The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast

The Uptime hosts review GE Vernova's Q2 financials, noting strong gas turbine orders and delays in onshore wind. They discuss PTC impacts on future turbine orders and Iberdrola's €5 billion share sale for power grid expansions. An update on Vineyard Wind highlights ongoing blade issues and legal complexities. The wind farm of the week is the Nobles Two Wind Farm in Minnesota. Register for the next SkySpecs Webinar! 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! You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now, here's your host. Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Ro, and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm Alan Hall from the Queen City, Charlotte, North Carolina, and I got Phil Totaro in Santa Barbara, Cali, and Joel is back in the Lone Star state of Texas near Austin. And. Uh, Q2 results came out from GE Renova. In fact, they had a little webinar this morning to discuss it. Uh, a lot of different aspects to ge. Renova, as we all know, nuclear sort of high voltage, little tiny bit transmission, but, uh, wind of course gas turbines. So they are definitely setting the course for [00:01:00] a gas turbine world. And Phil, how, how far out are orders for their gas turbine products?  Phil Totaro: The last I heard talking to somebody from GE who said it was 2031 at this point, um, although things can be accelerated depending on if you're willing to pay a bit of a premium, they can, uh, you know, move you up in the queue, so to speak. Um, but it's, uh, you know, it's a pretty, uh, far off thing. Um, and unfortunately. You know, it looks like GE hasn't announced a lot of new orders for onshore wind, but nobody has in the United States. Everybody was waiting in Q1 and Q2 to see what the outcome of the production tax credit, uh, changes were gonna be. Now that we have definitive, you know, legislation on that. Um, it's going to actually trigger a lot of safe harbor orders, uh, assuming that companies can actually deliver turbines. [00:02:00] Um, because in order to safe harbor, you actually have to physically receive and store, um, something equivalent to 5% of the CapEx cost of the project. So that has to happen now before. Uh, July, 2026. And because of that, uh, I think you're actually gonna see a lot of companies that had been holding off on placing their turbine supply orders. Uh, all of those are gonna start getting announced in Q3 and Q4, so it's gonna be like a monster quarter. Uh, that's gonna more than make up for any shortcomings from, uh, from this past quarter. Joel Saxum: This is a, I'm, I'm dreaming here. Uh, could you see that this thing is, this legislation, the way it sits right now, all of a sudden all these orders come in and people are buying turbines to safe harbor them. And it's just making that, that renewable industry economy just churn for a year. And then it comes down to it. And like that is taking notice of by the administration, taking notice of like, Hey, actually there is demand for this renewable [00:03:00] energy. There is a ton of jobs happening here. There's all kinds of people trucking, there's all kinds of people delivering. And then like, maybe we should relax and change these things because this, they're still moving forward. Could you see that changing?  Phil Totaro: That is unlikely. But they're definitely, I mean, we know how politics works, and this isn't exclusive to any, you know,

Allen discusses NextEra Energy's growth potential amid the new tax bill, Equinor's financial setback in US offshore wind projects, and Statkraft's strategic shift due to falling electricity prices. Additional highlights include Wisconsin's approval of its first long-duration energy storage project, Jupiter Bach's facility expansion in Florida, and record electricity prices in the US power auction. 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! US Renewable Energy Leader NextEra Energy says Trump's new tax bill will help the company grow despite concerns about renewable energy credits. The Florida energy giant told investors it can protect most of its wind and solar projects from losing tax credits under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. NextEra President John Ketchum says the company is already building so many projects that it can lock in tax benefits through twenty twenty nine. Ketchum believes smaller energy companies will struggle to meet the new deadline of July fourth twenty twenty six. That will likely mean less competition and more business for NextEra. Of course, Wall Street analysts are skeptical. Analysts from Jefferies wrote there is a clear long-term challenge ahead for the company. NextEra has signed contracts for three point two gigawatts of new projects since April. And the company is also exploring nuclear energy and small modular reactors. Norwegian energy company Equinor is taking a nearly one billion dollar loss on its US offshore wind projects. The company reported a nine hundred fifty five million dollar impairment in the second quarter. Most of that money is linked to the Empire Wind project off New York and a marine terminal in Brooklyn. Equinor says regulatory changes in the United States have reduced future profits and increased costs for offshore wind projects. Despite the financial hit, Equinor says it is moving forward with Empire Wind One. The company also completed financing for two offshore wind projects in Poland. The company says it remains committed to growing its renewable energy business. Wisconsin regulators have approved the first long-duration energy storage project of its kind in the United States. Alliant Energy will build the Columbia Energy Storage Project using a new carbon dioxide battery system designed by Energy Dome. The project will provide enough electricity to power eighteen thousand Wisconsin homes for ten hours on a single charge. Raja Sundararajan from Alliant Energy says the project will strengthen the power grid and help meet growing energy needs. The Energy Dome system works by converting carbon dioxide gas into compressed liquid for storage. When electricity is needed, the liquid turns back to gas and powers a turbine. Currently Energy Dome has a system running in Italy. Construction in Wisconsin will begin in twenty twenty six and the project should be completed by the end of twenty twenty seven. The storage system is part of Alliant Energy's long-term plan to expand power generation with a balanced mix of energy sources. Norwegian energy company Statkraft took a three billion dollar hit on its wind power projects due to falling electricity prices. The company reported strong power generation in the second quarter but said lower prices in northern Norway and Sweden hurt profits. Statkraft President Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal says the company is refocusing its strategy after a period of high energy prices following the Russian war in Ukraine. The company is streamlining operations and focusing on fewer technologies and markets.

Allen and Joel give the latest update on lightning blade damage. They discuss the results of a lightning damage assessment on 900+ GE Vernova turbines. Read the LM Wind Power Lightning Diverter Rain Erosion test results. Learn more about StrikeTape. 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! [00:00:00] Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Welcome to the special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I have Joel Saxum along with me. And I'm Allen Hall, and we work for Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and we have not talked about the lightning issues that are happening across the United States at the moment. Also, a good bit of Europe is seeing a number of really catastrophic lightning strikes, and even in South America. So everywhere you look right now, you see a lot of lightning damage, right?  Joel Saxum: Yeah, Allen, I would say this, this spring, early summer, as opposed to years past, we've been getting more and more and more calls, and I think it's a combination of things. I think it's a, it's a combination of, I mean, we've had some extreme weather, right? There's a pretty, it was a [00:01:00] pretty, been a pretty wicked lightning season here in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and the center of the United States. But we're also hearing that same thing from India from. Mexico from Brazil, from the Mediterranean, we're hearing it all over the place. So that's happening. But then there's also some awareness, right? There's people that are, you know, in the wind industry as a whole, a lot of, a lot of operators have sat back and relied on their FSAs to handle things. And, and as these costs escalate and they're looking at lightning damages, oh, this is carved out of your FSA or, uh, some insurance companies backing away from insuring them lightning. You're starting to see more and more operators and financial asset operators coming to the table saying, Hey, we have a lighting problem. What can we do to solve it? And that's why our phone's ringing.  Allen Hall: Yeah, it's been nonstop for the last couple of months and, and I would say that some of the damage I've even seen on LinkedIn is shocking. Uh, even today, looking at images from Japan, a blade trailing [00:02:00] edges is split wide open. It's expensive. And the operators you talk to when you. Talk to a large operator who says it has a couple hundred turbines. They're spending millions of dollars a year just to keep those turbines running from all the lightning damage and the engineering staffs and all the crane work and everything else managing the ISPs. It is a huge, massive burden on the  Joel Saxum: industry. I'd like to go back to what you said about seeing it on LinkedIn. So, uh, I, I just, this is a shout out to all the amazing wind turbine blade technicians out there and engineers that are supporting them and getting these things done in the field, because we have seen some crazy damages on LinkedIn and it seems to be the ones that, uh, technicians are really proud of fixing, right? Like, look at this 10 layer repair, three meters this way, this kind of crack, these kind of things because they're all difficult to repair and they're very expensive. Repair some of these things. Uh. Teams of 2, 3, 4 people are on them [00:03:00]for two weeks, three weeks, four weeks. Right. And the cost of all those things starts to add up. And we're, when we're talking about repairs, of course you have the repair team, you have the repair materials and the downtime associat...

The Uptime hosts examine Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's federal oversight mandate, the administration's plan to replace Idaho's cancelled Lava Ridge Wind Farm with six nuclear reactors, and critique a recent wind conference in Australia. The discussion also covers French utility EDF's plan to sell 50% of its North American wind portfolio to raise 2 billion euros for nuclear upgrades in France. Sign up for the next SkySpecs webinar! Register for  UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain Spotlight 2025! 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: [00:00:00] Mark your calendars December 11th at the Royal Highland Center in Edinburgh, because you'll want to be at the UK offshore wind supply chain Spotlight 2025. This isn't just another conference. It's where the UK's offshore wind supply chain comes together. Co-hosted by ORE Catapult and the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership. Spotlight 2025 is where developers connect with suppliers and where the next breakthrough in offshore wind technology gets its moment to shine. So whether you're looking to forge new partnerships, secure critical investments, or simply stay ahead of the curve in this rapidly evolving sector, you'll need to register for this event. Remember December 11th in Edinburg for Spotlight 2025. Just Google. Edinburgh Supply Chain Spotlight 2025. You can register today. You're listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by bill turbines.com. Learn train and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. [00:01:00] Visit build turbines.com today. Now here's your hosts, Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Tartaro, and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: Well, greetings from Charlotte, North Carolina to the Queen City. I'm Alan Hall and I'm here with Phil Tartaro from the Golden State of California. And Joel Saxon is at an undisclosed location in a secure bunker, so that's not gonna leak out where he is. And Rosemary is enjoying the winter months in beautiful Australia. And we have some interesting topics this week, but I wanna lead off with Rosemary. Went to another WIN conference, WIN plus conference in Australia. Rosemary.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, actually I, I feel petty, um, dissing this conference now because this is the one that Alan, you and I did a whole episode on how bad this conference was last year and, um. That's what caused us to feel like we needed to organize our own wind energy conference. Uh, that covered some technical topics, but you're walking around the conference, like, why is there so much hydrogen stuff at a wind energy conference? And I'm like, okay, well maybe that's like what they perceive that, you know, most of the [00:02:00] new projects in Australia, all the big ones say that they're associated with hydrogen. So maybe that's it. And then I started seeing a lot of, um, carbon capture things and, you know, like eels and all sorts of, all sorts of things related to. CO2. Um, so that confused me. Um, and then I saw that it was also a carbon capture conference too. So yeah, the exhibition was, was not, not too bad. I had definitely had lots of good conversations with people. Um, some interesting things like, um, the drone, uh, yeah, drone inspections, a few new capabilities coming up. There were a couple of people with good drones, um, that can. Test the resistance of an LPS and say that they can do a whole turbine in an hour and a half. So, um, that's, that's pretty good. There was also some cool NDT, uh, non-destructive testing stuff and a really small portable ultrasound machine, and they wouldn't give me a price,

Alan Hall discusses Jupiter Bach's halted expansion, New York's offshore wind project delays, BP's exit from the US wind market, Maryland's permit defense, and a major clean energy deal in the UK and Germany. 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! A major wind turbine supplier in Pensacola, Florida is scaling back expansion plans. Jupiter Bach, a Denmark-based company, is pausing hiring after passage of President Trump's energy bill. The company makes nacelle covers and other components for wind turbines. Plant manager Sean Guidry says the company had planned to grow its local workforce from two hundred forty to more than three hundred twenty employees next year. Now he says they see a more flat year. The policy shift comes after President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill into law earlier this month. The legislation significantly shortens the eligibility window for wind and solar tax credits. Projects must now break ground by twenty twenty-six and enter service by twenty twenty-seven to receive full tax benefits. Previously, those credits were locked in through twenty thirty-two. Guidry says his company had planned an additional one point two million dollars of investments in their Pensacola plant this year. Now those investments are in question. The company supplies components directly to GE Vernova, whose nearby plant assembles complete nacelles for wind energy projects across the country. Guidry urges policymakers to view wind energy as key to U.S. manufacturing and energy independence. He warns that without reliable federal support, the United States could lose ground to China in fast-growing industries that depend on abundant, low-cost electricity. New York State has put the brakes on a major offshore wind project. The New York State Public Service Commission terminated its offshore wind transmission planning process. The commission cited stalled federal permitting as the reason. This halts plans to deliver up to eight gigawatts of offshore wind power into New York City by twenty thirty-three. Commission Chair Rory M. Christian says the uncertainty coming out of Washington forced the state to act. He says quote, "This is not the end. We'll move forward once the federal government resumes permitting." The commission cited recent federal actions halting new offshore wind leasing and permitting. Officials say those actions make short-term project execution unfeasible. Existing projects like South Fork Wind, Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind are unaffected and continue to move forward. The commission says it will apply lessons from this process to future planning. It's focusing on affordability, reliability and risk reduction. British oil giant BP is getting out of the wind business in America. The company announced Friday it's selling its entire U.S. onshore wind operation to LS Power. The sale includes wind farms spread across seven states with a combined capacity of one point seven gigawatts. BP did not disclose the sale price. But previous estimates valued the wind business at as much as two billion dollars. The sale is part of BP's twenty billion dollar divestment program announced in February. The company is streamlining its business and pivoting back toward fossil fuels to boost returns to shareholders. William Lin, BP's executive vice-president for gas and low-carbon energy, says green energy still has a role to play in the company's portfolio. But he says BP is no longer the best owner to take the wind business forward. The move comes as BP seeks to refocus on its core oil ...

Mads Arild Vedøy and Anders Nash explore the Utsira Nord project and Norway's bid to lead in floating offshore wind technology. They discuss the strategic transition from oil and gas, the unique tender process, and the global implications of a successful execution. Learn more about the Utsira Nord bidding process! 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! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering Tomorrow. Allen Hall 2025: Mads and Anders, welcome to the program.  Anders Nash: Thank you. Thanks Allen, for having us. And, uh, it's a show we listen to a lot. So a pleasure to be with you today.  Allen Hall 2025: Well, we, we have a really interesting subject here, and I want to pick. Both your brains a about the, some of the complexities of floating wind in Norway. And, uh, we know that the floating offshore wind industry is still relatively new and it's actually at a critical juncture. And even though we have proven that technology works at scale, it's, we, we don't have large development yet. And that is where Norway is stepping in and changing that equation quite radically. Uh. Let's just back up a minute. The project's called OSU Nord, and [00:01:00] if you haven't been paying attention, you've been missing a lot because, uh, floating wind is gonna be the way of the future. But ultimately, what is the fundamental problem that OSU Nord is trying to solve?  Mads Arild Vedøy: So, of course, uh, node has been kind of on the verge. I, I would say, since the, the, since, at least since 2020, but also even before that with, uh, EOR, uh, launching their, uh, high wind, uh, demo turbine, right? The first world's first floating wind turbine. And Norway really kind of saw itself as a front runner in, in floating wind. Um, fast forward to 2020. The then government opened these areas for offshore wind in Norway with, um, with uja, nor as one of the bigger floating one, right, one and a half gigawatt of floating wind. And what Norway kind of wants to do is to take a position within this market.[00:02:00] It and, and more kind of this industrial perspective rather than for the energy production. Right? Because Norway has, uh, we are self-sufficient for now at least. Uh, but with the electrification going on. We will soon run enough that as well. But, but for now, and the predictions going on to, to 2030, we are Okay. Looking a bit further. It should be, well, the, the surplus is gonna diminish or, or at least be far less than we have. So, yeah. That, that's the, I guess the problem we are trying to solve is, is more the transition from being an. Oil and gas community to, um, also secure the industry for the next phase of energy production, right? And not only only gas, but also electricity. With Norway, then being this maritime nation and, and seeing ourselves as, as, uh, one of the leaders in, in, [00:03:00] in offshore installations, we, we see that we can take a position as a leading developer of, uh, of floating wind as well.  Joel Saxum: I think it's very interesting, right? That we, you, we come along this, this train, right? Because like you said, Norway is, you're rife with renewable energies. You guys have a lot of hydro, you're, you're, you're good there. And the PPA prices for that reason are fairly low. Um, comparatively so you, but you have this industrial, marine, industrial complex that a lot of places don't have. Allen and I have talked about on the podcast many times in the US we have a lot of coastline.

