Podcasts about Siemens Gamesa

Allen covers Siemens Gamesa’s warning that Europe is 40 GW short on offshore wind, Shell’s plan to sell its offshore wind farms, Maine’s multi-state bidding round, and Egypt’s grid financing deal. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! The wind industry got a warning this week… and it came from the top. Siemens Gamesa, the world's largest maker of offshore wind turbines, says governments in Europe may be running out of time. The company's chief executive sounded the alarm Thursday. Europe is currently forty gigawatts short of its one-hundred-and-twenty gigawatt offshore target for twenty thirty. Sixteen gigawatts of projects in Germany alone are at risk of delay, tangled up in lengthy permitting and grid connection backlogs. The plants are running full today. But without new orders soon, factories could go dark for contracts starting in twenty twenty-eight. “It is not yet an existential threat,” said Siemens Gamesa chief Vinod Philip, “but it could become one.” He stopped short of predicting shutdowns. But he said the company would likely have to downsize resources if governments fail to act quickly. Europe's offshore supply chain has already committed fourteen billion euros to meet the twenty thirty targets. That is roughly sixteen billion dollars… with no guarantee the orders will follow. Meanwhile… one of the world's biggest oil companies is quietly walking away from wind. Shell is preparing to sell its offshore wind farms in a deal that could fetch more than one billion dollars. The company has hired advisers to run the process, which could launch before the year is out, with a sale expected sometime in twenty twenty-seven. Shell once dreamed of becoming the world's largest electricity producer. That vision died when its current chief executive took over in early twenty twenty-three and shifted the focus back to fossil fuels and shareholder returns. Since then, Shell has been unwinding its green power portfolio piece by piece. It sold its European onshore renewables arm. It sold Indian renewable company Sprng Energy, which it had bought just years earlier for one-point-five-five billion dollars. And it walked away from planned offshore wind farms in Scotland. When this latest sale closes, Shell will have little wind left in its portfolio. But where one door closes… another opens. Up in the northernmost corner of Maine, a region that has sat on one of the best wind resources in the country for years, a long-awaited breakthrough may finally be at hand. The Maine Public Utilities Commission is closing its latest round of bidding for wind and solar generation in Aroostook County, plus the new transmission lines needed to move that power south to the rest of New England. The target: at least twelve hundred megawatts. Enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes. Maine is not going it alone this time. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont are sharing the cost of the new transmission infrastructure. The previous attempt in twenty twenty-one fell apart. Costs rose. Deals could not be finalized. Landowners fought the proposed one-hundred-forty-mile power line. This time, officials say things are different. The multi-state partnership changes the math. And northern Maine's wind resource has not gone anywhere. Dozens of energy companies have signed up to compete, from local developers to major multinationals. If everything goes to plan, the best-case scenario puts new turbines spinning in the twenty thirties. And half a world away… Egypt is making a major investment to keep pace with its own renewable ambitions. The Egyptian prime minister this week witnessed the signing of a financing agreement worth sixty billion Egyptian pounds, earmarked for the national electricity transmission network. That money will go toward upgrading the grid so it can absorb the solar and wind power Egypt plans to add in the coming years. The target: forty-five percent of national electricity from renewable sources by twenty twenty-eight. The electricity minister said modernizing the grid is a “continuous and evolving process,” and that implementation timelines are being compressed to meet that twenty twenty-eight deadline. The wind is shifting. The question is… who moves with it. And that's the state of the wind industry for the 15th of June 2026. Join us for the Uptime Wind Energy podcast tomorrow.

Alejandro Cabrera Muñoz, co-founder and CEO of Green Eagle Solutions, returns to discuss automating 70 GW of renewable assets and why operators are self-operating their fleets. Reach out to sales@greeneaglesolutions.com to learn more! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” 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: Alejandro, welcome back to the program.  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Thank you so much, Allen. It’s a pleasure to be here.  Allen Hall: Well, so last time we talked, you had so much happening at Green Eagle, and it is, uh, amazing to watch the progress there. You’ve been around for quite a while now. You started, what, in 2011 working on SCADA systems. Uh, uh, there’s been a lot of evolution since then. Walk me through, like, the process where you thought, “Hey, there’s a business here.”  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Of course. Uh, we actually started officially back in 2012. It’s been a, quite a, of a long journey to, to get here. Uh, yeah, we started, uh, back, back then. We say it’s a whole new world, right? If we look backwards, like, almost 15 years. Makes me, makes me feel, like, extremely [00:01:00] old. Uh, but ne- nevertheless, um, yeah, back then we were trying to, to cover, like, a lot of issues that were based on OEM SCADAs, which by the way, we still are dealing with. But, but that, that was starting point. It was, um- It was, uh, based on understanding that the, the renewable energy industry is so complex. Every wind farm, every solar plant has different issues, different systems. Even, even the same models from the same manufacturer sometimes have complete different systems, which complicates everything. So it was very exciting to, to start our careers in a, in an industry where nothing is standard and where everyone is looking for something that is standard. So that’s, that’s where we fit in. Um, yeah, and in these years, we, we started basically creating the f- the foundations, uh, uh, on top of, uh, SCADA systems. [00:02:00] But as soon as we had that, those foundations, we realized that this sector is not gonna evolve, uh, it’s gonna cope up with the complexity, uh, of the technical complexity, market volatility, regulatory compliance. That’s not gonna be solved by just having more SCADAs. So we created a layer of automation in place, which is basically what we’ve been, um, evolving in the last 10 years now, um, with the, with the mindset and with the goal that every wind turbine should be running autonomously without having to have people behind it, uh, supervising and taking control of it. Allen Hall: Yeah, and that’s a great founding idea, but that has grown from an idea to you’re automating, what, 40 gigawatts of renewable assets right now?  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Oh, we’re actually now connected to over 70 gigawatts.  Allen Hall: That’s amazing. Alejandro, that’s incredible.  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: And all of them are different.  Allen Hall: Sure. So that, that’s a combination– 70 gigawatts is a combination of wind and solar and anything else? Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Yes. [00:03:00] Well, actually, one of the, one of the main, um, needs that we try to cover from day one is to be able to connect to all, um, asset classes. So we understand that, um, the challenge of operating a large portfolio for our customers, um, can only be solved if we have the ability to connect to all type of asset classes. So we can have to connect to wind turbines, inverters, trackers, substations, um, energy meters, you name it. You– we have to connect to every single asset class, um, because what’s important is how you manage that data on top of that and how you react on the anomalies.  Allen Hall: Right. Because I think a lot of operators are now considering taking your model, the Green Eagle model of s-self-operating, but they need that help, they need that insight into the operation of a solar farm or a wind farm or, or any of those assets, renewable assets, ensure those inverter-driven assets. You’re, you’re seeing– I, I think we’re seeing the same thing, which is a lot of operators decide to [00:04:00] leave full service agreements globally, and what do you think is driving that now? Uh, is it a financial decision? Is it a performance decision, or is it both?  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: I think there are many factors, but I think the main driver is the financial aspects of it. I think when you, when you delegate the operations to a third-party, uh, entity They are gonna optimize their services to whatever service level agreement or availability they are committed to. And for that reason, you’re never gonna get– effectively, you’re never gonna get the extra mile. You’re never gonna get any extra from there. Um, and that’s okay when the market is– has great conditions and everything w- is going well. But we are seeing how in the last years we have, uh, a lot of market volatility, negative pricing. Everything is becoming more and more complex, so many projects are actually under stake financially. And I think that’s, um, that’s pressuring everyone to look for opportunities to squeeze their assets a little bit more or a little bit better, I would say.[00:05:00] Um, and part of that is to take operations in-house so you at least you have the opportunity to, to do, um, a better job, uh, let’s say.  Allen Hall: Yeah, and part of what we’re seeing is, at least in the United States and, and globally now, I think it’s, there’s more action globally than there has been on mergers and acquisitions. So an operator that has historically had a particular OEM in wind, you know, say it’s Vestas or Siemens or GE, whoever, Nordex, it could be any of them. Uh, when they acquire another competitor or another farm, they’re bringing in a f- a wind turbine they probably don’t know much about. And, and that’s a huge problem. And, and there’s not a lot of resources for them to grab hold of. Uh, that’s one of the marketplaces you’re trying to fill right now, right?  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Of course. Uh, as I mentioned before, if something describes our sector is that nothing is standard, despite everyone is seeking standardization of everything, right? Uh, but nothing is standard for, [00:06:00] for– and that, that’s the reality. So the first thing when, when you have a portfolio and you are incorporating new assets into it, you need, um, a solution that is able to connect to all type of assets, right? Um, w-we call our solution a three-in-one solution because first of all, it acts as a second level SCADA, so you can connect everything there, uh, everything there, and you have access to all the data across all your assets. Then we have the SCADA automation layer, and then we have the data analysis layer on top of that. Okay. But let’s focus on the operations, which was, uh, your question, right? So you have a new bunch of assets. Sometimes you don’t have any documentation whatsoever, but these are Gamesas, Nordex, a bunch of them from different years. Um, the first thing that we provide is a second level SCADA, so you can connect to all of those. But We have, uh, something that we believe is very unique. So what we provide to our [00:07:00] customers is ability to automate all these assets autonomously. And what that gives you, it’s, um, set of data that can be analyzed, and we can learn from what’s working, what’s not working, beyond what the manufacturer’s gonna tell you to do, right? So we have thousands of General Electric turbines connected to our software, for instance. Um, we know what works, what doesn’t works, uh, what are the faults that can be resetted remotely, what are the ones that are not, what is the success ratio of those resets, ’cause that’s a metric that nobody else has unless you have automation in place. Uh, but we can actually understand, is it working? Is it not working? Is it creating fatigue for no reason to these turbines? So what– we have all this, this, uh, un- this knowledge and this, um, knowhow, uh, for all these models. Um- I believe one of the main, um, value that we provide to our customers is, is not only the, the solution itself, but it’s also the [00:08:00] ability to be somehow prescriptive. It’s, it’s not that we’re gonna know more about how to operate the assets than our customers, but, uh, we have a sense of what’s the benchmark, right? So I, I– And that benchmark is very, very useful for them as well.  Allen Hall: So th- that’s part of getting to scale, and 70 gigawatts is a, a lot of scale, where you have seen a number of turbines in different places operating in different environments and performing at different levels. That’s unique, right? That gives you insight into really what’s happening to a turbine or a solar asset globally and also locally. For a lot of operators that just happen to acquire or, or, or take on a- an older wind farm, uh, they tend to get stuck, right? They, they, they, they don’t tend to be able to, to find their way through those little nuances. That’s a huge financial impact to them eventually, right?  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: It is. And I, and I believe that for many years this was something that in a way got, um– [00:09:00] didn’t get a lot of visibility. I think people were not fully aware of how much revenue, how much production they were losing just because they were not operating their assets at the best capacity. Um, now we have the data to prove what, what better can look like. W- uh, we have data to prove that if you follow the OEM’s, uh, protocols, you may be creating fatigue for no reason. Um, and there are improv- there are ways to improve that thing. So I think it’s, um– We are, we are opening the door for a new, complete new way to operate your, your portfolio and get more benefit from it. Allen Hall: I think that’s a very interesting aspect of the sort of the structural aspects of how a, a wind turbine performs, and a lot of that is driven by software. And you, you realize if you’re paying close attention to the OEMs that some of the software updates are not necessarily performance enhancements. They’re more of protecting the turbine because they realize they may have a problem. So it may be a slight derate, it may be a, a different sort of power curve that happens. [00:10:00] But a lot of operators don’t really sense that that is happening up close because they’re not into the details of that. That’s where Green Eagle separates itself. You are into all those details. And do you have a lot of operators just reach out for help immediately saying, “Hey, I have this Siemens Gamesa or Gamesa wind farm,” think about an older wind farm, a Gamesa wind farm Help. Just please help. Uh, whatever you can do, just show us you can do it. Do you, do you start to run a little test campaign on that site, or do you, or do you go pull back from the 70 gigawatts and 15 years of history to, to show this is what you can do with that particular asset to, to get them involved in a thinking about the problem a little bit differently? Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Well, I wish, I wish it was that way. Um, but what, what– It, it was that transparent, but what happens is that we’re working with the largest, uh, some of the largest utilities and IPPs in the world. So what happens is that they, they will never come to us saying, [00:11:00] “We don’t know how to operate this turbine,” or, “We don’t have enough information.” Um, the way they ask for it is like, “Are you compatible with this?” And, “Do you know… Do you have some protocols? Do you know the standard protocols to run these turbines?” Um, and that’s the way we, we start the conversation, and then they, uh, they, they get confident that we can actually help them with that. We only know about how, how much or how little they know about a specific model once we start working with them. And it’s not all or nothing. I- Ev-Even the largest manufacturer, e-even the largest utilities, their portfolio is constantly evolving. They’re incorporating new sites almost every month. So there’s always one site that they don’t, they don’t have expertise in the, in the house, so it’s, it’s normal. Like, basically not many people have expertise in some of the models from old Nordex or Gamesas or you name it. It, it’s impossible basically to have to understand all models in the world. So I think we [00:12:00] have the, the data, the benchmarks, and experience, and on top of that, the of course, the, the tools, so you can actually operate better those, those assets.  Allen Hall: So the name of your system is called ARSOS, A-R-S-O-S, and for anybody listening to this podcast, you can just Google it, and it’s gonna take you to Green Eagle. What is that product? How would, how would you define or describe that product?  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Well, ARSOS is a suite. Um, what– The way I like to think about it is a, is a three-in-one solution, right? So it’s first of all, it acts, it, it, it fits in between the SCADA world and the REMs, uh, the REMs, uh, solutions. Okay? And they’re complete different worlds even though you see dashboards and they look the same thing. But SCADAs must be, um, must be able to be installed on premises. They require OT enterprise cybersecurity level. They can be, they should be installed on air-gapped infrastructure, so no access to internet whatsoever. [00:13:00]Um, and that they tend to be extremely complex to configure and, and, uh, adapt to every, uh, every different site. So that’s one world. Um, on the other hand, we have the, the REM solutions that are like more like a SaaS platform, like a Power- it could be Power BI, it could be like the, the normal use cases that you need it. You need something, some tools to create the reports at the end of the month to understand the performance of your assets, right? So you have these two, two worlds. So what we are proposing here is a solution that has been built for the past 15 years, but it fits right in the middle. So it covers Almost everything that you need from a SCADA and second level SCADA solution. It puts automation in place, and then it also gives you all the data so you can consume it in the best way, uh, possible, which by the way, now with, uh, artificial intelligence, it’s incredible what you can do with it. So this is basically what we have built, um, right [00:14:00] now. And the main differentiation here is that since we are in the middle, we are trying to solve all this complexity from a SCADA world with a product that is already pre-configured. So you can basically connect to your sites in a completely easy way, um, doing clicks and not a lot of complexity because it’s already pre-made for your needs. Um, because of that, the time to market is extremely much, uh, faster compared to a SCADA solution, so you can have a solution in thing, in hours and not in months. It’s, it’s not a project anymore, right? Which is, which it sounds like normal when you, when you talk about applications, it sounds like a normal thing to do, that you have a, a system running in hours or minutes. But when you’re talking about SCADAs, that’s like sci- uh, sci-fiction, right? Um, that’s what we’re bringing to, into, onto the table. It’s, it’s, uh, something that you can connect to all your assets in a seamless way, painless, and, uh, and, uh, off the [00:15:00] shelf.  Allen Hall: Well, that’s a very interesting way of framing, uh, the product because, uh, you do see both ends of the spectrum here, where y- there’s a number of companies that are offering a c- completely SaaS product, which is a very pretty dashboard, and it still relies on a human to watch this dashboard and, and to make sense of it, and it provides some insight. And then you get to the other side, which is almost a completely mechanical system, where it’s just SCADA data and, and you’re just picking up data for datas, uh, to have, basically. So you, you f- you sort of find that middle ground. The, the, the amount of software and technology that it’s in that space, though, must be huge, and what is the effect of AI bring to you? Does that help you more with just on the, on the, on the model side or just the, the statistical analysis of all the data that you have access to now?  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Let me make a, um, clarification. Because since, uh, we are, we are providing automation [00:16:00] in a world that is mission critical, right? So there’s no, a lot of, there’s no room for creativity or probabilistic approach. It all has to be the deterministic, right? Uh, so when we talk about automation, we’ve always been focused on deterministic automation, so rule-based, uh, automation, and that’s what we have implemented on top of the level of the SCADAs, right? So that’s, that’s the part where you know how to deal with an asset. You have the protocols. You want to understand how they work, but you want to have certainty of what happens if the turbine is on fault and the fault is related to the gearbox temperature and so on. So you wanna make sure that there’s a reset automatically executed only if the temperature of the gearbox is under X threshold. So this very deterministic approach. Uh, but we have, uh, something, um, very unique when we go on the, on the other side, when we go on the side of the REMs. Because we not only have the data of, of the assets, we [00:17:00] not only have statuses, performance, availability, uh, production. We also have the data of how these assets, assets have been operated, right? So we know how much fatigue they have received, how they’ve been operated, um, have they received curtailments or not? How many curtailments? What were the reasons? So we can actually have a 360, uh, degree of all the data, including all the control, not only how they’re performing, but also how we are operating those assets. And we believe that this is very unique because only if you have all these 360 data, then you can actually enhance what you have on top of that. And that is where AI come, comes in, right? So AI, AI is great in, um, helping our customers in doing root cause analysis, um, dealing with anomalies are not well, um, uh, procedure. Uh, there’s no course of action that is clear, that you don’t know. It’s, they’re not like too [00:18:00] frequent to, to have one. Uh, mixing different type of data. Like I mentioned before, you have, uh, market data, you have curtailments, you have, uh, commands to stop or start a turbine. You have a lot of information there, and you can put all together. Uh, also along with the CMMS information. Um- Lastly, they get– they can pull that together to do whatever they need, right? Uh, they can build with AI. You, you can now do your own dashboards. You can create your own APMs if you wanted to. Um, and I like to think about it, like, with these new tools that you can create disposable dashboards. And, uh, the concept is that it doesn’t matter how many different dashboards you have in an APM, but tomorrow you have a, a specific case. And I think it’s amazing that now with AI and the right, uh, data structure, you can now create a dashboard, and maybe it’s just for one use case, you know? And you just build it today, look at the data. You have [00:19:00] a, um, a case study, and that’s it. May– you never use it that again. The trick for being able to, to, to create this ecosystem where you analyze the data in a completely different way is that we have been working on how to structure the data so the AI is gonna be able to understand the data itself. So once that, that layer is structured in the right way, then you can actually create your own APMs or your own dashboards as you need to.  Allen Hall: That’s fascinating. So instead of just thinking of a turbine or a, a solar field as a asset where you’re trying to maximize performance necessarily, you’re looking at it from the marketplace, the, the, uh, the shutdowns, all the, the things that are contr- overriding the performance and trying to optimize performance in this market environment, which may be very turbulent, and I think for a lot of wind operators is very turbulent, uh, at, at the minute just [00:20:00] because of the nature of the electricity grid. So you’re, you’re then thinking about Having an AI tool to help you do investigative work on the particulars, not just the global data set of how this turbine globally operates, but the specifics, that’s fascinating because that allows you then to treat each turbine as its own separate power plant, in a sense, but also to, to think about lifetime issues and how to maintain that piece of equipment in a much more efficient way. That’s remarkable.  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: And you have the– With AI, you also have the capabilities to automate all these type of analysis. So once you have a specific, uh, case to be analyzed, then you can automate that case to be analyzed in a daily basis, in a weekly basis. But that’s, uh, that, that’s, uh, that’s, uh, the world that we are moving to. Allen Hall: So a lot of what’s happening at Green Eagle at the moment is being automated and, and making it easy for, for customers to get [00:21:00]onboarded to the RSO system. What does that look like today? Uh, how do, how do I get onboarded? I have an asset of I got 1,000 turbines and a couple of solar fields. What does it look like to get me started in the RSO system with Green Eagle? Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Well, if you’re using our cloud, it’s, it’s gonna be a process of If you have a, a portfolio of 500 gigawatts, you can connect to our, to our cloud in a matter of like one month to two months So that’s something that you can do by yourself. So, um, you can create the assets, you can create the connectivity. The connectivity is done through IP filtering or VPN tunnels. All that is from the, from the dashboards, from, from the cloud. Um, then you can, based on the model directory, you can choose which is the, the assets that you want to connect to and through what channels, whether you have Modbus, OPC, and so on. Um, but that’s a- as complex as, as it gets. Really? It’s n- it’s not easy either, because [00:22:00] you need to understand what is a Modbus, what is a OPC, but that’s what it is. It, it’s not a matter of, like, installing something on site and doing tons of, uh, complex, uh, um, configurations. You don’t need, uh, SCADA engineers to be, like, building these dashboards tailor-made for your sites and, and all that is, is something from the past in o- in our opinion. Allen Hall: So you’re not on the telephone, or you’re not on a, a online chat with the Green Eagle team, because it’s, it’s, it’s– you’ve, you’ve done enough capacity now that you’ve automated this.  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: You don’t have to.  Allen Hall: That’s amazing, because I think that’s the first worry for any operator that is gonna make that leap saying, “Hey, I need a little bit of help with this wind farm or this solar site,” is that, “Oh, I gotta be on the phone. I gotta– There’s a lot of im- of onboarding that has to happen,” and you’ve eliminated that.  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Well, first, w- I, I totally understand this hesitation. Um, many of our customers are living in, in the, in the SCADA world, right? Uh, and which w- it was probably once a pain [00:23:00] to be configured to begin with, and I think half the sector is traumatized by these processes. So I, I tot- I totally understand that that pain is, is still there, right? I understand that. But what we’re trying to do is to, to move forward and say like, “Yeah, that, that’s gone. That was the past. Now we have a different way to do it.” And if you have, uh, either new assets that you need to connect or you even consider, like, moving to something more modern, something with more capabilities, something that comes with automation in place, uh, well, we have a solution that is painless. Allen Hall: Can I discuss, or can we go back and forth about the, the use of inverter-based resources, the solar and the wind sites, in terms of the, the move from grid following to grid forming and stabilizing the grid? I think there’s gonna be a lot of changes in the way that we operate these assets over the next year. Mostly, uh, I see action in the United States from the Iberian blackout about a year ago. They’re changing the thought process of how they want to run the grid so that the wind [00:24:00] and solar can keep the grid operating. Is– Are you involved in, are you involved in that aspect of how you operate those assets and how those inverters perform and, and configuring them to, to do more of the, of the grid forming and keeping the grid stable? Alejandro Cabrera Muños: I believe, to be honest, this is more related to power plant controllers and hybrid plants. So we have, we have made several projects with, um- With a mix, uh, of, uh, wind, solar, um, and storage. And wh- but what we’re doing here, uh, to be completely honest, we are not involved in the power plant controllers. Uh, we believe that that’s an electrical device and has, uh, uh, particularities that are out of us- our scope. But what we do is to, again, we connect to all asset classes, right? So we also w- connect to the PPCs, and we can monitor the PPC, the performance of the PPC, and we integrate that into everything else, right? So [00:25:00] that’s, for us, that’s another asset that we are connecting to, and that it make– it completes the view of, um, of sites that are now, like, almost like mini portfolios at, at the same place, right? ‘Cause you have, uh, different technologies, service stations. You have so many things that you need to orchestrate as well. So we’re, we’re w- moving into, into that area as well, uh, f- with the same concepts.  Allen Hall: B- so in a, in a sense, you’re able to monitor the health or status of the grid. Because you’re connected to so many of these assets, you have a pretty good understanding of how the grid is doing at any particular moment then. Alejandro Cabrera Muños: That’s right, yeah, especially in, in Spain, of course, ’cause we’re connected to, um, over 25 gigawatts at the, uh, at, in Spain, so.  Allen Hall: Alejandro, that’s amazing.  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Over 25 gigawatts at the, uh, at, in Spain. So, so that’s s- it’s almost a third of the, of the installed capacity in Spain.  Allen Hall: Is there a movement in Spain to, to use technology like yours [00:26:00] to better monitor, regulate, control the, uh, wind and solar assets so- such that they stay engaged when, when the, the grid starts to, to vary a little bit? Has anybody asked you to, to be involved with that? Because it seems like you’re the right– you’re in the right place at the right time.  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: The challenge of all these grid codes, uh, in, in most of cases is just that There are tons of curtailments that are coming from many different reasons, technical restrictions, market, uh, dispatch, um, other type of compliance. Um, the, the first challenge is to just execute on them, right? So they’re coming, you need to apply on the, on the sites. Um, that was the first, the first phase. But now that we have so many gigawatts connected, and that we’re also participating in balance mechanis- balance mechanisms and ancillary services, what we are seeing is that depending on how your assets perform and how quickly they are in regulating, um, you are gonna [00:27:00] have penalties or more, uh, profitability in the participation of the markets. So that’s, that’s extremely important as well ’cause it’s, it’s quite difficult to, to measure. But we have all the– Since everything is automated, you can always track, and you can statistically understand which of the sites are performing better or worse, in what cases, and therefore you have opportunities to improve the regulation and get more revenue from it. Allen Hall: Okay. So Green Eagle then is, because of the scale that it has at the minute, can look at the grid and is involved in, in the, the grid requirements, so to speak, of, of, uh, curtailments and what assets are operating when, and also the voltage control aspects and frequency control, which is the other part of it. You, because you’re, because you have so many assets in Spain and globally, you, it’s amazing the number of assets you have. You, you then can actually, one, see health of the grid, two, [00:28:00] provide insights to operators on what that looks like. I mean, real time you could, you can do that. And then are, are, are the regulators then coming to, to you asking advice on how these assets should perform? Because it does seem like you would be a tremendous resource on how the grid is actually doing on a larger scale from a renewables standpoint.  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Yeah. Well, fortunately, the, the regulator has its own also, uh, system, so it’s, uh, redundant, right? So as far as we, we are working to, to have, uh, the best system in the world, but, but it will be a lot of, uh, responsibility for us to just have the whole grid depending on us. That would be a lot of weight. Uh, but in a, in a way, in, in a, in a way, it already depends on us, uh, effectively. So, so the pressure is, is there. We have, we have talked to them, um, since we have so many customers, um, in the, in the– at this level, uh, we have to be very quick in implementing new grid codes and new [00:29:00] regulatory, uh, compliance issues and, and so on. So that’s, that’s, um… It’s a challenge, but at the same time, it’s, it’s very exciting that we are always ahead in, in this regard.  Allen Hall: Right. If, if I was an operator and I had Green Eagle as one of my, uh, helpers in a sense, uh, assistants in a sense, that helps with the, the grid code i-in terms of, one, understanding it, and two, being able to implement the changes that are coming down all the time. You have a resource there that understands it from a larger perspective because you see it from multiple operators in multiple places trying to do the same thing. That’s a huge advantage instead of you trying to na-navigate or try to understand all those grid code changes and why they’re happening and what it means to you and how do you operate your assets. So you can provide a little bit of guidance there for the operators.  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Of, of course. Um, uh, the main, the main value proposition that we can have here for anyone that wants to participate or be part of the Spanish market is that we already have all this figured out. So if you wanna start from the scratch [00:30:00] with, uh, with a SCADA, industrial SCADA, well, let’s, let’s go with, let’s go with that. You’re gonna be probably traumatized in the future, right? Uh, but with us you have an off-the-shelf product that is already compliance. It, uh, h- we have already set, uh, the system certified by the TSO in Spain. So we have already gone through this process so many times, and it’s off the shelf, so you don’t have to worry about any of this. And on top of that, you have the Peace of mind that if tomorrow there’s gonna be a, a, a new change in the, in the, in a new grid code, well, which most likely is gonna happen, um, soon, uh, we have to, we have to do it. Because we have already, uh, a lot of customers that, that, that need it. So for us, it’s actually also, uh, strategic to, to be ahead and be fast in implementing these grid codes. Allen Hall: That’s amazing. That’s such a huge resource for Spain and the rest of the world. Yeah, that’s amazing. Well, I, I know people who are listening to this podcast right now are thinking, “Okay, I haven’t heard of Green [00:31:00]Eagle, but now I’m interested, and I need to f- find out more.” How do they contact you? Where do they go first? What’s the best first step?  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Well, they can connect, uh, directly to me through LinkedIn, or they can just write to sales@greeneaglesolutions.com.  Allen Hall: Great, yeah, and Alejandro’s available on LinkedIn, so you can f- find him there. And we’ll put his contact information in the show notes to, so you have quick access. Alejandro, you gotta come back more often because the, the things that you’re doing with Green Eagle are amazing, and, uh, the, the scale is incredible. Congratulations on that. Uh, and, and I, I, I need you to come back and tell us what the next generation looks like because I know when you guys get ahold of AI and start thinking through some of these real challenging problems, Green Eagle will have solutions. So you’re welcome back anytime.  Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Super exciting to come back, uh, when you invite me. Thank you so [00:32:00] much.

