcome back I'm Allen hall. Dan: This is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. Allen Hall: Great boy, busy weekend wind turbines again. COVID-19 is having a, a, an effect on everything. I'm just trying to follow. All the news is coming in. It's almost difficult to keep track of all the changes that are happening now in the wind turbine industry. So, uh, let's get to it. I mean, Big big, big changes all over the place. Uh, you know, we're seeing all kinds of push towards, uh, offshore wind turbines. And I think that's driving a lot of the management changes that are happening. It's also causing a lot of restructuring to happen and boil boy, uh, talk about chaotic. We're in it right now. Dan: Yeah. So we're going to jump into news in a second, but, so let's talk about this new piece of tech. That is kind of an interesting, so we talked about concrete, um, wind turban towers, and the last couple episodes, specifically the three D printing, but. Now, they're talking a little bit about segmented wind turbine towers as being potentially the lowest cost alternative for when they get really, really tall, which is obviously like in everyone's future. So we're talking about how hub Heights above 100 meters. Um, well, well above that more like 200, 200 plus meters, but obviously there's a thousand meters. Yeah. Well, there's a big problem when yeah. You know, they get above a hundred meters because transportation gets really difficult. So. Um, what do you think of these segmented? So the segmented tower technology is essentially, you know, having segments where you're going to bolt them together and they're going to be easier to ship and you've got to assemble them, but there's going to be much more engineering and. And fasteners and a lot of, a lot of different, like I said, engineering to make these work, but how do you feel about this? Is it going to be viable? Is that make the most sense? Allen Hall: Makes most sense? Cause you can be able to transport it. The biggest problem in wind turbines right now is the ability to transport from factory to site and. That's why you see this big push of factories getting shoved toward the Schwar lights, because the wind turbines are getting so much bigger that they need to be going by boat no longer can we just move them on truck? And when that happens, yeah. You got to think of ways that you can start moving these things on truck reasonably because the weights go up too. So you have a kind of a combinational problem of the sizes get big and the weights get so heavy that they can't really put them on a road. So you've got to figure out ways to reduce. The overall size of each of the pieces and then okay. And get them on a truck or a ship. So it's, it's a, a real, real unique engineering problem. Uh, just seeing this articles, more recent articles about, uh, building a segments, like the one up in Sweden where they're building it out of wood, which means they're building it in segments. And then now we're talking about. Basically building metal sections that get bolted together, much like most other metal buildings and structures in the world are built.

In this episode we discuss 3D printed wind turbine towers and how this tech can change the efficiency of wind power by allowing much higher tower heights, which will reach much higher wind speeds. We also go in-depth on floating wind farm technology, and discuss whether this will end up powering American homes in the near future. The United States has lots of deep water off its coasts, yet so far only the Scotland Hywind wind farm uses floating turbine designs. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Full Transcript: EP15 - 3D Printed Wind Turbine Towers, Floating Wind Farm Technology Breakdown https://youtu.be/Uvj7HbEI5Vw Dan: This episode is brought to you by weather guard, lightening tech at weather guard, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator, stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our StrikeTape lightning protection system. Learn more in today's show notes or visit weatherguard.com/striketape Allen Hall: Welcome back I'm Allen hall. Dan: I'm Dan Blewett and this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. Alright, Allen. So interesting news with a wind turbine based technology. So 3D printing, it looks like they're testing the capabilities to 3D print, these concrete bases, which is gonna have the implication of allowing 3D printed wind turbine towers to get a lot taller. So. What do you got on the subject? Allen Hall: Well, it's, it's the evolution of 3D printing, right? It's gone from making little plastic toys, to making jet engine parts, which GE has done for a number of years now. And now we're into concrete. Why not? Right. Concrete's the next step. Why not make it out of concrete? So the article I saw was really interesting about how they're just sort of zigzagging these little it's like a nozzle. So it kind of looked like it was like a squirting out nozzle of concrete. Dan: Yeah. So I know you're, you're not a millennial, so you're not on Instagram as much, but I've seen some of this on Instagram. And they've actually been doing this, like trying to build houses in, in lower socio socioeconomic, places, you know, like some small countries, they can whip out a whole house by 3D printing the walls like that. So I've seen this before plastic and out of concrete--out of concrete. So this isn't, this is the first time I've seen this, but it's the first time I've heard about it in the winter, by an industry. So yeah, they like the, and I don't know if this is their final design by any means, but the photo that you and I are both looking at is, you know, this, inner, inner wall, essentially with like the zigzag pattern, kind of like the way a cardboard is, right. It's got the top layer, the bottom layer and this zigzag. That seems to be what they're doing to, to save. I'm sure. Just the volume of concrete, since it's a, you know, the load is down, you know, it's pushing down on it. It doesn't really need to be Allen Hall: spiral around in, is that, or is it actually like a printer, like a, inkjet printer where it just zip in left and right. To think, think to make the, to make this thing? Dan: No, it follows it. Yeah, it follows exactly. I mean, you can kind of see the way the concrete flows like it. It, it follows it and it just, so I guess they kind of set it up, like, how would I liken this? it's it's one of those structures. So it looks like, you know, like a, like a crane. Yeah. And you know, it just, it follows its pattern, like a CNC machine and it just keeps pumping it and then it repeats and just goes around, around, around, around, around. So, yeah,