Register for the SkySpecs webinar! The crew discusses the resignation of Wind Europe CEO Giles Dickson and his impact on the organization. They examine a new executive order from the White House targeting 'unreliable' wind and solar energy sources, analyzing its potential effects on tax credits and the renewable energy market. 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! You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here's your hosts, Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Winner d podcast. I'm Alan Hall in the Queen City, Charlotte, North Carolina. I got filter the tower out in California and Joel Saxon is in wet Austin, Texas. It rained again today. The storm waters have been severe, like a hundred year flood Situations in Texas have been very dangerous and a lot of people have been injured down there. yeah, our condolences go out to everybody affected down in Texas and there's supposed to be some more severe. Rainstorms in the East coast of the United States. So hold on tight. there's a lot of news going on [00:01:00] this week around the world. the one that sticks out first and I wanna bring this to the attention of everybody that, if you haven't heard yet, is, wind Europe. CEO Giles Dixon has announced he's stepping down after 10 years as leading WIN Europe. And I was stunned when this happened. And obviously, I. Don't have any influence in when Europe being an American. I just watch from the outside and I, from what I've seen and attended the conferences over in Europe, everything from what I've seen under his tutelage has been great. And the promotional materials and all the information that when Europe provides, has been outstanding. so Giles is going to go back to teaching. He's gonna go back into the schoolhouse. but it, seems like it's a shock to everybody at, Wind Europe, at least that's the outward appearance. Board chair Henrik Anderson, who is the head of Vestus Praise Dixon's, tremendous contribution, noting [00:02:00] that he will leave Wind Europe stronger than he when he arrived. And that's clearly the case. Phil, do you have any insight as to what's going on behind the scenes over in Wind Europe and with Giles?  Phil Totaro: I do not, but I can also speak from personal experience, having met him, I wanna say back in 2018 or probably 2017. and I can certainly attest to the, the work that they've done. As you might be able to see, I've got two, things sitting here behind me that are awards from, the Wind Europe and, predecessor to, that, we've, done a lot of work over in Europe and it's been facilitated by, the Wind Europe, events that they do as well as the publications that they've put out. certainly my thanks go out to, to him and, [00:03:00] wish him well on his, future endeavors.  Joel Saxum: I would say from an American standpoint, been to wind Europe now, man, I don't know how many times, half a dozen times or something like that. They do a really good job over there. And this is from, the leadership comes from the top of just circling the wagons, right? Bringing everybody out to the show, getting more voices involved, giving, getting executive leaders from a lot of these large operators, giving them the space to talk and putting them, in an area where their voices are listened to. So like when, the last time I was at Wind Europe, I think it was in, bill Bao. so I went, walked into Bill Bau,

Allen discusses the strain on America's largest power grid due to data center demand, Taiwan's $3 billion wind farm project, the potential sale of Allete and new data center regulations in Ohio. 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! America's largest power grid is under serious strain. Data centers and AI chatbots are using electricity faster than new power plants can be built. PJM Interconnection covers thirteen states from Illinois to Tennessee and Virginia to New Jersey. The company serves sixty seven million customers. This summer, electricity bills could jump more than twenty percent in some areas. The region has the most data centers in the world. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is threatening to pull his state out of the grid entirely. Recently, PJM's CEO has announced he's leaving and PJM Board members have been voted out. PJM spokesman Jeffrey Shields says the problem is simple economics. "Prices will remain high as long as demand growth is outstripping supply. Right now, we need every megawatt we can get." The grid lost more than five point six gigawatts in the last decade. Old power plants shut down faster than new ones come online. Meanwhile, data center demand keeps growing. By twenty thirty, PJM expects thirty two gigawatts of increased demand. Almost all of that will come from data centers. Ørsted has secured three billion dollars in financing for a major wind farm project in Taiwan. The Greater Changhua Two project will supply clean energy to over one million households once it's fully operational. The wind farm sits thirty to thirty seven miles off Taiwan's coast. Taiwan wants twenty percent of its electricity to come from renewable sources by twenty twenty five. This project is a critical step toward that goal. Ørsted plans to sell part of its ownership stake after the project is completed. This strategy lets the company recycle money into new projects while keeping operational control. Allete is one step closer to being sold. The Minnesota Department of Commerce has withdrawn its opposition to the six point two billion dollar deal. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Global Infrastructure Partners want to buy the company. Allete runs Minnesota Power and Superior Water, Light and Power of Wisconsin. The sale still needs approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. That's the last hurdle before the deal can close. The new owners have agreed to several customer protections. They'll freeze rates for one year and reduce the company's allowed profit margin. They've also promised fifty million dollars in additional clean energy investments. AEP Ohio has won approval for new rules that protect customers from data center costs. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved the plan on July ninth. Large data centers will now have to pay for at least eighty five percent of the electricity they sign up for, even if they use less. AEP Ohio President Marc Reitter says the rules align data center demand with infrastructure costs. "This infrastructure will support Ohio's growing tech sector and help secure America's data storage facilities here in the U.S." The requirements will last twelve years, including a four year ramp up period. Data center owners must also prove they're financially able to meet their obligations. RWE has extended CEO Markus Krebber's contract until twenty thirty one. The early extension adds another five years to his current agreement. Krebber has led the German energy company since twenty twenty one.

Jon Zalar, founder of IWTG Consulting, discusses the challenges of wind turbine maintenance, emphasizing the rise in turbine failures and the importance of root cause analysis (RCA). Proactive maintenance, proper documentation, and expert consultation will help to mitigate issues and ensure turbine 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! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow. Allen Hall 2025: Jon, welcome to the program.  Jonathan Zalar: Thanks for having me,  Allen Hall 2025: Jon. Let's start with the reality facing wind farmer operators today. What's the core problem when it comes to turbine failures?  Jonathan Zalar: There's been a larger number than they probably experienced like five years ago. I think, um, you know, the volume of turbines out there and some of the bigger issues that, you know, people are seeing in the last two to three years has made owning a wind farm a little more challenging than before. Um, you know, between blade issues, bolted joint issues, shoes, and. Overall, like o operations, right? It's been tougher to keep these turbines up and running, you know, manpower's an issue, getting people out there to go fix stuff. It's, [00:01:00] it's been tough for a lot of people I've talked to.  Joel Saxum: Do you think this is a, a partial result of like, um, okay, so what we're, you know, on the podcast in the last few years, we've always been talking about, oh, there's all kinds of models coming out and there's this, this manufacturer can put out this many different variations and all these things, and now. Now we're getting to the age where that family, that group of turbines that, I guess it's kind, I'm looking at it like a class, right? That class of, that, those years of turbines are now getting to the stage where they're out of warranty and they're coming into, some people are taking, you know, ISPs taking, um, maintenance of them or an owner operator taking maintenance over from the OEM. And all of a sudden now there's these issues popping up and different things that we're, we're kind of in this. Um, like a swamp of problems with a lot of different models. So, uh, yeah, like you said, we've we're, we talked a little bit off air here about RCAs and how to fix things and looking at serial defects and stuff, but it's just like, it seems like every other week [00:02:00] someone calls Alan Ryan's like, Hey, have you heard about this thing with this model? And it's like, man,  Jonathan Zalar: another one. I think it's a combination of two things. One. Like I talked about the last time we had podcasts, there was a, you know, a pretty big push to increase rotor size, come out with new models for, for every, for all the os, right? They're competing against each other. Coming out with a new model every 18 months. And you can ask Phil, but I believe mostly the OEMs are sold out. If you go back five, six years, where. A huge expansion in the amount of wind turbines that have been placed. Right. So I think you combine those cheap factors and now, yeah, the owners have a lot on their plate, a lot more than they're  Allen Hall 2025: probably used to. And my question all is this, the complexity of the turbines. So every new model that comes out, what I'm seeing is more instrumentation, more sensors, more stuff, more variability, even in where the components originate from.  Jonathan Zalar: Right? Yeah. [00:03:00] I mean, to increase, to be able to meet that increased demand the OEMs had to get,

This week we discuss the Danish government's permit extensions for two offshore wind farms, the U.S. Senate's new renewable energy bill, the Belgian government's halted wind farm tender, and the complexities of laying seabed cables for wind farms. 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! You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here's your hosts, Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall 2025: Well welcome back to Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I have Rosemary Barnes down in Canberra Australia. Phil's in California, and evidently he lives next door to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and I, I had no idea, Phil, like you're that close to royalty.  Phil Totaro: I'm not. You're  Allen Hall 2025: making that up. Joel's up in Wisconsin somewhere in the northern wilds of Wisconsin. Next to a cheese factory, and here I sit in Charlotte, North Carolina. If we've been paying attention or if you've been paying attention to the news over the last, uh, 48 hours in America has been complete chaos as we are recording this and the US Senate has [00:01:00] passed a bill regarding renewable energy and it's back to the house. Supposedly this is all gonna get signed off by the 4th of July. So we're recording it. Today is July 2nd. Um. So by the time you hear this, something may or may not have happened, and we're trying to keep abreast of the latest, but I think there's some other news going on around the world. And, uh, one of the stories we found interesting was the Danish Offshore, uh, agency Energy Agency has approved permit extensions for two of Denmark's oldest offshore wind farms, which marks a major milestone for. Wind energy longevity. The middle Gruden and Newstead offshore wind farms have received permission to operate for an additional 25 years and 10 years respectively. That is massive extension. Uh, the middle Gruden facility, which is built in 2001, has about 20 turbines and about 40 megawatts of capacity, and it's owned by a community cooperative. [00:02:00] And the Danes being on top of all these things, uh, allowed the extension after doing an engineering analysis showing that the infrastructure has more life. This is unusual. Is this just a artifact of early designs being overly conservative? And these wind farms can practically live forever? I think so. I, uh,  Joel Saxum: I like it. Alright. I wish that all these wind turbines are built this way because it's then you can get more longevity of, I think now of course when everybody has a repower now or tries to extend life, they're trying to really do it. So they're trying to, if we're gonna put money, we'll try to, you know, up the kilowatt, we'll try to up the capacity, well then the foundations don't hold and these kind of things. So it's kind of like if you look at, um. I'm up here in northern Wisconsin, not too far from my house. There's a bridge that was built by the CCC, uh, the civilian Conservation Corps in like the, um, at the Great Depression. So like in the 1930s, late, [00:03:00] late 1920s. And that bridge is fine. Like it's golden. It's still good, right? But it was overbuilt, super built to be heavy duty construction. And there's another bridge just down the road from that same one over the same river that was done in the seventies that needs a complete replacement. Because it was done, it was done with like, you know, di different design functions, not as robust. And,

Nordex USA has reopened its wind turbine plant in Iowa, while Alliant Energy plans to add up to one gigawatt of wind generation in the state. GE Vernova's 18 megawatt turbine has been approved for testing and the UK has greenlit the 1.5 gigawatt Mona 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! Good news for Iowa's clean energy sector. Nordex USA celebrated the reopening of its wind turbine plant in West Branch, Iowa on Tuesday. The plant now employs more than one hundred workers. They're producing the company's first U.S.-made turbines. Manav Sharma is Nordex's North American C.E.O. He says the company is committed to Iowa for the long term. The plant had been closed since twenty thirteen. Nordex bought the facility in twenty sixteen and spent months retrofitting it. The plant will produce parts for five-megawatt turbines. Production capacity is planned to exceed two point five gigawatts annually. The reopening comes despite federal debates about renewable energy tax credits. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds noted that sixty six percent of Iowa's power comes from renewable energy. That's the highest percentage in the US. Alliant Energy also has big plans for wind power in Iowa. The company filed a plan with the Iowa Utilities Commission to add up to one gigwatt of wind generation. Mayuri Farlinger is president of Alliant's Iowa energy company. She says expanding wind energy will help them deliver reliable and cost-effective power to customers. Alliant plans to own and operate the new wind projects. The company expects the projects to create construction jobs and provide payments to landowners. They'll also generate new tax revenue for counties where the turbines are built. The Iowa Utilities Commission is expected to make a decision in the first quarter of twenty twenty six. Norway is testing the one of world's biggest wind turbine. Norwegian regulator N.V.E. approved GE Vernova subsidiary Georgine Wind plans for an eighteen-megawatt turbine in the municipality of Gulen. NVE says this is the largest wind turbine ever approved in Norway. It's also the first to be licensed inside an existing industrial area. The turbine will have a rotor diameter of up to two hundred fifty meters. The maximum tip height will be two hundred seventy five meters. The turbine will undergo testing for five years before switching to standard commercial operation for another twenty five years. The United Kingdom has approved its largest Irish Sea wind farm. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband granted planning consent for the Mona offshore wind farm. The project is owned by B.P. and EnBW. It will feature ninety six turbines off northwest England. The one point five gigawatt project could power more than one million homes with clean energy. It's expected to begin production between twenty twenty eight and twenty twenty nine. Miliband says this shows the government is backing builders, not blockers. B.P. and EnBW are also waiting for approval of a neighboring wind farm called Morgan. That decision is due by September tenth. The developers have been paying option fees of one hundred fifty four thousand pounds per megawatt per year since January twenty twenty three. Richard Sandford is B.P.'s Vice President of Offshore Wind. He says this approval brings them closer to delivering large-scale, low-carbon energy critical to the U.K.'s net zero goals. That's this week's top news story. Join us tomorrow for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

Jason Moody from GreenSpur discusses their innovative axial flux generator technology, which promises to reduce weight and complexity in wind turbines, offering greater efficiency and lower maintenance 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! Today we're excited to have Jason Moody, chairman of GreenSpur, joining us to discuss a generator technology that could fundamentally alter the path of wind energy. While the wind industry has been scaling up turbine sizes, we've hit a critical challenge. Generators are becoming massively heavy, complex, and expensive to maintain. GreenSpur is taking a different approach entirely. They perfected axial flux generator technology that can dramatically reduce weight, eliminate cooling systems. And use any type of magnet from simple faite to rare earth materials. This isn't just another incremental improvement. It's a completely different way of generating power that could solve some of offshore wind's biggest headaches. Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow. Jason, welcome to the program. Thank [00:01:00] you. Thanks a. Hi Joel. Well, let's start off with the elephant in the room for offshore wind turbines manufacturing. Uh, there's some fundamental challenges that are facing them as we approach sort of the 20 megawatt stage and getting further offshore. Weight becomes a big problem. Jason Moody: Yeah, it does. For, for years they've been getting bigger and bigger, and you can see that the industry just wants to push for that next size. But with that, the generators are getting very, very heavy. So the last direct drive generator that we evaluated was in excess of 150 tons. Now, that's not a, not a small machine anymore, but what what we're trying to do is introduce a new technology. That can hopefully address that problem and some others as well.  Allen Hall (2): So when you put a very heavy generator on top of a tower, that increases everything underneath of it, right?  Jason Moody: Yeah. The foundations grow exponentially. The [00:02:00]steelwork and the structure has to grow. Then the cell itself, just based on size, lot more composite parts. Everything's bigger.  Joel Saxum: So we're talking like here, kind of traditional offshore wind fixed bottom right. That's an issue. The foundations have to grow, uh, exponentially to get these, to hold up this weight. But when another thing that's happening globally, right? The big push for floating offshore wind. So if now you're talking about putting more and more and more weight on something that's actually dynamic, right? So that kind of, uh, what does that do to the, the whole system.  Jason Moody: That's a, it's a different, um, engineering challenge, but it's mainly in the steel structure and the ballast in, in those, uh, in those systems. So the street, the steel pylon becomes very thick, becomes very heavy, uh, to hold that weight on top. But most of the time what you found in these newer next gen floating systems is they've gone to geared systems, which is a big move in the whole industry for both onshore, offshore, and, and everything in between. Everyone's moving to hybrid [00:03:00] and geared systems,  Allen Hall (2): and hybrid and geared systems get even more complicated, which is the problem, right? Is that we're, we're trying to lower the cost of energy, but as we go bigger in scale, we sort of lose those efficiencies. It, it doesn't scale up with the efficiencies. It actually,

We discuss Statkraft's withdrawal from floating wind projects in Norway, Valero's $23 million Series A funding, and the varying quality of blade repairs in the field. The Babbitt Ranch wind farm is this week's 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! You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now, here's your hosts. Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I have Phil Totaro from California and Joel Saxum down in Austin, Texas. And Rosemary Barnes will join us shortly from the Southern Hemisphere. Uh, a number of news articles this week that we want to talk about Stack Craft. Let's lead off there, up in Norway. So Norwegian energy giant Stack Craft has announced it will withdraw from the upcoming floating wind tenor for the U Sierra North area as part of a broader cost cutting strategy. Uh, the company, which is Europe's largest renewable energy operator, we're also halt new offshore wind project [00:01:00] development to focus on what CEO, uh, Bergit Ringsted AL calls near term profitable. Strategies unquote. Like solar? No. Come on, solar, wind. There we go. And batteries In fewer markets the decision follows. Stack craft's early announcement and may stop New green Hydrogen developments signaling a strategic shift toward more immediately profitable renewable energy investments fill. Does this slow down some of the offshore wind work, particularly up in Norway, and it does seem like. Floating will be the future here, but if Stack craft's not gonna be involved and it's right in their backyard, uh, what does this say to the industry? Phil Totaro: It doesn't send the best signal, but it's also coming in a time when, you know, as we record this, the, the Norwegians just released, uh, four new, uh, wind lease areas with potentially up to 20 different, uh, project [00:02:00] sites. So. It seems like there's a lot of enthusiasm and obviously they've got the wind resource up there to be able to do a lot of floating offshore wind. If they can work out with their military, you know, the radar interference and all that, uh, there's no reason they shouldn't want this capacity because it's, you know, power that they can use to balance their hydro and power that they can offload to, you know, other Scandinavian countries because there's plenty of transmission already and they're, they're already. Planning on building more. So, um, it's just whether or not they have the appetite to put the market mechanisms in place to, to actually support these, uh, you know, these, these tenders.  Joel Saxum: I think appetite's the right term here, Phil, when you say that because, uh, you know, and as the CEO is saying in this, in this article we're getting, we're gonna focus more on near term profitable technologies. So doing things that they know make money, that are proven to make money. You know, we all love the idea of floating [00:03:00] wind, which is, you know, what they're, they're pulling out of this project, your floating wind project. However, nothing's really so sussed out yet. Nothing's really sorted. There's not a specific foundation that works best. There's not, uh, a, you know, an interconnect that works best. There's not a turbine model that's out there that this is the one, this is what we run with. You don't have support from major OEMs like, you know, oh,