For years, the energy transition was discussed as a shift that would happen in steady, predictable increments. But the last 24 months have shattered that illusion. Energy providers now face extreme industrial volatility—where companies tasked with building the future of clean energy are also grappling with multi-billion dollar losses, supply chain fragility, and a sudden, massive surge in power demand. As the president and CEO of Siemens Energy, Christian Bruch sits at the epicenter of these contradictions. The company is a global giant, responsible for a massive portion of the world's power generation and transmission infrastructure. Yet, even a company of this scale has not been immune to the existential challenges of the modern energy market. In 2023, its wind division, Siemens Gamesa, suffered major technical and financial setbacks. Since then, Siemens Energy has staged a significant turnaround. Its wind business is back on track and Siemens Energy is seeing unprecedented demand for its gas turbines and grid technology, driven largely by demand from data centers to power artificial intelligence.  All of this makes the company a useful lens through which to understand where the global energy system is headed as energy infrastructure providers sprint to keep up with the world's thirst for electricity. What does the "speed to power" mean for the pace of decarbonization? And how is the role of an energy CEO changing in a world where industrial strategy and geopolitics are now inseparable? Today on the show, Jason Bordoff speaks with Christian Bruch about the opportunities and challenges that Siemens Energy is facing today, from surging electricity demand and growing infrastructure investments, to geopolitical headwinds and supply risks. Christian is the president and CEO of Siemens Energy as well as the president and CEO of Siemens Energy Management. Earlier in his career, he worked for more than 15 years at the Linde Group, a global industrial gases and engineering company, where he held a number of leadership roles. He started his career with the German energy company RWE Group, rising  to head of research and project development at RWE Fuel Cells. Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Gregory Vilfranc.  