Are floating wind turbines--which are capable of producing electricity in deep water where winds are highest--something that we'll see more of in the near future? Right now there is only one floating wind farm in the world, locating in Scotland. Allen and Dan discuss the implications of deep water floating turbines and what's keeping them from mainstream use. Allen also breaks down new research on carbon fiber spar and what it means for wind turbine blade construction. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Full Transcript from Uptime Podcast EP14 - Floating Wind Turbines, Carbon Fiber Spar and Wind Turbine Tech [00:00:00] Dan: This episode is brought to you by weather guard, lightening tech at weather guard, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator, stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our strike table lightning protection system. Learn more in today's show notes or visit  dot com slash strike tape. Allen Hall: Welcome back I'm Allen hall. Dan: This is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. Alan, how you doing back for another episode of uptime? Allen Hall: Yeah, busy week, Dan, a lot, a lot of crazy things going on in the world and to, you know, we're just one small part of it. How are things down in D C it sounds like you've had some excitement down your way. Dan: Yeah. Um, once of the [00:01:00] protests briefly last weekend, it seems like it's calming down a lot here, which is, which is good, but it seems like a lot of the, you know, there's a lot of valid reasons people are pushing for change. So it's good that people. Peaceful. He got to get their word out and had their voices heard. And it seems like a lot of things are gonna change for the better, which is really positive. So, so yeah. Allen Hall: Good. Uh, are, are you getting more into summertime down there now? And it's it's it's Dan: June, it's full blown summer. Yeah. It's like 80, 80 to 90 degrees every day, this past week. So. Yeah, it's taken a, a quick turn. There were, there really was no spring. I mean, I guess there was, but it was like sixties and seventies. And then now it's like quickly 90 in human. So pretty quick. And Allen Hall: people are starting to go outside a little bit more, even with the crone of ours. Um, Still kicking around. Are they masking up still or is it kind of just get outside and wander Dan: around? Uh, so at the protests, almost everyone was in a mask. I mean, [00:02:00] the overwhelming majority were, were wearing masters cause people were, they knew they were going to be in close quarters. But outside of that, most people I'd say it's 60, 40, don't wear a mask when they're outside. I don't wear a mask when it's out, when I'm outside. I think that's. I think it's a little silly. Um, it just depends on proximity, but there's some people that still jog in their masks. There's some people that still still sees couples walking with both masks on. Um, so it's just, you know, it seems to be a personal preference, but there's definitely a lower prevalence of masks Allen Hall: for sharing store starting open. Cause we're starting open stores up here, which is really the big thing for everybody. Dan: So we're on phase one. I think phase two is probably coming up soon. Phase one was just. Uh, restaurants reopened for patio seating. So like I could go to I'm yet to go to a restaurant I've eaten at like Chipola having taken out, take out here and there, but I have not sat down at a outdoor restaurant, but they're like getting pretty busy now, which is good. And people are excited about it. Um,

SkySpecs CEO Danny Ellis joined us to talk about the fully automated wind farm, and his vision for using data and autonomous drone inspections to revolutionize operations and maintenance in the wind energy industry. How can Skyspecs' automated, high-tech wind turbine drone inspections impact the wind industry? And how can their proprietary Horizon software use data analytics to make operations and maintenance easier and more cost-efficient than ever? He shared his big vision with us in Uptime Episode 13. Learn more about Skyspecs and what they can do for wind farm operators. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Watch the video version on Youtube. Full Transcript: Uptime EP13 - SkySpecs CEO Danny Ellis Wants to Create the Automated Wind Farm Dan Blewett: [00:00:00] Alright. Welcome back to Uptime. So we've got an awesome guest today. Danny Ellis, the CEO of SkySpecs is here with us. Allen. So having already recorded this conversation, what were some of your takeaways from, from Danny Ellis? Allen Hall: [00:00:21] To me. It's about the technology, Danny and SkySpecs are bringing it to the wind turbine market. They are really pushing the envelope in terms of technology. It's not a drone company anymore. It is now a data company and a, a management company to make sure that you wind turbines are operating at their optimum and you can prevent. Really severe damage by using the technology in their horizon software. It's an amazing piece of equipment they have in an amazing piece of software. So a very interesting interview with Danny. Dan Blewett: [00:00:57] Yeah. I, just hearing the way they can do these models of, of the wind turbine, the way their drones, you know, their operators basically take them out, hit star and the drone. Automatically flies, maps out the, you know, all three blades, you know, scans for damage, and then they can give that all that data back to their customers. And the horizon software is pretty intense. I, I mean, some of the things you just wouldn't think about, like, Oh yeah, I could get my own drone and, and inspect my own wind turbines, but. He rings up a lot of really good points, which is you're going to get that close to the blades, even when they're not spinning without crashing that thing over and over and over to do 15 wind turbines in a day, which is, which is what they can do. And to have them doing that in an automated way. Cause that's, I think that was my big takeaway is how they were engineering for scale. Not just for like, yeah. Anyone could grab a drone and just go survey a drone or a turbine for one day, but can you scale that? Right? That's why it's gotta be automated. Right. And, yeah, that's that's right. And then that's not the point. Anyway, the point like you said, is that they need to, so these wind turbine operators need that data to say, okay, well we know we have cracks in these blades. These ones need repairs. These won't have some minor damage that we don't need to repair or Hey, SkySpecs. Like what do we, what do we do with this data? Like, do we need to repair every wind turbine blade? No, this one has a little bit of damage. Should we do that one now? Or should we put that off for the future? You know, what's the best bang for our buck. and that seems like the big selling point for their software, which is, Hey, we'll inspect it. We can do it really efficiently. And. We're going to give you all the data and we're going to help you interpret it and say, and give you some suggestions about what you should do with it. Allen Hall: [00:02:38] Yeah. And it's also the ease of use of the software. It's, it's very interactive. Things are on the cloud. you can access it at any time and it's in the data is secure from the second.