Allen discusses the appointment of Pedro Azagra as the new CEO of Iberdrola, Pete Bierden as the new President of TAKKION, and Nicolaj Mensberg as the new CEO of PEAK Wind, along with the acquisition of the Northconnect Interconnector project by Flotation Energy and Vargronn. 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! Takkion, a renewable energy services company, has appointed Pete Bierden as President. Bierden will be based at Takkion's headquarters in Centennial, Colorado. He will work closely with CEO Jim Orr to lead the company's growth strategy. Bierden brings more than twenty years of experience. He previously served as a submarine officer and Certified Naval Nuclear Engineer. He spent twenty years at General Electric, where he helped build the company's wind energy business from the ground up. Most recently, Bierden was CEO of Driver Industrial Safety. He also held senior positions at Amteck and Keystone Tower Systems. CEO Jim Orr says Bierden's leadership style and operational expertise make him an outstanding fit for the company. Bierden says he's honored to join a team that's making a real impact on the energy transition. Spanish energy giant Iberdrola has named Pedro Azagra as its new group CEO. Azagra replaces Armando Martinez. He has been with Iberdrola for twenty-five years. Azagra started as executive director of development, leading the company's international expansion. For the past three years, he served as CEO of Iberdrola's United States subsidiary. He earned degrees in law and business administration from Icade in Madrid. He also has a master's degree from the University of Chicago. Before joining Iberdrola, Azagra worked in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley. Jose Antonio Miranda will take over as CEO of Iberdrola's US operations. He previously served as CEO of Gamesa in China and the United States. Peak Wind has appointed Nicolaj Mensberg as its new CEO, effective August first. Mensberg succeeds current CEO and co-founder Michael Rask Andersen, who will remain as Chair of the Board of Directors. Mensberg brings deep industry experience across the renewable energy value chain. His background aligns with Peak Wind's core services in operations and asset management. Andersen led Peak Wind as CEO since co-founding the company in twenty seventeen. Under his leadership, the company evolved from a startup into a global market leader. Andersen says he believes now is the right time to welcome fresh perspectives and leadership for the company's next growth phase. Mensberg says he's honored to join Peak Wind during this pivotal time in the renewable energy transition. Flotation Energy and Vargronn have completed their acquisition of the Northconnect interconnector project between Scotland and Norway. The deal followed close collaboration on shared transmission infrastructure for the interconnector and the proposed one point four gigawatt Cenos floating wind farm off east Scotland. Northconnect already has consent for offshore and onshore cable routes to a substation near Boddam, Aberdeenshire. Flotation Energy and Vargronn are targeting twenty thirty-one to twenty thirty-two for first power from the ninety-five turbine Cenos project. Project director Christopher Pearson says when operational, Cenos will be one of the largest floating wind farms in the world. It will supply clean electricity to the grid and offer a multi-point interconnector for future offshore developments.

Antoine Larvol, CTO of Windar Photonics, discusses how their continuous wave LiDAR technology enhances wind turbine performance through optimization and monitoring, increasing AEP and reducing loads, particularly for legacy 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! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining light on wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering Tomorrow. Alright, we're here in Phoenix, a CP, clean power, uh, 2025. So I'm, uh. Sitting with Antoine Larvol from, he's a CTO from Windar. Yep. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Uh, we've been, uh, happy enough to get actually to sit inside your booth where it's nice and qui. Quiet and isn't it nice? Yeah. We got glass behind the camera here and people are walking by, walking by, walking by. Um, so this morning, uh, we, we talked yesterday a little bit about what wind photonics does. Yep. Of course, from our, uh, some of our other friends around the world. We've heard about some, some campaigns you've done in the United States, which have been. Really successful. So yeah, congrat good. Congratulations there. Yeah, thank you. Um, and, and as, as a lot of things in the wind industry, Windar, photonics based in Denmark.  Antoine Larvol: Yeah.  Joel Saxum: So you guys, uh, bring it, bring in that Danish [00:01:00]technology. We're here, of course, bringing it to the US market at a CP, the American Clean Power Show. So welcome to the States. Thank you. Um, it's a short one, but a  Antoine Larvol: good one. Yeah, yeah, yeah,  Joel Saxum: exactly. So, so I want to talk a little bit about what Windar photonics and, and it is a LIDAR based sensor, correct?  Antoine Larvol: Yes. Right. So. We do continuous wave base, uh, lidar. Yep. Uh, main product is a two beam version mm-hmm. Where you shoot, uh, at 80 meters in front of the turbine. Mm-hmm. And you basically alternate from one beam to the other. And measure wind speed and direction upfront, the, the turbine among others.  Joel Saxum: Right. So we're talking about, uh, if you, if you're in the wind industry, you've ever seen these lidar units that are put actually, you're the cell mounted, correct? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So, and, and, uh, we're looking more on the optimization, retrofit monitoring side of things. Yeah,  Antoine Larvol: exactly. So we've never been a resource assessment company. Yeah. Or we don't look at power curve verification and stuff like that. We really [00:02:00] focus on. Retrofitting those, existing turbines. And then add value to In terms of information to, the customer, Yeah. With the mon monitoring side of things. Yeah. And, from day one, that's been the goal of Windar Making something cheap, robust. That can just stay there and measure with good availability, wind speed, and direction coming to your turbine.  Joel Saxum: I love it. so we wanna squeeze as much as we can outta these turbines. And you guys are increasing AEP that's, the name of the game. Yeah. Right.  Increasing AEP below rated. and then above rated you decrease loads. Increase uptime. and we basically do that by going on the line of the wind direction. that you then feed to the turbine controller and then we can actually adjust the, yaw position of the turbine according to our information. So I want to talk a little bit, we, we chatted a little bit offline about the, technology behind it, right? Yep. And people in the wind industry, if you're around the wind industry around resourcing or you're around optimization, you've heard [00:03:00] lidar. Yep. You know what I mean? And,

This episode covers the UK's Crown Estate's offshore wind investments, drone threats to wind turbines, and Nordex's 40th anniversary. It also highlights TotalEnergies winning a German offshore wind auction and Pemamek's advanced welding 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! You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now, here's your hosts. Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: Well, we're back with another edition of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. I got Rosemary Barnes in Australia, Phil Totaro in Warm and sunny California, and Joel Saxon in practically hell in temperature in Austin, Texas. I was just down in Dallas, Texas a day ago, and man, is that hot. There's just like a, a certain kind of heat, you know, you need to get indoors pretty quick. Texas heat is really bad right now. Joel Saxum: You know, one thing I didn't know about this area out here west of Austin, like in the Hill country, it's actually really windy out here. Like there's a steady wind all the time that, and you don't hit [00:01:00] wind farms for another like three hours when you had West, like the first ones. But it's like, I lived in Houston and Texas and it was pretty dormant most of the time, but it, there's constant wind here as the temperatures change throughout the day. All the time explains all the wind turbines.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, you sound like me when I moved to Denmark and I'm like, why do I have to live in this windy place?  Allen Hall: So we have a birthday to celebrate and no, it's not Rosie's birthday. It's Nord Deck's birthday and it's celebrating their 40th anniversary and they've been around since 1985. And some facts about Nordex that they published really interesting. They have developed 46 different onshore turbine types. Across the two companies, which was Nordex, SE, and Acciona. And That's amazing. So in 40 years, did those two companies now merge together A couple of years ago? Uh, is they have 46 different onshore term designs from 250 kilowatts up to seven megawatt machines. Now Rosemary, I think this kind of high, [00:02:00] and congratulations to Nordex by the way. That's quite an achievement. It does highlight the rate of pace. For wind turbines from the mid eighties up till now. One new turbine a year is a lot.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. And it's not the hugest company, right. It's not like they've got a hundred thousand employees developing those, uh, that one new turbine every year. So, yeah. Um. Nobody's been sitting around on their hands at that company.  Joel Saxum: They made it past the, is it, isn't it the rule of thumb, Alan? We talk about businesses like in the states, like if you make it past five years, you're, you're good  Allen Hall: al almost right? So most companies fail within the first year to three years. It's, it's hard to make it to three, then five, then 10. If you can make it across 10, you have something worthwhile. It's gonna stick around for a little bit. And, and Nordics has.  Rosemary Barnes: What's weather guard at?  Allen Hall: Uh, we're at. Almost 2020.  Rosemary Barnes: Whew. An institution.  Allen Hall: An institution. Yeah. We need to beat an institution at this point. And over in the uk, uh, the [00:03:00] UK's Crown Estate. Now this is an important story everyone. The UK's Crown Estate is making major investment commitments, uh,

Allen discusses US-UK tension over Chinese company Ming Yang's wind energy investment in Scotland, key offshore wind projects from HSM Offshore Energy and Great British Energy, Turkey's ambitious wind energy goals, and new leadership at the Global Wind Energy Council. 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! There's tension between the US and UK over Chinese wind energy investment. The US government has raised security concerns about plans by Chinese company Mingyang to build a wind turbine factory in Scotland. Trump administration officials warned the UK about what they call national security risks. The factory would supply wind farms in the North Sea. UK ministers are now reviewing whether to block the project. They're worried about cybersecurity and being too dependent on Chinese technology. Security officials say Chinese wind turbines could contain electronic surveillance equipment. Mingyang is not state-owned, but critics worry the Chinese government could interfere. Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes had said Scotland was open to the factory. But the Scottish Government is waiting for security guidance from Westminster. A UK Government spokesperson said they would never let anything threaten national security. All energy investments face the highest security checks. Construction has officially started on Belgium's major offshore energy project. Workers cut the first steel this week at a factory in the Netherlands. They're building parts for the Princess Elisabeth hub. The artificial island will sit twenty-eight miles off the Belgian coast. The project will transport at least two point one gigawatts of wind energy to the mainland. That's enough power for millions of homes. HSM Offshore Energy is making high-voltage equipment at their Schiedam yard. Commercial director Hans Leerdam says this marks a key moment for European energy security. The island will also connect Belgium to other European countries, including the UK. Final assembly will happen in Schiedam and Vlissingen. Leerdam calls it one of Europe's most strategic energy projects moving from plan to reality. The UK government has announced a massive boost for offshore wind energy. Great British Energy is leading a one billion pound investment package. The money will fund wind turbine manufacturing, floating platforms, and port upgrades. Three hundred million pounds comes from Great British Energy. The Crown Estate and private companies are adding another seven hundred million pounds. The investment targets key regions including Teesside, South Wales, East Anglia, and Scotland. Officials say it will create thousands of skilled jobs. The government is also offering up to five hundred forty-four million pounds through its Clean Industry Bonus. This encourages developers to invest in deprived areas. The North East of England could receive up to two hundred million pounds. That might unlock four billion pounds in private investment. Scotland gets up to one hundred eighty-five million pounds for ports and high-tech components. The offshore wind expansion should support fourteen thousand new jobs over four years. Industry leaders believe this could boost the UK economy by twenty-five billion pounds by twenty thirty-five. Turkey is planning a major expansion of its wind energy capacity. The country aims to reach forty-eight gigawatts of wind power by twenty thirty-five. Turkey currently has nearly fourteen gigawatts installed. That makes it the sixth largest wind power producer in Europe and twelfth in the world.

Alejandro Cabrera Muñoz, CEO and founder of Green Eagle Solutions, discusses their ARSOS platform and how it helps wind farm operators manage technical complexities, market volatility, and regulatory changes by automating turbine issue responses for increased productivity and revenue. 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! Wind Farm operators face mounting challenges from managing thousands of diverse turbines to navigating the energy markets and constant regulatory changes. This week we speak with Alejandro Cabrera Munoz, CEO, and founder of Green Eagle Solutions. Green Eagle's ARSOS platform gives control rooms immediate responses to turbine issues, which dramatically increases productivity and captures more revenue from their turbines. Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Alejandro, welcome to the show.  Speaker 3: Thank you, Allen. Thank you for having me here today.  Allen Hall: so Green Eagle Solutions is in a unique space of the renewable energy marketplace, and you saw a problem several years ago, particularly in the control rooms of [00:01:00] wind operators. What is that problem that you identified? Speaker 3: Yeah, Allen, I think it, it's, It's a challenge that, most of our customers, which are generally large operators, are facing today. But it's a challenge that have been, growing, in the past years. So first of all, it's, it goes along with the penetration of renewables in the industry, right? So we have, due to all these many years of aggregating new wind farms and solar plants, We are seeing how the complexity, the technical complexity of operating and supervising these assets is growing exponentially, right? So we now have customers with thousands of wind turbines that have, different models, different versions of, controllers, And also different healthcare issues that they have to take care of. So the technical complexity is a fair, the first [00:02:00] factor that, it's has to be tackled from a control room, And, makes, operations quite, challenging. Along with this, we have market volatility. So in the recent years especially, we are seeing how, Negative pricing and optional markets are now affecting operations in a daily, basis. Basically in every 15 minutes you dunno if you're gonna produce or not. Up until recently it was as simple as if you had wind resource, you would produce energy from wind farms. If you had solar, you produce energy from solar plants. It's not like that anymore. So the market is quite, volatile. that adds a lot of complexity from the commercial point of view of, Of the assets. And the last, factor that is actually becoming, an increasing challenge for everyone is the regulatory changes. So basically due to the penetration of renewable energies, what we see is that all governments, all grid operators and our market operators are constantly issuing [00:03:00] new adapt, new regulatory changes, that everyone has to adapt to no matter what. it doesn't matter if you have an all wind farm or a newer wind farm. Or you prepared or not, like everyone has to be adapted to, to the new regulatory, changes. the three things are actually affecting, our customers and we are trying to solve all these issues, the way, the, best way that we can, right? So most of our customers, we just have a control room full of people. they will do their best effort to accommodate these challenges. The reality is that we have to. Deal with, people, procedures, and, systems, and we,

Register for the next SkySpecs Webinar! We discuss China's new 20MW floating turbine by CRRC, and Nordex's patent application for modular blade assembly. Plus HeliService USA's offshore ambulance service and the recent construction delays at Atlantic Shores and Vineyard 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! Allen Hall: Our next SkySpecs webinar, if you missed the last one, about lightning protection and how to use SkySpecs, drone imaging and data, and the EOLOGIX-PING Lightning sensor to help yourself on the lightning side. You can actually watch that on the SkySpecs. Just go to SkySpecs and you can see that webinar. It's free. All this stuff is free. It's all great stuff. All you need to do is register. You can get all this information. The next one is coming up on June 25th, 11:00 AM Eastern Time. And this next, webinar is gonna have Liam McGrath from RWE, who's a blade engineer there, and Tom Brady from SkySpecs, who handles all the cool drone technologies. So if you haven't met Tom, you need to go to this webinar and find out what's going on. And Michael McQueenie from SkySpecs. It's the rule. Subject is when should you be scheduling your drone inspections and you shouldn't be doing it in the spring. That's really important. If you wanna save some money on your operational aspects, your [00:01:00] o and m budget, you need to be thinking about how to get your inspections done, when to get your inspections done, and what tools are available to you at different times a year. So there's optimal times to get your drones inspected and there's suboptimal times. Suboptimal times is like March. Don't do it, then do it the previous fall. and so Joel will be there. I will be there. Don't miss it. It is June 25th. 11:00 AM and you can sign up in the show notes below.  Speaker 2: You're listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now, here's your hosts. Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I have Joel Saxo along and Rosemary Barnes from Australia and I've. Just been digging through all the news over the last several days. Really disappointing news to the United States, but over [00:02:00] in China. TRRC has unveiled a 20 megawatt floating wind turbine, and it's, has a rotor diameter of 260 meters, which is not really outrageous. The CRRC press release, which is a little outrageous, let, me read you some of this, and it's called The Key Hung. wind turbine, the key Hung, integrates multiple innovative control technologies offering four core advantages. High intelligence system, modularization, full chain collaboration. And Joel, don't we all want that? And exceptional stability. It incorporates various intelligent controls, sensing and detection technologies that design further enhances the unit's flexibility and efficiency by modularizing key system interfaces and structural components. So there are a lot of words in this press release, but they don't say, actually say anything at all. So that's why we have Rosemary here to suss  Joel Saxum: out.  Allen Hall: What is happening with CRRC and a [00:03:00] 20 megawatt floating turbine? Is it really needed, Rosemary?  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I think I've made my thoughts clear about the, like bigger, kind of pursuit of, offshore wind turbines. And I think that a lot of it is about prestige to be the, first with the biggest. and so I guess that this is the,

Australia has approved the 943 MW Valley of the Winds Wind Farm, Bermuda plans to install an offshore wind farm with 17 turbines by 2027, and Nova Scotia proposes an ambitious $10 billion offshore wind 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! Australia has given the green light to a massive wind project. The Independent Planning Commission in New South Wales has approved ACEN Australia's nine hundred forty-three megawatt Valley of the Winds wind farm. The project also includes a three hundred twenty megawatt battery storage system. The project will create up to four hundred construction jobs and fifty permanent positions. The investment is approximately one point six eight billion Australian dollars. The island nation of Bermuda is making the most of its windy weather. Officials unveiled plans for an offshore wind farm starting with seventeen turbines by twenty twenty-seven. The project aims to help Bermuda reach its twenty thirty-five goal of eighty-five percent renewable energy. The project will begin with a sixty megawatt installation near the north shore. Officials hope to scale up to one hundred twenty megawatts total. Nigel Burgess, head of regulation at Regulatory Authority Bermuda, calls offshore wind a compelling opportunity. The project will lower exposure to fuel price shocks and create space for long-term investment. Currently, Bermuda gets one hundred percent of its power from fuel burning. The project aims to promote energy independence by reducing dependence on imported fuels. The wind farm is expected to be operational by twenty thirty. Nova Scotia has announced an ambitious offshore wind project that could cost up to ten billion dollars. Premier Tim Houston wants to license enough offshore turbines over the next ten years to produce forty gigawatts of electricity. That's eight times more than originally planned. To put this in perspective, Nova Scotia with just over one million people requires only two point four gigawatts at peak demand. China's offshore wind turbines were producing just under forty-two gigawatts as of last year. The project would require hundreds of wind turbines built in water about one hundred meters deep, about twenty-five kilometers offshore. Experts say the project would actually need more than four thousand offshore turbines using current fifteen megawatt turbines. The transmission line alone is estimated to cost between five billion and ten billion dollars to connect the wind farms with the rest of the country. The premier calls it a concept to capture the imagination of Nova Scotians. He wants federal help to cover costs, saying the excess electricity could supply twenty-seven percent of Canada's total demand.