Matthew Stead recaps WindEurope Madrid and Blades Europe Edinburgh. Plus Suzlon unveils its Blue Sky platform for Europe, Muehlhan consolidates six specialist firms, and Mingyang keeps hunting for a European home. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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] The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by StrikeTape. Protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide. Visit striketape.com. And now, your hosts.  Allen Hall 2025: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your host, Allen Hall, and I’m here with Matthew Stead, who is back in Australia, but not at home. He’s up in Queensland. Or actually, not even on– in Queensland, technically. He’s on an island off the coast of Queensland. Where are you at, Matthew?  Matthew Stead: Uh, Moreton Island. It’s, uh, like a resort island off, uh, off of Brisbane, so beautiful outside.  Allen Hall 2025: Well, you need a little bit of resort time because you’ve been to two conferences, and you spent a good bit of time in Austria after that. So you were at WindEurope in Madrid, and then following that, you went right over to Scotland for Blades Europe. So I wanna hear your thoughts. We’ll start with, uh, WindEurope and what was going on at that conference. It did sound like there was a pretty [00:01:00] good attendance, and some people that I have talked to about it really en-enjoyed being in Madrid. It’s just  Matthew Stead: a bigger city. Um, first time I’d ever been to Madrid, and, uh, yeah, the show was amazing, actually. I was, I was a bit blown away by, uh, I think the OEMs were back out in force. You know, so like the Vestas, Siemens were, um, really– and Nordexes and so forth were really back out in force, so that was really good to see. Um, the, some of the larger operators had really, really strong presence as well. So you could see that, you know, Iberdrola, Res, um, those sorts of companies were, um, really, you know, putting a big effort in and meeting their customers and, um, really showing, uh, the world who they were. So that was really, um, you know, really good to see. There were so many people seriously. Um, the queues for food at lunch were, were, um, one of the major problems. Um, so, um, yeah, it was really a lot of people, so that was really exciting. Um, and I mean, for me, I was [00:02:00]trying to catch up with, with partners and friends and, yeah, it was, it was jam, jam-packed just meeting people in the industry. Um, probably a few other things. So s- you know, SkySpecs and Aerones had a really strong, um, presence there. So, um, SkySpecs and Aerones were, were doing really well. Um, maybe one of the, um, surprises for me, and I know this has been a topic on a few other previous episodes, was there was a lot of interest in bird and bat detection. I, I, I think there had to be, like, five companies that were, were– had really big setups, and it was a really, really big topic around cameras and so forth. So, um, that was a, a big topic. And, um, then there, there was a really, really strong, you know, supply chain, you know, from, from vessels to cables to, you know, repairs. Allen Hall 2025: What was the ratio of offshore companies to onshore companies? I’m always curious.  Matthew Stead: You’re looking through the, the list. Um- I would, I’m only guessing it [00:03:00] was probably about 40% had an offshore focus of some kind. So it was definitely a strong offshore focus. Um, obviously, you know, a lot of onshore, offshore combined companies. But yeah, definitely the word offshore kept on popping up a lot.  Allen Hall 2025: Because Spain is mostly onshore. Like, um, like 99% onshore, right? I think it’s a couple of small projects going offshore. Does it look like the onshore business is gonna pick up, uh, just in terms of the activity on the floor in Madrid?  Matthew Stead: Uh, yeah. Um, I, I think, you know, like I said, you know, those big operators like the REZAs and the Iberdrolas and, and the OEMs, I, I think it’s just a given that, um, you know, things are buoyant. Um, well, they appear to be definitely very buoyant. Uh, I think we’ve heard, you know, some of the positive, um, financial news from a few of the OEMs recently. So yeah, yeah, it seems like o- onshore is, is maturing further, further, further. And so you went straight  Allen Hall 2025: from Madrid, right, to [00:04:00] Edinburgh, Scotland. That was a change in weather, I would assume. Uh, probably about a 20 degree Celsius difference. 25 down to 15, yes. Whoa. Okay. Yeah, that’s a good bit. Uh, but the Edinburgh conference, that’s the first time that Blades Europe has been to Edinburgh. I, at least I don’t remember them being there before. That tends to be a more technical conference than Wind Europe. Uh, the, the Blades conference is obviously focused on blades, and all the relevant experts in Europe do tend to show up there. What were some of the hot topics at Blades Europe this year? Matthew Stead: Yeah, I think it was, um, an interesting conference. Um, I, I’d been to Blades USA, so I was able to contrast, um, Blades USA a little bit. I think probably the differences here were, yeah, there was definitely some strong, strong, uh, experts there, like you say. Um, you know, Birgit, um, our friend was, was in attendance and a few of her colleagues from Statkraft. Um, I think, and or, uh, actually ORE Catapult, the, the [00:05:00] UK research, um, offshore renewable energy research, um, they did some great presentations. I really, um, they really shared some really good insights. So, um, ORE Catapult were talking about life extension and, um, you know, looking at the, the fatigue on blades and, uh, how they’re, how they’re going to perform and life extension. So some great stuff from ORE Catapult there. Probably another key topic that came up was around, uh, sort of related to life extension, but also recycling. The, there was a really good session on the new IEC standard. Um, um, to, you know, full disclosure, I was actually on the panel. So I, I thought it was a great panel. But, um, the new IEC standard for blade operations and maintenance, um, is really well a-advanced now in its development. Um, very strong risk focus, you know. So depending on the risk then drives your, your blade O&M program. [00:06:00] Um, so that was a, a great talk as well. Uh, and then maybe finally, um, something close to my heart, um, I think the, the, you know, the maturity of CMS companies. There actually, there were five blade CMS companies there, which is probably the biggest turnout I’ve seen around blade CMS, um, ever. And so it was good to see that sort of, um, interest and growth, um, and the need for, for blade CMS. Uh, and, um, obviously the last one, lightning. So lightning always an issue. Lots of discussions around lightning, um, you know, through Greece and a few of the, the, the Balkan go- Balkan states. On the blade recycling front, there’s a  Allen Hall 2025: company in Scotland called ReBlade that is involved in some of the recycling efforts. Did they give a presentation of, of what they’re up to at the moment? Matthew Stead: Uh, yes, I think they did. Um, they’re talking about setting up a, a site in a, a [00:07:00] couple of sites, and I think Inverness was the, the location where they’re, where they’re setting up a site. The, um, the port is supportive, so they’re working through those, those, those challenges. You know, getting a site, getting transport and access to the blades. Um, working out when, when the, when the blades will come to them. You know, the storage of blades. Um, the, the end, end uses for those blades. Getting all that supply chain, um, lined up was, you know, yeah, it was, that was quite thorough and quite, um, yeah, inspiring.  Allen Hall 2025: And on the CMS side, what are operators trying to monitor? ‘Cause usually have something in mind that they’re going after.  Matthew Stead: For better or for worse, there’s still some serial, um, failure modes. Um, and so the industry is looking at very particular, you know, challenges that, um, certain make and model have. Um, so root insert failures was definitely one of those, um, one of those topics. Um, and that was actually one of the, the, the [00:08:00] roundtable discussions at, uh, Blades Europe. Some other, um, monitoring around, you know, lightning and- lightning damage and what’s happening with the LPS. That was also, uh, another big topic for, for monitoring. And then a few other sort of general, more, more general, um, you know, natural frequencies of blades and seeing if the natural frequencies are changing, indicating a change in stiffness, which relates to potential damage. So yeah, there was– it was quite a mix of the types of, um, CMS that was discussed.  Allen Hall 2025: Has the digital twin finally died? Anybody talk about that?  Matthew Stead: There’s actually a current call-out for a new research project in Europe around digital twins. So, um, yeah, one of the larger, one of the larger operators is, is putting, pulling together a team to talk about digital twins, so-  Allen Hall 2025: I, I think this is one of the more difficult things to do, but just because you’re dealing with a variety of blades and blade factories and unique issues that pop up that are…[00:09:00] You, you really can’t model until after they happen. And after they happen, everybody knows about them anyway. So what’s the point of the digital twin if you can’t detect things early? It, it, it is a great concept, but hard to implement.  Matthew Stead: Yeah. And why? Why would you do it? I mean, you, you’re only gonna do it if there’s a benefit, and what is the benefit? So, but I think, uh, actually at Blades Europe, digital twins was not really a topic. And maybe one thing I forgot to say is that the, um, Wind Power Lab did a, a good, um, presentation on carbon blades as well, so.  Allen Hall 2025: The, the carbon blades are, is a very good discussion, just because the trend has been lately to scrap blades and bring new ones on site. And the carbon can be difficult to repair, or it takes a long time to repair, and you just don’t have the manpower or woman power to go out and fix it. So the, the fastest option is to build a new blade. But it does leave a lot of blade waste, which is where the industry is not going. Uh, recyclable blades, which is [00:10:00] in process at the moment, will make that easier, but you just don’t wanna be recycling blades. You like to be able to repair them. Composites are repairable. And it’s, it is so odd that they, they wanna continue on that pathway, but we’ll see. We’ll see. You don’t really learn the lesson until you do it.  Matthew Stead: Um, however, you know, the, the presentation on carbon blades was, um, you know, highlighted a lot of the challenges, but also highlighted some of the positives and the, you know, how they do help. Um, and so there was a lot of support for carbon blades, but there’s a lot of unknowns and, um, and there was a lot of discussion around how do you even test if the LPS is working. Uh, it’s just impossible. So, you know, traditional methods on carbon blades, yeah, it just don’t work. So, um, but there was a lot of support that the carbon does bring benefit. But yeah, I agree with you. There’s a lot of challenges there.  Allen Hall 2025: That’s one of the things we learned years ago back in the late ’80s, early ’90s when we, at least in, in the [00:11:00] States, started building a number of carbon fiber aircraft. And the repair situation and dealing with repairs in, in remote locations became difficult. And you’ve learned how much training it took to keep an industry running, and you’re starting from zero for a lot of places that all he had worked on was aluminum. It, it’s a completely different world. You’re, you’re training tens of thousands of technicians around the world. You weren’t planning to go do that, and now you are. So it just, it adds to the cost.  Matthew Stead: It also ties into the OEM, um, you know, providing, you know, details on how to repair those blades because they’re not, they’re not just a standard item, so-  Allen Hall 2025: No, you, you don’t wanna be grinding into a protrusion if you can avoid it. It- you’re just never gonna get it back into that original form because protrusions are in some part magic. And taking a grinder to them is not gonna… It’s breaking the magic. All the magic will be leaving that protrusion when you do that. Yeah, very [00:12:00]difficult. Delamination and bond line failures in blades are difficult problems to detect early. These hidden issues can cost you millions in repairs and lost energy production. CIC NDT are specialists to detect these critical flaws before they become expensive burdens. Their nondestructive test technology penetrates deep into blade materials to find voids and cracks traditional inspections completely miss. CIC NDT maps every critical defect, delivers actionable reports, and provides support to get your blades back in service. So visit cicndt.com because catching blade problems early will save you millions. Well, as we know, the wind industry has long been dominated by a handful of European and American turbine makers, uh, particularly in the, quote-unquote, “West.” Uh, but that landscape may be [00:13:00] shifting. Suzlon, the Indian turbine giant that nearly collapsed under about a $1.5 billion of debt just a few years ago, is back. The company has unveiled a new turbine platform aimed squarely at Europe, and says it will build its first factory on the continent if it wins enough orders. Vice Chairman Girish Tanti, uh, delivered the announcement at the WindEurope conference in Madrid, where Matthew was Signaling that Suzlon believes its time has come. And since you were there, Matthew, did you hear any news on the floor, any discussion on the show floor about Suzlon entering Europe?  Matthew Stead: Well, actually, yes. So, um, um, there was actually a good, uh, contingent of Suzlon people at, uh, Blades Europe. So, uh, they attended, uh, Wind Europe and then Blades Europe. Um, and I, you know, I was able to have a bit of discussion with them. I think, I think, uh, they were quite optimistic about, um, [00:14:00] you know, moving back or moving into, into Europe in terms of manufacturing. Um, however, there was an element of skepticism. Am I allowed to say that? So they, uh, were, they were not completely, um, convinced that it’s gonna happen, but, uh, they were certainly excited by that. It was definitely a, a clear possibility, but not a given.  Allen Hall 2025: Well, they have a, a new platform called the Blue Sky platform, um, which will have, I think, two turbines here, a 5 megawatt and a 6.3 megawatt, which is squarely aimed at Europe and also the United States, for that matter. And building a factory, though, doesn’t make a lot of sense if the cost driver for a factory in Europe is the European employees, which it tends to be when you hear the discussions about the cost structure, it’s about the employees. I’m not sure why Suzlon would make blades or nacelles in Europe unless they could avoid tariffs or taxation, because India is a very [00:15:00] cost, uh, driven, uh, manufacturing facilities writing country. So why would you wanna go build another expensive factory, probably in the realm of a couple hundred million pounds, uh, if you’re gonna go do it? It probably doesn’t make any sense to do that as well as just selling turbines into Europe. It seems like the easier path.  Matthew Stead: Yeah. And then you’ve got all the, like, the quality control challenges and, you know, you get the cultural challenges. So yeah, to be honest, I don’t qu- I don’t quite understand the logic behind that either. Um, maybe there’s, there’s some things that we don’t know about behind the scenes in terms of tariffs and other, other incentives that we don’t know about.  Allen Hall 2025: Would you see operators taking, uh, a Suzlon presentation and maybe even writing plans for developing with Suzlon turbines in the next couple of years? Is that a, a feeling that Europeans would, would do that, or is Vestas mainly and Siemens Gamesa so strong in Europe that it doesn’t make any sense unless [00:16:00] you’re in sort of the periphery countries of Europe?  Matthew Stead: I mean, my first exposure to a wind turbine was a Suzlon turbine in Australia, and there are many, many, many Suzlon turbines in Australia. And they’re all, they’re all still working. They’re all still reliable. So I mean, from a reputation and reliability and, um Yeah, history point of view, I can’t see why not. I mean, you know, uh, the operators will see that, you know, they’ve proven themselves. They’re not new kids on the block. Um, and so why wouldn’t an operator think about it? Allen Hall 2025: Well,  Matthew Stead: in  Allen Hall 2025: this quarter’s PES Wind magazine, which you can download for free at peswind.com, there is a nice article from Muelhen Wind Services, and that is a growing company. A lot going on there. Our friends at AC883 just joined Muelhen a f- few months ago, and is being part of that conglomerate. And, and we know that obviously building wind farm used to mean [00:17:00]consulting with dozens of contractors, and this is where Mue- Muelhen has really s- stepped into the breach here. So from blade repair at one company and heavy lift cranes at another company, all that had to be managed separately. You’re calling s- different companies all the time. And watching asset managers and site supervisors do this, uh, it is a thankless job. Well, Muelhen’s trying to change that a little bit, uh, and they’re saying that that model no longer works, and I totally agree with them. It’s insane. Uh, but so Muelhen has consolidated six specialist firms under its one brand, and covering everything from port pre-assembly to long-term operations and maintenance across Europe, the US and Canada, uh, and Asia-Pacific. Its CEO, Søren Hoffer, uh, puts it plainly, “The next phase of wind will not be won by turbine size alone. It will be decided by the supply chain’s ability to execute.” Boy, [00:18:00]couldn’t say truer words. Uh, I’ve worked with Muelhen or my company, Weather Guard Lightning Tech, has worked with Muelhen on a couple of projects over the years, and we’ve always had, uh, great service from them, and we have talked to a number of operators that love them, that love using Muelhen. So it’s not a surprise that they’re trying to grow and expand and make life easier for the operators.  Matthew Stead: Sounds like a brilliant move, really. I mean, you know, pulling all these sort of things together is, is a real challenge, isn’t it? I mean, coordinating all these subcontractors, um, getting to turn up at the right time, and yeah, I mean, it just sounds like a brilliant move, and I think that we need more, more, more efficient service companies to service the growing fleet. So the more they can get organized, the better.  Allen Hall 2025: Yeah, the scale matters here, and the expertise matters. As we’ve have a couple hundred thousand turbines that are [00:19:00] operating in the, quote-unquote, “West,” it does make sense to have a larger player that has seen most of those turbines and has some experience with them. It’s always the scary scenario when you’re working with a new company. Have they been on this turbine before? Do they know what they’re doing? Do they know- Lockout tagout. Even simple things like that come to the forefront. And the, the trouble is on some of these smaller companies that are in that business is that, uh, you just don’t get the level of service, you don’t get the level of response, you don’t have the horsepower if something were to, to go wrong on site. They don’t have the cash to, to bring in a second crane or another crew to get this job done. It, it does become scale at some point. And, uh, for a long time in the wind industry, particularly United States, it, it has been a lot of, quote-unquote, “mom-and-pop operations,” and those are slowly getting acquired by the likes of Muehlhan. I, I, I think this is inevitable at some point. Uh, from the asset owner’s, uh, desktop watching this go on, [00:20:00] how do you see, you know, a large operator interfacing with Muehlhan? Are they gonna do just one-stop shopping at this point? They’re, they’re not gonna have three or four different companies to work with, that they’re just gonna lock into, uh, Muehlhan? ‘Cause, uh, that’s what I see.  Matthew Stead: Yeah. I, I think, you know, from the, the WOMA Conference in, in Melbourne, we saw a bit of a, bit of a shift towards, um, outsourcing, at least in Australia Pacific region. And I mean, if, if you’re gonna outsource, um, you’re, you’re probably gonna join up with a, a Muehlhan, um, equivalent. So, you know, that way it just takes some of the risk out of, out of it, so it, it sort of makes sense. Um, the other observation I’ve heard is that, you know, because of the seasonality of blade repairs, it’s really hard to keep hold of, um, blade techs. And so if you’re a global company, you’ve got at least some opportunity of using the ses- seasonality and keeping hold of the good techs and, um, you know, so, you know, you know, summer in, in North, North, uh, America, and then, you know, summer in [00:21:00] Australia. So it, it, it allows these company, allows these companies to keep hold of their good people.  Allen Hall 2025: Yeah. And that, that’s always been the yearly problem, right? That you have a, a crew of a couple good crews in the summertime, and you come back the next summer and it’s a whole different group of people and yeah, that, that, that’s trouble for the industry. Well, a- and it’s good. It’s fi- it’s finally good to see this happening, and I know, uh, we’ve talked about it internally here at Weather Guard of who to work with and who to partner with. We like working with companies that have scale, and I think we’re finally there. So it’s really interesting to see this article from Johan in PES Wind. So if you, if you haven’t read the article, you should go visit peswind.com and take a look. There’s a lot of great content in this quarter’s issue, and y- you don’t wanna miss it. So go to peswind.com today. As wind energy professionals, staying informed is crucial, and let’s face it, difficult. That’s why the Uptime podcast recommends PES Wind magazine. PES Wind offers [00:22:00] a diverse range of in-depth articles and expert insights that dive into the most pressing issues facing our energy future. Whether you’re an industry veteran or new to wind, PES Wind has the high-quality content you need. Don’t miss out. Visit peswind.com today. So when, when the energy prices spike like they’re happening right now, uh, the Iran war being one of the main drivers, and obviously gasoline prices have jumped quite a bit, here’s what happens. The China’s clean energy sector goes to work, and they’re racing to make connections and make sales. As electricity prices jump up, gas prices jump up, everybody wants to try to find a cheaper way to provide energy to their countries or locales. Uh, China’s there to offer it. So it’s solar panels, batteries, EVs, and even wind turbines are, are looking for homes out of China. Uh, for European wind professionals, [00:23:00] the most important part comes from Mingyang, right? So they were unable to get a production facility in Scotland, but they haven’t given up yet. They are still searching for a home somewhere in Europe. And as of today, I don’t think they’ve found it. They’re s- I think they’re still looking for some country to host them. But how long is that gonna go on, Matthew? I, I think with the domination of Vestas and Siemens Gamesa in Europe and Suzlon trying to make an entry, will Mingyang and other Chinese manufacturers eventually find a home?  Matthew Stead: It’s interesting. I think, uh, if you look at the airline industry, you’ve always had premium providers, and you’ve always had low-end providers, and I think there’s always a place for all of them. And so I re- I reckon they’ll find, I think they’ll find their place in, in the market and just, you know, it might just take a while. But they’ve got the strength, haven’t they? They’ve got the product. They’ve got the strength. So it’s just a matter [00:24:00] of time.  Allen Hall 2025: Yeah. I, I, I d- I do think eventually it will happen. But Vestas and, and Siemens Gamesa have done a pretty good job of controlling it, and wind Europe, honestly. Wind Europe has not been a proponent of a Chinese manufacturer in Europe, so that generally will help slow down any business plans they would have But at the same time, there’s a lot of opportunities around the world that’s not necessarily in Europe, right? South America has strong ties with China. They’re– And Chinese companies are, are starting production in China. There’s a lot th- things happening there. You’re gonna see that in Africa and other places. So it doesn’t necessarily have to happen in Europe, which is, I think Europeans and Americans think, “Well, we can’t have China in those locales.” Fine. But it isn’t like China doesn’t have other opportunities to, to sell turbines or solar panels or batteries. There are plenty places on the planet where  Matthew Stead: people that  Allen Hall 2025: need  Matthew Stead: lower cost energy, and they’re gonna find them. Um, I did attend a, a panel [00:25:00] discussion on Türkiye, um, and the growth, and there was a lot of growth in Türkiye around onshore and offshore. And so maybe Mingyang, that might be a, a place, um, for them to, to start, you know, on the doorstep of, of Europe. The stepping stone, so to speak. Stepping country.  Allen Hall 2025: Is there risk in that, uh, uh, if, uh, uh, Mingyang decided to put a plant in Türkiye? Is, does that come with some political aspect? Because I, I, I don’t remember. Türkiye t-tends to play, uh, uh, k- kind of like Switzerland in, in terms of working with different, uh, political systems over time. Yeah.  Matthew Stead: I, I’ve had a bit more to do with a few, a few, um, sort of organizations in Türkiye recently and, um, you know, it’s highly professional, highly, you know, logical, and so I, I can’t see why it’d be a challenge. So I think, yeah, that stepping stone into Europe might be a, a logical way to go. Well, maybe  Allen Hall 2025: we’ll see that in the next [00:26:00] couple of months. I don’t know. There’s gonna be a lot to happen there. There’s so much money being spent in Europe on renewables, wind, solar, battery, all the above, that there’s plenty of opportunity, and every company that has a product that’s gonna be trying to sell it in Europe right now. It’s a smart move. Absolutely.  Matthew Stead: I think the other thing that we’ll probably be talking about a little bit more is EV trucks or, you know, electric trucks.  Allen Hall 2025: You think so?  Matthew Stead: I reckon we’ll be talking more and more about electric trucks.  Allen Hall 2025: Does Europe even have a, a le- a real true EV tractor-trailer, large truck? What do they call… I guess they call it a lorry.  Matthew Stead: I don’t think yet. But that’s why I’m saying I think this is a topic that’s gonna raise itself. Um, I’ve, I’ve seen some numbers recently which says that it’s a bit of a no-brainer to go from diesel to, um, to battery now.  Allen Hall 2025: So is Tesla gonna be the, the winner there just because of their, I don’t even what they call it, the Tesla truck? Is that what they call that now?  Matthew Stead: Not the Cybertruck, the, the truck truck.  Allen Hall 2025: Electric semi-truck. There you go. [00:27:00] Thank you, producer Claire.  Matthew Stead: I think you’ve gotta watch, you know, you’ve gotta watch BYD and a few of the other, the other, um, other companies.  Allen Hall 2025: Do they have something as large as what, uh, Tesla is offering today? Because Tesla is offering a true semi or tractor-trailer  Matthew Stead: I, I, I must admit I’m not a, a huge expert on the topic, but I’m sure Rosemary is.  Allen Hall 2025: She drives the big rigs? Is that what she’s doing?  Matthew Stead: But I think we– Yeah, I think, I think it’s an in-interesting thing to watch because, um, certainly fuel prices in Australia are definitely pushing, um, this idea of, um, electric trucks. Allen Hall 2025: Yeah, diesel prices are really high in the States. I- if they’re high in the States, I can’t even imagine what they are in Europe or Australia. They must be through the roof. So if you have a diesel vehicle, although they run forever and are pretty efficient, the price of fuel is insane right now.  Matthew Stead: And, you know, if you, if you take that a step further into mining, so Twiggy Forest, um, and Fortescue, you know, switching to [00:28:00] electric, uh, trucks and electric mining, yeah, it makes sense. Allen Hall 2025: Does the math work out on that? Uh, obviously Fortescue is taking, uh, really a pretty significant risk in that they’re developing their own electricity generation sites via wind and solar and battery, the whole thing, and they’re converting some of their larger vehicles to electric. Does that hold a big risk, or is this just a financial no-brainer, particularly when diesel prices are so high? Matthew Stead: Yeah, I think it’s a financial no-brainer. Uh, and that’s why partly I think we’ll be talking about trucks because, you know, once the finances make sense, um, there’ll be a faster transition. And I think, you know, Fortescue is not a silly company.  Allen Hall 2025: Fortescue is willing to dabble, right? So they’re willing to, to see where the technology is and spend a little bit of money and possibly it works out, right? I think there’s– you have to take a little bit of risk if you’re in that business because you are spending so much money on fuel. [00:29:00] You can spend a couple million dollars playing in different areas to pick an eventual winner. Obviously, they’re gonna– Well, it’s not obvious at the moment, but it, it seems obvious to us being on the electricity side. Electricity is gonna be the answer. Renewable energy is gonna be the easy way to do it, the lowest cost way to do it. There you go. Go do it. Well, American Clean Power’s event, uh, which is in Houston this year, will be happening June 1st through the 4th at the convention center downtown in Houston. It’s gonna be warm, everybody, so if you’re traveling from a cooler country like Denmark to Houston, bring something cool to wear. It will be warm in June. It, it– Houston is just a very warm place, and it’s quite humid, so it’ll, it’ll be a, a unique environment. However, it does sound like there’s gonna be a, a, an– A number of interesting companies and a lot of people that are attending that event this year, and one of them is gonna be Matthew and EOLOGIX-PING with Weather Guard Lightning Tech will [00:30:00] both be down at the event in a booth and seeing everybody and, and, and meeting a whole bunch of, of, uh, new people that are getting into the industry, which is, to me, is always the fun part. Like, we just meet so many really fun people. Uh, and Matthew, you know, we had a discussion internally about that, like, uh, our, our new, uh, chief commercial officer, Nikki Briggs, has been commenting. We’ve been talking to so many operators around the world, and after every, uh, little meeting briefing that we have, we do a post-briefing, and she goes, “They were so nice.” And I s- yes, Nikki, the wind industry people are fantastic to work with. Like, they’re all focused on doing something positive, and they’re trying to, to do it the best that they can. And there’s a lot of constraints to it, and they’re making a number of hard decisions. But when we all come together at American Clean Power here in the States, hey, we can kinda commiserate and [00:31:00] talk about what’s happening and catch up. And I feel like we need a little bit of catch-up time in this industry, particularly here in the United States.  Matthew Stead: Yeah. Yeah. I, I think, um, I, I definitely agree. And I, I found, you know, previously I used to work in the construction industry and work with engineers and, you know, transport, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And actually, I found that the renewable industry, there’s a lot of really open people, really happy to have a discussion, um, not the big egos, so I completely agree. And, um, I’m thinking back, um, I first met people in the wind industry in, you know, around 2012, 2013, and, you know, I still know a number of those people and really appreciate catching up with them. Um, so actually, Berend van der Pol was probably one of the first, and, uh, Birgit Junker was, um, maybe one of the second, so yeah. And I’m definitely looking forward to ACP.  Allen Hall 2025: If you’re, if you’re down in Houston at American Clean Power, definitely stop by a- and say hi to everybody from [00:32:00]EOLOGIX-PING and Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and hey, learn about all the things that are going on because both companies have new products that’ll, were gonna be announced at the site. Uh, we’re already getting inundated with requests on the Weather Guard side. It’s insane. We’re telling people, like, “Slow down, slow down, slow down. We’ll, we’ll, we’ll talk to you about it when we get to Houston.” But, uh, expect a very attentive audience this year, which is exciting. That wraps up another episode of “The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.” If today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas- We’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you found value in today’s conversation, please leave us a review. It helps other wind energy professionals follow the show. For Matthew, I’m Allen Hall, and we’ll see you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy [00:33:00] Podcast.

What does it take to turn a reactive quality function into a trusted global team? Manuel Ancizu who is a Commercial Program Manager for Global Wind Energy Projects based in Spain shares how his team at Siemens Gamesa grew from three people to eleven by putting trust, empowerment, and proactive quality at the centre of every project. He discusses meeting customers before contracts begin, managing remote teams he has never met in person, and conducting drone inspections at sea. This is a sharp, real-world look at leading quality in one of the industry's most complex environments while building trust across continents without ever meeting face to face.