Allen and Dan discuss the massive new 15MW Siemens Gamesa 14-222 DD wind turbine, the pros and cons of direct drive vs gear drives in nacelles, and lightning strike deaths in India. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Uptime Podcast EP12 Transcript - Siemens Gamesa 14-222 DD, Lightning Deaths in India, & Direct-Drive Nacelles Dan: [00:00:00] I'm Dan Blewett and this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. All right. Welcome back to the uptime podcast. I'm your cohost Dan joined here by Allen Hall, our resident lighting protection expert, Allen, how you doing? Allen Hall: [00:00:31] Great, Dan? How's it been down there? Dan: [00:00:33] Hey, thanks. We're looking sunny. It is a DC in the summer. Now, a lot of sun and a lot of humidity. And, obviously there's still been a lot of turmoil in the country, but you know, things are. Things are looking up it's, it's transitioning to summer. So you can't be too unhappy about that. Allen Hall: [00:00:49] So Washington DC is actually built on a swamp, Dan: [00:00:52] right? It's what I've heard. Very mosquito. Yeah. Allen Hall: [00:00:56] That's what I wonder is, is it Dan: [00:00:57] mosquito season yet? Not yet, but I've heard that that's, that's a common, so yeah, growing up, I mean, I grew up in Maryland an hour North, so it was always humid and hot in the summer, but. and there's mosquitoes obviously everywhere, but I'm yet to experience full time residency of the DC mosquitoes. So we'll see. We'll see. Allen Hall: [00:01:19] And have you, have you seen your murder horn at yet or they've invaded Washington, D C Dan: [00:01:24] no. I don't want any Asian giant Hornets anywhere near me. Have you seen those? They've had a sort of similar thing called Cicada killers. Have you seen those? They're very big. They're like the same. Three. They're like three inch long and they have those in Maryland. We had some like right near my house, like in my backyard, but they don't, they don't like have a stinger where they would ever attack a human. They just, literally, their thing is they will paralyze a Cicada with their sting and drag it down to their whole. They live on it like a thumb sized hole in the ground and it'll drag us a K to back down to their children. but those, those are so big. And until I like looked them up and figured out that they weren't there weren't harm. They're harmless. I would like see them outside and SWAT at them, then they come around. I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, sir. Like, don't spare spare me. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it, but if that's a real thing with these Asian giant Hornets, like the same size, but they are vicious. I don't want any part of that. No, no. Thanks. Allen Hall: [00:02:20] Yeah. Well, you can keep them down South where it's warmer up here, where it snows a lot. I think they'll want to stay where that's a little Dan: [00:02:26] more balmy. Yeah. I'm going to sleep. We're just too cold. I'm going to sneak onto the next space X launch and just leave this planet for good bugs are only getting bigger now it's terrifying. So yeah, but speaking of things, getting bigger, GE has just, or now has a competitor. So their world's biggest Haliade-X, wind turbine with Siemens Gamesa. So what's the news there, Allen? Allen Hall: [00:02:51] Well, everybody's trying to show how big they are. And Siemens Gamesa is coming out with a 222 meter diameter rotor. Offshore wind turbine, which is what a meter or two longer than the, than the GE Haliade X Dan: [00:03:10] system. So the Haliade X, which has a cool name is 220 meters rotor diameter with 107 meter blades and the Siemens Gamesa SG 1...

In this episode, Allen and Dan discuss wind turbine winglets: do they work to increase efficiency? And, wind turbine blade extensions are give the same scrutiny: is it a financially smart move to install these extensions? Tapping into experience from the aviation industry, Allen weighs in. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Watch the video version of the episode here on YouTube. powerpress EP11 - Wind Turbine Winglets & Blade Extensions: Full Transcript Alright, Allen, episode 11 big day. Big. The big one. One. I don't know why we're about, I don't know why this is a theme at the moment where we're just talking about the numbers of the episodes, but we're in double jettison. Just feels exciting. It feels exciting. I did look this up because my daughter was asking me about it through the day, like how many podcasts do the average. Podcasters put out before the it ends. I thought, well, that's a really good question because I've seen some in a couple hundred but most podcasts in around episode seven that's the industry. I really were like a way beyond that. Where w my John seven where did you get that info? Is that podcasts, podcasts, quitters.com or what? Google. Where do you go for any information like that? Google. You're like, you know, it's everyone's. Google's going to give you, it's gotta give you a source though. I mean, that could be Russian misinformation, like it definitely can be. Podcasts, quitters. Dot. Are you. Not a good source. Yeah. The dot. Are you, you should be a hint, right? You prior to lay off that site. Yeah, but I thought that was interesting right there that most podcasts only love last seven episodes, and I can see why. Right. Because you and I. We spend a good bit of time work on these episodes and we're going to have some more guests coming on. And you know, all the, all the prep work, all the after the post production stuff that we do and all the computer hardware and software and transcribing, all these things it takes, it's, we have a crew of people working on this pretty much day and night. Yeah. It's a soul crushing. It takes us soul crushing toll to get these all out to you. Listeners in podcast land, we are, ours is definitely more involved. Like ours is more involved than the vast majority because we do the video element and we separately record. So it's not just like zoom call, you know, one quick thing and Don, um. So, yeah, you're right there. There's a lot of work too. I think though, I think the big thing that podcasts struggle with is figuring out what is our podcasts about, and that's, that's the thing for almost everyone, where maybe you have an idea initially and then you just like run out of talking points or. It's just not as good, engaging as you thought it would be after like 10 episodes and now you're like trying to figure out what you're doing next. That seems to be a common theme. So, yeah, with my, my first one with my former business partner that we did, we eventually just ended up every convening, every, you know, once a week. And we're like, Dan, what are we talking about today? And I'm like, Lucas, I don't know. I don't know. And then we'd like. Beat our foreheads with our palms for 10 minutes sitting in the office. And then we're like, okay, we'll do this. And then after like too many weeks of that, you're like, it's just time. Like we just need to stop. Like if we don't always have, you know, good. Uh, whatever. And then obviously doing guests takes a lot out of you. It's, it's tough to consistently find guests unless you're a big, a big wig. So. Yeah, I mean that those are just hazards of the, the format, I think. Right. And the format is not getting any easier, any easier, just because there's tends to be more and more requirements about the q...