Howard Penrose from MotorDoc discusses their electrical signature monitoring for wind turbines that offers precise diagnostics, enabling cost-effective preventative maintenance and lifetime extension. 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! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Howard, welcome back to the show. Thank you. Well, we've been traveling a, a good deal and talking to a lot of operators in the United States and in Europe, and even in Australia. And, uh, your name comes up quite a bit because we talk to all the technical people in the world and we see a lot of things. And I get asked quite a bit, what is the coolest technology that I don't know about? And I say, Howard Penrose MotorDoc. And they say, who? And I say, well, wait a minute. If you want something super powerful to learn about your turbine, that is easy to implement and has been vetted and has years of in-service testing and verification. It is MotorDock, it is [00:01:00] empower for motors, it is empath for systems and vibration and all the other things. And now empath, CMS, which is a continuous monitoring system that you're offering that those systems are revolutionary and I don't use that word a lot in wind. It's revolutionary in wind and. Let, let me just back up a little bit because I, I want to explain what some of these problems are that we're seeing in the field and, and what your systems do. But there's a, the, the core to what your technology is, is that you're using the air gap between the rotor and the stator and the generator to monitor what's happening inside the turbine. Very precisely. Can you just provide a little insight like how that magic happens?  Howard Penrose: Okay. It's, it's basically, we use it as an, as a basic accelerometer. So, um, the side to side movement of the, of the rotor inside the air gap. Um. I could get very technical and use the word [00:02:00] inverse square law, but basically in the magnetic field I've got side to side movement. Plus every defect in the powertrain, um, causes either blips or hesitations in the rotation. Basically, the torque of the machine, which is also picked up in the air gap, and from a physics standpoint. The air gap, the magnetic field, can't tell the difference. And, um, both voltage and current see that as small ripples in the wave form, and then we just pull that data out. So, um, uh, I, I liken it exactly as vibration. Just a different approach,  Allen Hall: right? And that that vibration turns into little ripples. And then I'm gonna talk electrical engineering, just for a brief moment, everybody. We're taking it from the time domain to the frequency domain. We're doing a four a transform. And in that four a transform, you can see these spikes that occur at, uh, known locations that correlate back to what the machine is doing  Howard Penrose: exactly. [00:03:00] They're they're exact calculations, uh, down to the hundred or even thousandths of a hertz. Uh, so, uh, when we, when we do the measurements, they come up as side bands around, uh, whatever. The, the, uh, signature is, so the amplitude modulation, it's an amplitude modulated signal. So I have, uh, basically the ripple show up on the positive side of the waveform and on the negative side of the waveform. So around everything, I just have plus and minus line frequency. That's, that's basically the primary difference. Then we just convert it over to decibels, which makes it, um, relational to the load,

The hosts discuss the recent $62 million funding round for Aerones, Siemens Energy's call for increased offshore wind capacity in the UK, Canada's push for offshore wind with Bill C-49, and the installation of Vestas' 7.2 MW turbine in Germany. And the Coyote Wind Farm in Texas as the 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! You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here's your hosts, Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: And welcome back to the Uptown Wind Energy Podcast. I'm here with Rosemary Barnes, Joel Saxon, and Phil Ro. Uh, crazy week. Again, I don't know how else to describe it. The, I was just telling our producer this morning that there's so much news coming out where it seemed like to be a little bit of a lull after the US House bill, but it's picked right back up again. And one of the more exciting things that's happened is A owns closed a $62 million series B. Uh, led by Activate Capital and S two G with, uh, revenue growing at Aeros by about 300% in 2024, and they are getting a lot of requests from [00:01:00] operators in the United States and elsewhere to fix their wind turbine blades. They have been working pretty closely with GE Renova and NextEra. Over the last, what Joel say two years, maybe a little bit longer on a number of problems.  Joel Saxum: Yeah. A couple years they've been doing, uh, bespoke solutions for both of them. They've also been doing their, you know, standard things that they're rolling out to the rest of the market. But I think this is a good thing. In one article that I was reading, there is like a tier one operator starting to adopt it, right? So. Everybody was kind of approaching that robotic thing, like, yeah, it looks like it's the future and, you know, but a little trepid, right? Dipping a toe in or dipping a finger into the water, trying it out. But now it seems like, hey, we got an LEP campaign, coones, we've got this robotics problem we wanna solve, collar owns. So they're starting to get more and more adoption and, and that shows, right, 300%, uh, revenue growth in 2024. So that's, that's huge, right? To, to hit that kind of number. So now it's up to, uh, scaling up. Uh, the only thing that can cap that number is the amount of robots that they can put outta the [00:02:00] factory over there in Riga.  Allen Hall: And we visited their facility in the United States about a year ago. It was just outside of Dallas, near Lake Dallas of all places. And it is a decent sized facility, but at the time we, when we walked around out back, you just noticed a whole bunch of, uh, parking lot spaces with trailers and capabilities for robots and thought, wow, that there's a lot of robot, uh, sitting in the parking lot. And, uh. But then they had, when I asked they, they said, oh, they had a ton of crews already out in the field working. So they do have the ability to get to a number of turbine sites. I, I guess maybe still not enough from what I hear, there's, the demand has gone through the roof.  Joel Saxum: Well, it's, it's a really interesting, or really cool, I guess, opportunity for technicians. So that's one of the things that robotics does is it addresses the technician shortage. You got a technician shortage, great, let's use robots. Then we can start, uh, having that force multiplier, right? Because you could run robots on two turbines from one control van.

Allen Hall covers the appointment of Catrin Jung as Vattenfall's new head of wind division, the Netherlands reaching 20% renewable energy in 2024, Quebec's $1.1 billion funding for a major wind project, and France commissioning its first floating 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! Good news from the offshore wind industry today. Vattenfall has named a new leader for its wind business division. Catrin Jung will take over as Head of Business Area Wind starting July first. Jung currently leads the company's offshore wind operations. She replaces Helene Bistrom, who is leaving the company. Jung joined Vattenfall in two thousand two. She has managed some of the company's largest investments in recent years. The wind division handles both offshore and onshore wind projects. It also manages large solar and battery projects. Jung says staying focused on fossil freedom is more important than ever in these uncertain times. The Netherlands reached a major renewable energy milestone last year. Renewable energy made up nearly twenty percent of the country's total energy use in twenty twenty four. That's up from seventeen point four percent in twenty twenty three. Statistics Netherlands released the preliminary data. The increase comes mainly from new offshore wind turbines and more biodiesel use in transportation. The overall renewable energy consumption reached three hundred fifty eight petajoules. That's a fifteen percent increase from twenty twenty three. Biomass remained the largest renewable source. Wind came second, followed by solar power. Renewables were mostly used for electricity at sixty percent. Heat and cooling accounted for twenty eight percent. Transport fuels made up twelve percent. The share of renewables has more than doubled compared to five years ago. A major wind energy project in Quebec has secured its funding. Invenergy and a consortium of 209 municipalities and territories in Eastern Quebec announced the closing of one point one billion dollars Canadian in financing. The money will fund the PPAW 1 Wind Energy Centre. The work will create three hundred fifty jobs during construction. Construction will happen throughout twenty twenty five and twenty twentysix. Commercial operation is expected in late twenty twenty six. Once operational, the project will add three hundred fifty megawatts to the local grid. France has achieved a renewable energy first. EDF Renewables has fully commissioned the country's first floating wind farm. The Provence Grand Large wind farm has a power capacity of twenty five megawatts. The farm features three floating wind turbines installed seventeen kilometers off the France's Mediterranean coast This is the first floating wind farm in France and across the entire Mediterranean basin. The project uses unique anchoring technology. Siemens Gamesa built the turbines. They're installed on floats with tight anchor lines. The technology was inspired by systems used to stabilize oil platforms. SBM Offshore and IFP Energies Nouvelles developed this technology. It's suitable for deep sea areas and provides excellent float stability. Bernard Fontana, Chairman and CEO of EDF, says the project helps diversify renewable energy sources. He calls it an important project for France's energy sovereignty. The experience will help with construction of EDF's second floating wind farm, Mediterranee Grand Large. EDF was awarded that contract in December twenty twenty four.

Carlos Oliveira, CEO of Fibersail, discusses their advanced fiber optic technology for early detection of wind turbine blade damage, reducing downtime and optimizing maintenance for wind farm operators. 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: Wind turbine blade failures cost the industry billions annually. Today we're talking with Fibersail, CEO, Carlos Oliveira About their innovative fiber optic technology that detects early blade damage before catastrophic failures occur. Learn how their shape sensing system is helping wind farm operators reduce downtime and optimize maintenance. Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow. Carlos, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me here.  Allen Hall: This is gonna be a fascinating discussion. when I was over at Wind Europe, the activity around your booth was really good. a lot of interested people wanting to learn more about the technology and how to protect their blades and be able to determine early if they have blade problems. And I think everybody on the [00:01:00] podcast knows that blades are a huge issue financially. And we just don't have enough information about how they are moving structurally or what kind of structural issues they're having. How big do you think this problem is, Carlos?  Speaker 3: I agree with you. So we have quite a busy Wind Europe event. we were really full all the, time. and I think that, the problem is really, getting out, right? It's every year, more than. Five, $6 billion are being spent in non-planned repairs activities. and this is impacting a lot to the bottom line of the industry. what we knew at fiber cell 3, 4, 5 years ago, that the problem was really big Honda blades. Now it's mainstream knowledge. big companies are putting billions of euros, in, recognizing losses because of this issue. And more and more customers are coming to us. it's [00:02:00] really a big issue and we believe that, it can really put in danger the wind industry as a whole.  Allen Hall: Yeah. And even if you buy a new turbine today, there is very little information that comes from the blades themselves. A lot of it is coming from the SCADA system, and that's, those SCADA systems are not designed to detect this sort of. Issues that Fibersail can detect. Correct?  Speaker 3: Yeah. And I think it's we are building bigger and bigger blades, using old technology, right? It does not work. you have a mixture for a big explosion happening, and that's exactly what we are seeing. If in the past, the turbines, they were showing problems after 5, 6, 7, 8 years of operation. Today we have customers that come to us. with big problems in blades after one, two years of operation, some of them still during the warranty period. So it's really becoming a big issue and that's where our shape sensing technology kicks in because we have advanced sensing technology. For the most [00:03:00] advanced, turbines out there and the new ones, it's really good interior, but the reality is a different story.  Allen Hall: how soon should you install a system onto a blade, particularly a new blade? Should it go in at the factory or, immediately after in the warranty period, or a lot of operators that we have seen, like to install them at year five or six of operation, which seems. Late to us.  Speaker 3: I tend to agree, we would prefer to have it installed, at the manufacturing. we know it's not, straightforward. and what we're doing, and this is let's say our go-to market strateg...

This week we discuss Australia's recent cancellation of wind projects due to political changes and community opposition, the complexities of grid interconnects, and the need for strategic renewable energy planning. 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! You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here's your hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.  Well, welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I am Allen Hall and I'm here with Rosemary Barnes, who's fresh from. Sweden, she just traveled all around the world to record this episode. Uh, Phil Totaro is out in California and Joel Saxum is up in the cold north of Wisconsin. And we, we've been just discussing off air. All the craziness has been happening in the wind industry. And I, I have to admit, you know, I thought last week was. Insane. Well, we just, uh, put it on steroids. So not only are we canceling a lot of projects in the United States currently, we're all, we're starting to be cancel [00:01:00] them on Australia and over in Queensland. The Queensland Deputy Premier, uh, has used his ministerial powers to refuse planning approval for the moonlight range when Farm Near Rock Hampton. Now I, and I'm sure I murdered that name Rosemary, so please forgive me, but it was gonna have 88 turbines in about 450 megawatts of capacity, enough to power about a quarter million homes in Australia and tied with, it's about 300 construction jobs and 10 permanent positions to make that wind farm go. But there's was like a two month public consultation period that happened. And during that consultation period, about 80 per 90% of the local residents, and when I say local residents are about 150 local residents, uh, replied back and were concerned about some of the, the known people that are gonna be there because it's gonna like double the population, right. And 300 construction workers in a, an area of 140 people, 150 people. Uh, and based on [00:02:00] that boom, perhaps the, the project was canceled. What is happening in Queensland that we need to understand that projects just kinda get wiped away like that with 140 people, 150 people chiding in.  Rosemary Barnes: So what's happened is that the Queensland government, the Queensland State Government, it was labor for quite a while and they had, uh, renewables targets and net zero targets and stuff like that. And then, um, the government changed last year, so now there's a, a liberal government, which means conservative in Australia. They're in power and they wanted to change their planning regulations. But what is a bit weird is that they wanna do it retroactively. So they've changed the rules in April, and now they're going through projects that have already been approved to see if they meet the new rules rather than the rules at the time that they were approved. But the weirdest thing is that I'm pretty sure that this specific wind farm that they revoked, they were the ones to approve it shortly after [00:03:00] they came into government. They approved this wind farm and then they changed the rules a few months later, and then they did a new round of community consultation. Um. And they say that 85% of local residents were, um, you know, in favor of reassessing. The issue is that now we're at this stage of the energy transition where, you know, we're up over 40% renewables across Australia. Um, that's primarily wind and solar.

In this episode of Uptime News, Allen covers leadership changes at Eneco, historic renewable energy deals in Poland, strong support for wind energy in Ireland, and a surge in American clean energy investment. 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! Welcome to Uptime News. Flash Industry News Lightning fast. Your host, Allen Hall, shares the renewable industry news you may have missed. Allen Hall: Leading off the week, there's a leadership change at a major European energy company. As Templeman is stepping down as CEO of Dutch Energy firm, Eneco on August 1st. Templeman is leaving to become the new chief executive of lighting company, signify in September. Eneco says Kees Jan Rameau will serve as interim CEO starting July 4th. The company's board has already started searching for a permanent replacement. Templeman joined an Eneco as CEO in July of 2020. The supervisory board chair Mel Kroon says Templeman led the successful launch of the company's one planet plan before Eneco. Templeman held senior positions at Shell across [00:01:00] Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Over in Poland, energy companies have closed one of the largest renewable energy deals in European history. Norwegian firm, Equinor, and Polish company, Polenergia, have secured 6 billion euros in financing for two offshore wind projects. That's about $6.8 billion. The companies say it's the largest project finance deal in Poland's energy history. The Baltic two and Baltic three Wind Farms will feature 100 turbines with a combined capacity of 1.4 gigawatts. Polenergia, CEO Adam Purwin says they have secured financing from around 30 institutions. He says The company's obtained exceptionally favorable terms despite challenging market conditions, construction has already begun. Onshore marine operations will start next year. The wind farms should begin full commercial operation in 2028, and they'll provide power to more than 2 million [00:02:00] Polish households. And Irish citizens are showing strong support for wind energy development. A new national survey by Wind Energy Ireland found 80% of the public supports wind energy development, 62% back having a wind farm in the local area. The survey found people support wind energy because it offers more affordable electricity and reduces carbon emissions. Energy independence was also a key motivator. CEO. Noel Cunniffe says, Irish people know wind power is the leading solution to rising energy costs and climate change. He says, wind power is already helping reduce electricity prices and create jobs. 75% of those surveys support offshore wind energy. 82% recognize its role in securing Ireland's energy supply. Research shows Ireland's offshore wind farms could generate 38 billion euros for the Irish economy by 2050. And American clean energy investment continues to surge. The American [00:03:00] Clean Power Association says developers installed 7.4 gigawatts of new solar, wind and storage capacity in the first quarter. That represents $10 billion in domestic investment. The trade group says it was the second strongest start to a year on record. Battery storage achieved record first quarter installations surpassing 30 gigawatts of total capacity nationwide. The development pipeline grew 12% to reach 184 gigawatts. That represents $328 billion in potential project investment. CEO. Jason Grumet says, clean power is shovel-ready at scale. He says the industry has a technology. Investment capital and workforce needed. Grumet warns that the greatest threat to reliable energy is an unreliable political sys...