Rystad reports offshore turbine prices have jumped 45% since 2020, plus data centers squeeze US grids, Fortescue chases real zero by 2030, and GE Vernova battles Vineyard Wind in court. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by StrikeTape, protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide. Visit striketape.com. And now, your hosts.  Allen Hall 2025: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your host, Allen Hall, and I’m here with Rosemary Barnes, who’s been busy in Australia up in Sydney at a energy conference. Rosemary, what happened this past week?  Rosemary Barnes: Oh, yeah. I’ve been up in Sydney for the Smart Energy Conference and Exhibition. It’s a big… I don’t know if it’s the biggest. I think they get about 12,000 people or something through the doors. So yeah, it’s, it’s one of the big, maybe the biggest, um, energy conference in Australia. It’s really focused on distributed energy households. So in the past, it was, like, nearly all solar, um, like rooftop solar. There used to be lots of installers that were there and, yeah, there’s heaps of solar [00:01:00] panels around in the exhibition hall. And over the last few years it’s been a mix of batteries and solar, and then now this year it was basically 99% batteries, 1% EV chargers, and almost not a solar panel to be seen. I didn’t actually spend that much time in the exhibition this year. I mostly was, um, attending sessions. Andrew Forrest from Fortescue headlined, and that was really good. I haven’t seen him speak live before. Y- you know, he, he told about all the, like, good plans that Fortescue’s doing to get to real zero by 2030. So he’s on a real rampage at the moment to try and get rid of the diesel rebate that we pay at the moment. We pay diesel users a, a, yeah, a fuel, fuel rebate. It was just cool to hear about y- you know, all of Fortescue’s plans, why they’ve got this big green grid that they’re building out in the Pilbara. Um, I really liked when he said, you know, it’s not, it’s not magic, it’s, um, it’s just, what did he say? Like, maths, physics, engineering, and [00:02:00]economics, and a bit of courageous leadership. That’s what you need to make a green, a green electricity grid. So I really like that the, you know, engineering was mentioned, was mentioned there. I did actually get the chance to ask him a question, too. Wanted to know, um, you know, like, Fortescue is, is really one of the most interesting things about the company is that they are using brand-new technologies or even not quite there yet technologies. I asked, uh, Andrew Forrest, I asked him, you know, like, how you make these bold, bold decisions, does it ever, you know, worry you that it’s not gonna work out? And I was assuming he would say, “It doesn’t worry me,” um, because, you know, he has that kind of brash, confident personality. So I, you know, my follow-up was, what, what steps do you take so that you aren’t worried by it? And he said it does worry him, and he s- stays awake every night worrying, worrying about if these technologies aren’t going to work. And that, uh, basically they try and have a really, really solid plan B that isn’t a [00:03:00] brand-new technology. So, um, you can, you know, infer from that, that if the– I mean, first of all, he said, “We don’t invest in the technology until they have demons- demonstrated with a good prototype that it’s likely to work.” Um, but I guess that, you know, assuming that they’ve ran into problems in the rollout of all of these Naberebo towers, that, um, they have a backup of some conventional towers.  Speaker 2: Yeah, uh, the, the Fortescue people, when we talked to them about, pfoof, probably six months ago, maybe a little bit longer, we were helping to build a farm out in Western Australia. It was a small team, much smaller than anything you would see in the US, and it does sort of align with the Australian approach to it, is that you don’t need a massive team of people to do these projects. You just need to know what you’re doing, and that was really remarkable. So e- I’m not surprised that Fortescue is continuing on in, in different aspects. It does seem like they’re pretty bold about their engineering approach and taking on massive projects that otherwise wouldn’t be [00:04:00] done and-  Rosemary Barnes: It, it’s also really cool to hear, uh, Andrew Forrest or anyone from Fortescue talk because they’re talking about things that they’ve done. You know, like we have so much when you’re at these, uh, events and, you know, everyone’s doing these inspiring talks, it’s always about, “Oh, this is the possibility for the future.” But Fortescue has actually, has actually done it. Yeah, there was a lot of, like, actual progress discussed at this conference. It wasn’t, “This is what we could do if we all joined hands and sang Kumbaya.” It wasn’t like that, you know? It’s like, this is what’s happening when the engineering is there, the economics are there, and the government isn’t standing in the way. Um, y- you know, you can make a lot of, a lot of progress. And you know what? Like now we’ve got so much distributed energy in Australia. It’s the rooftop solar that we’ve been building for, you know, 20 years by now. Um, and it’s the, the batteries especially. Like it is a- starting to have a noticeable impact on electricity prices, and co- coal and gas are both reducing in the grid. I think the last quarter of gas use in Australia was the lowest it’s [00:05:00] been since 1999. Like, um, yeah, so it’s, yeah, it’s, it, it’s dropping, you know? And so I think that that’s a really unique story for Australia is that households can actually really change the dial.  Speaker 2: Well, can I ask you about that? Because the data center issue is popping up again in the United States, and one of the things about data centers is they feel like you, you’re gonna need a good amount of batteries to support if the grid hops on or turns off, that they wanna be able to support this data center, so having a buffer and batteries would make a lot of sense. However, there’s not a lot of battery storage in the US at the minute versus a place like Australia where there’s a lot of it. Doesn’t it make a lot of sense to start putting data centers in Australia? I still don’t understand Why that hasn’t been done? Because electricity prices are cheaper, the land is available, the infrastructure’s there. It’s going [00:06:00] to be, you would think, easier to build in Australia than it would be in the United States. What’s the dilemma there?  Rosemary Barnes: I think certainly there are plenty of plans to build big data centers in Australia. Um, and now I’m gonna go, like, move a little bit outside my expertise, but I think that one of the issues is that at the moment, a lot of the data centers need to be quite close to where the work is happening. So I mean, you’re always gonna need data centers close to any big city where people are, are using the internet. Um, but aside from that, you know, like, the tech sector in the US is much bigger, so the people actually developing, um, you know, training, um, uh, yeah, training AI models, um, are more likely to be sitting in the US and, you know, need a large amount… Not all of their compute needs to happen nearby, but a fair chunk of it. And so I think that that is one reason why so far that’s where it is. Um, but it also doesn’t mean… I mean, there’s [00:07:00] plenty of smart, um smart computer types in Australia as well as the US, so you could start to see more companies moving, um, moving to where electricity is cheap. I think that– And grid connections are fast.  Speaker 2: The one thing you notice about using any of the AI platforms today is, like, there’s a built-in delay. Unlike when you’re on Amazon or any other s- active site, when you click, you want something to happen immediately. With AI, they, they build in a little wait process, which means you can have a data center anywhere, because you’re not expecting an instantaneous response from it. That means, in a sense, they’re setting it up to be a global industry. There is more of a delay now than there was a month ago. And I assume that has to do with usage, and they’re trying to manage all the data usage, right? So electricity is one of the limitations in the United States. That’s evident right now. The amount of data centers is a problem, so they’re trying to spread out the usage, and they are definitely… At least Anthropic is slowing it down. [00:08:00] I’d imagine all the other ones are doing the same thing. So it does open up the world to cheaper electricity.  Rosemary Barnes: There’s heaps of really interesting work happening in trying to get, um, AI and data centers to be better grid citizens, not probably primarily out of the goodness of their heart, but because of two things. One, grid connections are really slow, and so there’s a strong incentive that you can save, in some places, years off your development time if you can just bring in enough batteries, enough smart tech to make sure that you’re never going to, um, you know, add to peak, peak load in the grid, then you can- You know, change how things go. It’s also a matter of, like, social license as well, because at the moment it’s probably not too bad. People don’t realize too much. But if people’s electricity prices start going up because, you know, grid had to be built out because of da- data centers, they’re gonna start getting pissed as soon as they realize what that is. So I think [00:09:00] that, um, you know, these big companies, what do they call them? Hyperscalers. I think that they’re aware that that is gonna come and that that is a really strong incentive to do the right thing before they are made to do the right thing. Because, you know, like, if people got really upset then, um, you could easily have the rug pulled out from underneath a project that you thought was all set to go ahead, you know, could very easily be delayed indefinitely. I mean, we’ve definitely seen in the US that-  Speaker 2: Right. In 30 states in the US have already put prohibitions or limitations on data centers. That means there’s only 20 states left. Alaska is probably not a prime choice, Hawaii is not either, so you even have fewer. It does seem odd that when these limitations pop up that the discussion doesn’t move to other countries. Australia being an easy one, because electricity there is practically free. It seems like a smart move, but they haven’t made it yet.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I mean, it’s not, it’s not [00:10:00] practically free in Australia yet, but I think that the, um, horizon, um, like the, you know, the outlook is it’s, it’s getting cheap. We… And we are finally seeing wholesale prices actually start to come down. But there’s this really awkward middle period though, you know, like, because, um, at the moment we’ve still got all of the… nearly all of the coal generation there, nearly all of the gas generation is there, and you need to have it there until you build out the other stuff. But it’s like prices drop and drop and drop when you’ve got this oversupply problem. But you’re gonna have the oversupply problem until you’ve got enough to start turning off, you know, gigawatt, two gigawatt, um, thermal generators. So it is a really weird middle, um, mid- mid-transition, I think is the term for it. You need planning. You know, you need… You actually do need… At some point you need a plan, and you need to execute it and expect that, like, every step you take is not gonna be better. Y- you know, like [00:11:00] some steps you’re gonna take that are gonna make it, um, economically worse for the short term. But, you know, like, if you’ve got a mountain range in between you and your destination, then yeah, like it’s, it’s really hard going for a while. But you’ve gotta climb that mountain if you wanna get to the other side and, um, you, and you, you can’t do that without a plan. Speaker 2: Well, what other place on the planet has or will have shortly unused gigawatts of old generation? I don’t think I know of one. It, it’s gonna be Australia So th-those gigawatt plants that were thermal plants that won’t be needed ’cause the price of electricity is so low, it does seem like a smart person would put a data center right next door to it. Rosemary Barnes: No, but we wanna turn ’em off. I  Speaker 2: don’t think you’re gonna be able to, Rosemary. I’m just saying, the world needs, uh, AI and it’s coming.  Rosemary Barnes: We’ll see. I think that, um, you know, I did get quite energized by the event, the, um, SSE event that I was at this week because it’s like there are a few things that [00:12:00] Australia, um, you know, really has, like, an opportunity to be world leaders in. And when you get to be the leader, then it means that the technologies that you invent to solve the problems that, you know, the early adopters have, you have the headstart on that. And, you know, as other countries follow in your footsteps, you have the opportunity to lead, lead those technologies.  Speaker 2: As wind energy professionals, staying informed is crucial, and let’s face it, difficult. That’s why “The Uptime Podcast” recommends PES Wind Magazine. PES Wind offers a diverse range of in-depth articles and expert insights that dive into the most pressing issues facing our energy future. Whether you’re an industry veteran or new to wind, PES Wind has the high-quality content you need. Don’t miss out. Visit peswind.com today. So if you want to build an offshore wind farm in Europe right now, you had better be ready to pay. A new analysis from Rystad Energy shows that the turbine selling prices have jumped between 40% and 45% [00:13:00] since 2020. And here’s the thing, manufacturing costs only went up about 20% to 25% over the same period. The difference is pure pricing power. And with GE Vernova out of the new offshore order book and only Siemens Gamesa and Vestas left to supply Western markets, developers are facing a seller’s market in the most critical of components. Nacelles and blades are where the bottleneck hits hardest, and there is no quick fix in sight. So Rosemary, Siemens Gamesa and Vestas are leveraging the, the lack of com- competition, particularly from China at the moment, to gather market share and to raise prices, which I think everybody would agree if you’re on the engineering side of wind turbines, the prices needed to come up because there’s some work that needs to be done, and the engineering side has been pretty thin. To make these turbines more resilient, [00:14:00] you’re gonna need more engineering, it can be a little bit more on the manufacturing side. That takes money So prices had to come up  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I mean, I, I, I agree. It’s definitely n- not the case that everyone would agree. Anybody who has a spreadsheet and they’re trying to get the number, number right so that they can develop a new project is gonna say that it’s a bad thing, and it will also probably slow down development a little bit. Although, I guess if there was a supply constraint, then that was already a natural, um, handbrake, so maybe there’s no difference. But I do think that, um, you know, and I’ve said it a lot of times, like, you know, wind power reduced, it had a really steep cost reduction curve through the 20-teens, and I think that it was just artificial. You know, like it was driven by competition rather than true cost reductions in the technology. I think we undershot the price level that it needed to go for, and there just wasn’t enough money to do proper engineering, and, you know, w- we see that. Y- you know, you and I work in O&M, and we deal ev- every day with, with things where it’s like how did, [00:15:00] uh, how, how did they think that this technology was ready when they went and sold thousands of turbines with it? And I know that the answer is not that, um, engineers were lazy or stupid or just didn’t s- see the problems coming up. It was just too, too fast a pace of technology, um, rollout, like new technologies combined with just relentless focus on, on cost. You know, like all of my projects, it’s just like you just have to reduce cost and reduce it and reduce it and reduce it and, you know, to the point where you’re making changes that you don’t have time to fully check. Um, and, you know, then you have quality problems in the field.  Speaker 2: What’s the effect of an Indian manufacturing company in Europe on the offshore marketplace? If like an Adani or one of the other, Suzlon, one of the, one of the big manufacturers in India decides to make offshore wind turbines at scale, [00:16:00] wouldn’t that dramatically shift the marketplace in Europe? Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I guess if you’ve got a new player, it’s always gonna shift things a bit. I don’t think it matters specifically that it’s Indian. Um, but a new player is gonna wanna be making sales and probably, you know, setting their price at the point that, that they need to, to, um, get those sales, maybe not initially worried so much about profits. If we were talking about Chinese manufacturers in Europe, and we have in the past, if we’re talking about that, then I think that that is a bit more relevant which, which country it is because China, you know, has just like essentially infinite money to put behind it and can keep on going long enough. You know, like they don’t need to make a, a profit every single year or every single five-year period even. They can think longer term. I, I, as far as I know, India is not quite the same as that, so I would expect it to be a bit more short-lived, but that’s always the risk that, you know, someone comes in and [00:17:00] undercuts, um, undercuts for long enough that it- causes the local local, uh, manufacturers to not be able to compete and shut down  Speaker 2: Well, just knowing some of the operators that were doing offshore wind projects and their desire to bring in a alternative to keep prices to the level that they could accept, with Mingyang being shut out at the minute, they’re gonna have to look somewhere else. So I think the only place they can find an alternative lower price competitor is gonna be India. Although the turbines aren’t at scale yet, I, I think you’ll see somebody make noise about it in the next six months on the operations side.  Rosemary Barnes: I think the European manufacturer is a probably better place to just scale up. Speaker 2: Well, let’s talk about GE Vernova for a minute, because the legal fight over America’s first large off-scale wind farm just got more complicated because Vineyard Wind reached commercial operations on April 24th, about a week or [00:18:00] two ago, and activated its purchase power agreement. Well, uh, now GE Vernova is using those very milestones against Vineyard Wind in court. GE Vernova filed an emergency motion arguing that the activation of those contracts undermines Vineyard Wind’s claims of irreparable harm. But Vineyard Wind’s attorney says the project is generating at less than half of its 806 megawatts capacity, and GE Vernova’s work is still needed to get it there. The next court hearing is set for this week. This little battle continues, and it’s– Although it seems fairly quiet, you don’t hear a lot of news reports about it in, uh, particularly the mainstream press, not too much about it, it– this has huge ramifications because as we talked about offshore wind over in Europe, if, if GE is truly getting out, and particularly if they’re in a fight with one of their largest purchasers of turbines, it’s gonna [00:19:00] disincentivize Europeans from even considering GE. In my opinion, I don’t know how you would think that GE would be one of the options. Although you would like to have three competitors bidding on every project in Europe, I think GE’s taken itself out of the marketplace because of this, this lawsuit.  Rosemary Barnes: Mm. You know what it reminds me of? It, um, it reminds me of the Justin Baldoni versus Blake Lively lawsuit that’s ongoing at the moment, where it’s just, like, mutually assured destruction. Speaker 2: But at least they settled, Rosemary. They’re, they’re not fighting anymore.  Rosemary Barnes: They settled, but they didn’t settle all aspects of it.  Speaker 2: The only reason I know about that is because you keep mentioning it. So when I see it pop up, I would normally just let it go. But I figured Rosemary’s focused on this, I should probably at least dabble in it briefly. That wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. If today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas, we’d love to hear from you Reach out to us [00:20:00] on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you found value in today’s conversation, please leave us a review. It helps other wind energy professionals follow the show. For Rosie, I’m Allen Hall, and we’ll see you next week on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

Allen covers the Pentagon stalling 165 US wind projects on private land, New York stepping in to defend Sunrise Wind, New Mexico approving a 212 MW wind farm, Octopus Energy’s €584M European buying spree, and Europe’s tightening offshore turbine market. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Good morning, everyone. Here is a number for you. One hundred and sixty-five. That is how many onshore wind projects the Pentagon is now holding up across the United States. One hundred and sixty-five projects… on private land. Thirty gigawatts of generating capacity… frozen. The American Clean Power Association says the delays began last August. Canceled meetings. Applications no longer being processed. Then in April… letters went out. The Pentagon said it was reviewing how it evaluates the national security impact of energy projects. That review has no deadline. This is the same justification used against offshore wind… the one courts have already struck down. And the administration has already paid nearly two billion dollars in taxpayer money to buy out offshore leases… paying developers not to build. Thirty gigawatts… enough to power millions of American homes… sitting in a stack of unprocessed paperwork. But here is the thing about wind. It does not wait for permission. In a federal courtroom in Washington… New York State just stepped up to fight. Attorney General Letitia James filed a motion to intervene on behalf of Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind project. A Rhode Island nonprofit called Green Oceans sued the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management back in March… trying to overturn the project’s federal permits. New York is not having it. Sunrise Wind is a nine hundred and twenty-four megawatt project. Already under construction. Expected online next year. NYSERDA says the project carries eight hundred and seventy-five million dollars in economic benefits for the state… including nearly one hundred and seventy million dollars for the Town of Brookhaven alone. If it gets canceled… New York says those benefits vanish… tax credits expire… and replacement power would cost ratepayers far more. So the state is putting its name on the line… in open court. Meanwhile… out in New Mexico… a different kind of wind story. Ten thousand acres of state land in Torrance County just got approved for a new wind farm. Two hundred and twelve megawatts. Enough to power sixty thousand homes. It will become the second-largest wind farm on state land. And it is projected to send nearly ninety-nine million dollars to New Mexico public schools over the life of the lease. Now… across the Atlantic. Britain’s Octopus Energy just went on a shopping spree. Five hundred and eighty-four million euros… for seventeen onshore wind farms. Three hundred and twenty-one megawatts spread across France, Germany, and Poland. Ten farms in France. Four in Germany. Three in Poland. Combined… enough power for a quarter million European homes. Octopus now manages sixty-seven onshore wind farms across Europe. Zoisa North-Bond, Octopus Energy Generation’s CEO, said Europe has exceptional wind resources… but needs to move faster. Faster. There is that word again. And then there is the supply side of the equation. Rystad Energy reports that Europe’s offshore wind market is running into a structural supply constraint. With GE Vernova having paused new offshore wind orders… the Western turbine market is now essentially a two-player game. Siemens Gamesa and Vestas. Turbine selling prices are up forty to forty-five percent since twenty twenty. Manufacturing costs? Up only twenty to twenty-five percent. The OEMs are recovering their margins… and developers are absorbing the difference. That is the new reality for European offshore wind. So let us step back. In America… the federal government blocks thirty gigawatts of wind on private land. New York goes to court to protect a project already under construction. New Mexico approves a wind farm that will fund schools for a generation. In Europe… a British company spends more than half a billion euros on wind farms in three countries. And OEMs finally have the pricing power they have been chasing for years. The push… and the pull. Washington pulls back. But everywhere else… the industry pushes forward. And that’s the state of the wind industry for the 11th of May 2026. Join us for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast tomorrow.

Allen covers WindEurope Madrid, the ten-point Call to Action, Vestas CEO Andersen’s mission impossible warning, Siemens Gamesa’s narrowing losses, and CNC Onsite’s deals in Asia. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Good Monday, everyone. This past week… some big things happened in Madrid. Fifteen thousand wind energy people from every corner of the world walked into the same room. They came to talk. They came to listen. They came to ask for help. And they came to warn. The WindEurope Annual Event opened on Tuesday, the twenty-first of April, with six hundred twenty exhibitors and four hundred speakers across three days. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez gave the opening address. Fourteen national ministers stood on the stages, alongside European Commission Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera and European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jorgensen. And the message coming out of Madrid… was a single piece of paper. They called it the Madrid Call to Action. Ten points. Ten things European governments need to do… right now. Fast-track permitting, and treat wind as overriding public interest. Award at least eighty percent of wind auction bids… no more artificial scarcity. Repower aging wind farms and triple their output with fewer turbines. Multiply EU grid funding by five. Zero VAT on heat pumps and electric vehicles. And permanently cut taxes on electricity… because homegrown power should be the cheapest power. The framing was simple. From crisis… to confidence… in a decade. But while the speeches were polite… the panels were not. On Thursday afternoon, Vestas chief executive Henrik Andersen took the microphone, and he did not mince words. Andersen called it mission impossible. He told politicians to stop submitting wish lists for new auctions. He pointed at Denmark’s recent failed offshore auction… an auction that no developer would even bid on. And he pointed at countries trying to build a three-dimensional CSRD into the next tender. Then he delivered the line that quieted the room. If we don’t get this under control… we’ll be sitting here in five years… begging to keep the lights on. Now… while the warnings were echoing through Madrid… something quieter was happening on a balance sheet in Munich. Siemens Energy released preliminary second-quarter results on Wednesday, and then raised their full-year outlook. Group orders for the quarter came in at seventeen point seven billion euros… up almost thirty percent year on year. Net income for the full year is now expected to be around four billion euros, with Grid Technologies orders alone up forty-one percent. And the wind unit… Siemens Gamesa… their losses narrowed to forty-four million euros. A year ago, that number was two hundred forty-nine million. Still in the red. Still operating at a margin of negative one point seven percent. But the trend is clear. The Spanish wind unit is closing in on break-even. After years of crisis… after billions of euros in impairments… Siemens Gamesa is healing. Now back to Madrid. Because last Thursday, WindEurope published a different kind of paper. Not about money. Not about megawatts. About sabotage. Across Europe’s seas, energy infrastructure has become a target. Cables, substations, offshore platforms… spread across thousands of square kilometers of open ocean… difficult to protect. WindEurope Chief Executive Tinne Van Der Straeten said it plainly. The physical security of Europe’s wind turbines must be treated as an integral part of energy security… not as an afterthought. The policy paper calls for civilian protection, not military. Risk-based and proportionate, with clear cost allocation between government and industry. Wind farms now generate twenty percent of Europe’s electricity, and the North Sea countries have pledged three hundred gigawatts of offshore wind by twenty fifty. That is a lot of critical infrastructure… sitting in the open ocean. But here is where Madrid got uncomfortable. Vestas’ senior vice president stood on a panel Wednesday afternoon and offered a reality check. The EU has set a goal of twenty-two gigawatts of new wind installation every year through twenty thirty. What is the reality? The EU installed fifteen gigawatts in twenty twenty-five. Sixteen the year before. There is a gap… between political will, goals, and promises… and the reality we see in the market. The Madrid Call to Action wants to close that gap. The paper exists. The politicians have been told. Now… we wait. And while the speeches were happening in Madrid… a small Danish company was quietly opening doors in Asia. CNC Onsite… a wind sector subsupplier… signed two deals this month. One with Dutch firm WE4CE for Thai customer Cewa Plus, a deal that opens twelve Asian countries. The technology? A specialized machine that drills out the steel bushings holding a wind turbine blade to the hub, so they can be replaced without scrapping the blade. Repair on site. Save the blade. Extend its life. The second deal… a CNC milling machine sold into Japan for offshore monopile and foundation work. CEO Soren Kellenberger says the combined opportunity could deliver up to fifty million Danish kroner in revenue… roughly six point seven million euros. Not big numbers. Not yet. But while everyone in Madrid was talking about politicians… CNC Onsite was signing contracts in Bangkok and Tokyo. The number of wind turbines reaching the age where their blades need replacing… Kellenberger calls it… huge. So let us step back. In Madrid, fifteen thousand people gathered. A ten-point plan was published. A CEO warned of mission impossible. A trade association said the offshore turbines need physical protection from sabotage. In Munich, a balance sheet showed the wind business is healing… slowly, quietly, quarter by quarter. And in Bangkok, a Danish technician was teaching a Thai partner how to drill out a steel bushing. Six stories. One week. The wind industry showed up… asked for what it needed… and put the numbers on the table. The financial proof is starting to come. The political follow-through… we wait. And that is the state of the wind industry for the 27th of April… 2026. Join us for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast tomorrow.

Siemens Energy ist eine der spektakulärsten Comeback-Aktien der vergangenen Jahre. Nach der tiefen Krise im Windgeschäft und dem Kursabsturz bis Ende 2023 hat sich das Bild grundlegend verändert: Der Konzern profitiert heute von einem Umfeld, das von wachsender Stromnachfrage, Investitionen in Netzinfrastruktur und dem Ausbau von KI-Rechenzentren geprägt ist. Genau dort liegen derzeit die großen Treiber des Geschäfts: von Gasturbinen über Netztechnik bis hin zu Batteriespeichern und digitalen Stromnetzen. Im Podcast geht es deshalb nicht nur um die Kursrallye seit dem Tief, sondern vor allem um die entscheidende Frage dahinter: Wie viel davon ist operative Verbesserung, und wie viel davon ist Rückenwind eines ganzen Sektors? Der Blick auf Wettbewerber wie GE Vernova oder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries zeigt, dass Siemens Energy nicht isoliert läuft. Vielmehr steht die Aktie im Zentrum eines globalen Investitionszyklus rund um Energie, Versorgungssicherheit und Rechenzentrums-Infrastruktur. Analysiert werden die Aufstellung des Konzerns, die Rolle von Siemens Gamesa, die Entwicklung der Margen, der rekordhohe Auftragsbestand und die Bewertung der Aktie nach dem massiven Anstieg. Denn genau hier wird es spannend: Operativ hellt sich das Bild auf, gleichzeitig steigen die Erwartungen des Marktes deutlich. Damit wächst auch die Fallhöhe, falls der Boom an Dynamik verliert.