In episode 10, Allen and Dan discuss new nickel cobalt wind turbine leading edge protection tiles that can be retrofitted onto blades to enhance their leading edge durability. Leading edge erosion of wind turbine blades is a huge, industry-wide problem that is yet to be solved...is this new application of airplane propeller technology able to fix it? Also discussed was HVDC (high voltage direct current) and it's potential to replace HVAC (high voltage alternating current) as the top transmitter of power from offshore wind farms to the power grid. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Read articles on nickel cobalt tiles here: https://www.windpowerengineering.com/new-research-brings-aerospace-blade-protection-to-the-wind-industry/ and here: https://www.tdworld.com/renewables/article/20972636/getting-offshore-wind-power-on-the-grid EP10 - Nickel Cobalt Leading Edge Protection & HVDC Power: Full Episode Transcript Check out our YouTube video version here: https://youtu.be/a8vHHqEmG98 https://youtu.be/a8vHHqEmG98 At Weather Guard Lightning tech, we make wind turbine lightning protection easy. If you're a wind farm operator, stop settling for damaged turbine blades and constant downtime. Get your uptime back with our StrikeTape lightning protection system. Welcome back. I'm Allen Hall. I'm Dan Blewett and this is the Uptime Podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection, and ways to keep your wind turbines running. Allen, episode 10 of the Uptime Podcast. How, how do you feel about this double digit. It's exciting, isn't it? Yeah. Two two digits. Yeah. We've made it. We're big time now. We've got a long way to go get to get to three digits. That's the problem. That's a big gap. It's, yeah, and then we get the four digits as it's like we'll both be dead. We'll both be dead by that point. It's exponential. A long time. Yeah. We need to get to where we can count it. Well, are we at a w? No, we don't have any exponents yet. We've got to get some, have an exponent. Well, 10 to the second, 10 to the second, and we're tend to the zero. Is that where it, no, 10 zero would be one 10 to the first. Wouldn't tend to the zero B zero I liked under the zeros one. Hmm. I could be wrong. Isn't major in math, so it's fine. We're good? Yeah, we're good. So Corona virus week, like 97 Oh one minute recap. We're starting to come out of a self isolation there. They're opening up. Thinks this week, which means I think next we'll kind of thing. It's just like taco bell or taco bell. That's the critical as the critical one. Whenever taco bell opens up where it's like safe to slither out of our holes, let's just, let's just be, let's let you be known that talk about never closed. They were over the whole time. Yes. Well, yeah, they've been there. They've always been essential in all of America's hearts and stomachs. Yes. Thank you, taco bell for all you do of us staying open for us. Yes. But, uh, next week is, uh, all the barber shops and sorta that kind of nail salons and all of those things open up. So it's sort of a big milestone, I think. Yeah. Which I think is fine. I mean, that's fine. It's a small, tiny, yeah. You have a couple couple people. No big deal. Right? Well, maybe it's a big deal, but you have to be seen, I guess so. I'm just wondering how they're going to work at all. It sounds like it's one person at a time into the place and that's all fine, right? Yeah. I mean, the logistics of a lot of it, just like the empty seats, it just throws in the question like in an airplane. Okay, all every other seats empty. How does that affect, I mean, it just like, it's. All these metrics of how they build the business out and how many seats they have to sell to be profitable.

Wood wind turbine towers: are they here to stay? Will they catch fire if struck by lightning? Is it worth it over steel? We also discuss battery technology, leading edge erosion and what causes it, and more. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  EP9 - Wood Wind Turbines & More: Full Transcript All right. Welcome back. This is the uptime podcast is episode nine. I'm your cohost Dan Blewett. I'm joined here remotely by a lightening expert, Alan Hall. Alan, how are you? Hey, Dan, how are you? Crazy week this week, huh? Yeah, man, we were busy and, uh, DCS extended their lockdown until June 8th, so like longest in the world. Uh, but till wait till when? June, June, June 8th, June 8th. Oh my gosh. Yeah. We're going to be out of lockdown next week. Uh, and I, it's sort of County by County a little bit, but I, I doubt that we're gonna. Washington D C is unique because it's its own entity, right? I guess so. And someone was asking me, they're like, well, DC doesn't have a governor. Is it like, does the mayor have the power to do that? And I, I assume so. I don't really know. Of course. Seems like all the governors are getting sued and losing anyway. So it's like, I don't even know what's happening in our country. It's like, okay, no one has the power to do anything. So let me go. Let's go. Right. Yeah. No, I think, uh. I was telling you earlier, listening to CNN is making me nuts. Uh, it's just constant new, normal, new, normal. Well, when has society been a normal, I don't know when that is. And reporters talking about new normal, it seems to me is. Just abs from an engineer is, and this is an engineering perspective on all this, there is no normal, because every day we're trying to make the world a little bit better, or it's changing in some way or another, and there is no normal. So tomorrow is different than today as it was different than 10 years ago. So what, right. Yeah. I mean, I get that, but there's, this is definitely some sort of new normal, like I have to wear masks to go in an elevator, like that's not. That's not normal to you use that term. Well, I get that. Yeah. Okay. So have you ever been in an airplane where people smoked? No. Alright. Right. You ever been in an office where people smoked? No, I was right. You ever use a rotary telephone? Like what? The actual dial, you had to spin the damn thing. A millennial, you know that I haven't, no. I grew up on Instagram actually. I didn't tick down much, much on much past all that. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Fair enough. Fair point. Fair point. Right. I mean, I was in Seattle on September 11th things changed that day. We had a new normal that day. I had plastic silverware on my flight back, which had never had before. That was a new normal. Yeah. Every day. Every day is a new day, and the humans adapt. If we haven't adapted to the changing environment than we have been gone a long time ago. We're not Dodo birds. We're able to think through some things and, and you know, work through the situation we're in right now and we will work through it and we'll get back to some sort of a quote unquote normalcy, whatever. That was great. Yeah. Right. I think we're okay. Yeah. I'm just suffering from coronavirus talking about it. Fatigue. It's like literally the only thing anyone can talk about. It's becoming very obvious that we just, it's so front of mind for everybody. Very, very front of mind. Yup. That's crazy. But yeah, so speaking of which, as I transition out of coronavirus forever, I'm on the docket today. We're going to talk about w, uh, wood wind turbines, which is a pretty interesting thing. Obviously, not all of the circuitry, but you know, the towers, right? Um, and potentially blades.