Joseph Chacon, CEO of Padge LLC, discusses the impact of electrical harmonics on wind turbines and solar systems, providing insights into causes, consequences, and effective solutions for improving power quality. 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! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Joe, welcome to the show.  Joseph Chacon: Thank you. I appreciate it.  Allen Hall: Well, I'm glad we connected, uh, through Jon Zalar, I believe, and we don't talk electrical power creation or what that. Kind of power we're creating and what the effect of that power is on systems downstream very often, uh, the Uptime podcast, because there's so many wind turbine issues, is mostly focused on mechanical problems. But we're finding that more and more problems may have an electrical origin. We wanted to get an expert in here that would be you to come help us on harmonics because there are requirements about harmonics.  Joseph Chacon: There are, uh, IEEE five 19 governs [00:01:00] the requirements for harmonics. At the point of common coupling. Allen Hall: That's correct. And your prior experiences with ge, which is now GE Renova down in South Carolina, that's correct. But you were involved, maybe give a brief description of the things you're working on because when electrical people talk, um, kind of gets lost in translation. You were knee deep, maybe waist deep, maybe eyeballs deep and electrical  Joseph Chacon: power at GE Renova? No, not, not knee deep, not weight deep, waist deep. I was baptized, completely immersed all the way in. I came shortly after the Enron acquisition. Um, I was one of the electrical engineering managers at the time. We had, uh, I think two or three at the time. Um, this was pretty early on. Uh, I got out of that because, uh, I'm, I like management, but I, I like electrical engineering, so I wanted to go back to being an individual contributor. Um, so I've touched just about [00:02:00] every electrical thing you can think of in a wind turbine. And also in solar  Joel Saxum: as well. You know, a little bit of a sidebar here 'cause I want, we want to definitely get into this deep technical conversation, but Joe, you touched on something that happens to people, right? You're a really good engineer, you've run a team, you've solved some problems. So now you get promoted to management, but you don't get to engineer as much anymore. So you get, like, you get, you start being leadership and like doing all these things, how to manage people, how to run a team, this, that, and that's great. We need that. The industry, every industry globally, we need to be able to do those things. But for engineers that have engineer at heart, and I'm, I'm also looking at you, Alan Hall. Uh, they, they wanna be able to engineer, right? They wanna be able to do stuff to make a difference to, to, to get hands on with a problem. So, so you, so you've done that though, right? That that's you, you are now, uh, Josh Shahan is, uh, pad LLC and  Joseph Chacon: pod is short for Padre, which is what my kids and grandchildren call me. They just shortened it from Padre to podge. 'cause saying two [00:03:00]syllables was too much and I liked it.  Joel Saxum: Yeah, I like that. Okay, so, so, so like we said, uh, you, you, you guys, you're getting deep into harmonics and other issues. You get called in by Solar Farms to solve problems and, and this is the thing Alan and I were kind of talking about off air a little bit is.

Lene Hellstern, Director of Engineering at PEAK Wind, discusses the complexities of onshore wind siting, the advantages of using LIDAR technology, and strategic considerations for turbine selection. 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: We're back with Lene Hellstern, the Director of Engineering at PEAK Wind, and we're talking about onshore wind siting, which is a really critical issue that a lot of operators have difficulties with. And I've seen it in the United States and it's not good. And I'm wondering from your perspective, what are some of the problems, Lene? Well first, welcome back to the podcast.  Lene Hellstern: Thank you. And thanks for having me repeat experience last time, so I hope so. I thought I'll pop in again.  Allen Hall: Well, it's good to have you back and thanks  Lene Hellstern: for coming to Copenhagen.  Allen Hall: Yeah, well we love Copenhagen. It's great. Uh, I just wish it was a little bit warmer. Yeah, the sun is terrific. Yeah. When you're in it, well, at  Lene Hellstern: least I fixed that. Right. Yes. It's not raining. It's not raining. Yes.  Allen Hall: We, we quite enjoyed it. Uh, but I'm trying to get an understanding of what the underlying issues are with onshore wind siding and why some of the operators have difficulty later on. Let's just start with the sighting [00:01:00] itself. Yeah. Is usually, we'll see a wind mast out on site for several months, maybe a year, maybe two years. To try to get some wind data. We would  Lene Hellstern: really like that. Yeah. Okay. But, uh, the preferable measurements are lidars.  Allen Hall: Oh, lidars. Yeah. I have not seen a lot of lidars in use. Lene Hellstern: No. You, you need to get some more.  Allen Hall: Why?  Lene Hellstern: Um, because they reach higher.  Allen Hall: Okay.  Lene Hellstern: Um, and you can, uh, you can, you can move them around. Right. And the hassle of installing a Met Mass that's a hundred meters tall, is, uh, is it a problem? Quite, uh. Quite it, it cost a lot more. Yes. Um, and, and the lidars, they, they just, they're better and they measure higher. And you can, you can have one sort of mother lidar and then you can move the other around and you can cover your wind resources and site suitability much better on the site. So I would definitely recommend  Allen Hall: lidars. Okay. How the lidars use a [00:02:00] good bit of power to make them run, correct? Yes. So you need a decent power source? Yes.  Lene Hellstern: You do? Yes.  Allen Hall: Okay. Yeah. I, is that one of the difficulties why they don't use a lidar? Is it just in a lot of remote areas, they don't have the power source to run it?  Lene Hellstern: It could be, or it could be the, the lack of knowledge. Right. Traditionally we have used med masks, yes.  Allen Hall: Forever.  Lene Hellstern: Uh, so, so it could be, and then there are also some, um, uh, some issues with uncertainties because the lidar is the, the standards are not up to date. I would say that's the political way correct way of saying it. So. Eh, the standard actually introduces more uncertainty on the lidar that's really not necessary to, due to a calibration with a me mast. Um, so that there's some, there's some things that needs to improve in that area  Allen Hall: because a lidar should be a lot more accurate than a met mast. Lene Hellstern: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. But, but the, the downside of the lidar, so that, that is not often we see that, is if you don't have enough particles in the air,

Allen, Phil, and Joel cover the low turnout at American Clean Power in Phoenix, the US House's budget bill affecting renewable energy incentives, security concerns over Chinese equipment, and a patent infringement lawsuit filed by 3S Lift. 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! You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now, here's your host. Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm Allen Hall, and I'm joined today by Phil Totaro and Joel Saxum. Rosemary Barnes is over in Sweden, and Rosemary's gonna miss out on a very active week in renewable energy, at least in the United States. we should probably start with American clean power, which as we are recording, just finished the day. It was in Phoenix, Arizona. Things I've seen online, Joel, were that they were expecting around 10,000 people to attend that event, but watching LinkedIn, and I did not attend it this year, unfortunately, or fortunately, is my daughter's graduation. So [00:01:00] I wanted to be there. I. But it looked like the hallways were pretty empty, which was a little shocking.  Joel Saxum: Yeah. So Allen, I wanna preface what you said there by, changing, a CP was in Phoenix too. A CP was in 106 degrees Phoenix today. it was a little bit toasty walking around in the suit jacket, but, of course, everybody, had theirs on. but no, you're, a hundred percent correct. I was there all week, of course, weather guard brand there, talking lightning with everybody and, strike tape. And we had the uptime wind energy banner. We talked to a ton of podcast fans, which was really cool. so the hallways were, Tuesday morning was great. Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday, Thursday. It just got slimmer and slimmer. and, there was some kind of logistical things there too. This trade show was oddly on two different floors that were separated by four escalator sets. I think like it was a, maze to get up to the other thing. Yeah, it was, pretty wild, in that respect. [00:02:00] And you saw some of the same players that you always see at these trade shows, right? But there was quite a few new ones walking around, doing a little, tour day, exhibit, exhibition floor. A lot of different new companies, that I wasn't used to seeing, in the solar space. some software, some, a lot of little AI software things that you've been hearing about as well. battery storage, quite a few battery storage companies and that battery storage supply chain starting to spread out. You had some battery safety companies and stuff like that, which was great to see. I know I talked to some of our insurance friends and they were bouncing around talking with all the battery storage people and the solar people and that kind of stuff. but yeah, it wasn't very heavy, heavily wind as it has been in the past we're, which we're, usually used to. another factor. to walk the show floor was $1,600. [00:03:00] So that's, that, deters quite a people. And when, we had talked before we go to the show, of course we wanna connect with our clients, connect with colleagues, connect with old friends, and you start sending out these emails and there wasn't a whole lot of asset owners and operators coming as they, as we usually see, and it showed on the show floor. I didn't talk to that many asset owners and asset operators as we usually do. I'm talking probably. A quarter of the traffic that we're used to from tho...

South Korea's Jeonnam 1 Wind Farm enters commercial operation, Norway launches its first floating wind tender, Denmark announces 3 GW of offshore wind possibility, and The Netherlands delays tendering for two wind 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! Allen Hall: Leading off the week, Norway has launched the first part of its long awaited, inaugural floating wind tender, offering subsidies to the winners. Bidders will be awarded rights to develop commercial projects of up to 500 megawatts in capacity at the Utsira Nord site off the country's southwest coast. The winners will have two years to mature the projects before competing in an auction for subsidies in 2028 to 2029 to be provided as a direct grant. Norway's Energy Minister said Utsira Nord is an important first step in the development of commercial floating offshore wind development on the Norwegian continental shelf. Norway has agreed to cap subsidies for Utsira Nord at 35 billion Norwegian crowns equal to about [00:01:00] $3.7 billion. Over in Denmark, Denmark has announced the launch of offshore wind tenders with a capacity of three gigawatts, enough to power approximately 3 million homes. According to the Danish Energy Ministry, the tenders set to open in autumn of this year, we'll cover two areas in the North Sea. One in the water separating Denmark and Sweden. The initiative comes with the potential subsidy of up to 55.2 billion Danish crowns equal to about $8.32 billion over a span of 20 years. Last year, Denmark halted its ongoing offshore wind tenders to reevaluate its subsidy model after failing to attract any bids and what was supposed to be its largest offshore wind auction. The Danish Energy Ministry clarified that bid prices and electricity price developments will dictate whether further subsidies are necessary or if the state might even generate revenue from the projects. And in the Netherlands, the Dutch government has [00:02:00] delayed tendering for two offshore wind sites. Uh, companies were scheduled to compete for three permits in October this year for construction and operation of new wind farms in the North Sea. However, two of the sites will now be tendered later, just one site. Nederwiek 1-A has been designated for the next offshore wind tunnel with the capacity of about one gigawatt. For the Nederwiek 1 Wind Farm, the tender criteria have been adjusted to improve the business case for offshore wind. The Ministry of Climate and Green Growth said it is taking these measures to make the upcoming tender round more attractive and to allow the construction of offshore wind farms to proceed at a realistic pace. The Nederwiek 1-A wind farm will supply about three and a 5% of Dutch electricity consumption once completed. And in South Korea, south Korea's, Jeonnam 1 Wind Farm has officially entered commercial operation. The 96 megawatt project is owned by a joint venture between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and SK Innovations [00:03:00] ENS, the installation of 10 Siemens ga MEA 10 megawatt Direct Drive turbines was completed in December of last year. Commissioning followed earlier this year. Copenhagen Offshore Partners, the exclusive offshore wind development partner to CIP Co-LED project development activities for Jeonnam 1 on behalf of the project owners. This project Mercks the first large scale offshore wind project in Korea led by the private sector. That's this week's top. News stories. Stay tuned for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast tomorrow.

Avient and Tight Line Composites have developed a carbon pultrusion technology without the need for peel ply. This method improves bond strength by 8%, cuts waste, reduces labor costs, and simplifies manufacturing. 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!  Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Andrew and Brad, welcome to the show. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Well, we're gonna start off by talking about carbon protrusions, because that's the focus of your technology, title IX composites, and there's been some recent advancements that are really fascinating, but I, I kind of wanna go back a minute because carbon pull protrusions are the future, even though we're still making some fiberglass blades that'll have a limited lifespan. We're gonna be moving to carbon protrusions because the strength and the weight. And the cost, simplicity of it, uh, just makes carbon protrusions the future. And Tightline Composites has been key in that mold of making these, uh, carbon planks and getting 'em out to industry. I. But one of the big problems with any sort of carbon plank product is it [00:01:00] usually has a peel ply. And Andrew, you wanna talk about what that peel ply does and why it's used and why we need it.  Andrew Davis: You really need that surface energy created by removing the peel ply to, to get an effective bond as you're building your spark cap. And so for years, this has just been considered a necessary evil. Uh, in terms of creating, creating that effective bond. And, and that's, that's the world we've lived in for the last 10 years.  Allen Hall: And a peel ply for those who are not deep into the composite industry. Peel, ply is a removable. Ply a fabric that's that's applied over the carbon on the outside and it's kind of thicker and it has, uh, this kind of rough and surface. So when you build the protrusion, you got these two layers of this peel ply on either side, and it travels with the product. So as, uh, tight line sends out product, these, these peel plys go with it. [00:02:00] And ideally when they get to the factory, the, the people on the floor. Pull this peel play off and it's not fun to peel off one and two, it's kind of invisible. So you can forget that it's there and install it in ablaze. And Joel, you have seen that in the field. You've seen protrusions where they have the ply still attached.  Joel Saxum: Yeah, it's, it's like, um, Alan, we saw one of the other day too, where it was like there was still a coating on a down conductor, right? So like, if you. If you try to embed this product, the, the idea behind peel and the peel ply is you peel the peel ply, and now you have a prepped surface that can be chemically and mechanically bonded to easier or in, in, in, in a much better way, as designed. So if you forget to pull that off, now you have a structural element inside the PLA or inside of whatever you may be building in composites. That doesn't have the ability to bond properly to that protrusion, to that carbon plank or to that glass plank. Uh, and if that's the case, you lose, I can't [00:03:00] put a number to it. Right. But you lose an immense  Andrew Davis: amount of structural strength. And Joel, just to underline your point, we've heard from customers who will remain nameless that it is, it, it happens that, that this will get caught on scan. Uh, when the blade is completely done, and then the entire blade has to be scrapped. There's no, there's no fixing it. 

Blade Repair Academy in Tennessee offers comprehensive blade repair training programs for technicians. Alfred Crabtree, Founder and CEO, and Sheryl Weinstein from SkySpecs highlight the importance of technician competency, hands-on experience, and standardization in 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! Allen Hall: Alfred and Sheryl, welcome to the program. Sheryl Weinstein: Thanks. Allen Hall: So we're in Dunlap, Tennessee, not too far from Nashville, uh, and also close to. Chattanooga Chattanooga, and we're in the Smoky Mountains ish region. We're Alfred Crabtree: no, we're, we're, you could consider it Appalachia for sure. Sure. Okay. Uh, we're on the, in the valley called the Seche Valley, uh, which splits the Cumberland Plateau. So we're, we're in a valley and we have hills a thousand feet above us here. Yeah. Either way. It's beautiful. Joel Saxum: Yeah. It's a great drive in here. Alfred Crabtree: Yeah. It's a unique place. Yeah. Allen Hall: And we're at Blade Repair Academy, which, uh, if you're not familiar with Blade Repair Academy, you should be. Uh, because a lot of the good training that happens in the United States actually happens to play repair, repair Care blade, repair academy. Uh, yeah, it's been a long week at uh, OMS this week and we got the introduction today. This is the first time we've been on site. That's right. And, uh, we wanted to see all the cool things that are happening [00:01:00] here. And it really comes down to technician training competency. Working with blades, working with tools, knowing what you're doing up tower when you're on the blade, which is hard to train. It's really hard to train, and both you and Cheryl have a ton of experience being up on blades and repairing blades and scarfing and doing all the critical features that have to happen to make blades work today. It's a tough training regimen. There's a lot to it and a lot of subtleties that don't always get transferred over from teachers to students unless you have. Done it for a number of years. You wanna kind of just walk through the philosophy of Blade Repair Academy? Alfred Crabtree: Yes. The, uh, you've, you've outlined quite well some of the issues. The environment where we work is very hard to take a ti the time to put somebody through a training regimen. We're so constrained by weather windows and then. You know, even if the weather's nice, lightning can come, wind [00:02:00] speeds can cut off your workday. So production, production, production is what's important. And Cheryl and I both come from the rope access method. And in the rope access method, 95% of the time you're up there alone. And if you're up there and you're producing, you've got your blinders on. Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Alfred Crabtree: And you're not ready to share with somebody else what to do. Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Alfred Crabtree: With the basket or platform, you can have two even three people up on Blade, but it still has all these constraints of get the job done, get the job done. There's a lot of stress up there. And having the bandwidth to take on new information or to challenge some preconceived notions or try, that's not the place to do it. So knowing that. Blade Repair Academy is built so that we have an environment that simulates all of the up tower stuff without being up tower. And you're gonna have the time you need to invest in your learning without consequences. Right. So it's a very much a [00:03:00] about creating the right environment to uptake the new information.