Allen covers Britain’s radar fix unlocking 10 GW of offshore wind, Revolution Wind delivering first power off Rhode Island, typhoon-proof turbines rising in the Philippines, and an Iowa bill to dim turbine lights at night. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! This is Uptime News Flash. I’m Allen Hall. Here’s the wind energy stories you need to know. For years, offshore wind developers in the United Kingdom ran into an invisible wall. Not weather. Not financing. Radar. Military air defence radars could not distinguish a wind turbine from an aircraft. So certain stretches of British waters were simply off-limits to offshore development. Not anymore. The UK government has purchased specially designed air defence radars built to coexist with offshore wind farms. Installation begins in early 2029. Ten gigawatts of previously blocked offshore wind capacity, now unlocked. That follows the largest single offshore wind procurement in British and European history — 8.4 gigawatts, at a price forty percent lower than new gas. Enough to power twelve million homes. And the UK is not stopping at the water’s edge. The government has also proposed removing planning permission requirements for small onshore turbines up to thirty meters tall, no bigger than an oak tree. Farmers. Schools. Factories. All of them able to generate their own clean power on site. No planning application required. Now, let us cross the Atlantic. Off the coast of Rhode Island, the Revolution Wind project is delivering on a promise that once seemed very much in doubt. On March thirteenth of this year, Revolution Wind delivered its first power to the New England grid. The project is led by Ørsted, the Danish offshore wind leader, alongside Skyborn Renewables. As of March sixteenth, the project stood ninety-three percent complete. Sixty-five turbines, each one eleven megawatts, manufactured by Siemens Gamesa. When fully operational, Revolution Wind will power more than three hundred and fifty thousand homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Let us go somewhere you might not expect to find wind energy news today. The Philippines. Spanish firm Acciona Energia has installed the first turbine for its Kalayaan 2 wind farm in Laguna province, in the Philippines. One hundred and one megawatts. Seventeen turbines, Goldwind GW 165 units, each one six megawatts, with blades spanning one hundred and sixty-five meters. Every one of them designed specifically to survive typhoons. Structural reinforcement. Smart control algorithms. Advanced sensors to protect infrastructure during storms. Commercial operations are scheduled for December of this year. When that happens, roughly two hundred and fifty thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide will not enter the atmosphere, every single year. And finally, back home in Iowa, a bill is moving through the statehouse that has nothing to do with megawatts. It is about sleep. Iowa House File 2081 would require wind turbines across the state to use aircraft detection lighting systems. Instead of blinking red lights all night long, the lights would only activate when radar detects an approaching aircraft. The bill’s sponsor, Representative Dean Fisher of Montour, put it simply. His constituents used to enjoy a quiet sunset view. Now they stare at rows of flashing red lights through the night. About twenty-seven percent of Iowa’s turbines already have the sensor-based lights. The rest are being upgraded, year by year. The American Clean Power Association registered undecided. New projects, they said, are already planning to use the sensor lights. But retrofitting existing turbines? That cost goes straight to the customer. No groups registered in opposition. Even the environmental advocates said yes. And now you know the rest of the story. From British radar systems finally making room in the sky for offshore wind, to a court-rescued project delivering first power off Rhode Island, to typhoon-proof turbines rising in the Philippines, to an Iowa lawmaker who just wants his neighbors to sleep — wind energy in 2026 keeps moving forward. And that’s the state of the wind industry for the 23rd of March 2026. Join us for the Uptime Wind Energy podcast for more.

Allen covers Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen’s optimism on European auction reforms and bilateral CfDs, Australia’s Warradarge wind farm expansion paired with major grid upgrades, New Zealand’s wind-to-hydrogen project, South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean building a new installation vessel, and Siemens Energy’s debate over spinning off Gamesa. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Happy Monday everyone Henrik Andersen has seen a lot of failed auctions. The Vestas chief executive watched subsidy-free tenders collapse in Germany… France… the Netherlands… even his home country of Denmark. Developers wouldn’t bid. The risk was too high. But this week… Andersen stood before investors with different news. The UK’s AR7 delivered eight point four gigawatts. A record. Eight projects approved… including two floaters. Denmark and eight North Sea nations committed to one hundred gigawatts. And Germany’s onshore auction pipeline… is finally moving. Andersen sent thanks directly to Ed Miliband… Britain’s Energy Minister. “Now it’s starting to work.” … The difference? Bilateral CfDs. After watching zero-subsidy models fail across Europe… governments returned to revenue stabilization. Strike prices developers can actually finance. Andersen believes the industry should learn from these auction designs… before repeating old mistakes. Steen Brødbæk at Semco Maritime agrees. Projects are maturing. Suppliers… can finally earn a living. … Vestas identified three priority markets in their annual report. Germany for onshore. North America. And Australia. The drivers? Energy security concerns. Data center load growth. And the AI electricity surge that every grid operator is scrambling to model. As for Chinese OEMs entering European tenders? Andersen would be surprised. “You should never be surprised by anything these days,” he said. “But in this case… I would actually be surprised.” … Down in Western Australia… Warradarge is proving his point about mature markets. Four of thirty additional turbines are now vertical. When the expansion completes… eighty-one machines will generate two hundred eighty-three megawatts. The state’s largest wind farm. Owned by Bright Energy Investments… a joint venture between Synergy and Potentia. One hundred twenty workers at peak construction. And critically… the state is building transmission to match. Clean Energy Link North… the largest grid upgrade in Western Australia in more than a decade… will unlock capacity in the South West Interconnected System. Generation AND grid… moving together. That’s how you hit a 2030 coal exit. … Meanwhile in Taranaki… New Zealand… Vestas secured a twenty-six megawatt order with a twenty-year service agreement. Hiringa Energy is integrating wind with green hydrogen production at scale… serving transport… industry… and agriculture. Turbine delivery begins Q1 this year. Commissioning… Q2 twenty-twenty-seven. One of New Zealand’s first large-scale wind-to-hydrogen projects. The electrolyzer economics are finally penciling. … But you can’t install offshore turbines without vessels. And South Korea just solved a bottleneck. Hanwha Ocean won a three hundred eighty-five million pound contract… to build a WTIV capable of fifteen-megawatt class installations. Korea’s first vessel at that scale. Delivery… early twenty-twenty-eight. Korea expects twenty-five gigawatts of offshore capacity by 2035. They’re not waiting for European vessel contractors. They’re building their own supply chain. Hanwha has now delivered four WTIVs globally. … Not everyone is celebrating. At Siemens Energy… activist investor Ananym Capital is pushing to spin off Siemens Gamesa. CEO Christian Bruch calls the idea reasonable. But timing matters. The wind division must stabilize first. Bruch believes offshore wind can follow the same recovery path as the grid business… which went from crisis… to profitability. Turnaround before transaction. … So, last week we had: CfDs reviving European auctions. Australia building generation AND transmission together. New Zealand coupling wind with hydrogen. Korea investing in installation vessel capacity. And Siemens… working to fix its turbine business before any restructuring. Different geographies. Same lesson. The projects that succeed… are the ones where policy… supply chain… and capital… finally align. … And that is the state of the wind industry for the 9th of February 2026. Join us tomorrow for the Uptime wind energy podcast.

Allen covers four US offshore wind projects winning injunctions to resume construction, including major updates from Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia project. Plus Ming Yang’s proposed UK manufacturing facility faces security review delays, Seaway 7 lands the Gennaker contract in Germany, and Taiwan’s Fengmiao project hits a milestone. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Happy Monday everyone! Four offshore wind projects have secured preliminary injunctions blocking the Trump administration’s stop-work order. Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind. Avangrid’s Vineyard Wind 1. Equinor’s Empire Wind. And Ørsted’s Revolution Wind. All four argued they were at critical stages of construction. The courts agreed. Work has resumed. A fifth project… Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind… has a hearing scheduled for today. Now… within days of getting back to work… milestones are being reached. Dominion Energy reported seventy-one percent completion on Coastal Virginia. The first turbine… installed in January. The Charybdis… America’s only U.S.-flagged wind turbine installation vessel… is finally at work. Fifty-four towers, thirty nacelles, and twenty-six blade sets now staged at Portsmouth Marine Terminal. The third offshore substation has arrived. But here is where the numbers tell the real story. The month-long delay fighting the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management? Two hundred twenty-eight million dollars. New tariffs? Another five hundred eighty million. The project budget now stands at eleven-point-five billion dollars. Nine-point-three billion already invested by end of 2025. Dominion and partner Stonepeak are sharing the cost. Dominion insists offshore wind remains the fastest and most economical way to deliver nearly three gigawatts to Virginia’s grid. A grid that powers military installations… naval shipbuilding… and America’s growing AI and cyber capabilities. First power expected this quarter. Full completion… now pushed to early 2027. Up in New England… Vineyard Wind 1 also resumed work. The sixty-second and final turbine tower shipped from New Bedford this week. Ten blade sets remain at the staging site. The installation vessel is scheduled to depart by end of March. The turbines are going up. But eight hundred eight million dollars in delays and tariffs… That is a price the entire industry is watching. ═══ Scotland Waits on Ming Yang Decision ═══ In Scotland… a decision that could reshape European supply chains… hangs in the balance. Chinese manufacturer Ming Yang wants to build the UK’s largest wind turbine manufacturing facility. The site… Ardersier… near Inverness. The investment… one-point-five billion pounds. The jobs… fifteen hundred. Trade Minister Chris Bryant says the government must weigh security. Critical national infrastructure must be safe and secure. Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney is losing patience. He told reporters this week the decision has taken too long. He called it pivotal to Scotland’s renewable energy potential… and a crucial component of the nation’s just transition. Meanwhile… Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with President Xi Jinping in Beijing this week. He spoke of building a more sophisticated relationship between the two nations. Whisky tariffs… halved to five percent. Wind turbine factories? Still under review. Bryant says they want a steady, eyes-wide-open relationship with China. Drive up trade where possible. Challenge where necessary. But no flip-flopping. For now… Scotland waits. And so does the UK supply chain. ═══ Seaway 7 Lands Gennaker Contract ═══ In the German Baltic Sea… a major contract award. Seaway 7, part of the Subsea 7 Group, will transport and install sixty-three monopiles and transition pieces for the Gennaker offshore wind farm. The contract value… one hundred fifty to three hundred million dollars. Subsea 7 calls it substantial. The client is Skyborn Renewables… a portfolio company of BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners. Nine hundred seventy-six megawatts of capacity. Sixty-three Siemens Gamesa turbines. Four terawatt-hours of annual generation. Enough to power roughly one million German homes. Seaway 7’s work begins next year. ═══ Taiwan’s Fengmiao Hits Milestone ═══ In Taiwan… Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners completed the first batch of jacket foundations for the Fengmiao offshore wind farm. Five hundred megawatts. On schedule for late 2027 completion. Offshore installation begins later this year. The jackets were built by Century Wind Power… a local Taiwanese supplier. CIP called it a sign of strong execution capabilities and proof they can deliver large-scale, complex energy projects. But they are not stopping there. Fengmiao 2… six hundred megawatts… is already in development. Taiwan is aiming for a major boost in large-scale renewable energy by 2030. And that is the state of the wind industry for February 2, 2026 Join us tomorrow for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

In this episode of the Share PLM Podcast, we are joined by Torben Pedersen, Head of PLM Program Office at Grundfos and a seasoned leader with more than 20 years of experience in project and portfolio management, digital transformation, and team leadership. With a career spanning senior roles at global companies such as Grundfos, Siemens Gamesa, and Maersk, Torben has led strategic initiatives in Product Lifecycle Management, R&D, and business development.Known for his analytical and structured approach, Torben excels at turning both unstructured ideas and formalized projects into tangible results, always with a strong focus on financial and business value.Outside the corporate world, Torben nurtures his creative side as a passionate music creator. When he's not leading transformation projects, he produces and shares his own music.In our conversation, Torben dives into a wide range of topics—from the mindset leaders need for successful PLM adoption to the practical steps that move an organization toward digital maturity. Below are the key themes we explored throughout the interview:⚉ Engaging Users Early and Building User Communities⚉ Avoiding a Big Bang Approach: Small, Targeted Implementation Projects⚉ Ownership Within the Business, Not Just the Program Team ⚉ How Grundfos Measures Success Without Traditional ROI Calculations⚉ PLM as an Enabler for New Business Models and Managing Complexity⚉ Governance First: Setting Up Strong Structures Before Execution⚉ The Risk of KPI-Driven Behavior⚉ Early Career Lessons: Meet People Where They Are⚉ The Human Side of PLM: People, Culture, and Communication⚉ Partners, Not Suppliers: A Collaborative Approach to ConsultingMENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:⚉ (Spotify) Golden Grayline: https://open.spotify.com/artist/14DQ2kFzKCkK8NxbK2az3l CONNECT WITH TORBEN: ⚉ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedersentorben/ CONNECT WITH SHARE PLM:Website: https://shareplm.com/ Join us every month to listen to fascinating interviews, where we cover a wide array of topics, from actionable tips, to personal experiences, to strategies that you can implement into your PLM strategy.If you have an interesting story to share and want to join the conversation, contact us and let's chat. We can't wait to hear from you!

In this first episode of Ashurst’s Caught in the Crosswinds podcast series, disputes partner Michael Weatherley is joined by Siemens Gamesa’s Head of Legal for Offshore APAC, Igor Bylinin, and Ashurst energy partner Peter Grayson to unpack why capacity reservation agreements and early works agreements now sit at the heart of major offshore wind projects. They explore how developers and suppliers can secure scarce manufacturing slots, and progress critical path work years before a full turbine supply agreement is signed, while still preserving the flexibility needed for long, uncertain development cycles. The discussion ranges across what “capacity reservation” should really mean in practice, how to balance exclusivity with rescheduling rights, and how good drafting can anticipate regulatory volatility, tariffs and shifting political winds without reopening the entire deal. The discussion also touches on the need for more balanced risk allocation across the value chain, the role of governments and subsidy regimes such as CFDs, and why collaboration between developers, suppliers and policymakers is key to avoiding disputes before they arise. To follow the series and access the first article in the Caught in the Crosswinds series, visit https://www.ashurst.com/en/insights/caught-in-the-crosswinds-part-1/. To listen to future Caught in the Crosswinds episodes, search for “Ashurst Legal Outlook” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite podcast player. The information provided is not intended to be a comprehensive review of all developments in the law and practice, or to cover all aspects of those referred to. Listeners should take legal advice before applying it to specific issues or transactions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Terra-Gen's 238.5 MW project in Texas is now fully operational and the Philippines just awarded approvals for more than 10 GWs of renewables. Plus Nordex and Siemens Gamesa are optimistic about their future. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! There's news from the wind industry this week. And for once... the headlines tell a story of growth. Down in Hidalgo County, Texas... something worth celebrating happened this week. Terra-Gen commissioned the Monte Cristo ONE Windpower Project. Two hundred thirty-eight-point-five megawatts. Fully operational. The wind facility will generate more than 850 gigawatt-hours of clean electricity every year. Enough to power roughly 81,000 homes. And the power? Already sold. Long-term purchase agreements with two corporate customers. Construction created about 280 jobs at peak activity. More than 490,000 work hours. Not one lost-time incident. They upgraded 11 miles of state roads. Twenty-five miles of county roads. Over its lifetime... the project will deliver more than 100 million dollars to the local community. Property taxes. Landowner payments. Other economic contributions. "It is an honor," said John O'Connor, Chief Financial Officer for Terra-Gen, "to celebrate the hard work and dedication of the hundreds of men and women who made the commissioning of the Monte Cristo wind project possible." Meanwhile... halfway around the world in the Philippines... the government just awarded approvals for more than 10 gigawatts of renewable power. That's ten-point-two gigawatts, to be exact. One hundred twenty-three winning bidders. Solar. Storage. And wind. Onshore wind alone claimed two-point-five gigawatts of that capacity. Twenty-one projects. All set to deliver power by 2029. The Philippines is targeting 50 percent renewable generation by 2040. And they're not waiting around. The "overwhelming response," said the department of energy, "reflects the growing confidence of investors." Back in Europe... in Germany... Nordex is making moves. The turbine manufacturer just secured orders for 123 megawatts from Denkerwulf. Twenty-five onshore wind turbines. Installation begins in 2027. Commissioning in 2028. And Nordex shares? They're climbing. Hit a multi-year high this week. Trading at 28 euros and 2 cents. Denkerwulf'S orders for Nordex in 2025 now total nearly 144 megawatts. And last week... Mingyang signed a contract with ORE Catapult... a state-owned British test center. They're going to test main bearings for Mingyangs offshore 18.5MW turbines in the United Kingdom. "A major milestone," said Mingyang'S chief technology officer for Europe, Marc Sala. "A decisive breakthrough for our local operations." Mingyang has big plans for Britain. One-point-five billion pounds in investments. Half for factories. Half for the offshore wind supply chain. Now... over at Siemens Gamesa... things are looking up. The wind business has been struggling. Over four fiscal years... losses totaled eight-point-six billion euros. But Chief Executive Officer Christian Bruch confirmed this week... they're still targeting profitability by 2027. Break-even by 2026. Revenue for full-year 2025 rose 5 percent to ten-point-three-seven-five billion euros. Losses improved slightly. "The journey towards profitability is going to take time," said Chief Financial Officer Maria Ferraro. "But I think the team is doing a great job." They expect a positive fourth quarter in 2026. So there you have it. The wind industry is pushing forward. Two hundred thirty-eight-point-five megawatts commissioned in Texas. One hundred twenty-three projects approved in the Philippines. One hundred twenty-three megawatts ordered in Germany. Eighteen-point-five megawatt turbines heading to Britain for testing. And Siemens Gamesa ... now seeing light at the end of the tunnel. The numbers tell the story. Things are beginning to stabilize – and there's hope for the future. That's the state of the wind industry on the 17th of November 2025. Join us tomorrow for the Uptime Wind Energy podcast.

Welcome to the Wind Power News Review – hosted by Windpower Monthly's senior reporter, Robyn White, and Windpower Monthly's reporter, Orlando Jenkinson – along with our regular panellists, Sorcha Versteeg and Shashi Barla. This time on the News Review, we take a closer look at some of the major new turbine announcements coming out of the world's primary wind energy power – China – and discuss how the country's massive installation targets are helping shape its domestic wind industry. Meanwhile in Europe, a growing number of violent attacks against wind power projects have occurred. Is the spread of disinformation about renewable energy to blame? Finally, we take a look at the contrasting fortunes of offshore wind factory projects in Europe, with Vestas and Siemens Gamesa halting work on planned offshore turbine plants while other companies push forward. This episode was produced by Jude Owen and Inga Marsden.Windpower Monthly is now on Bluesky – follow us at @windpowermonthly.bsky.social for all the latest updates. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

O Grupo Siemens Gamesa vai  fechar a unidade de Oliveira de Frades . Justifica a decisão com a falta de encomendas. Sindicato e autarquia foram apanhados de surpresa. Edição de Cláudia Costa

Expert panellists including Nexos chief executive Scott McGinigal, National Gas supply chain and commercial director Daniel McAteer, Centrica new energies director Hazel Paige and Siemens Gamesa plan director Andy Sykes were all asked whether the Humber has all the ingredients to meet the 2050 clean-energy targets. Taking in jobs, geography and willpower alone, the answer is a resounding yes. But on final investment decisions (FID), the key ingredient in every major ambition, questions still remain.

Herzlich willkommen zu Ihrem morgendlichen Newsletter! Fällt das EU-Verbrennerverbot? Die großen deutschen Autobauer jedenfalls setzen nach Jahren des Elektro-Booms wieder mehr auf Verbrennfahrzeuge. Warum erfahren Sie in unserem ersten Artikel. Für den größten Windpark in der deutschen Nordsee baut der Windparkplaner Luxcara nicht mehr auf China. Stattdessen hat Siemens Gamesa den Zuschlag bekommen. Die Hintergründe beleuchten wir in unserem zweiten Artikel. Im September will US-Gesundheitsminister Robert F. Kennedy Jr. die Ursachen von Autismus öffentlich machen. Er bezeichnet die Erkrankung als „tausendmal bedrohlicher als Corona“. Mehr dazu in unserem dritten Beitrag.

Der Windparkplaner Luxcara schwenkt bei der Planung für zwei Megawindparks in der Nordsee um: Anstatt vermeintlich günstigere China-Turbinen zu verbauen wie ursprünglich geplant, hat nun Siemens Gamesa den Zuschlag bekommen. Was steckt dahinter?