In episode 8 of Uptime, we discussed some local U.S. news - the Trump administration is considering extending deadlines for construction to keep wind energy projects eligible for tax incentives. We discussed the 634m tall Tokyo Skytree and how it changes electrical activity in the atmosphere, as well as new technology from Challenergy who is building Typhoon-Proof wind turbines with a unique design. This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Show Transcript - Uptime Podcast EP8 Welcome back. This is the uptime podcast. I'm your cohost Dan Blewett. Allen. How are you doing today? Hey Dan, I'm doing well. Boy, it's been crazy up here in Massachusetts. Uh, earlier today we had, it wasn't rain. It wasn't snow. It was like snowing snowballs. I've never seen it before. It was like maybe like a quarter inch wide snowballs. It wasn't hail, but it's light. Uh, it was just the weirdest thing. We've had the weirdest weather. I don't know if it's part of this Corona virus thing. It's making the atmosphere. It's like raining coronavirus like snow meatballs or was like, yeah, it's like raining meatballs, but little white meatballs. It's kind of what it look like. So we're outside. We're start getting pelted by these snowballs from the sky. And it was the most bizarre. You got? I've seen it a long time. I've been in hailstorms, I've been in big hailstorms, I've been in sleet, you name it. But that was the first time I've been in like a snowball storm. So these like, they seem like you, you send me a quick clip of it, but it seemed like they were falling faster. I mean, were they icy? Like did you catch any in your hand? Like what, what, what was the consistency here? They were soft and fluffy, like, like a little meat, like a little soft. So they're just big. They're just big snowflakes. Then. Yeah. Well, no, Nope, Nope. You know what? Snowflake has those crystal line edges, so it has this definitive shape, right? So it looks like it's, it looks like a snowflake, but this has been balled up. So it looked like, yeah. Well, it looked like a snowflake that had kind of melt with other snowflakes, but didn't get hard. Like hail. What are you in a hailstorm like you, Kansas? Those hailstones could be quarter inch, half inch, one inch or larger diameter. Uh, this is even a much smaller and fluffy. Well. Speaking of hail, when you were living in Wichita, did you ever have your car get just like destroyed by hail is damaged by it? Well, everybody in your car, right? Just covered in like little dents. I've just like ruined it. Not little dance. Big dense. They had big Hills. Yeah. Breaking windshield, kind of hailstorms in Kansas. When we knew hailstone for coming, we would everybody scramble and get the heck out of work wherever and get the cars inside. Uh, I've, I've seen cars nearly destroyed and it's sort of a badge of honor a little bit, so people would keep the car. Sometimes the guys where I used to work used to keep the beat up trucks like that to show all the stores that have been through it. It's crazy how big the hailstones can get there because of the way the thunderstorms are huge and it just recycles the ice up and down, up and down. It just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and the storm that eventually falls out of the sky and hits your car. Oh yeah. It's crazy. Well, you don't, you don't have that kind of where to live there in Maryland, did ya? You're not like that. Uh, I've seen hail a handful of times in my life, I think more in Maryland than I did in, uh, in, in Illinois, my decade in Illinois. But, so I've seen hail a couple of times, but it's been very few and far between. Yeah. Wow. Okay.