This week we discuss uncertainty surrounding the IRA bill, GEV Wind Power's acquisition by Certek, and the sale of an LM Wind Power factory to Vestas. Plus Blackstone is in talks to acquire TXNM Energy, pointing to increase data center demand. Register for the next SkySpecs webinar! 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! You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here's your hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: Well, welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, Joel and Rosemary. It's been an exciting week. A lot going on in a, in America in regards to what's gonna happen with the IRA bill. Nobody knows the, it's like, uh, as tense, as tense can be. You, you don't even really see a lot of articles about it at the moment. Everybody's just in, in kind of hold mode, like, hold your breath and hope something bad doesn't happen. Joel Saxum: I think the interesting thing there is when something like this pops up, you would tend to see a lot of LinkedIn opinions and you're not. I think a lot of, a lot of people are kind of moved. They're kind of, [00:01:00] nobody's really saying too much. We're kind of waiting to see,  Allen Hall: yeah, waiting for that spicy take. Usually from Rosemary, but she hasn't written that article yet. It must be coming. Rosemary.  Rosemary Barnes: Well, I haven't been writing a lot of anything on LinkedIn recently. Um, yeah, a bit, I'm bit busy. I got, I got really sick of, uh, LinkedIn as well when I, I over posted for a few months and. I got over it. Started, started to hate it when people would, would write a comment on my post. Yeah. And I'm like, just stop talking to me. Go away. And I'm like, yeah, you were the one who made this post. So you That was my, that was my sign to, um, yeah, to, to move away for a little while. Yeah. But it's also, uh, I mean, you know, like I, it's not a topic that I am an expert in. 'cause obviously I'm, you know, I don't live there, so I'm not, yeah. I have. I have heard a few podcasts talking about it. Um, there's that one. Um, uh, do you guys listen to that podcast? That's, it's like [00:02:00] the original Energy gang crew, but none of them are on the Energy Gang anymore. Now they've got their own new podcast. It's like Dig Ashore. And, um, the other two, sorry, I don't, I don't remember their, their names. Joel Saxum: They just started  Allen Hall: that one.  Rosemary Barnes: It's called, maybe it's called Open Circuit.  Allen Hall: Oh, maybe I have, yes, I know what you're talking about.  Rosemary Barnes: It, it's really good. It's very, uh, it's too American Central for me to listen to every episode, but for, you know, Americans then, I'm sure that that's, uh, that's good. Um, they, they speculate a fair bit about it. Um, and also the, um, podcast that has Jesse Jenkins on it, which is called Shift Key, um, they talk about it a bit as well. So I have, I have heard a fair few takes on it, but, um. Yeah, I don't know. I'm, I'm waiting to see, to, to be honest, as a non-American, I've just written off American Wind Power for the next few years and, uh, you know, just like, wait, wait, wait a little while to like, uh, get started again. But it, you know, it doesn't affect me so much. I don't, I, I don't have [00:03:00]projects in America. Um, so I. Not affected day to day,  Joel Saxum: a and a half a dozen part load leads that I was in a hand,

This week Allen discusses the European Investment Bank's major wind farm investment in Romania, the financial performance of German energy giant RWE, and the potential cancellation of Equinor's Empire Wind Project due to regulatory challenges. 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! Welcome to Uptime News. Flash Industry News Lightning fast. Your host, Allen Hall, shares the renewable industry news you may have missed. Allen Hall: Okay, starting off the week over in Romania, the European investment bank is investing 30 million euros in a major wind farm project in Romania. The poster two project located near the Black Sea, will have a capacity of up to 400 megawatts. That's enough to supply over 1.4 million Romanian households for an entire year. The EIB is partnering with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners on the project with the total investment expected to be in excess of 500 million Euros. Construction is due to start later this year and it will bolster the European Union's push for climate neutrality by mid-century. German energy Giant RWE, reported an adjusted EBITDA of 1.3 billion euros [00:01:00] for the first three months of 2025. Adjusted net income amounted to 0.5 billion euros as expected earnings were below the level of the same quarter last year. This decline was primarily attributable to normalization of income in the flexible generation segment and a weaker start to the year in the trading business. The commissioning of new offshore wind farms, solar plants, and battery storage facilities had a positive impact on the company's performance. RWE commissioned 600 megawatts of new generation capacity in the first quarter alone. The company, currently has new plants with a combined capacity of 11.2 gigawatts under construction. Michael Mueller, chief financial officer of RWE, stated that they were reaffirming their full year earnings forecast after a solid start to the year. He noted, that the company is making great progress in expanding its portfolio in a value accretive manner. Construction projects remain on schedule [00:02:00] and on budget. Over in Norway, Equinor is warning it may cancel its Empire Wind Project off New York's coast. Following a Trump administration stop work order, the company is spending $50 million weekly to keep the project afloat while awaiting resolution. Molly Morris, president of Equinor's US renewable energy arm, describe the situation as unsustainable. The Interior Department led by Secretary Doug Bergham ordered Equinor to halt construction on April 17th. The order cited information suggesting the Biden administration may have approved the project without a thorough environmental analysis. The stop work order stemmed from a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. However, Equinor says it has not seen the report and is not aware of the specific concerns raised. The project represents a significant investment for Equinor. The company has already invested $2.7 billion in the [00:03:00] Empire Wind Facility. Currently, 11 vessels with 100 workers remain on board, sitting on the water, waiting for an order to resume work. That's this week's top. New stories. Stay tuned tomorrow for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

Will Howell discusses Armor Edge's thermoformed polycarbonate leading edge protection for wind turbine blades. Their solution helps to mitigate erosion, enhance aerodynamic performance, and extend blade life. Allen Hall: Will welcome to the podcast. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. So Joel and I have heard about Armor Edge for a couple, couple of years. Yeah. You're based in Scotland. Yeah. And we haven't seen you much in the United States and I haven't physically touched it. And of course we're sort of tangible. We gotta play with the the product. So this is the first time now we're here. Gotten to see the product. Yeah. Yeah. You wanna describe really what this product is for a leading edge protection?  Will Howell: Yeah, absolutely. So we are different to other LEPs out there on the market. And really that was the whole point of our design evolution, was to try to overcome some of the traditional downfalls of some of the other LEDs that have been prevalent on blades. So. Um, yeah, we've been around since, um, well about eight, eight years now. And we've been out in the market installed since 2020. So we're, as you mentioned, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland is a kind of a base. So our first installs were all offshore, north North Sea, so offshore, Denmark, offshore [00:01:00] Germany. Very harsh, harsh environments. But we wanted to, to design an an LEP that was, um, really. Overcoming some of the traditional pitfalls. So for us, that is the ease of installation, the longevity of the material, and also the a EP benefits that we, that we see. Um, as you see for the sample we have in front of us here today, it's uh, only a small piece that we take to show just to, to, to show our clients and customers. Um, but typically the shields are 850 mil mil long. Uh, they're made of a, a custom thermoformed, um, polycarbonate, a SA blend. We get the material formed into sheets, and then we drape that sheet over custom design molds that are tailored for the specific blade types. And that's how we get this perfect fit on every different blade that we're, that we're, um, that we have out, out there. So let's talk about the installation. Yeah.  Joel Saxum: Because that's [00:02:00] a, that's a really important one for me because on the podcast we always wanna talk about what problems we're, what problems we're solving. Sure. What problems you guys are helping the industry with. And one of the biggest ones with LAP, and it doesn't matter what the product really is, if it's tapes, if it's coatings, if if it's installed wrong, it's not gonna last. Yep. Yep. That's, that's the thing. So what have you guys done with this to help the technicians in the field to make it easier to make it. Last I want you to put on the line.  Will Howell: Yeah. I mean, I guess there's a lot of technology in terms of the performance of the, of the product. Um, both the adhesive and the material itself. But predominantly this was designed for rope access in the North Sea, so it had to be a product that the guys were. Able to handle up on, up on rope. Um, it wasn't gonna be affected by climatic conditions as much, um, and would really lead to a faster, but also therefore, a higher quality installation because of the way that it's put on, it's not so much of a artisanal process that some of these other LEPs seem to [00:03:00] suffer from. We want to. Train our technicians to deliver a high quality installation, but really you don't have to be a master LEP installer to get our, to get our kit on, our kit on Blade. And that's the feedback we've been getting from the technicians is that they find it, uh, easy to handle, easy to apply process, uh, in the field. Joel Saxum: What does Blade Prep look like before you put it on?  Will Howell: Well, another unique. Facet of the system is because the shields themselves are custom formed from a a semi-rigid material. The leading edge of the shields themselves doesn't confor...

ONYX Insight's ecoPITCH system prevents catastrophic wind turbine blade failures caused by pitch bearing issues. Forrest French and Martin McLarnon reveal how continuous monitoring and early detection can save wind farms millions. Contact Martin McLarnon: martin.mclarnon@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! Allen Hall: ONYX Insight's ecoPITCH monitoring system has become crucial for wind farm operators facing blade root insert failures. These failures start invisibly but can end catastrophically with blades detaching completely. This week we speak with Forrest French Senior Project Engineer, and Martin McLarnon, sales Director for North America at ONYX Insight. Their ecoPITCH system detects dangerous movements before visible signs appear as Forest notes in the interview. By the time you can get a feeler gauge measurement, it's probably too late. So join us to discover how data-driven monitoring is helping operators make smarter maintenance decisions preventing million dollar disasters and keeping turbines spinning safely. Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Martin and Forest. Welcome to the [00:01:00] show. Hello. How's it going? Thanks for letting us. Yeah, we're really interested to, to talk to you today just because there's so many blade root issues from pitch bearings and blade bushings or inserts as they're called sometimes, and a number of other issues. And when we talk to operators, what they tell us is, oh, we, you use ecoPITCH. And they love that system. But I want to, I wanna back up first and talk about what are some of the operators experiencing out there in the field And ecoPITCH system was originally developed to look at pitch bearing problems and forests. What are some of those pitch bearing problems you're seeing out in the field today? Forrest French: Yeah, so it, it, it's a funny story. It was originally developed for pitch bearing, uh, applications. Um, the industry as a whole started experiencing this root insert issue, so we were able to, we were kind of in a perfect position, right? It was, it was a, it was a [00:02:00] really serendipitous thing that we, we had just developed this product and we could easily pivot. To measure both the pitch bearing and this root insert issue. Uh, the, the pitch bearing issues are admittedly the, the more difficult, uh, issue, right? To measure. Um, there's, there's some, some great opportunities for value and there's also some really good challenges to come along with that. Um, pitch bearings, uh, they, they don't rotate quickly. Right. Uh, when, when we talk about typical CMS typical vibration monitoring, you're looking at a very, very fast rotating, uh, shaft or bearing, et cetera, and you're able to pick up on those frequencies as they revolve. You don't get that with a pitch bearing. It's a very slow moving, uh, slewing bearing. Um, so picking up. Noise through vibration can be very difficult, uh, because again, you don't get that frequency of that [00:03:00] rotation, so you're left with nothing but uh, a bunch of noise. Right. And you're hoping that that noise floor is low enough that you might capture a bit of crunching of cage material or anything like that? Right. The alternative in what, in what we use ecoPITCH for is it's very simple. We, we point a an inductive displacement sensor right at the pitch bearing itself. Typically the inner ring, depending on the type of turbine. And what we're looking for is any kind of slop or displace...

Legal battles in Oklahoma continue between the Osage Nation and Enel. Equinor faces offshore wind project hurdles amidst U.S. offshore wind regulatory issues. Plus a rebranding announcement from Deutsche Windtechnik to DWT and a new study painting wind blades red to prevent bird strikes. 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! You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here's your hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: There's more news out of Oklahoma. The state of Oklahoma has. Entered the legal ballot between the wind developer in EL and the Osage nation. It, we all recall on the podcast probably a year ago where the Osage Nation had won a lawsuit with the help of the federal government to take down a big wind farm in north central Oklahoma. The state of Oklahoma has filed an amicus brief opposing the immediate removal of the 84 turbines in Osage County. Now, this is a big deal [00:01:00] because pretty much the last I saw, which is a while ago, the order was that they needed to take down all the turbines and reclaim the land, basically put it back to where it was before the turbines were placed in it. Now the state of Oklahoma is stepping into the mix and they're citing a couple of things. They're saying that the state of Oklahoma has an interest in property laws and protecting tax revenue. However, Osage doesn't fit into Oklahoma laws. It's not their territory. And meanwhile, the Osage tribe is saying, Hey, this is over and we have mineral rights, and these turbines need to come down. So this is a kind of a weird spot because Anelle's in the middle of this, now that the state's gotten involved against the federal government, is there a missing link here? Is, this is certain more to this story because it does seem like some wheels are turning at the moment. I think,  Joel Saxum: Phil Allen.[00:02:00] You guys are very smart, right? But I think we need someone smarter than us to decode this whole thing as far as like maybe a lawyer that can get in there, because Alan, you hit it on the head, Osage tribe and Osage tribe lands do not actually fall under Oklahoma law. They have their own sets of laws, so you have a federal ruling saying that something must happen within, of course, the outlines of the state of Oklahoma, but within the greater outlines of the United States. But now the state wants to be able to go against the federal ruling to have their own rights recounted for while this, the Oage tribe is saying no, like we've already passed and I think the total bill that NL is gonna was supposed to get stamped, it was like $300 million, which is crazy 'cause it doesn't cost $300 million to remediate 84 turbines. However. This isn't necessarily a wind turbine take down exercise. This is a mining reclamation exercise after you take the wind turbines down. That's why it costs so much. [00:03:00] So there's a lot of money on the table for nl and now you have the Oklahoma Solicitor General Jerry Gary Gaskins stepping in and saying Hey, we're also getting some kind of tax revenues to the state and things like that from the wind farm. But I wouldn't think that would go to the state in this case. I would think it would go to the Osage tribe. So I don't understand the state's. The state's position in this.  Phil Totaro: But Phil, do you have any insights on that? Unfortunately, I do not. But what's interesting about it is that you had,

This episode covers India's ambitious plans to double its wind energy capacity by 2030, the UK's expansion of offshore wind farms, and the US states' legal challenge against President Trump's executive order halting wind energy development. 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: Starting the week off in India, India's wind energy sector is investing heavily in capacity and workforce development to double its current 50 gigawatt capacity by 2030. The Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association says they're focusing on technology innovations while advancing the Make in India mission to achieve this ambitious target. The country already has 18 gigawatts of annual manufacturing capacity for turbines and components. Companies like LAN and zf Windpower produce critical parts locally. Positioning India as a potential global export hub. Renewable sector hiring is expected to grow by 19% this year in India with most workers being young [00:01:00] Indians between 26 and 35 years old. Over in the uk the UK's Crown estate has approved expansion of high density wind farms on existing seabed leases to support the country's energy transition. Seven projects will increase capacity by 4.7 gigawatts helping Britain towards its target of 50 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. Up from the current 15 gigawatts projects include RWE's Ramon two and SSE's and Equinor's Dogger Bank D. The Crown Estate's Marine director Gus Jasper says, this capacity increase program will provide up to 4 million homes with clean energy and decrease the UK's reliance on internationally sourced fossil fuels. Britain is already the world's second largest offshore wind market after China, though inflation and supply chain issues have challenged the sector recently. Over in the United States, a coalition of 17 states and Washington [00:02:00]DC has filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's executive order halting wind energy development. The order signed on his first day in office, pauses, approvals, permits, and loans for all wind projects, both offshore and onshore. New York Attorney General Letitia James leading the coalition argues the directive threatens thousands of good paying jobs and billions in investment while delaying the transition away from fossil fuels. The administration recently ordered Norwegian company Ecuador to halt construction on Empire Wind, one near Long Island, despite the project being 30% complete after a seven year permitting process. Wind currently provides about 10% of US electricity, making it the nation's largest renewable energy source. The states argued Trump's order contradicts years of bipartisan support for wind energy and his own declaration of quote, a national energy emergency unquote calling for expanded domestic energy production.[00:03:00] The administration has also suspended funding for floating offshore wind research in Maine and revoked permits for a project in New Jersey. Internationally, other nations are accelerating wind investments with the UK and Canada's Nova Scotia recently announcing major offshore expansion plans. That's this week's top News stories. Tune in tomorrow for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

Nicholas Gaudern, CTO at PowerCurve, discusses the growing focus on data-driven insights in wind turbine operations, emphasizing the importance of laser scans, digital twins, and aerodynamic add-ons for enhancing efficiency and performance. 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: Nicholas, welcome back to the podcast. Hi. Thanks Allen. Good to see you again. There's a lot going on in wind right now. Obviously the elections that happy the United States are changing the way that a lot of US based operators are thinking about their turbines and, and particularly their blades. I've noticed over the last, even just couple of weeks that. Operators and the engineers are paying more attention to what they're actually getting on site. Nicholas Gaudern: Yes. Allen Hall: Instead of, uh, the sort of the full service agreement where, hey, they're under warranty for two years, I don't really need to do anything for a little while approach. That's changing into, I want to know what arrives on site, what am I getting and what problems are there with these particular blades that I may not know about because they're new to me. Even though these blades, there may be thousands of these blades out in service. Mm-hmm. Me, my company doesn't know. Yep. How they operate. How they perform, particularly at this, this new site, I'm Repowering or, [00:01:00] or building new. That is a complete shift. From where it was a year ago, two years ago, five years ago. Yeah. And I think the biggest performance piece that people are looking at is aerodynamics, and I'm trying to understand how these blades perform, how they move. Yes. What kind of loads there are, what kind I expect over the next year or two. And I think they're just becoming now aware of maybe I need to have a game plan. Nicholas Gaudern: Mm-hmm. Allen Hall: And I, and that's where power curve comes in, is like in the sense of have a king plan. Understand what these plates are all about. Yeah, yeah. And try to characterize 'em early rather than later. Nicholas Gaudern: Yeah, exactly. I think there's been an increased focus on, on data and for operators, as you say, to understand more what they're getting and not necessarily relying on just what they're told. So, uh, I think a nice case study of that is last year we were helping a customer to build a, a digital twin. Uh, of one of their turbine models that they, that they purchased. So what that involved [00:02:00] is, uh, going to site, doing a laser scan of a blade, understanding geometry, helping them to build up some aerodynamic and structural models of that blade. So then that customer was going to build an AEL model themselves of that turbine so that they could run load calculations. They could look at, uh, site specific, uh, changes that could be relevant to that turbine's configuration or how they operated it. And this isn't really something that you saw a lot of, uh, a few years ago, but I think it's great that operators, particularly when they have a larger engineering capacity, are starting to get into that game. Uh, and it's tough because it's a lot of what the OEMs do, it's their kind of specialist knowledge, but there's a lot of smart people out there. Uh, there's a lot of companies you can work with to help gather that data and build these products up. Allen Hall: The OEMs right now are. Lowering the number of engineers. Nicholas Gaudern: Mm-hmm. Allen Hall: Staff reductions. Yeah. Uh, so getting a hold of somebody on the engineering staff, particularly with aerodynamics, can be quite hard.