En este episodio de El Brieff analizamos el giro de Donald Trump al respaldar un plan de paz para Ucrania con cesiones territoriales y la respuesta de Europa antes de la reunión de Zelensky en la Casa Blanca. Revisamos la ampliación del Tren Maya hacia Guatemala y Belice, el despliegue de 4,000 marines en el Caribe, los datos económicos de China, el estancamiento del tratado global contra plásticos y el acuerdo de BlackRock con Aramco. También cubrimos novedades en IA, viajes y regulación: el revés de DeepSeek, el caso Siemens Gamesa, el “Modo picante” de Grok, la nueva búsqueda de vuelos de Google, Corea del Sur y la inflación PPI.Este episodio es presentado por STRTGY. Implementa IA con resultados: diagnóstico estratégico, implementación ágil y medición de KPIs para lograr impacto desde el primer trimestre. Convierte pilotos sueltos en valor real para tu negocio. Agenda una consulta y conoce casos de éxito: visita su página web.Recibe gratis nuestro newsletter con las noticias más importantes del día.Si te interesa una mención en El Brieff, escríbenos a arturo@brieffy.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Wind Power News Review – hosted by Windpower Monthly's senior reporter, Robyn White, and Windpower Monthly's reporter, Orlando Jenkinson – along with our regular panellists, Shashi Barla and Will Sheard.This time, we discuss Siemens Gamesa's first new order for its troubled 4.X turbine platform, following a pause in sales linked to technical defects. As the rebranded machines prepare for market re-entry, our experts discuss whether the platform can regain developer confidence.In the UK, floating offshore wind takes a step forward as several gigawatt-scale projects in the Celtic Sea are awarded seabed rights. But can the supply chain scale up in time?In the US, a new piece of legislation backed by President Donald Trump is raising concerns across the wind sector. Dubbed the “Big Beautiful Bill,” the policy shift has left many questioning the future trajectory of wind power in the country.And finally, onshore wind farms in the UK are facing an unexpected challenge: a rise in copper theft. Could this be the beginning of a wider trend?This episode was produced by Inga Marsden.Windpower Monthly is now on Bluesky – follow us at @windpowermonthly.bsky.social for all the latest updates. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

En el Radar Empresarial de hoy analizamos las cuentas de Siemens. La compañía alemana tuvo un beneficio neto de 5.950 millones de euros, lo que supuso una mejora del 35% respecto al mismo periodo del año anterior. La empresa también mejoró el beneficio neto del segundo trimestre, gracias sobre todo a una mayor rentabilidad del negocio industrial. La multinacional alemana alcanza un volumen de negocio de más de 40.000 millones de euros. Ya venía de otro gran trimestre anterior. Desde Siemens se muestran confiantes con los efectos de los aranceles, ya que como piensa su CEO, Roland Busch, “apenas han afectado a las ganancias de nuestros resultados”. Además, Busch piensa que el momento está en China. A pesar de estas buenas previsiones, en marzo, Siemens confirmó el plan de recorte de empleos que afectará a más de 6.000 puestos de trabajo en todo el mundo. Eso sí, Roland Busch, confirmó entonces que los despidos no serían forzosos, que serían principalmente en Alemania y que se llevarían a cabo en 2027 y sobre todo en puestos de automatización de fábricas. Entonces Busch justificaba esta decisión por las condiciones del mercado. En España, los empleos que se han visto afectados han sido los de Siemens Gamesa, donde la compañía hispano alemana planea aplicar un ERTE a 176 personas y el ERE a 70, durante un período de entre 18 y 24 meses. Este ERE afecta a los trabajadores del municipio soriano de Ágreda. Siemens ha trasladado una propuesta de recolocación para los empleados afectados pero el Comité de Empresa lo ha considerado como insuficiente. La Junta de Castilla y León trasladó su apoyo a los trabajadores de Siemens Gamesa y aseguró que trabaja en un plan especial para su integración laboral. Esto para la oposición es insuficiente. El procurador de Unidas Podemos en las Cortes de Castilla y León, Pablo Fernández. Siemens AG es un conglomerado de empresas alemanas con sedes en Berlín y Múnich, que tiene 190 sucursales a lo largo del mundo. Es considerada como la mayor empresa de fabricación industrial de Europa. La compañía fue fundada en 1847 por Werner von Siemens y Johann Georg Halske. Solo un año después construyó la primera línea telegráfica de larga distancia en Europa.

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.

In this episode, Allen discusses Nordex's successful Q1 2025 turbine orders, Ørsted's innovative suction bucket jacket foundations in Taiwan, and Europe's proposed offshore wind deal aiming for 100 gigawatts by 2040. 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! Welcome to Uptime Newsflash, industry News Lightning fast. Newsflash is brought to you by IntelStor. For Market in intelligence that generates revenue, visit www.intelstor.com. Leading off the week German wind turbine manufacturer, Nordex secured orders for 2100 megawatts of turbines in the first quarter of 2025. A 5% increase from the same period last year. The company received contracts to deliver 337 wind turbines for projects across 10 countries with Turkey, Germany, Finland, Latvia, and Brazil being the largest markets. The average sales price increased slightly to 870,000 euros per megawatt from 850,000 euros per megawatt a year earlier. CEO Jose Louise Blanco expects this positive momentum to continue throughout 2025. Nordex has installed approximately 57 gigawatts of wind [00:01:00] power capacity in over 40 markets globally, and operates factories in Germany, Spain, Brazil, India, USA, and Mexico. The first suction bucket jacket foundation has been installed at Ørsted's Greater Changhua 2B and 4 Offshore Wind Farm Site in Taiwan. The 920 megawatt project will comprise 66 Siemens Gamesa 14-236DD wind turbines all mounted on suction bucket jackets foundations. This marks the first large scale use of this foundation type in the Asia Pacific region. According to Ørsted, the suction bucket jacket design minimizes seabed disturbances, generates almost no noise during installation, and can be fully removed at the end of the wind farm's life. The foundations are being installed by Heerema Marine Contractors, heavy lift vessel Aegir and supplied by HSG Sungdong in South Korea and Petrovietnam Technical Services Corporation in [00:02:00] Vietnam. Europe's wind industry has proposed a new offshore wind deal calling on European governments to auction at least 100 gigawatts of new offshore wind capacity between 2031 and 2040. The proposal announced at Wind Europe's annual event in Copenhagen. Recommends using two-sided contracts for difference to provide revenue, stability, and reduce investment risk. The plan calls for more coordinated offshore wind development among European countries with capacity evenly distributed over time at approximately 10 gigawatts annually. In return, the industry commits to reducing offshore wind costs by 30% by 2040. Major developers and suppliers, including Ørsted, RWE, Vattenfall Iberdrola, Vestas, and Siemens Gamesa have signed the proposal pledging to invest in projects, manufacturing capacity and workforce development.

The Uptime Podcast team celebrates their fifth anniversary, reflecting on their journey and contributions from team members. They also discuss Siemens Gamesa's India operations acquisition by TPG and future renewable energy investments. Additionally, the episode covers innovations in carbon-negative building materials. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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 just celebrated our fifth year of podcasting, everybody. So the uptime podcast is of officially five years old. I can't believe we've made it this far. That's we were trying to do the math on it the other day at five times 50. Roughly. It's 250 odd episodes. That's a lot of episodes, Rosemary Barnes: but that's only the weekly episodes. What about all the others? You're not only putting out one a week these days. Allen Hall: No, it's two or three or four, right? It's somewhere in there. But I just wanted to say congratulations to each of you on behalf of the Uptime podcast and all the work that happens behind the scenes. Everybody listens to the finished product, and I know it sounds great and the comments are great, and the ideas are great, but there's. A ton of work that goes into this every week to give you this content, and everybody that's been on the podcast as a guest, it was just trying to remember all the faces and names that are. Big and wind that have been on the podcast. It's amazing the people we've touched, the people we've met that are friends that have come from the podcast. It's a nice little family, weirdly enough. And it's one of those it feels like a pair of comfortable shoes that hey, when you go to a conference, you just know everybody and you, and they know us. You feel like we've known them forever because we just spend every week together talking about what's happening in wind. It's a great little experience. Phil Totaro: Can we add that, a big thank you to everyone who listens because we wouldn't keep doing it if you weren't also showing up. Thank you to everyone that listens. Again, your feedback is fantastic. Good and bad. It it keeps us entertained. So we thank you all. Joel Saxum: I would say from my seat as well, Alan, thank you for having all of us and organizing the things that you do. And the unsung hero that you guys don't hear from or usually see unless you're a guest on the podcast is Claire Hall in the background. Who's our producer who puts all of these episodes together and is juggling work life. School, a million different things to make sure this thing goes out every week. So thank you Claire as well. And of course, Rosemary. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah I was gonna say that, Alan has abnormal persistence. I think it took it like now it's obvious why, the value and why we would all keep going and why we come back every week. But yeah, Alan's efforts, especially in the early years was like, just. Just kept on doing it week after week. And, when I started, all I had to do was show up and try and read the material beforehand. I definitely would not have been doing a weekly podcast for, I think I've been on it for four years or so. I wouldn't have been doing that on my own, that's for sure. I think yeah, 90% of the success comes from Alan's abnormal persistence. So Thanks Alan. Allen Hall: Yeah. I appreciate everybody coming every week. I know we've all been through ups and downs over the last several years, rosemary, you've grown a family. And Joel is. Been in and out and I've been in and out and Phil too, right? So between the four of us, we can actually make a decent podcast,

This week, SSE appoints Martin Pibsworth as the next CEO, GE Vernova inaugurates a new customer center in Florida, RWE advances its Sophia Offshore Wind Project, and Nantucket challenges three offshore wind projects along Massachusetts coast. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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. Newsflash is brought to you by IntelStor. For market intelligence that generates revenue, visit www.intelstor.com. Allen Hall: Starting off the week, British Utility Company SSE has named Martin Pibsworth as its chief executive designate. Pibsworth joined SSE in 1998 and currently serves as Chief Commercial Officer. Pibsworth will take over from Alistair Phillips Davies, who has been CEO since 2013 and will hand over the reigns following the annual general meeting on July 17th. Before leaving the company in November, uh, the new CEO will lead SSE renewables push helping the UK deliver on its decarbonization goals. During Philip's Davies tenure, SSE made a strategic shift toward networks and renewables with shares gaining about 4% during his leadership. Last year. SSE announced plans to invest at least 22 billion pounds in grid infrastructure over five years. Over in the United States, GE Vernova has opened a new customer experience center at its Pensacola facility in Florida, marked by a ribbing cutting event hosted by CEO Scott Strazik. The center includes multiple conference rooms, collaboration areas, and direct access to production space. The investments are part of GE Vernova's broader plan announced in January to invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities. Over the next two years, the Pensacola factory has already produced enough turbines to supply over 1.2 gigawatts of the 2.4 gigawatts ordered for the Sunzia Wind Farm in New Mexico. German Energy group RWE has installed its first turbines at its 1.4 Gigawatt Sophia Offshore Wind Project in the uk Located on Dogger Bank, 195 kilometers off the northeast coast of Britain. Sophia is set to become one of the world's largest single offshore wind farms. The project will consist of 100 Siemens Gamesa turbines featuring 150 recyclable blades. The wind park is scheduled to be fully operational in the second half of 2026. RWE's Chief Operating Officer for offshore wind commented that Sophia will make a significant contribution to the UK's clean power 2030 targets. And over in Massachusetts, the town of Nantucket and a Nantucket based activist group are challenging three offshore wind projects off the Massachusetts coast. The town recently sued the US Department of Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management requesting that the government set aside its approval of South Coast Wind and restart the environmental review. Meanwhile, the group ACK for Whales is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind permits granted to Vineyard Wind and New England wind. These challenges come amid the Trump administration's opposition to offshore wind. Industry analyst Timothy Fox's Vineyard Wind faces less risk from these challenges since it's already under construction while projects in planning stages are at higher risk. South Coast wind, which receive final federal approval on the last business day of the Biden administration could be delayed by up to four years. Vineyard wind is the furthest along among these projects with more than half of its 62 turbine towers already installed. Massachusetts Energy Secretary Rebecca Tepper has reiterated the state support for offshore wind emphasizing the need for energy independence...

This week on News Flash, Nordex's determined stance on US growth, the Cenos Floating Wind Farm project, National Grid's sale of its US renewable assets, and Europe's wind energy production expansion to meet 2030 climate targets. 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! Welcome to Uptime Newsflash, industry News Lightning fast. Newsflash is brought to you by IntelStor. For market intelligence that generates revenue, visit www.intelstor.com. Allen Hall: Starting off the week, German wind leader Nordex remains bullish on US growth despite President's Trump Day one, suspension of offshore wind leasing. CEO, Jose Hlu Blanco confidently told Reuters they'll hit targets, quote, even in worse case scenarios. North American business surged 3% to 10% of orders in 2024 while Nordex exceeded profit forecast with 296 million euros. The company now aims to recapture its former 15 to 18% of the US market position and projects five to 7% profit margins for 2025. Energy developers, flotation Energy and Vagrønn have filed for approval of their groundbreaking Cenos floating Wind Farm with Scottish authorities. The 95 turbine project will tower 320 meters above the North Sea, 190 kilometers from Scotland's coast. The innovative offshore wind development secured through Crown Estate Scotland's in into program will power both UK homes and North Sea oil platforms. Public consultation remains open until April 4th, building on momentum from their successful Green Volt project. In a major market move, national Grid is offloading its entire US renewable portfolio to Canadian giant Brookfield for $1.74 billion. The strategic divestment includes 1.8 gigawatts of operational assets and 1.3 gigawatts under development across solar, wind, and battery technologies. This sale follows similar renewable pullbacks by energy majors Shell, BP and Equinor Amid Profitability Challenges. National Grid will now concentrate investment on its core energy network infrastructure with the transaction expected to complete by early 2026. And finally, European wind energy suppliers are rapidly expanding production capacity with over 30 factories across the continent being expanded or newly built to meet ambitious EU 2030 climate targets. SEF is investing 300 million euros in Rotterdam to produce 200 triple XL offshore wind foundations. Annually by mid 2025 while Siemens Gamesa announced a 200 million Euro investment to upgrade its facility in France to produce next generation 14 megawatt turbine blades, creating 200 new jobs. The manufacturing expansion spans cable production in nine European countries and turbine component factories in Denmark, France, Poland, Italy, and the uk. These investments totaling 11 billion euros over two years, strengthens Europe's energy security and creates thousands of jobs.

We discuss Siemens Gamesa's advanced blade de-icing system, their blade root repair fix, and a tower designed by Vestas with its own permanent crane system. 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! Phil Totaro: This is Power Up, where groundbreaking wind energy ideas become your clean energy future. Here's your hosts, Allen Hall and Phil Totaro. Allen Hall: We have really interesting patents this week, Phil, including this first one from Siemens Gamesa, and it is a wind turbine blade with an advanced de icing system. Now, you say to yourself, well, there's been a lot of de icing systems on wind turbine blades. In fact, Rosie has worked on a number of them for LM. But this one's a little bit different. So it It uses a kind of a matrix setup of thermal heating areas arranged in sort of series and parallel connections, and it creates overlapping heating zones that can be very precisely controlled. Now that is very beneficial because a lot of times you More temperature, more heat towards the tip than you do at the root. So you would like the temperature to be graded up towards the tip. It's kind of hard to do a lot of times. But in this situation, you can adapt it to the situation. And this seems smart, but I haven't seen it implemented. And I know Siemens Gamesa owners. Like the icing system. So maybe this is coming out in the near future, Phil. Phil Totaro: Yeah, this would be interesting because this is very different than your conventional like blown air solution, like Enercon and other companies use. Where you could have a scenario where you've got like hotspots and, and heat concentrations at different points along the blades, particularly where you have ribs or bulkheads or something that would kind of get in the way of the airflow. a thermal heating mat with again, different zones where you can kind of trigger, on off to, to try and either prevent ice accretion or actually provide deicing for the blade. So it's, it's a really interesting approach in that it gives you more granular control over where you want to be able to, to de ice and again, based on ice thickness, and you can, monitor your Phil Totaro: performance, or you might have a more sophisticated system that actually monitors how much ice is still stuck on the blade. So. The, the implementation of this I think would be welcome. And it's probably something that, I mean, heating mats are almost inevitably, they do introduce a certain amount of challenges, especially with lightning interactions. But generally speaking, they are a good way for wind turbine blades to to be de iced. So hopefully this does make its way into more commercially available products in the future. Allen Hall: Well, it looks like it will save somewhere between 20 and 50 percent of energy consumption to, to heat the blade. That would be remarkable if you could make a, even a 10 percent change in the amount of power required to heat the blade up. Going to 50 percent would be astounding. And that makes me think you're going to see this, this patent idea Phil Totaro: show up pretty soon. I mean, to be blunt, like, and I'll do respect to Enercon that pioneered a lot of this technology, but volumetric heating is just wildly inefficient, so it's like, something that's a more, cost efficient and thermally efficient solution is probably desirable. Allen Hall: Our next patent is from Vestas and this. Seems like a relatively simple idea, but it evidently isn't because they were able to patent it. So,

This week we discuss cooling system patents, including Siemens Gamesa's method for creating air channels for better temperature control, Goldwind's predictive temperature moderating, and GE's adjustable power output based on component temperatures. Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug! Register for Wind Energy O&M Australia! https://www.windaustralia.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! This is Power Up, where groundbreaking wind energy ideas become your clean energy future. Here's your hosts, Allen Hall and Phil Totaro. Allen Hall: Phil, this episode of Power Up is going to focus on cooling. And as wind turbines get bigger and bigger, thermal controls are becoming more important. You need to make sure that there's no thermal runaways, and with the amount of power. 8, 10, 12, 15 megawatts going on inside of some of these nacelles. You're seeing a lot of patents and innovation around cooling, and this first one is from Siemens Gamesa, and it has to do with the generator itself. And the patent describes a cooling system for the generator that places air channels to better control temperature. Within the generator. Now, the key feature includes the magnet elements arranged in rows with groove like recesses that allow for targeted airflow between the components. Now, that design creates multiple cooling paths with gaps somewhere between like a half a millimeter and ten millimeters wide that enable better heat dissipation. So, obviously Siemens Gamesa sees the future, which is thermal control in a generator, because if you have overheating in generators That can be quite expensive to fix, so they're trying to address it up front, Phil, with this basically airflow pattern. Phil Totaro: Yeah, and, and as you mentioned, not only are generators getting bigger but particularly for offshore, the operational efficiency matters a lot. and how you control both the flux density and efficiency of the generator, balanced against how you have to cool the thing to maintain the kind of an air gap that you need in order to get the efficiency you want. It, it just throws these thermal engineers into complete chaos most of the time. So the way that they're architecting this is so that you can control the airflow in those channels in between the, the magnet holders to prevent hotspots. For the long term, if it keeps happening and you keep getting the hotspot, it can actually cause thermal degradation in the magnets and in The, the generator structure itself. So again, in order to maintain kind of peak operational efficiency, cooling becomes a a critical component to that. Allen Hall: Our second patent is from Goldwind and it is also focused on cooling up and then the cell. And it. Is an idea that is wrapped around really a sophisticated coolings control system that uses predictive temperature monitoring to optimize cooling. And as you can well imagine, as these generators get bigger, there's just a lot of nooks and crannies and you need to be able to monitor the hole in the cell area for temperature increases and to control it. Well, this system connects a cooling device and a yaw controller to a frequency converter that controls the operation based on the predictive temperature. Temperature thresholds. Now the key innovation is ability to anticipate when cooling will be needed and by calculating future temperature profiles and allowing a more proactive reaction to that temperature control. So they're, they're using a lot more information to predict where the temperatures will be and from what it...

This week, we discuss Siemens Gamesa's MASSIVE 21 MW turbine prototype, Vestas and Siemens Gamesa layoffs in Europe, trade relations between the US and EU in 2025, and the proper out-of-office email etiquette. Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug! Register for Wind Energy O&M Australia! https://www.windaustralia.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: If you want to know why Siemens Gamesa is betting big on a 21 megawatt offshore turbine while others scale back, what Norway's 25 billion oil and gas investment means for renewables, and how manufacturing challenges are reshaping European wind energy, stick around. Plus, we've got big news about Wind Energy O& M Australia and a chance to win an exclusive Uptime Podcast mug in our first ever listener survey. I'm Allen Hall, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. You're listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by BuildTurbines. com. Learn, train, and be a part of the clean energy revolution. Visit buildturbines. com today. Now here's your hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes. Allen Hall: Just the season of giving, and this year we want to give you a voice in shaping Uptime's future. As we wrap up another amazing year of wind energy conversations, we're launching our first in person event. And yes, there's a special holiday surprise involved. Picture yourself sipping your morning coffee from an exclusive Uptime Podcast mug. Which could be yours just for participating. All we need is five minutes of your time to tell us what sparks your interest and what you'd love to hear more in 2025. Whether you've been with us since day one or just caught your first episode, your thoughts matter to us. So dash over to uptimewindenergy. com or slay down to the show notes below. And from all of us at Uptime, thank you for making this community possible. Second, wind energy professionals won't want to miss the premier O& M event in the Asia Pacific region, the Wind Energy O& M Australia conference happening February 11th and 12th in Melbourne. And we're thrilled to have industry powerhouses like Tilt Renewables, Worley, Aerones. Phil Totaro: And we're pleased to announce Sky Specs is actually going to be joining us as a corporate roundtable sponsor for the event. Allen Hall: The conference tackles crucial topics that directly impact your operations, leading into erosion, lightning protection, CMS, insurance, and life extension strategies. This is your chance to connect with the industry leaders and gain practical insights that you can implement immediately. So secure your spot now by visiting And finally, don't miss out on a game changing opportunity for your safety program. Active training team known for their innovative and immersive safety training methods. ATT is hosting a free expo in Houston on January 24th, and this isn't your typical safety presentation by no means. ATT brings safety culture to life through dynamic hands on experiences that have transformed safety programs across the energy sector. So this is a rare chance to experience their methods first hand. Spacers are filling up fast, so register now by emailing florence@activetrainingteam.co.uk or visiting activetrainingteam.us/contact. Unlock your wind farm's best performance at Wind Energy O& M Australia, February 11th to 12th, in sunny Melbourne.