In episode seven of the Uptime podcast, Dan and Allen discuss digital twins, the idea that data analysis can be visualized as an actual twin of the wind turbine in question. Vestas announces huge jobs cut and a wind turbine goes down in Kansas. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Check out the Windpower Engineering article on digital twins here: https://www.windpowerengineering.com/how-digital-twins-could-transform-the-wind-energy-industry/ Transcript Dan: All right. Welcome back. This is the Uptime Podcast. This is episode seven. I'm your cohost. Dan Blewett, and I'm joined here remotely by lightning protection expert, Allen Hall. Allen, how you doing?  Allen: Hey Dan. Good. How are you?  Dan: I'm doing great. Doing great. A little more energy this week. A lot of rain, but it didn't deter me. I got some good smells going on in my, in my place at the moment and got some pine tree scented wax melt or something. So it  Allen: smells like the outside.  Dan: You haven't seen smells like the forest. Yes. So doing all right. Doing all right. How are you doing?  Allen: well, you know, we're just kind of in quarantine mode. The governor extended our quarantine till May 18th. So we thought we were going to get offs, out of this quarantine sometime next week at that. That was the original plan, I think of May 4th or fifth was the original date. So now we're out to May 18th, and everybody's going stir crazy. Massachusetts has had a little bit of uptick in, in Corona virus cases, new cases. So the, the issue is. Massachusetts is a very long state and very narrow States, and Boston is near the water and we live on the far opposite end. In fact, grow on the state line. So when things happen in Boston, what tends to happen to the whole state ends up. doing the same thing. So Boston being in the Capitol, Massachusetts decides that there's, there's, an issue in Boston for coronavirus, so the whole state shuts down. So we, on the Western part of the state are just kind of wondering what's going on and when we can kind of get back to work. In fact, today, I thought. I was just going to and from the office and thought, boy, there's a lot of cars on the road today, so I kind of wonder if people are starting to hit the streets again. You see a lot of masks. All everybody's got a mask on and the grocery stores are full of masks. You see people walking up and down the streets, which you didn't see a week ago. So people are starting to get out and about a little bit. I think in our case, it's pretty calm in this part of the state.  Dan: Yeah. Well, so what's your opinion? So we're, I was talking about this on one of my other podcasts. the idea of, you know, businesses opening back up and people are starting to get, like you said, more than just a rumbling. But I mean, some people are protesting, obviously about, you know, we need to get to bed, we need to get back to work, let us take on the risk, whatever. obviously, I don't know why barbers have been like the highlighted ones. I don't know why. Like if they seen a salon owner, like I get that. Like, I have no issue with salons and barber shops opening up like small foot traffic. You know? I feel like that's reasonable. If you're going to slowly, you know, let some businesses reopen, that seems completely fine. Like we can't be in this forever. Right,  Allen: right. We can't be in forever. Don't you worry more about being on a bus. Or being in a taxi, I would too. those, those places don't make any sense to me. I'm not going to a movie theater. I'm not going to a concert. But one-on-one with interaction obviously is someone who's cutting your hair is going to be dealing with a lot of people from a lot of, from the surrounding area,

In this episode, we tackled positive vs negative lightning and the difference in destruction caused by each. We also talked about new research into scale testing of wind turbine blades, and the implications for properly lightning testing blades reaching enormous 100+ meter lengths. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Transcript: Positive vs Negative Lightning Dan: All right. Welcome back. This is the Uptime podcast. This is episode six. I'm your cohost Dan Blewett, and here on the Uptime podcast we talk about wind turbines, lightning protection, and everything renewable energy. I'm joined by my cohost, Allen Hall, lightning protection expert. Allen, how are you doing? Allen: Hey, great. Dan, how are you? Dan: Doing well, quarantine week, whatever. We don't even know anymore. Where are we? What day is it? Is it nighttime? Is it daytime? What's happening? It's raining outside. So you can't go outside today, but how's, how's your quarantine?  Allen: Uh, everybody is just, uh, quiet. Uh, I had a phone call today of all things from someone I haven't talked to in quite a while, and he's got, uh, three younger kids asked him how it was go with to have the kids home all the time. And he says, well, yeah. It's going. Um, yeah. It's hard to explain it to younger children and the older ones know more about what's happening and, and can kind of understand it. But the younger ones, I'm not sure if it's just kind of overwhelming pleasure of not being at school, or is it just complete total boardroom? So they probably actually bounce from one edge to the other on the boredom to excited scale all day. Uh, yeah. It's gotta be hard.  Dan: Well, that's the thing with summer vacation as a kid, I mean, you're out of school and you're so excited, but then you have lots of stuff to do. But then when August rolls around and you're like running out of stuff to do, and you're sitting at home and there's no baseball games and your friends on vacation, you're like, ah, I don't like school, but I kind of want to go back. And that's gotta be everyone's constant state right now. I mean, there's only so much to do in your house, even though video games or you know. Much more prevalent they were when I was a kid at least.  Allen: Oh. And they probably make it a killing right now. Right. Video games are going to be a hot, hot, hot online video games. It gotta be exploding just like Netflix and Amazon and all those video services and zoom. Right. So that the, the online presence has gotta be just huge right now and good for them, I guess. You know, at least they're there for us.  Dan: Yeah. What was funny, we were talking about, uh, you know, some of the future of. Travel and you know, autonomous vehicles and how it will allow us to travel so much faster. But at the same time, this quarantine has also really accelerated the technology of staying at home and doing stuff digitally and stop having so many meetings in person cause they're superfluous. So you wonder if we're almost going in opposite directions. Like yeah, we could take an autonomous aircraft and five years to get to a meeting really fast, but let's just do zoom because.  Allen: It's easier. Yeah.  Dan: So they're almost fighting each other. But  Allen: I kind of wonder that. I wonder, cause I've done a number of zooming. I had done a number of zoom meetings before this, this, this happened, and obviously now I do them all on, on zoom. We've been using zoom as our platform and it, at least with zoom, you kind of feel like it just, the way it's set up, it's, it's simplistic, it's easy to use. You can get on it, get off at it. So it's not. A complex system. But um, it's, it's funny cause I thought that when we, when we did, uh,