In this insightful episode of Uptime Spotlight, Allen Hall and Joel Saxum welcome back Armando Costa Rego, CEO of ArthWind, to discuss their groundbreaking new software platform, ArthNex. This data-driven solution transforms wind turbine blade management by connecting field technicians directly with engineers in real-time, dramatically reducing downtime and optimizing repairs. Visit ArthWind at https://arthwind.com.br Connect with Armando on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/armandocostarego/ Allen Hall: Alright, Armando, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you guys. It's a pleasure to be here again. Yeah. It's been a couple of months since we've last had you on the podcast. But a lot has happened since then. Earth, wind, obviously huge Brazilian presence. You guys are working with most of the operators or much of most of the installed base in Brazil, and you're expanding out into the United States and other places. But the product offerings you have created over that short time span since we last talked are quite amazing and you want to announce this new software product. It's called what? ArthNex. Armando Costa Rego: Art Next, yeah. Yes. Yeah. This predator came from the idea to, to go deep in the value chain of the hippers, you know, everybody in the march, I think since 2017, the industry has experienced, uh, a fast improvement in the drone solution, the rover that we started like four years ago, and everybody's talking about how long it takes an inspection and how long pressure to produce in minutes. So we are talk 30, 20, 25. For me, what matters if we, we create data to hipper, so the, the discussion of the architect is, okay, we jump into this phase of, to discuss how fast an inspection we are now, uh, uh, using this data to provide it to the owners in operators, OEME, whatever, in the player in the market would be interested to use our. Maybe he pair knowledge capabilities to go direct to actions that can prioritize what to do, how to do, and sometimes why to do. Yeah, that's the question. Nobody do this question why to do that. Yeah. Those make sense or not? So the data will tell you what makes sense or those not make sense. Joel Saxum: Yeah. So what, like when we look at most platforms out there, asset management blade inspection platforms, it's here's your inspections, here's the findings from them. Here's a Allen Hall: spreadsheet. Joel Saxum: [00:02:00] Stop. Yeah, that's it, right? There's that. There's no just looking at the earth Next platform. When Alan and I were peeking at it yesterday, it was like. Here's a dashboard that shows you where your leading edge erosion status is on, on all your whole fleet. And this like, oh, that's great. Like, oh, your overall risk score is this, oh, this turbine has a risk score of that. Like, oh, what's going on here? These are the ones that you need to stop now. Look at in two weeks, look at in 12 weeks, like. There was actionable data and that's before we even get into the operational part of repairs, but actionable data that you can look at dashboard. Now I know what decisions I need to make today. Armando Costa Rego: Yeah, that's right. That's right. So it is a clean data, it's clear data. We can interact with the image. We are not focused in show, like the entire blade in the platform because that consumes a lot of dev time of development, you know, so, and we note that only 4% of the emails have something to tell you. Yeah, right. So some point of internet. So we work exclusively. And that information that's really useful to the operator. Allen Hall: Yeah, and I think that's the problem, right? Is that when we get drone images or internal inspections, there's a lot of data. Yeah. That then as we've talked to operators in the United States, we have engineers, usually junior engineers, going through all that data, trying to pick out what's important and what's not important so that they can develop a plan themselves...

This week we discuss a $5 million investment in a wind worker training center in Australia, challenges faced by RWE's US offshore wind projects due to recent policy changes, and the recent power blackout in Spain. Plus an article from PES Wind Magazine about cybersecurity in 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! You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here's your hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: Down in Victoria, Australia. They're investing about 5 million Australian dollars to establish a wind worker training center, which is focused on developing technical skills for both onshore and offshore wind energy roles. And the initiative is looking to create a skill workforce pipeline for all the wind projects that are happening down in Australia. This is a really unique. Program, uh, Rosemary, just because Victoria is looking to have about 67,000 workers in energy by 2040 and they think they need about 4,000, [00:01:00] uh, people to work construction for onshore wind at about 2,500 data for offshore wind. That's a sizable number of people, but Victoria is headed towards 95% renewable generation by 2035. So you're gonna need to build a workforce pretty quickly. $5 million for a training center is a good first start. Is it enough though?  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I mean, they need to have a first step I guess. I mean, not that it's the first step, there's already a lot of, a lot of workers in the state. Um, but I mean, for sure Victorian needs more, needs more service technicians and yeah, a bunch of other, other workers. I mean there's also still a lot of new wind farms being built, so there's that as well. It's also not just Victoria, you know, all around. Um, there was quite a lot of going on in Queensland, although the future plans have, I think been, um. Uh, toned down a lot because the government changed. Um, south Australia also has, uh, still got, oh, it's got a lot of wind, already got a lot of plans to build [00:02:00] more. Um, and yeah, there's new renewable energy zones that are, you know, hopefully coming on, maybe even offshore wind starting in the next five years or so. So yeah, if you want to, you know, suddenly expand your industry, then you do need to think a few years ahead. Um, otherwise you're gonna end up. With a big, a big crunch. Everyone wanting to build a project at the same time. And also, you know, a lot of wind farms. Uh. Getting past that first, you know, like the first few years where not too much maintenance is needed. Um, there's a lot more things that can go wrong in the, you know, middle to end of a wind farm's life. And we're seeing a lot of that, especially in Victoria where they had most of the early wind farms in Australia. So I definitely think it's timely and uh, hopefully this one's successful. And, uh, yeah, we've got an election coming up. Probably will have already happened by the time this episode's released. We've got a federal election. There has not been a whole lot of talk about renewable energy actually. Um, and especially the jobs that are created by Renewal Energy, especially wind, you know, like it's a, it's a [00:03:00] downside of the technology that it needs maintenance, but it's a real upside in terms of that, you know, a lot of maintenance means a lot of maintenance jobs, and these are good jobs. I hope that, yeah, by the time we have our next election,

RWE successfully installs the first monopile for the 1.1 GW Thor offshore wind farm in Denmark, China investigates a fishing vessel collision with a wind turbine, Texas House approves bills for recycling renewable energy equipment, and Enel launches an international wind turbine design competition. 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: RWE has reached a milestone in constructing the 1.1 gigawatt tho offshore wind farm in the Danish North Sea, with a successful installation of its first mono pile foundation. The project will eventually include 72 such foundations, the massive mono piles measuring about 100 meters of length and weighing up to 1500 metric tons each. Which is equivalent to about a thousand small cars. Were shipped from the Netherlands to the construction site, approximately 22 kilometers off jut Ludens West coast. The vessel La Aliza is handling installation with each shipment carrying five monopiles. The CEO of RDB offshore wind called this quote, A highly [00:01:00] symbolic moment and a great achievement, unquote, following years of planning. The Thor Wind Project features several sustainability innovations, including reused hard covers to protect the mono piles. CO2 reduced steel towers for 36 turbines. Recyclable rotor blades for 40 turbines. When fully operational In 2027, the wind farm will generate enough green electricity to power more than 1 million Danish households and create 50 to 60 local jobs. Over in China, a fishing vessel that sank after colliding with a wind turbo in China's yellow sea failed to maintain proper lookout according to report from the China Maritime Safety Administration. The collision occurred around 12:25 AM local time on August 24th last year when the ZDUU vessel struck the southeast side of the Ong H one dash 40 wind turbine while returning from fishing operations, the accident sent [00:02:00] all 10 crew members overboard. Eight were rescued, but one died and another was never recovered. The collision caused severe flooding and eventual sinking of the vessel while the turbine sustained only minor damage. Investigators determine the primary cause with the vessels, quote, failure to maintain proper lookout and negligent navigation practices. High intensity work, lights, impeded visibility, and the crew didn't properly utilize radar equipment. A secondary factor was inadequate public notification of the wind farms precise layout, unquote, by the operating company, which led to navigational oversight. Moving over to Texas. The Texas House recently passed two bills aimed at improving recycling of retired renewable energy equipment. Currently, most wind turbines and solar panels end up in landfills when decommissioned, despite Texas law requiring complete removal of the infrastructure and land restoration. House House Bill 32 28 requires renewable energy companies to recycle all components. [00:03:00] Practicably capable of being reused or recycled and properly disposed of non-recyclable parts. A complimentary bill House Bill 32 29 establishes reporting and financial assurance requirements for recycling facility owners to prevent situations like the one in Sweetwater, Texas where GE allegedly paid millions of dollars to a company that shut down. Without recycling the turbine blades. And energy leader Enel has launched wind design, a international competition seeking innovative wind turbine designs that better integrate with landscapes while maintaining functionality. The contest. Offers substantial prices, including 250,000 Euros for first place,

Nick Martocci, founder of Tower Training Academy, discusses their nationally recognized apprenticeship programs for wind turbine technicians and battery energy storage specialists. The company focuses on creating partnerships and initiatives that support career development and veterans' transition into the renewable energy 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! Allen Hall: As renewable energy technology gets more complex and specialized every day, the industry needs skilled professionals ready to climb those towers and maintain critical systems. This week we speak with Nick Martocci founder of Tower Training Academy in Las Vegas. Tower Training Academy offers nationally recognized apprenticeship programs for both wind turbine technicians and battery energy storage specialists, helping everyone from recent high school graduates to career changers develop essential skills and certifications, while providing lifelong career support. Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind Energy's brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow. So we were just talking, it's been a year since we've spoken to you and I follow your Tower Training Academy YouTube page, LinkedIn page. I think you're on Instagram also. Nick Martocci: Yep. Instagram. We got [00:01:00] Facebook. A lot of social media. Uh, a lot has happened in the last time since we've chatted. Uh, been able to send a few more apprentices through the wind turbine program. Uh, I've been able to help out a lot of veterans. We had one veteran actually come through my program, uh, work with us vets to help veterans, uh, transition, uh, into the renewable sector, if you will, and help them out also with transferring them out of a bad situation. Uh, the veteran, he just. Fell onto some harm times and, uh, no, no lie before he was with my program, was actually living in his car and so he got with us vets and uh, was able to get a little assistance from them. Also got with Salvation Army, got some assistance from them and the US vets actually pointed him towards my program. We were able to get him a sponsorship and to this day it's changed his life and he's still, even right now out in the field. Doing torque contention work. [00:02:00] That's awesome. Allen Hall: That's a great story. And I, on your LinkedIn page, I've noticed a couple of ribbing ribbon cutting ceremonies with local dignitaries. Nick Martocci: Yeah, we had a congresswoman Susie Lee, her office was very, very helpful with getting, uh, some other help that we needed. Uh, moved along with, uh, a few other pieces, but she was out there to help us, uh, announce that we actually did become a, the first. Approved apprenticeship for the Department of Labor that's active for our battery energy storage apprenticeship program. And so now we have both programs since last year. Uh, that was something that we had to kind of keep hidden behind the green curtain, if you will. And so I was working on that and now that's already up and running. Uh, we had one apprenticeship approved before us a few years ago and they haven't sent anybody through it and. At the end of this month. Right now we're in March, so at the end of this month [00:03:00] we'll have 10 coming through my program already. Joel Saxum: I think that's super important for the industry right now where that, that the renewables industry, because battery storage growing. Right? I, I mean, I live in Austin, right? So it's just batteries after batteries going into the Ercot market and there's a lack of people, lack of technicians,

Larry Ketchersid, CEO of Media Sourcery discusses their partnership with Everpoint Services to improve the recycling process for blades and solar panels, proving the circular economy. Their method uses innovative blockchain technology to create verifiable proof of proper recycling. By implementing this tracking method, asset owners can be certain their blades have been properly disposed of. 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 recycling crisis for wind turbine blades and solar panels demands better solutions as these materials pile up without proper processing and documentation. This week we speak with Larry Ketchersid, CEO of Media Sorcery, who's partnered with Everpoint Services to tackle renewable waste recycling. Their innovative blockchain technology creates verifiable proof that your decommissioned assets actually reach proper recycling facilities, not abandoned in fields or landfills. Stay tuned. Allen Hall: Alright, Larry, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. So we met yesterday with Everpoint Services who is doing a quite a bit of business at the minute doing solar panel recycling and wind turbine blade recycling. Correct. And we've talked about it on the podcast more recently about the efforts. To make sure that what leaves the facility is actually [00:01:00] recycled. There is a industry problem where blades leave a site and they get stacked up in some farm somewhere or some disposal site and never get chewed up or ground up and, and recycled properly. And it's a black eye on the industry, right? Joel Saxum: Yeah. You get, uh, I mean, we. The wind industry has detractors. We already know this. Right? And then when you have something that's like that, especially wind turbine blades, 'cause they're big, uh, and it's very visible, the problem then exacerbates itself. Right? I mean it, like you said, black eye on the industry. But even with that happening, we still haven't gotten all the way to solving that problem that's, that's existing there. But you guys are working on it. Larry Ketchersid: We are. We are. We, we have a solution that we cut our teeth on with, uh, tracking things like COVID-19 test kits. Okay. Right. So we, we started proof of authenticity when, uh, we were in the healthcare business. And during Covid we had a partner that became an importer of, uh, COVID kits from Korea. And what [00:02:00] people didn't realize is if you leave the Covid kits out of the freezer, the efficacy goes down. So we had a automated workflow system that we turned into a proof of authenticity for. Tracking Covid kits from the manufacturer. So we put little, I mean this was four or five years ago during the pandemic, we had these chemical barcodes that were temperature sensitive, and we put 'em on the, on the covid kits. So, and, and you had to scan 'em. So they weren't really interactive sensors, but from point A to point B, you could scan 'em. Did the, the temperature go above a certain amount for a certain period of time, which made 'em bad, yes or no? And then we just track 'em all the way through. So it, it's very. Similar to what we're trying to do with tracking, recycling. I mean, we use this solution to track, uh, all sorts of things, but recycling is a really obvious use case for it. So what we try to do is we, we, we take an asset. So an asset can be a solar panel, it can be a pallet of solar panels, it can [00:03:00] be a blade, it can be a tractor trailer, full of blades, whatever the customer wants. And we take as much of the evidence about an event and the life of that ...