This week on News Flash, Denker Wulf and Energie Engineering Nord are merging, Tata Power partners with the Asian Development Bank for $4.25 billion in clean energy projects, and TPG is considering buying Siemens Gamesa India assets. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.comJoin us at The Wind Energy O&M Australia Conference - https://www.windaustralia.com Welcome to Uptime News Flash. Industry news lightning fast. Your hosts, Alan Hall, Joel Saxum, and Phil Totaro discuss the latest deals, mergers, and alliances that will shape the future of wind power. News Flash is brought to you by IntelStor. For market intelligence that generates revenue, visit www.intelstor. com. Allen Hall: Well, Phil, Tata Power has signed a 4. 25 billion memorandum of understanding with the Asian Development Bank for clean energy projects. And the agreement was signed during the ongoing COP 29 conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. The key initiatives coming out Out of this include a 966 megawatt solar wind hybrid project and a pump hydro storage project. Now the partnership will support India's target of 500 gigawatt renewable energy capacity by 2030. This is really important, Phil, because Tata plays a significant role in that. A role in India's economy. Philip Totaro: And not just in renewable energy project development and asset ownership and operations. Obviously they've got automotive, they've got steel making, they do any number of things. They're a pretty diversified industrial company. And what actually a lot of people may not know is Tata Power is actually one of the top five asset owners and operators of renewable energy assets in India already. So getting an additional, MOU signed for, for 4. 25 billion is, is not going to hurt. But keep in mind, they also have broader ambitions outside of India. They, they signed an agreement with a company in Bhutan recently to do a five gigawatt renewable project there. They've had ambition in Sri Lanka and, other kind of regional markets within the Asia Pacific region there that it gives them, they've been kind of quietly going about, spreading their influence. And I, again, I think this is a fantastic move for them and, and to be able to get this Asian Development Bank agreement in place, I think is, if they get 100 percent of that, that money that they're, they're talking about in this MOU, that, that's really gonna help push Tata Power forward. Allen Hall: Well, staying in India, TPG is in advanced talks to acquire the Siemens Gamesa Indian assets. And that deal could, well, it's valued at more than 300 million currently. Now, TPG has emerged as a front runner after outbidding industry players and a number of private equity firms. And Phil, this is a valuable asset. I know a number of companies in India were really shooting for this Siemens Gamesa business. Thank you very much. But TPG has really rocketed to the top. Philip Totaro: Yeah, and it's, it's fascinating because I wouldn't actually have expected private equity to win this one. Mainly because the, what Siemens is, is really offering in terms of their asset portfolio in, in India is their manufacturing facilities. Any operations and maintenance agreements that they have and, and that entire side of the business, I would have thought that, They would have either split off that side of the business. Maybe the Chinese were going to come in and take over the factory space. So this is,

This week on Uptime Power-Up we discuss Vestas' offshore blade repair method, Siemens Gamesa's way of optimizing power production for floating turbines, and a fun way for kid's to collect their Halloween candy. ign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.comWind Energy O&M Australia Conference - https://www.windaustralia.com Allen Hall: Welcome to Power Up, the Uptime Podcast focused on the new hot off the press technology that can change the world. Follow along with me, Allen Hall, and IntelStor's Phil Totaro, as we discuss the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will charge your energy future. All right, our first idea is from our friends at Vestas, and it is a a relatively sophisticated system for handling wind turned blades during maintenance, particularly offshore. And if you think about how you try to manipulate a blade offshore to do repair work on it, it's not, it's not easy to do that on the deck of a ship. So the, the concept is you take a crane, get the blade off the turbine, you move it down to the deck of the ship and it sits in these cradles. And they move it from the support cradles to a third device, which allows the blade to rotate. And they could slide it into a shelter that's built up on deck so you can actually repair the blade without getting wet or, or too hot or too cold, probably, probably too cold in most cases which is a really difficult task to do and Vestas, Phil, has, has come up with a really unique idea on how to manage this. Philip Totaro: Yeah, this, this one is very Interesting, because we have comparable systems to this onshore, but it's obviously a lot harder to implement offshore. So, for instance, having the tent, it's going to sound like the stupidest thing ever, just like having a tent around the blade to be able to, protect the, the area that you're scarfing out or whatever, if you're doing that kind of a repair. That's, that's important. That's an important consideration. And while it's obviously possible to do that today offshore the fact that you would have to use the crane to, place and pick or use the, um, the fixtures that are attached to the crane to rotate the blade and then lower it into the cradle. That can be complicated and time consuming and expensive to do with the on board crane on the vessel. So, the fact that you can lower it into this rotating, we'll call it a rotating, cradle. Or fixture and the fact that, they've, they've got this capability to be able to put up the, the, tarp or tent to be able to protect the blade to, to do the repairs, it's, it's really helpful and, and gives you potentially improved quality in, in the repairs pretty much at the same level that you would get from doing it onshore. Joel Saxum: Yeah, I like the idea here that we're basically taking a concept that we know if you've seen major blade repairs on the ground, a lot of times a temporary tent is put up so that you can work in the wind, rain, snow, cold, whatever it may be. Doing the same thing here offshore. Important for operations and maintenance for the future as we have to start doing some, larger and larger repairs to these blades. But a big important part of this is if anybody that's been involved in lifting operations, you want to minimize the amount of times that you actually touch these blades. When you talk about installing them offshore, you build them in the factory, you move them from the factory to the yard,

This episode covers Vestas's manufacturing growth in Italy and Siemens Gamesa's quarterly results showing both gains and ongoing challenges. The hosts explore how the U.S. election results could reshape renewable energy markets, with discussions ranging from grid infrastructure to natural gas expansion. And an in-depth look at quality control concerns at GE Vernova's LM Wind Power blade manufacturing facility in Canada, where allegations of falsified quality control data have emerged. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.comWind Energy O&M Australia Conference - https://www.windaustralia.com Allen Hall: An endangered sea turtle that was found about a year ago, some 5, 000 miles from its native waters, has been released back into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Houston Zoo. The sea turtle was found off the coast of, guess where? The Netherlands, after becoming entangled in the net of a commercial fishing boat. The zoo said the turtle apparently was carried by currents until it was found, and the U. S. National Fish and Wildlife Service secured the turtle's return. Guys, there's a really interesting bit. Some fishermen somewhere realized that this turtle didn't belong off the coast of the Netherlands and decided to return it. Of all things. They took it to the Rotterdam Zoo the Rotterdam Zoo where it was nursed back the health. And then had a, must have a first class flight back to Houston where it was put back in the Gulf of Mexico. But this little turtle went a long ways. 5, 000 miles is quite a ride, right? Joel Saxum: I can't imagine it was doing very well in the cold water up there either. Cause right now, even now the Gulf of Mexico is 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Yeah, he, the Allen Hall: turtle at some point had to know it wasn't in the Bahamas anymore, right? It's not gonna swim back from there. Rosemary Barnes: I saw a story recently about a king penguin that that swam from Antarctica to Australia to Perth. It was it's not that far, I think it was like 3, 000 kilometers or maybe a little bit more, but similar thing of yeah. Animal just, just the kind of point in the direction and then just keep going until they reach land. It's some decent persistence. Allen Hall: Isn't it crazy when you think about how animals have moved around the planet? And then you, that's impossible. And then Rosemary says there's a penguin that's got about 1, 500 miles, just taking a light swim. Joel Saxum: That's crazy. There's a book about this called Super Navigators, and it's really fascinating, actually, to be honest with you. Allen Hall: This turtle is back home in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, which is a great story, right? Gulf of Mexico for the winter. Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, and I'll be joined by my Uptime co host after these news headlines. Thanks A major expansion of wind turbine manufacturing is underway in Toronto, Italy as Vestas begins production of its V236 15MW offshore wind blades. The facility will produce 115. 5 meter blades capable of powering 20, 000 European households each year. The expansion, supported by EU recovery funds, will create 1, 300 new jobs in the region. The Port of Toronto has granted Vestas a nine year concession to use its logistics platform, establishing the port as a strategic hub for wind energy component manufacturing and distribution.

This week on Power-Up, we discuss Siemens Gamesa's method for stabilizing wind turbine blades by installing closeout plates. Then Vestas and ZF's idea to replace the metal torque tube in the gearbox with a plastic piece, protecting from current. And finally, an Enercon patent for painting blades in an ombre pattern to lessen visual disturbances. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.comWind Energy O&M Australia Conference - https://www.windaustralia.com Allen Hall: Welcome to Power Up, the uptime podcast focused on the new, hot off the press technology that can change the world. Follow along with me, Allen Hall, and IntelStor's Phil Totaro, as we discuss the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will charge your energy future. All right guys, our first idea is what's turbine blades, and it's an idea from Siemens Gamesa, and it In patent form, as they describe it here, it's what they call a novel approach to stabilizing wind turbine blades without the need for traditional trailing edge beam designs. But what they're really doing is they're installing closeout plates on the, between the aft spar and the trailing edge. So, This idea is pretty much making a wind turbine blade look a lot like an airplane wing, Phil. Philip Totaro: Yeah, especially like an older style airplane wing. So those that aren't familiar with the closeout plate, it's like a rib design that has this, vertical element at different longitudinal locations throughout the Kind of the, the max cord section and in inner portion with the exception of like the, the immediate root section of the blade. But it's, it's interesting to me, besides just the, the general concept here, the timing of this was fascinating to me because they filed for this patent back in April of 2024. And the patent has now published in October and the question Is, is this a potential fix to a problem? Is this what's this really doing? Allen Hall: Well, it's stopping torsion is what it's doing, Phil. It's preventing the blade from twisting too much, which makes me think of a couple of blades that I'm familiar with that have torsion problems. Joel? Joel Saxum: Well, if you look at the image here, so I've crawled around in quite a few blades doing RCA's and failures, and you're always looking for failure modes, so you start getting into a different mindset of when you're crawling around in them. But In multiple blades that I've been in, there's an, what looks like an extra shear web in the, in some of like the max cord region and stuff like that, just to make sure that you keep that part of the shell supported and then that structure rigid there. And in this design, they're removing that extra shear web and putting these closeout plates in there. And it is exactly like you guys say, the design looks like an airplane wing with a bunch of ribs in it. And to me, in my mind I'm, I'm not a, trained structural engineer, but from engineering principles and just kind of physics and forces and a little bit of knowledge there, this to me looks like it could solve some, some pretty big issues. However, in maintenance, that makes things a little bit more difficult because maintenance and construction, because it's harder to place these things in construction, of course, and to get them right. We already sometimes have a hard enough time placing shear webs and getting those right. Now you're adding perpendicular components and multiple ...

This week, Siemens Gamesa's idea which protects delicate items on the blade while doing lifts, Integrated Power Services' replaceable yaw break sleeve, and a new way to keep ants away from your picnic. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to Power Up, the Uptime podcast focused on the new hot off the press technology that can change the world. Follow along with me, Allen Hall, and IntelStor's Phil Totaro, as we discuss the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will charge your energy future. All right, guys, our first patent this week is something kind of unique from Siemens Gamesa. And it tries to answer a problem that all winter blade lifting Apparatus have, especially when there are vortex generators or gurney flaps or trailing edge serrations, which is during the lift, those items tend to get plucked off and it makes the operator not happy. It makes everybody not happy because somebody's got to get up there and replace them, generally speaking. So Siemens, Gamesa has come up with a little bit of a handling tool to avoid this damage, which is kind of like a pillow like device some sort of plastic, multiple plastic. That encapsulates these add ons so they don't get broken during the lift. Now, Phil, this seems like a, actually a decent moneymaker because other operators, wind turbine OEMs have the same problem. If you look on the ground after a lift. Usually, you can see those little pieces, those injection molded pieces laying on the ground there. Philip Totaro: Shards of things stripped off. Yeah, so this one's really interesting, and I should admit that I'm not actually sure if Siemens Gamesa is using this with any of the EPC contractors yet. However the reason that it's been developed, as you mentioned, Alan, is that it's, it's there to try and help prevent add ons from being kind of sheared off as, if the blade is being lifted in the saddle and there's either some kind of, gust or something, some kind of torsion that, that occurs that might shift the blade in the saddle in particular. That can cause a lot of these incidents where, where bits get sheared off. Where this comes in handy is it's basically padding on the straps that is made with some kind of, gelatinous something. They don't, I mean, they, they go into a bit of detail on what these materials could be in the patent. So you can, I guess, use your imagination, but it's, it's basically Relatively compliant. Jelly like structure. I guess that's the best non technical way to explain it. You know that it'll basically accommodate the deformation when it goes up against the blade surface that has the vortex generators or whatever poking out of it. So you could use this for, for riblets, you could use this for, for any little add ons you want. So I, I think from that perspective it's, it's pretty clever. We at Intel Store will dig more into whether or not this is being used commercially and, make that a part of our our technical analysis on inventions like this. Joel Saxum: I think this one makes absolute sense out in the field, right? It's not too complicated. It's something that can be implemented pretty easily. Thank you. And in my mind, I'm already thinking like, Oh, this might actually give the lifting company lifting the crane or however you're lifting a blade a little bit of a better grip on on the blade itself as well So sometimes there is slippage in that and that'...

This week on Uptime Power-Up, we discuss Siemens Gamesa's unique leading edge protection solution which uses a shock absorbing cavity for added cushion. Then Vestas' Utopus Insights patent that uses vibration monitoring to determine turbine health. And finally, a diaper for your bird, which Joel may be in the market for. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to Power Up, the Uptime podcast focused on the new, hot off the press technology that can change the world. Follow along with me, Allen Hall, and IntelStor's Phil Totaro, as we discuss the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will charge your energy future. Phil, our first idea is a Siemens Gamesa, and this leading edge protection is a little bit different than things we have normally seen. It includes basically a cavity. So it's like a shell sort of device that would go on the leading edge, but it has a cavity with a shock absorbing medium. Inside of it. So it take the blows of the raindrops or the bugs or the hail. So it absorbs that energy. And then the, the wind turbine lives a long time. That's a interesting concept. I haven't seen Philip Totaro: it implemented yet though. I think because this patent application is also recent is probably something they're still testing. They've got a blade tip with a double layer with an elastomeric. Or, I mean, I guess they've described it in the patent as it could be anything kind of squishy, let's call it polymeric material, any kind of, squishy type material. But what their, what their theory is behind this is that Because the leading edge, the, particularly around the tip, your tip speed is so high on a wind turbine blade that when you impact a raindrop or you impact a bug, obviously it makes little dents and you hit enough, especially if you've got like a swarm of bugs or flies or something, it can actually act like you're, you're sandblasting the leading edge of the blade. And, everybody in the industry has probably seen, leading edge erosion and knows what it is. But the idea behind this is to say, all right, behind, the, the blade leading edge and the gel coat, there's this cavity with this, elastomeric damper kind of in there that would theoretically absorb some of that impact and also provide a, um, so it, it provides a rebound on the tip to, to allow it to maintain the aerodynamic profile. The elastomeric material can be shaped to conform to the cavity so that it will, it will maintain It's aerodynamic profile on the leading edge, regardless of the amount of tip damage. So there's, there's a potential performance and certainly noise benefit to it. But I mean, Joel, I'm, I guess I'm curious about this. There, there's other concepts out there, one from polytech included that seems kind of similar to this. Is this gonna be a thing? Joel Saxum: What i'm looking at this material is like I see it the concept makes sense. Everything is great We have been installing shells on turbines because that's what the installation of this will look like it'll look like a shell We've been installing shells for a long time You have armor edge polytech like those things those solutions are out there but the reason i'm looking at this one with a little bit of a side eye is If this thing starts to fail, if that front edge opens up and then you have this shock absorbing elastomeric compound all of a sudden exposed and this thing starts to open itself up,

EAH spoke with Miguel, after a little over a year in the CEO post, to understand where the group is heading. He describes his plans for the Company and in particular, the DeCarbon Technologies Group, which is working with many important partners to accelerate emissions elimination innovation. Miguel began his professional career in 1987 as a controller at VDO AG. He was subsequently CFO of VDO Instrumentos in Spain and the worldwide VDO Instrument Division. Within the Siemens Group, López was CFO of various business units of Siemens AG from 2001 – including the Industry Automation Division from 2008, the Digital Factory Division from 2014 and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy from 2017. In the years from 2018 to 2022, he was President & CEO of Siemens in Spain. During this period, he also performed the role of Non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors at Siemens Gamesa. From 2022 to May 2023, he held the position of Chairman of the Board of NORMA, an automotive and industrial supplier. Since June 2023 he has been CEO of thyssenkrupp AG.Miguel studied business administration at the Mannheim University of Cooperative Education. López also completed a global MBA program at the universities of Toronto (Canada), Erftstadt (Germany), Linz (Austria) and Shanghai (China).About thyssenkrupp:thyssenkrupp is an international industrial and technology company employing ~100,000 people. Across 48 countries it generated sales of €38 billion in fiscal 2022/2023. Since October 1, 2023, the business activities have been bundled into five segments: Automotive Technology, Decarbon Technologies, Materials Services, Steel Europe and Marine Systems. Backed by extensive technological know-how, the businesses develop cost-effective and resource-friendly solutions to the challenges of the future. Around 4,000 employees work in research and development at 75 locations all over the world, mainly in the fields of climate protection, the energy transition, digital transformation in the industry and mobility of the future. thyssenkrupp currently has a portfolio of approximately 14,630 patents and utility models. Under the thyssenkrupp umbrella brand the company creates long-term value with innovative products, technologies and services and contributes to a better life for future generations. To this end, the company pursues ambitious climate protection targets and optimizes its own energy and climate efficiency. At the same time, it uses its diverse abilities along the relevant value chains to play a significant role in driving forward its customers' green transformation. thyssenkrupp is listed in the MDAX index. thyssenkrupp shares are traded on Frankfurt Stock Exchange (symbol: TKA) and as American depositary receipts (symbol: TKAMY) in the USA.--Links:thyssenkrupp:https:/www.thyssenkrupp.com/en/homethyssenkrupp DeCarbon Technologies:https://www.thyssenkrupp.com/en/company/corporate-structure/decarbon-technologies

This week we discuss Vestas' system to determine the quality of wind turbine blades before recycling and Siemens Gamesa's noise reduction idea. Then Crosswind's blade pitching system to increase wake mixing and a seemingly common to patch a hole in the wall. Visit https://www.intelstor.com/ to inquire about their IP Prism services! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to Power-Up, the Uptime podcast focused on the new hot off the press technology that can change the world. Follow along with me, Alan Hall and IntelStor's, Phil Totaro, as we discuss the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will charge your energy future. All right, Phil, this week, a number of really interesting ideas. This first one comes from Vestas and it is about recycling a wind turbine blades. And it's a, it's sort of a different approach. The quality of the material that they can recycle out of a wind turbine blade is obviously based upon how that blade has been treated or how, what its life looked like ahead of time. So they're The patent idea is to use machine learning to determine the quality of the recycled material up front, so they can process the blades more efficiently. That's an interesting approach. Come on. Vestas, Philip Totaro: obviously, very creative company. And to be able to characterize the, the lifespan of the material prior to trying to take it into the recycling phase. Because the quality of the material that you're recycling may end up impacting the, post recycling usage. So for instance, if you're trying to put it into concrete, you may need a certain grade of, fiber. That, that is something that could, as, as the industry continues to kind of grow with this recycling initiatives. This could come into play in the future, again, I don't know that you necessarily need machine learning to facilitate all this, I think that's a bit of a buzzword y, aspect of the invention, but Joel Saxum: In the grand scheme of things, the way I'm looking at this problem is this, recycling a blade engineer, or blades, hot topic. AI machine learning, hot topic, great way for Vestas to throw these together and boost this thing out for an ESG stamp that says, we're working on this and we're using AI to blah, blah, blah. At the end of the day, you need the bill of materials with what the blade was originally built with, and you need to know whether they got some crazy kind of LEP on it, or different blade coding for de icing or something, and that's it. Allen Hall: The second idea comes from Siemens Gamesa and. It's the, the Bose headset of wind turbine blades. That's the only way I can describe this thing where it's a noise reduction system. It's active noise. So what they do like Bose does is they create an opposite signal. To, to knock, to cancel the, the noise that the blade is making. So they have an actuator that sits on the blade and then it has speakers in it and a little gas chamber to improve its sound ability. And they can do active noise canceling on a blade. Now Phil, what I'm wondering is, it's a, it's a cool idea and it's been used in aircraft for a long time. Is it something that would be used on a Winturn blade? I mean, they only have very, very narrow applications, I would think. Philip Totaro: Here's what's interesting about it, is you're correct that I, I haven't actually seen this in use.