Static electricity can be a big problem for wind turbines. As the blades spin in adverse conditions like snow, static charge builds up quickly. Companies like Applied Philosophy have created systems to discharge this energy, and in this episode we touch on their SLPS for Gamesa blades. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Check out the companies we discuss during this podcast:Applied Philosophy - http://appliedphilo.com/slps.html 3:48 Why the Applied Philosophy SLPS is necessary 5:33 Static electricity why is it a big deal 8:47 How does a blade create static electricity 16:05 Static affects the blade dielectric and creates burn marks Transcript: EP5 Does Static Electricity Damage Wind Turbines? 00:00:08 - 00:05:08 Welcome back this is the Uptime Podcasts I'm your co-host Dan Blewett. I'm joined here remotely by lightning protection expert Allen Hall. Allen, How are you. Great Dan how are you doing? I'm good actually well. I had my My pride was damaged the other day but I made two separate trips to the grocery store to two separate grocery stores. I turned away both times. The North door turns your way the security. Do you know why? No mask. No mask. I didn't have a mask on. Yep. Is that is that the law of the land down in Washington Dc right now? I was asking myself that same question because I was like was I supposed to know this. I mean obviously I like walk it was a ten minute walk for the first one and then a farther walked to the next one later in the day. But I don't know how I know the official decree. It sounds like maybe it is. I don't know wanna be no one more tuned into social media the new so. I'm surprised that you didn't know that well I do follow Mayor Bowser here in DC. And they've been doing a really good job in instances are still pretty low here in DC. I appreciate that they're doing. I couldn't really mad like obviously I was irritated because I just like wasted a Twenty-five minute round trip beyond that. It's like you can't be mad at him like all right. I gotta go make a mask and then I made a mask and it was just terrible experiences. I went to the grocery store because I cut up a T. shirt. I duck taped the ends together of this fabric. And then throw it over my headband. And not stay up. I was like Oh this will work fine and did not work fine so I was just going to the grocery store struggling to keep this above my nose. The whole time and Just getting really frustrated by but I guess I see. We'll have you seen the little online. I think I saw it on Youtube about how to make your own mask with the two rubber bands and the paper towel. Yeah I gotta get in a grocery store. I buy rubber bands chicken before the mask thing. Here we go to the store and buy couple mask and put it in the mail and get it over to you so you can go to the grocery store or you're getting mail is mail person coming into the complex there or what. Yeah Yeah I actually got A. I got a new plant featured in the background of the of the video. A mail order plant mail order plant. It's one of those. I'm sure you've seen a good. Indoor plants called snake plants wide leaves and apparently abused them and they keep on going. But I'm taking great care of the little guy but a filter my air out a little bit you know have a companion. That's your corona virus filter. Yeah he's my buddy thoughts awesome. Okay yeah so but no I mean all that stuff still going. I try not to go to the post office because there's a really tight it's like A. It's like three phone booths combined is the size of my post office five blocks away and wow not great in there. They're not usually the most efficient places. So an original post office from George Washington time. Or just what's going on?

In episode four, we evaluate the effects of COVID-19 on wind turbine site completions, how we detect lightning strikes, and how companies like SkySpecs (https://skyspecs.com/) are changing the way we handle inspection data. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Transcript: Can Drones Improve Wind Turbine Inspections? 00:00:09 - 00:05:02 Welcome back this is the time podcast. I'm your host. Dan Blewett. And I'm joined here remotely by lightning protection expert Allen Hall. Allen, How're you doing? Great Dan how are you doing all right doing all right? It's it's breezy out here in DC. Today it's pretty Nice Still a ghost town but in general. I'm I'm getting honestly pretty comfortable being at home every day. What about you? You're getting used to self-isolation? I hope I don't get leading. We're all you know comfortably. Sort of locked into the house My Wife said she. My wife has been delivering Groceries to local families that are people that can't really get out of house are probably shouldn't be at the grocery store you said She was delivering groceries to Somebody in the community and a neighbor popped out yelled at her. She should be worrying that my wife had been wearing a mask and I thought well it was the The way it was delivered wasn't very Maybe that wasn't the right approach but I think the intent was good. So yeah. Yelling probably isnt the way do it. Yeah okay good idea to wear a mask but it was like. Hey you can Yeah there's different ways of going about it but We're we're seeing people People are being a lot more cautious than they were two weeks ago or even a week ago quite honestly. I thought people were some of them. Were not doing smart things but that seems to have got away so the same people that were like out having fun or go into a restaurant or bar or now wearing a mask and a very cautious of other people so maybe the message has gotten through. Yeah I mean I think that's the rookie like if we can just cut out all the fun then will be good for this. Specific strain cove in nineteen really thrives. On Fun Yeah. No Ping Pong. No chutes and ladders What else no jacks like. A nineteen forties game the other. We go Yeah it's been interesting. I like I'm never home so this has really been new for me even though I work completely remotely I'm still just never home. I just choose to be out working either in a co working space around a coffee shop and just I just. That's my vibe. But I'm finally getting a little more comfortable being just here which is okay like productive. Yeah it's fine. I can do everything to do. I have a setup that I've you know orchestrating. Everyone's you know Jerry. Rigging, macgyver rigging their their their little home studio areas or whatever and so. It's you know you start to realize that you're dug in for the long haul. Years. Just coming to terms that were cave people now like the people you find those little mud little mud caves are like underground layers that humans used to live in two thousand years ago. That's what we are right now. I liked yeah. We were all back to that. Yup but of course as a kid you always wanted to be Batman or you know have like four a month. Yeah you got exactly what you oughta havoc still obviously on the on the turban industry We're getting a lot of feedback that Everybody is kind of shutdown right now and You know one of the big things in the states we were talking about earlier. was some of the tax incentives have will sunset unless the projects get done Which is trouble which is really be a hard time to get that those things done a lesser changes to the schedule. Yeah you think probably accommodate that right. I mean everyone seems understand that like I've seen some very positive articles about I think there's one big Brooklyn...

In episode three, we talk about scale problems with wind turbines getting so large, including the 12 MW Haliade X wind turbine by GE. Wind turbine blade size grows year over year, and with it comes a host of potential transportation issues, logistical issues, repair issues and more. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us! 