In this episode, we discuss an offshore vessel collision in the North Sea, highlight Louisiana's offshore wind ambitions, the latest developments in South Australia's renewable energy expansion. Plus we highlight an article from Buoyant Works in PES Wind Magazine. Register for the upcoming SkySpecs' webinar on turbine repair challenges! 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: On Wednesday, April 30th at 11:00 AM Eastern, get that on your calendar. SkySpecs, Uptime and PES Wind are hosting our next session of a 10 part series of wind related items on their webinar. So this time it's gonna be about the the biggest challenges facing turbine repair teams today. And we're gonna have four experts besides Joel and me. I guess we don't count as experts, Joel. So we're gonna be talking to real experts. Sheryl Weinstein from Sky Specs, Alice Lyon from Lyon Technical Access. Craig Guthrie, who I've known forever from Takkion, and Jose Mejia Rodriguez from RNWBL. We'll be there to, uh, explain how you should be planning for this repair season. What are some of the approaches that the operators use and what works and what doesn't work? Things that if you're in the repair business or if you work. For a large, uh, operator or even a small operator you want to hear and participate in, there'll be a q and a session. So get all your questions ready, but [00:01:00] you first have to register and you can register in the link and the show notes below. Do not miss this event. April 30th, 11:00 AM Eastern. You won't wanna miss it. Speaker 2: You're listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here's your hosts, Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes. Allen Hall: Up in the Netherlands, three crew members were injured when an offshore support vessel struck a windman foundation. In the North Sea and the Royal Dutch Sea Rescue Society had to evacuate two of the injured crew members from the privately owned vessel. And a third uh, crew member went to get medical attention once they got back to port. Now, this occurred about 15 miles from the Netherlands shores, and the Dutch have opened an [00:02:00] investigation, and my first responses to reading this news was. How are we driving ships into foundations still? And Joel, can you explain all the technology that is there to prevent you from doing this? Joel Saxum: Well, every one of these vessels that operates in that environment is going to have a, a helm display, right? That's gonna have all of the things called stent and aids to navigation. So it's gonna have all the buoys, everything in the water that you could possibly run into. Some of 'em even have detailed stuff like pipeline data and stuff so you don't drop your anchors in certain places. But either way, they're gonna ha they're gonna have knowledge of this besides the fact that you can look out the window and see the tur, see a turbine that's 500 feet tall in front of you. That's a different story maybe. Um, but a lot of these vessels too, of this size. So this is a, um, a support vessel offshore. So there's all kinds of different classes of boats, things they do. But this thing may work in a wind farm. It may work for oil, uh, platforms, it may work for the fishing industries. Like it can do a lot of different stuff. But as a, as a [00:03:00] emergency response. Uh, vehicle. They also should be DP one. And when I say DP one, that's dynamic positioning.

The first Vestas V236 15 MW turbine has been installed offshore, GE Vernova makes significant improvements in wind for Q1, and Siemens Energy has an upgraded outlook following strong performance from Siemens Gamesa. 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! Welcome to Uptime News. Flash Industry News. Lightning fast. Your host Allen Hall, shares the renewable industry news You may have missed. Allen Hall: The first of 64 Vestas V 2 36 15 megawatt wind turbines has been installed at EnBW's He Dreiht project off the coast of Germany. This March the first time Vestas' flagship turbine has been installed at an offshore wind farm. Uh, the installation is being carried out by Cadeler's Vessel Wind Orca, which recently completed similar work at Scotland's Moray West Wind Farm. According to ENBW with a total output of 960 megawatts, HDR is Germany's largest offshore wind farm, currently under construction, and will produce enough electricity to supply an equivalent of 1.1 million households. The project is expected to start operation in late 2025. [00:01:00] GE Vernova reported significant improvements in its win segment for the first quarter of 2025. While wind orders decrease 43% organically to 640 million driven by lower onshore wind equipment in the US, revenues increase 13% to $1.85 billion driven by higher onshore wind equipment deliveries, and improved pricing. The company invested more than $100 million to improve performance in its approximately 57,000 wind turbine installed base, and terminated. Its last remaining offshore wind supply agreement. Is proceeding towards completion on both Vineyard, wind and Dogger Bank for its 2025 Outlook. GE Vernova expects wind organic revenue to be down mid single digits with segment EBITDA losses between 200 and 400 million. Siemens energy, ags win business. Siemens Gamesa continues to outperform expectations with its lost before special items [00:02:00] narrowing to 249 million euros in the second quarter of fiscal year 2025. This marked an improvement fund, 446 million Euros a year ago and outperformed analysts consensus estimates of 342 million euros. Revenue grew 16.2% on a comparable basis to 2.71 billion euros, beating forecasts of 2.38 billion euros while orders declined marginally year over year to 875 million euros. They still exceeded consensus expectations. Siemens Energy is working to turn Siemens Gamesa around aiming to reach break even in fiscal year 2026. Now, following these better than expected results, Siemens Energy has upgraded its full year outlook now forecasting comparable revenue growth of 13 to 15% for the overall company with Siemens ESA expected to record revenue growth of zero to 2%, improve from the previous forecast [00:03:00] of negative growth. And that's gonna do it for this week's news flash. Stay tuned for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast tomorrow.

You may have missed this fantastic with Loren Walton from NSK, so we're sharing it again. He discusses the challenges of main shaft bearing failures in wind turbines and NSK's Super-TF bearing technology as a durable solution. Loren also covers the limitations of previous diamond-like carbon coatings and how NSK's advanced heat-treated steel can improve turbine longevity. Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug! 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: With modern wind turbines growing larger and main shaft bearings failing prematurely. The industry needs innovative solutions rather than relying on yesterday's technology. This week we speak with Loren Walton, manager of corporate accounts at NSK. NSK has developed super tough bearing technology, a special heat treated steel that creates a significantly harder surface without coatings delivering long lifespans and eliminating catastrophic failures in today's larger wind turbines. Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Loren, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Appreciate your time today. Loren, we brought you in the program because you're an expert in bearings. You're with NSK, A lot of knowledge, a lot of history there. First, I want to ask a real simple question because we've run into operators all across the United States and the world. Generally speaking, we just got back from Australia who are having problems with main shaft bearings. And maybe the first thing to do here is to describe what some of the problems are that operators are facing with the traditional main shaft bearings. Yeah. So Loren Walton: traditionally what we were saying was a whole lot of, I guess I'll say combined loading, right? So it's a, radio load that is, up and down and some axial thrust that's coming in from the wind shear, right? So combining the weight of the main shaft, which is you're taking up from that radio load with that wind shear. So then you end up having some combined loading where. The downed wind row is seeing a little bit more of load share than the upwind row. That's getting through the lubricant regime, which is then creating some micro welding and shearing, any amount of metal, any steel. When it's created, it's going to have some disparities. I use my fingers as the disparities, right? So your roller, your raceway, or your raceway, your roller. There's gonna be some welding and shearing that happens when that is under high pressure. And so your lubricant is supposed to create a little bit of a gap between those. When you don't have that gap you end up with the welding and shearing, you end up with what we call peeling damage, and then that peeling basically goes over and over again, and you start having high levels of debris. Inside of the system. And then once that debris starts going all bets are off, right? 'cause you can't really even model debris very linearly. It just goes into additional sping and then you end up, if you keep letting it run, you end up with a through crack inside of one of your components, which is typically your inner ring. 'cause it's press fit on the shaft. Joel Saxum: And a important concept here as well is because main bearings are basically a sealed lubricant system. There isn't filters on these, right? So like when you start to get debris moving around in the system, it stays there. It just, it's not oh, let's go change oil on this thing. And we remove the debris, we put a new filter on it,

Mark Hoppe, VP of Public Affairs & Business Development at SkySails Power, discusses their containerized airborne wind energy system. The innovative technology captures high-altitude winds with kite-based systems, producing up to 50% more yield than traditional turbines. Mark delves into the operational mechanics, deployment in remote and island nations, and future market expansion. 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: With traditional wind turbines, limited by location and high material costs, the industry needs innovative solutions for clean energy in remote areas. This week we speak with Mark Hoppe at SkySails Power. SkySails has developed a containerized airborne wind energy system that captures high altitude winds with unique kite technology producing up to 50% more yield than conventional turbines while being deployable nearly anywhere on the planet. Stay tuned. Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Mark, welcome to the podcast. Mark Hoppe: Yeah, thanks, man. Nice to be here. Allen Hall: I've been looking to talk to you for. Ooh, going on at least two years because I saw SkySails in Hamburg at the Hamburg Wind Energy Show, and I thought, wow, this is really cool. And then, and the display was [00:01:00] good and the information was good. I just didn't know how much effort had gone into it at that point. And, and we're two years further along, obviously. The SkySails technology and the problem you're solving is really fascinating because there's a lot of places on the planet that could use wind energy, but a standard horizontal axis wind turbine is probably the not the right approach, and diesel ends up being the winner on a lot of these places. Mark Hoppe: That's a problem. Definitely, definitely. So yeah, our technology solves a lot of these problems, but of course our technology is not just meant for these kind of places. So this is the entry point where we go in as, these places, they've faced a lot of issues when it comes to logistics, prices of the diesel because of the transport costs. That also includes in, in the diesel prices, which then makes the diesel even, even pricier. So, and due to, they have to spend a lot, a lot of money on the diesel. Then they have the issue that they don't have [00:02:00] the money for social development, for example. 'Cause they have to subsidize their power prices and all this comes along.  So what we have as a solution for that problem is that we have a containerized wind power system. It's so-called airborne wind energy system which uses the high altitude wind, which is more powerful. So we fly in heights between two and 400 meters, sometimes even higher. It depends on the width direction and everything.  And due to that we can use the higher wind and then produce 50% more yield than the typical wind turbine at the same size. So that's crazy. Allen Hall: Yes, that's, that's really good. I think the technology and the approach is innovative. So the, the solution to get rid of all the dependence on diesel and some of these electric grids that are very unreliable is to put in basically electric [00:03:00] generation through a, a kite in the sense the technology seems. Relatively simple, but I've looked at this up close. There's actually a lot of technology here because the system itself is really containerized. It's like dropping a diesel generator on site somewhere, but except it's a kite. Instead, you wanna explain basically how the system operates and w...

In this episode, we discuss Ørsted's new report proposing a 30% reduction in offshore wind energy costs by 2040, and explore the potential role of automation in wind energy manufacturing. Plus a reminder to register for the next SkySpecs webinar, focused on turbine repair trends and best practices. And the La Joya Wind Farm in New Mexico is 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! Speaker: [00:00:00] You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now, here's your host. Allen Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes. Allen Hall: Well, you won't want to miss the next SkySpecs webinar, which is on April 30th at 11:00 AM Eastern Time us Which Joel, that's like, uh, it's like 5:00 PM Denmark time, right? Roughly. Joel Saxum: Mm. Mm-hmm. Allen Hall: Yeah. And this is the second webinar in the joint series with Uptime and PES Wind. This edition features industry leading repair vendors and discusses the latest trends, challenges, and innovations, shaping the turbine repair landscape. Now this is who schedule to appear. Sheryl Weinstein, principal blade engineer with SkySpecs and. If anybody knows Sheryl she knows Blades. This is [00:01:00] somebody you want to pay attention to. Alice Lyon, owner and CEO of Lyon technical access. Uh. Really knowledgeable about Blades. Craig Guthrie, who I've known for a long time now, director of Blade Service at Takkion and Jose Israel Mejia Rodriguez, who's director of engineering at RNWBL. And if you've worked with renewable, uh, they do a terrific job keeping turbines up and running. So this discussion will be, uh, talking about best practices for operators and owners and repair teams. But so just, there's a lot of confusion at times on, on how to. Keep your organization running smoothly. Well, these experts are gonna be giving you a, a lot of good advice and how to source repair vendors and, and how to evaluate vendors and get certifications and safety records, which are getting more and more critical as the season goes on. So you won't wanna miss this. April 30th, 11:00 AM Eastern us. Click the link in the show notes [00:02:00] below to to register for that event and tell a friend, because this is gonna be a, a great webinar. Ørsted has released a significant new report titled Offshore Wind at a Crossroads, and you can go on Google and download this document. It's, it's a pretty thick white paper and it examines the current state of the European offshore wind industry. And Rosemary and I were just over in Copenhagen. We saw. A lot of the offshore wind industry at the Wind Europe event. Now the report focuses on the urgent need to revitalize Europe's offshore wind industry, and it outlines the policies and industry action required to unlock investment and stabilize some of the costs and accelerate the deployment of offshore wind at. There are a number of highlights in this. The one of them or two of them, let's go with the big ones, which is, um, Ørsted proposed a joint commitment between the governments and industry to auction at least 10 gigawatts of CFD capacity over the next 10 years. So [00:03:00] 10 gigawatts per year over the next 10 years, which would be a hundred gigawatts plus another five that would be for c corporate offtake. So like a PPA, uh, sort of situation. And for doing this, with that commitment, the, the industry would then mobilize investment to try to lower the levelized cost of energy by 30% ...

The U.S. Interior Department halts the Empire Wind Project due to environmental concerns, prompting political backlash and legal considerations. The Offshore Wind Industry Council releases a framework to better protect marine life, and a new assessment reveals job opportunities in the Canadian offshore wind energy market. 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! Welcome to Uptime Newsflash, industry News Lightning fast. Allen Hall: The United States Interior Department has ordered a halt to all activities related to the Empire Wind Project off the coast of New York. In a director's order dated April 16th, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management instructed Empire offshore wind, LLC to suspend ongoing activities. Related to the Offshore wind project. The stoppage order follows in part feedback received from the National oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about environmental concerns. In a July, 2023 assessment, NOAA determined the project would quote, result in significant adverse impacts to essential fish habitat federally managed species, the prey, and other resources, unquote. Noah expressed particular concerns about the project's overlap with the Clara Bank and important [00:01:00] ecological area that provides valuable habitat for numerous fish species. Interior Secretary Doug Burnham stated The project is being stopped until further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis unquote. New York Governor Kathy Hoel has criticized the decision pledging to fight it. Empire Win one is already employing hundreds of New Yorkers, including 1000 good paying union jobs as part of a growing sector, unquote. She characterized the order as quote, federal. Overreach and vowed to protect union jobs, affordable energy, and New York's economic future. Equinor, the parent company of Empire Offshore Wind, LLC announced it would comply with the order and suspend offshore construction, but is engaging with the relevant authorities to clarify the matter and is considering legal remedies including appealing the [00:02:00] order unquote. The Empire Wind Project Construction included up to 147 wind turbine generators with a substantial submarine cable network connecting the turbines to the mainland electric grid in New York. The Offshore Wind Industry Council has published a framework report to help offshore wind industries better coordinate underwater noise management, various seabed activities, including surveys, turbine installation, and unexploded ordinance clearance need improved coordination to protect marine wildlife. Conservation measures already exist in areas like the Southern North Sea, a marine protected area for harbor purposes. The report identifies a critical need for better planning when government thresholds might prevent multiple projects from operating simultaneously. Key proposals include a coordinated framework for cooperation and a transparent decision making process to quickly resolve scheduling conflicts. [00:03:00] Juliet Shrimpton and Ben Sykes from Ørsted emphasize the importance of balancing biodiversity protection with clean energy development to meet UK's 2030 targets. And Marine Renewables Canada's new assessment reveals significant opportunities for atlantic Canada's wind energy supply chain. Under medium development scenarios. Offshore wind projects could create up to 6,000 jobs during peak periods while onshore wind could generate 5,000 jobs. Of 1070 companies assessed for offshore wind. Roughly 25% were considered highly applicable b...

Brett Tollgaard from Sunrez discusses their new leading edge protection solution, created using a durable UV-cure resin system. Using this solution reduces downtime due to quick cure times and strengthens leading edges for years to come. 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! Bret Tollgaard: Bret, welcome back to the program. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Allen Hall: A lot has happened at Sunrez and you guys are the magic UV cure resin systems that everybody is using at the moment, but there's a bunch of new products that are coming out that I think a lot of operators and ISPs need to be aware of. One of 'em. Is a fill of material that looks great when you're trying to fix the leading edges, which are just mangled from all the dirt and debris and rain. It's not something you can just kind of smooth over very easily. And a lot of times operators spend a bunch of times sanding, grinding, trying to get it where they can apply some sort of liquidy coating to it, and it never really looks great and it's not really smooth. Bret Tollgaard: Sunrez has fixed that. We sure have. We've got a lot of customer feedback about some of the things that they'd like us to expand our UV cure portfolio on, and one of the big ones was leading edge protection. There's been a ton of different solutions and stuff used over the years. Some with success, some. Slightly less mild [00:01:00] success. Uh, and so we thought it was an opportunity kind of right for the picking. And so, uh, the chemist spent a reasonable amount of time trying to develop a highly filled, uh, UV curable resin system that will live up to all the abrasion, whether it's rain, uh, you know, particulates in the air, et cetera. And so we've undergone some really reasonable rain erosion testing thus far, and it's shown to be a pretty good result. And so it's been a slightly soft rollout as we really kind of finalize the formula in the system. But we really do think it's a product that the, uh, customers are gonna love, whether it's a pre impregnated, uh, fiberglass version, or potentially a, a putty version as well. Joel Saxum: I mean, the LEP market is, you're always hearing about new LEP, right? There's this LEP test, there's a whole conference devoted to leading edge erosion that. The DTU puts on, but it's because it's such a prevalent issue, right? Like. Alan and I in the field looking at reviewing blade damages for lightning and things. But we see all, all kinds of leading edge erosion. That is, it's crazy how annuity these turbines, some of these turbines are a [00:02:00] year, two, three years old, they're still in warranty and the leading edges look like they've been hit with a sandblaster. It's crazy. So the fact that you guys are working on something and what we really like, of course, about the UV cured products is that you get up there, you put it on, boom, you hit it with the uv. You come off the tower, you turn it back on. 'cause a lot of operators, and this is, this is where sun really shines. A lot of operators are always talking about downtime. Downtime. When we talk about installing strike tape, how long do I need to leave the turbine off before? Well, we've working on some solutions. We don't have to, uh, but. It's a, it's a very common thing and I really, what I really enjoy about what you said was customer feedback. So that means that you guys are in the market, you're trusted in the market, and people feel, feel good enough to come back to you and say, Hey, what about this? What about this? What about that? Bret Tollgaard: Yeah.