This week Allen and Phil discuss Siemens Gamesa's accordion nacelle idea, Vestas's innovative yaw control system, LM Windpower's LEP install tool, and a helpful beach relaxation invention. Visit https://www.intelstor.com/ to learn more about their IP Prism services. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to Power Up, the Uptime podcast focused on the new hot off the press technology that can change the world. Follow along with me, Allen Hall, and idasaurus Phil Totaro, as we discuss the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will charge your energy future. Hey Phil, the first thing on our list today is a unique patent idea from Siemens Gamesa. Which is for a wind turbine nacelle with movable sections to expand it out. Kind of like Louis Armstrong's cheeks when he's blowing that trumpet. It just pops out. And gives you a little more space to get some work done on the nacelles. This is a pretty cool idea, even though I have, we've seen other versions of this, we haven't seen an expandable version of this, others have tried something similar though, right? Philip Totaro: Yeah, so this, Allen, this is basically what I've dubbed like the accordion nacelle, or bagpipe nacelle, I don't know what you want to, how you want to label it, but the idea here is, and look, the bottom line is, I, to be blunt, I actually think this is a terrible patent, but it's a clever idea, and I'll explain what I mean by all that. So, in the world of going and, capturing innovation, whatever industry you're in, You want to be able to capture Patentable ideas on things that a you're going to use and manufacture because then it's it's protecting your own business or you want to get patents on things that are actually things that a competitor might want to use And by having the patent, you basically blocked them from, from going down that technological path. Unfortunately, I don't think that this is this particular patent from Siemens Gamesa accomplishes that, because I don't think that they're gonna use this idea, and I don't think that Competitors would necessarily use this idea. So, however What I do like about this is the, the inventiveness of the concept and the way that the engineers were thinking and doing the creative problem solving around a legitimate transportation related issue that we have in the industry. So for those of you that aren't familiar, there are certain transportation constraints that we've got in, in wind energy where, particularly if you're trying to ship something, that has to fit underneath a bridge, overpass, or through a tunnel, You might have certain restrictions on things like the nacelle width and height, the blade root, the maximum chord of a blade, things like that, or even the tower diameter, and it creates certain technological challenges. And so that's actually why I flagged this idea to talk about today is because this is really great problem solving and very creative problem solving to say, look, We've got this challenge where in order to transport something, it's got to fit within those constraints of being, approximately 4. 2 meters. Or less it's about, what, 22, 23 feet or less for, for those of us on the, on the English system but the, the, there are different ways to skin a cat, basically Vestas has come up with this idea of having basically, cargo containers that are converted, or specifically manufactured,

Allen, Phil, and Joel dissect Siemens Gamesa's latest financial woes, including their shocking 54 MW onshore wind order intake. The trio debates the company's bold claim of competing with Chinese manufacturers on quality, not price. Plus, they explore the ripple effects of Chinese wind turbines potentially entering European markets, from Italy to Germany. Register for the AMI Wind Turbine Blades Event! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Joel, I will be at the AMI Wind Turbine Blades conference in Boston in the beginning of October, holding a panel or hosting a panel, I'll moderate a panel. On blade operation and maintenance upstream quality problems and operators challenges, which sounds like what we just saw on our drive through Kansas and Oklahoma a lot of operators with a lot of challenges on the quality of products that they're purchasing. Joel Saxum: Yeah, I think that panel couldn't come at a more timely. I guess that's not a very good way to say that. However, yeah, when we hear from people is the, we're getting blades, the blades are a year old, two years old, three years old. We've got a leading edge erosion. We've got cracks. We got this going on. We're fighting warranty claims. We've got blade repair contractors out here. We got this, we got that. So we're going to get up on state, or you're going to get up on stage and we're going to have some people from a couple of IPPs. So there's going to be some some of the engineers that are dealing with this firsthand. And you're also going to have someone from Nordics on stage with you. So someone from an OEM. Going to have some varied opinions and some good information. But you're going to get different viewpoints and different details from all sides of the supply chain there to be able to hopefully solve some of these problems. Allen Hall: Yeah, Matt Sagala from Moraes from Nordex and Pragna Martin from Engie, if you don't know Pragna. That would be a really good panel. I'm gonna learn a ton there, I'm sure. And I am, just want to make sure everybody knows, if you're interested in attending that event, and there's several other sessions about supply chain and blades and, all kinds of materials involved in blades. This is your conference. So you need to Google the AMI plastics wind turbine blades conference in Boston and Boston in October will be beautiful. The weather would be perfect. So it's a good time to get out of the office and get a short flight over to Boston and have a good time learning about. Supply chain and blades and all that's involved on making and supporting the wind industry. I'm Allen Hall and I'll be joined by the rest of the Uptime hosts after these news headlines. In the UK, Siemens Gamesa wind turbine workers in Hull have secured a significant pay deal. Around 300 employees who construct the 108 meter long wind turbine blades by hand have accepted a two year agreement worth 8.4% the deal includes a 4.5% increase for 2024 and 3.9% for 2025 with 93% of workers voting in favor. The settlement demonstrates strong support for the agreement among the workforce. U. S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called for a substantial increase in climate financing, stating that the global transition to a low carbon economy requires three trillion U. S. dollars in new capital annually through 2050. This figure far exceeds current financing levels but represent what Yellen describes as,

Suzlon Energy will acquire a 76% stake in Renom Energy Services for $79 million. Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp has announced the sale of its non-hydro renewables business to LS Power. Haizea Wind Group has secured a €35 million green loan from the European Investment Bank. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you want market intelligence that generates revenue, then book a demonstration of IntelStor at intelstor.com. Suzlon Energy will acquire a 76 percent stake in Renom Energy Services. For 660 crore rupees or approximately 79 million U. S. dollars. This move is set to strengthen Suzlan's position in the operations and maintenance sector. Renan Energy Services is currently the largest multi brand operations and maintenance service provider in India, managing assets totaling 1. 7 gigawatts in wind, 148 megawatts in solar and 572 megawatts in BOP. Phil, with the advent of G. E. Vernova and Siemens Gamesa leaving India slowly and leaving the maintenance up to other organizations, Is this a good move by Suzlon to try to fill that void? Philip Totaro: It is. It's a very interesting move as well because of how fragmented the Indian market is, just in general, both on the OEM side and on the maintenance side. So, as you mentioned, there's a couple of Western OEMs that are kind of pulling up stakes, and frankly, Vestas hasn't been getting the same level of sales in the past that they have in India either. With the growth of Inox Wind. And the introduction of Adani's turbine as well. So for, for Suzlon, this is an interesting move because, as you mentioned, it gives them access to a maintenance provider that is not only kind of the biggest ISP in the market, but they also have a multi brand portfolio that they are servicing, giving them access to a wide array of of different technologies. As I mentioned, it's a fragmented market. And so the reason why there isn't. A big dominant player in operations and maintenance in the market is because you have some OEMs that are still kind of contractually obligated on certain projects, but they've pulled up stakes. Other OEMs that used to operate in the market don't anymore. And so you've got a particularly big market opportunity for. Susan and read on to step into here. The Indian market is now, I think, 46 gigawatts of onshore wind installed and another, I want to say, 80 something gigawatts of solar at this point. So, it's a it's there's a lot more opportunity for growth in this segment. Joel Saxum: Yeah, Allen and I actually were on a call this morning with some people from India that are a large developer over there and it seems like every time we're on a call with anybody from India, they are a large developer or they have a large pipeline. One of these, one of these pipelines was two gigawatts in the next few years. Another one we talked to a couple weeks ago was four gigawatts in the next four years. So there's a lot of big plans for wind in India and Suzalon right now through this move is looking to capitalize on that. On ensuring or being in the position to ensure the wind energy sector in India remains strong, right?

GE Vernova recently held their Q2 investor presentation, sharing the company will focus on their the 3.6-154, 6.1-158 Cypress, and Haliade-X 15.5-250 turbine lines. So far, the company's wind division is not headed toward profitability in 2024. What can the company do to turn their financials around? And then a focus on the 2024 US presidential election--what implications will it have on the wind industry? Does the IRA bill hang in the balance? In other news, Siemens Gamesa will resume production of their 4X wind turbines this year, Dogger Bank A has installed interarray cables, and a carbon-free cement plant is planned for Massachusetts. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Joel, we're moving to the 2020s. We now have our email newsletter, Uptime Tech News on Substack. Ooh, nice. I like it. It's slick. It's almost super modern. And if you haven't subscribed to Uptime Tech News, you need to, because who else is going to go through the news? The right way and pick out those articles that the technical people working in wind and the financial people working in wind need to know besides us engineers who filter through it and get all the riffraff out and give you the stuff that you need. That is the whole point of Uptime Tech News. So if you haven't subscribed to it, do it. You can actually go on Substack and search Uptime Tech News. You can subscribe via Substack. And it's on LinkedIn. The newsletter is nuts, crazy busy. There's thousands of people who are subscribed to our newsletter, Uptime Tech News on LinkedIn. I like LinkedIn, but I like the Substack version even more. Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm Allen Hall, and I'll be joined by the rest of the Uptime host after these headlines. Kicking off our headlines, Siemens Gamesa is set to breathe new life into its turbine production. The company plans to resume manufacturing of its 4X wind turbines later this year, following a pause due to technical issues. This move is expected to reactivate sales of the 4X turbine, with production of the 5X model slated to follow next year. The news comes as a welcome relief to staff, as the current order book has been running low, and this development could signal a turning point for Siemens Gamesa, which has faced challenges in recent months. Shifting our focus offshore, a major milestone has been reached at the world's largest offshore wind farm. Over 200 miles of interarray cables have been successfully installed at Dogger Bank A, the first phase Of this ambitious project. The 66 kilovolt cables manufactured by Hellenic cables will connect 95 massive Haliade-X 13 megawatt turbines to the offshore converter station. The EU is doubling down on its commitments to renewables reelected EU commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. Has announced a new clean industrial deal, emphasizing homegrown clean energy. This plan includes support for clean tech manufacturing and a new EU competitiveness fund. Von der Leyen has also promised to cut red tape and expedite permitting processes for renewable projects in the coming years. Vestas is pushing the boundaries of onshore wind technology. The company has completed the installation of its V172 7. 2 megawatt prototype at its test center in Denmark. This behemoth is Vestas largest and most powerful onshore wind turbine to date. Based on the Inventus platform. It promises a 12 percent increase in annual energy production ...

A blade has failed at the Vineyard Wind Farm off the coast of Nantucket--what will the fallout be? How is GE responding? Will this effect the US Presidential Election? Plus a warning about electrostatic eliminators and mid-blade lightning protection: they don't work. And Mechanix Wear's TRACK (Trial Research and Collaboration Kit) program offers on-site assessments to identify specific hand protection needs for employees. NextEra's Walleye Wind Farm in Minnesota is our wind farm of the week! Visit AMI's website to book a spot at the Wind Turbine Blades conference! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm AllenHall, and I'll be bringing you this week's top stories in the wind energy sector. Siemens Gamesa has secured a 1. 2 billion euro line of green guarantees from the Spanish government and major banks. This support comes at a crucial time for the wind energy subsidiary of Siemens Energy, which has been grappling with financial challenges. The Spanish export credit insurance company and a banking syndicate led by BBVA and BNP Paribas are backing this initiative. The Spanish state is providing a 50 percent guarantee, up to 600 million euros. Sharing the risk with the guarantor banks. This line of guarantees is designed to support Siemens Gamesa's projects in technical guarantees, allowing the company to execute its substantial order backlog of 40 billion euros in the wind business. We now turn our attention to the competitive landscape in the U. S. offshore wind market. Siemens Gamesa is currently leading the pack with a commanding 57 percent share of the order pipeline for offshore wind projects that have already selected a supplier. This translates to six projects with a capacity of Denmark's Vestas follows in second place with a 32 percent share, while U. S. based GE Vernova rounds out the top three with 11 percent. Shifting gears to labor news, approximately 300 workers at a Siemens Gamesa wind turbine factory in Hull, England, Are being balloted for a potential strike. The dispute centers around a pay offer that the Unite Union claims amounts to a real terms pay cut. The union warns that a strike could cause significant disruption to production. The Unite Union argues that the workers' pay has fallen in real terms since 2018, due to below inflation increases and a performance related bonus scheme. The hull factory specializes in constructing 108 meter long blades. In technology advancements, Orsted has successfully tested a new lower noise installation method for offshore wind foundations in Germany. The groundbreaking technology could revolutionize the way offshore wind foundations are installed. The new method, tested at Goda Wind III Offshore Wind Farm, uses a patented jetting technology attached to the monopile. This allows the foundation to sink into the seabed, replacing conventional installation methods such as pile driving. The result is a substantial decrease in underwater noise levels, with a reduction of 34 decibels compared to most commonly used installation methods. This installation not only enhances marine life protection, but also has the potential to make installations more efficient and cost effective. On the equipment front, German company Emitech is launching a new wind turbine blade turning unit designed to facilitate easier on site service and maintenance.

Siemens Gamesa has received a €1.2 billion line of 'green' guarantees from the Spanish government along with a group of major banks. Masdar is finalizing a deal with Endesa to acquire a 49 percent stake in their 2, 000 megawatt renewable energy portfolio. Leeward Renewable Energy has secured $1.25 billion in financing for its construction warehouse facility. The Welsh government has established Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru, a publicly owned renewable energy developer. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of WeatherGuard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intel store Phil Totaro and the chief commercial officer of WeatherGuard, Joel Saxum, and this is your News Flash. Newsflash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you want market intelligence that generates revenue, then book a demonstration of IntelStor at IntelStor. com. In Spain, Siemens Gamesa has received a crucial financial boost. The Spanish government and major banks have granted the company 1. 2 billion in green guarantees. This support will help Siemens Gamesa, which has been facing financial challenges, To back its wind energy projects, the company is also undergoing leadership changes with Vinod Philip, set to become the new CEO in August. So Phil, this backing by the Spanish government and banks within Spain is a welcome entrant into the Siemens Gamesa financial situation. Philip Totaro: It is and it's something that they've been asking for for a while in terms of receiving some level of support. It seems a little lower than what they wanted unfortunately for them. And keep in mind, this is almost like a, a line of credit type of thing. They don't have to necessarily tap into this unless they, they actually need it. First of all the second aspect of this is that, the unions are also going to be all over this saying, well, this is ample evidence that you can, keep us on board and keep paying us or it, as it turns out, may have been necessary for them to receive this funding to be able to keep the, the unions happy. So. We'll see how much of this they, they end up actually needing. This will presumably be part of their financial reports in the future. How they're, how they're putting these funds to use. But hopefully they don't need to tap into it too much and they can, get back to being a thriving company. Joel Saxum: My, my main concern with it is if it's a prop up or is it, is it real, right? So is this something that's going to really boost them along? Do they really need it? Is it too, is it too little too late or is it just going to sit in an account and not be used? So. I think that what you'll see from Wall Street and the investors and stock prices is going to be a little bit different than what reality is. Allen Hall: Abu Dhabi's renewable energy group, Masdar, is making moves in the Spanish market. After a failed bid for Nanergy, Masdar is now finalizing a deal with Endesa to acquire a 49 percent stake in the 2, 000 megawatt renewable energy portfolio. This could be one of the largest renewable energy deals in spain this year phil Philip Totaro: yeah this comes on the back of master making moves in europe as we've talked about on newsflash and on the uptime podcast previously so the reality of this is this is you know also uh kind of building on what we talked about last week with china.

Chinese-made drones disguised as wind turbine parts were intercepted in Italy, sparking debate on China's role in the global wind energy market. Allen, Phil, and Joel explore how European manufacturers like Vestas and Siemens Gamesa can compete against subsidized Chinese firms such as Goldwind and Mingyang. Do EU protectionist policies address China's growing influence in renewable energy? In other news, Statkraft has reduced its target for renewables, the UK has lifted their onshore wind ban, Archer is moving into the offshore wind industry, and Louisiana is installing their first wind turbine. Visit AMI's website to book a spot at the Wind Turbine Blades conference! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm Allen Hall, and I'll be bringing you this week's top stories in the wind energy sector. We start with a significant announcement from Statkraft, the Norwegian energy giant. The company has revealed plans to reduce its target for building solar PV, battery energy storage systems and wind farms from 2026 onwards. Statkraft is adjusting its development rate for solar, battery and onshore wind from two and a half to three gigawatts to two and a half gigawatts. Even more notably, their offshore wind targets have been cut from 10 gigawatts to 68 gigawatts by 2040. This shift comes as Statcraft aims to prioritize investments in its home country of Norway. The company cites challenging market conditions for the entire renewable energy industry as a reason for this strategic adjustment. Despite these reductions, Stackraft remains committed to expanding its hydropower capabilities with plans to initiate at least five major capacity upgrade projects in Norway by 2030. Moving to England, the de facto ban on onshore wind development has been lifted with immediate effect. This decision is part of a broader commitment to double the capacity of onshore wind in Britain by 2030. and boost energy independence. The policy change places onshore wind on equal footing with other energy development in the National Planning Policy Framework. This move is expected to significantly accelerate the growth of onshore wind in England. The government has also announced plans to streamline the planning process for large onshore wind proposals by potentially incorporating them in the nationally significant infrastructure project regime. This could lead to faster determinations on planning applications for these projects. In corporate news, oilfield services firm Archer has made a strategic move into the floating offshore wind sector. For The company has fully acquired Moreld Ocean Wind, a Norwegian floating offshore wind solutions provider. This acquisition includes a minority stake in Osergy. U. S. French technology company. Morelde Ocean Wind specializes in project management and engineering for the fabrication and assembly of floating wind structures. With a team of about 30 engineers based in Norway, Morelde Ocean Wind is currently engaged in various studies and engineering contracts for some of the world's largest energy companies. This acquisition positions Archer to capitalize on the growing floating offshore wind market and support its energy customers ambitions in the energy transition. Exciting developments are also happening in Louisiana, where the state's first wind turbine has arrived at Avondale Global Gateway.

We made buildturbines.com to help people join the wind industry! In the news, Siemens Gamesa has received certification for their 15 megawatt SG14 236DD offshore wind turbine, 63 of which will be used offshore in the German Baltic Sea. They are also expanding a blade facility in Aalborg, Denmark. We discuss Bill Gates' TerraPower nuclear project in Wyoming, moving to a discussion about where nuclear energy is a good solution. Then we move to the legal battle between EDP Renewables and the state of Wisconsin over restrictive local wind ordinances. And we highlight Canvus, a company that is recycling wind turbine blades into furniture and art. The Wind Farm of the Week is DTE's Meridian Wind Park in Michigan! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Joel, we built a new website. buildturbines.com. Joel Saxum: And it looks fantastic. I'm here to tell you. Allen Hall: And this website is devoted to those future technicians, people that are looking to get a job in wind and don't know where to start. Joel Saxum: I mean, the idea really comes from this, Allen. We've talked to so many people out in the field through our websites, through the podcast all over the places in the wind industry and around the wind industry. Of, Hey, how do I get in? How do I get one of these jobs? And, the wind industry scrambling, every recruiting department is saying to their company, Hey, everybody, here's a recruiter. We need as many people as possible. Where can you find this? Do you have a friend here? Can we get some people here to the point where the DOE has put out a study? Through NREL as well. That's there says we need over a hundred thousand, close to 125, 000 wind turbine technicians by 2030. It's the fastest growing job in America. Allen Hall: Yeah, and if you visit some of the training facilities, particularly the community colleges, they cannot get enough students to keep those programs alive. So we're at a real impasse at the moment. We need to be reaching out to those future technicians and the future engineers that will be helping keeping these wind farms up and running. And that's why we started build turbines. com. Joel Saxum: Yeah. The idea is we're going to put a bunch of information on your articles about being a wind turbine technician. We have some of this stuff. We talk to these people every day, right? Why not share this information on another platform? So what's, what we're going to put forth the qualifications that you need for certain types of jobs, what the salaries look like, what the outcomes could possibly be for a career. And we want to get this website and this information. We're going to continue to build on it. So we'll ask everybody from the industry. If you're a training center, if you're an ISP, if you're a utility, if you're anybody in the wind industry looking for technicians or want to have some words into, hey, this is what the language we'd like to put in. These are the things we'd like to use to attract people. Get ahold of us. We'll want to put it on this website because we'd like to get this thing in front of everybody high schools and. Young people everywhere mid career, people transitioning anywhere. That's a great opportunity for a fantastic career. That's only going to grow. So we need these people. So let's do a roundup everybody and do our part to get as many technicians out there as we can.

Masdar acquires Greece's Terna Energy for 2.4 billion euros, eyeing further European renewable energy investments. Nissens Cooling Solutions relocates production from Europe to Eastern Europe and China due to economic pressures, highlighting EU industry challenges. JSW Steel USA invests $110 million in Texas facilities to support U.S. offshore wind development, leveraging Inflation Reduction Act incentives. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intel store, Phil Totaro. And the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you want market intelligence that generates revenue, then book a demonstration of IntelStor at IntelStor. com. Masdar has announced plans to acquire Greece's Tera Energy. The deal, valued at 2. 4 billion euros, marks the largest energy transaction on the Athens Stock Exchange. Master will initially acquire 67 percent of Terna Energy shares with the intention to reach 100 percent ownership through a subsequent all cash tender offer. This acquisition is expected to significantly boost Greece's renewable energy capacity and contribute to the EU's net zero carbon footprint. By 2050 target. All right, Phil. Masdar's back at it again. Philip Totaro: Well, and this starts off a campaign of theirs to invest in properties in Europe. Terna Energy's got wind a little bit of solar, a little bit of hydro, and a little bit of biomass. It's about 1. 2 gigawatts worth of wind at this point, but a six gigawatt renewables portfolio that they actually want to install. So this is going to provide them with, the capital that they need to be able to pursue that. But Mazda looks like they're not done. They've come out in the financial times and publicly stated that they're looking for other investment vehicles in Europe. And it sounds like there are some in. Germany and possibly Finland, Sweden maybe Holland as well, that, that they could they could gobble up here as, as they look to expand. Allen Hall: Danish wind supplier Nissens Cooling Solutions has decided to move all its production abroad to reduce costs. The company, which produces cooling solutions for a major European wind turbine manufacturers, will relocate its production to existing facilities in Slovakia. the Czech Republic and China throughout 2024. The decision comes in response to difficult market conditions, including geopolitical tensions affecting order timing and supply chains, as well as fluctuating material and energy costs. Phil, inflation is a big deal in Europe still, it is still causing major upset in the supply chain. We've seen a couple of other companies move out of essentially Europe into Eastern Europe and into China because of similar issues. This is just continuing for months now. Is Nissens still on the leading edge of this movement, or are there more to come behind them? Philip Totaro: It's entirely possible there's more to come, because, as you mentioned, inflation is part of it. It's really the lack of support that the industry's been given by The EU government and then the individual countries themselves, Denmark can't, step in and save every single company just like we see with Spain not being able to step in really and do anything for Siemens Gamesa either.

Ahead of the first episode of season 5 of The Offshore Wind Podcast Stewart kicks off the preview pod with a farewell to long-time collaborator David Lenti, and welcomes incoming co-host Rebecca Williams, GWEC's Head of Offshore Wind. There's also plenty of good news from Australia to celebrate, with the first feasibility licenses granted this week The Offshore Wind Podcast is hosted [for one last time!] by long-time pals and wind industry legends Stewart Mullin and David Lenti. Each episode sees Stewart and David welcome an expert guest on to discuss a different issue facing the sector. The panel go deep on the topic to help explain this exciting, dynamic and rapidly expanding industry. Find out more about GWEC: www.gwec.netFind out more about Siemens Gamesa: www.siemensgamesa.com