In episode two, we discuss wind turbine transport logistics and turbine blade graveyards - what happens to those huge blades when they're taken out of service - where do they go? Allen Hall also dives into some of the research on new lightning protection systems coming out of China. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Transcript: EP2 - Wind Turbine Waste & New Lightning Protection Research Dan: Hey welcome back! This is episode two of the Uptime Podcast. I’m your co-host DanBlewett and I’m joined here by lightning protection expert Allen Hall. Allen how’s it going out there? Allen: Great Dan, how are you? Dan: Good. What’s the latest on your quarantine? Allen: Everybody’s still quarantined. They announced the other day that the schools are all closed until May 4th. Everybody was supposed to go back April 7th roughly, so they pushed it back another 30 days. We’re going to be in self-isolation for at least another 30 days. They closed all non-essential businesses, which means pretty much everything is closed from out here right now. Dan: What’s your family doing to keep from going stir-crazy? Allen: Well for right now we’re trying to get outside a little bit. It’s actually close to 60 degrees today, so it’s nice to see some sunshine. Dan: I know, tell me about it. Allen: Earlier it was a blizzard outside and now we have had some decent weather and got a couple of texts this afternoon saying that people were heading outside to get some of the sunshine. Hopefully it's a little bit of a turnaround, otherwise if we get stuck at the house for another 30 days it’s going to be trouble I’m feeling. Dan: Have you ever played any of those family home games? I think they’re by jackhole. The ones called quiplash? You can do it on like Xbox or any of those systems and you can also play on the web. I think it’s like a subscription fee, my brother-in-law has it and my sister. But you all like sign-in so you create a room and then everyone has a room code and you go to the room code. They’re on their company’s website and you all enter the room code, then you’re all in and then you use your phone as your playing device. There’s like trivial ones, there’s ones where you like you all draw a thing and then you try to guess who drew it.There’s lots of really quirky games, it’s pretty fun. Allen: I haven’t heard of that . Dan: Well I mean anything to kill the time right now. I think my family tonight is going to try to do a zoom call and screen record that, so I think if we screen captured the game and all logged in on their phones it should work. We’re going to try that out but it’s a fascinating time right now. Allen: You’re speaking about zooming everything together, there’s been so much zoom calling going on it seems like the Internet has come to a crawl at least in Western Massachusetts. It’s really slowed down a good bit because everybody’s trying to do work from home and doing video calls, which is good right. I mean at least we have the option, but it does slow down the internet Dan: The old “interwebs” is heavily heavily loaded at this time.  Allen:Definitely loaded. There’s a guy in front of the house this morning fixing the internet cable and I thought well ok, at least the repair guys are still out there. I’m sure they’re pretty busy ‘cause any  outage is going to a crisis right now. Dan: If people lose the internet and they lose Netflix and Hulu, the world is going to literally implode like a Dark Star. It’s going to be a mess. Allen: It’s going to go bad fast. Dan: You mean I have to talk to my family and friends? You mean I have to play board games, I have to read? We’re not capable of doing that as a society, not today. Allen: Not today no.

In this episode of the Uptime Podcast with Allen Hall, we discuss how lightning strikes affect wind turbine blades, what protection most turbines have, and how effective it is. Wind turbines operate in some of the toughest conditions on earth, and there are a lot of myths about how frequent, how damaging and how powerful lightning strikes on these machines can be. Lightning protection expert Allen Hall dispels some myths about improving uptime in the renewable energy business. Learn more about Weather Guard Lightning Tech’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. Have a question we can answer on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast? Email us!  Podcast Transcript Dan: Welcome! This is the first episode of the Uptime Podcast. I'm your co-host Dan Blewett and I'm here with lightning protection expert Allen Hall. Allen, how are you?  Allen: Great Dan, how are you?  Dan: Doing well here in self-isolation in Washington DC, and you're out in Massachusetts right?  Allen: Out in western Massachusetts. It's a snow storm right now. We're supposed to get 6 to 8 inches of snow today, so self-isolation is going to happen no matter what. It's still in the midst of winter over here. At least there’s sunny weather south of us, but up here we're all buried in our holes trying to survive the winter. Dan: DC's not too bad, and that's what's been kind of eerie about the whole coronavirus thing. There's been some really nice days recently, and it's 65 and sunny and there's not a human to be seen. This is so weird especially for this time of year where everyone's excited for spring, and you just want to be outside on those days. But it's just a ghost town. Allen: Yes, we see a lot of people running up and down the street jogging when the sun does come out. Even when it's mildly warm they'll be up and running down the street, but they're self isolating when they're running even. So instead of seeing the normal packs of college kids running down the street you’ve spread out. So there you’ve got to be careful when you're driving down the roads because they're self isolating when they're running too. Dan: So here on the Uptime Podcast our goal is to talk about the wind turbine industry and how we can keep these crazy big machines operating. Obviously they keep getting bigger every year. Some of the challenges that these are facing are being in some of the harshest conditions, like in the middle of the ocean, up on mountain ranges, in the snow and the rain and the sleet. This whole theme of Uptime.  If you're a wind farm operator working in the renewable energy sector, keeping these machines running is a huge challenge. Obviously, we have the technology to produce tons and tons of electricity, but can we actually keep them running 24/7 or as close to it as possible? So Allen, my first question for you today, because you've been in the lightning protection industry for two plus decades, what does the common person not know about wind turbines? And as they keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger - now they're soaring, I know GE’s new turbine is now over eight hundred feet, which is crazy - how do we keep these things protected from lightning specifically? Allen: Well, as they get taller they become more and more of a lightning rod. I think even the layman can kind of see that.  If you have any wind turbines that are around your home or business, you've watched them get taller and bigger and produce more energy. Each one's producing more and more energy as we go along.  That's for economy of scale. You want to produce the maximum amount of energy in the smallest amount of footprint. So what's happening now is as we're getting taller and taller blades and turbines is that they're becoming lightning attractors in a sense. They're actually triggering a lot of lightning events, and the issue with that really is if we're starting to trigger lightning...