Episoder
-
In this insightful episode of Uptime Spotlight, Allen Hall and Joel Saxum welcome back Armando Costa Rego, CEO of ArthWind, to discuss their groundbreaking new software platform, ArthNex. This data-driven solution transforms wind turbine blade management by connecting field technicians directly with engineers in real-time, dramatically reducing downtime and optimizing repairs.
Visit ArthWind at https://arthwind.com.br
Connect with Armando on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/armandocostarego/
Allen Hall: Alright, Armando, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you guys. It's a pleasure to be here again. Yeah. It's been a couple of months since we've last had you on the podcast. But a lot has happened since then. Earth, wind, obviously huge Brazilian presence. You guys are working with most of the operators or much of most of the installed base in Brazil, and you're expanding out into the United States and other places.
But the product offerings you have created over that short time span since we last talked are quite amazing and you want to announce this new software product. It's called what? ArthNex.
Armando Costa Rego: Art Next, yeah. Yes. Yeah. This predator came from the idea to, to go deep in the value chain of the hippers, you know, everybody in the march, I think since 2017, the industry has experienced, uh, a fast improvement in the drone solution, the rover that we started like four years ago, and everybody's talking about how long it takes an inspection and how long pressure to produce in minutes.
So we are talk 30, 20, 25. For me, what matters if we, we create data to hipper, so the, the discussion of the architect is, okay, we jump into this phase of, to discuss how fast an inspection we are now, uh, uh, using this data to provide it to the owners in operators, OEME, whatever, in the player in the market would be interested to use our.
Maybe he pair knowledge capabilities to go direct to actions that can prioritize what to do, how to do, and sometimes why to do. Yeah, that's the question. Nobody do this question why to do that. Yeah. Those make sense or not? So the data will tell you what makes sense or those not make sense.
Joel Saxum: Yeah. So what, like when we look at most platforms out there, asset management blade inspection platforms, it's here's your inspections, here's the findings from them.
Here's a
Allen Hall: spreadsheet.
Joel Saxum: [00:02:00] Stop. Yeah, that's it, right? There's that. There's no just looking at the earth Next platform. When Alan and I were peeking at it yesterday, it was like. Here's a dashboard that shows you where your leading edge erosion status is on, on all your whole fleet. And this like, oh, that's great.
Like, oh, your overall risk score is this, oh, this turbine has a risk score of that. Like, oh, what's going on here? These are the ones that you need to stop now. Look at in two weeks, look at in 12 weeks, like. There was actionable data and that's before we even get into the operational part of repairs, but actionable data that you can look at dashboard.
Now I know what decisions I need to make today.
Armando Costa Rego: Yeah, that's right. That's right. So it is a clean data, it's clear data. We can interact with the image. We are not focused in show, like the entire blade in the platform because that consumes a lot of dev time of development, you know, so, and we note that only 4% of the emails have something to tell you.
Yeah, right. So some point of internet. So we work exclusively. And that information that's really useful to the operator.
Allen Hall: Yeah, and I think that's the problem, right? Is that when we get drone images or internal inspections, there's a lot of data. Yeah. That then as we've talked to operators in the United States, we have engineers, usually junior engineers, going through all that data, trying to pick out what's important and what's not important so that they can develop a plan themselves... -
This week we discuss a $5 million investment in a wind worker training center in Australia, challenges faced by RWE's US offshore wind projects due to recent policy changes, and the recent power blackout in Spain. Plus an article from PES Wind Magazine about cybersecurity in wind energy.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here's your hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.
Allen Hall: Down in Victoria, Australia. They're investing about 5 million Australian dollars to establish a wind worker training center, which is focused on developing technical skills for both onshore and offshore wind energy roles.
And the initiative is looking to create a skill workforce pipeline for all the wind projects that are happening down in Australia. This is a really unique. Program, uh, Rosemary, just because Victoria is looking to have about 67,000 workers in energy by 2040 and they think they need about 4,000, [00:01:00] uh, people to work construction for onshore wind at about 2,500 data for offshore wind.
That's a sizable number of people, but Victoria is headed towards 95% renewable generation by 2035. So you're gonna need to build a workforce pretty quickly. $5 million for a training center is a good first start. Is it enough though?
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I mean, they need to have a first step I guess. I mean, not that it's the first step, there's already a lot of, a lot of workers in the state.
Um, but I mean, for sure Victorian needs more, needs more service technicians and yeah, a bunch of other, other workers. I mean there's also still a lot of new wind farms being built, so there's that as well. It's also not just Victoria, you know, all around. Um, there was quite a lot of going on in Queensland, although the future plans have, I think been, um.
Uh, toned down a lot because the government changed. Um, south Australia also has, uh, still got, oh, it's got a lot of wind, already got a lot of plans to build [00:02:00] more. Um, and yeah, there's new renewable energy zones that are, you know, hopefully coming on, maybe even offshore wind starting in the next five years or so.
So yeah, if you want to, you know, suddenly expand your industry, then you do need to think a few years ahead. Um, otherwise you're gonna end up. With a big, a big crunch. Everyone wanting to build a project at the same time. And also, you know, a lot of wind farms. Uh. Getting past that first, you know, like the first few years where not too much maintenance is needed.
Um, there's a lot more things that can go wrong in the, you know, middle to end of a wind farm's life. And we're seeing a lot of that, especially in Victoria where they had most of the early wind farms in Australia. So I definitely think it's timely and uh, hopefully this one's successful. And, uh, yeah, we've got an election coming up.
Probably will have already happened by the time this episode's released. We've got a federal election. There has not been a whole lot of talk about renewable energy actually. Um, and especially the jobs that are created by Renewal Energy, especially wind, you know, like it's a, it's a [00:03:00] downside of the technology that it needs maintenance, but it's a real upside in terms of that, you know, a lot of maintenance means a lot of maintenance jobs, and these are good jobs.
I hope that, yeah, by the time we have our next election, -
Mangler du episoder?
-
RWE successfully installs the first monopile for the 1.1 GW Thor offshore wind farm in Denmark, China investigates a fishing vessel collision with a wind turbine, Texas House approves bills for recycling renewable energy equipment, and Enel launches an international wind turbine design competition.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Allen Hall: RWE has reached a milestone in constructing the 1.1 gigawatt tho offshore wind farm in the Danish North Sea, with a successful installation of its first mono pile foundation. The project will eventually include 72 such foundations, the massive mono piles measuring about 100 meters of length and weighing up to 1500 metric tons each.
Which is equivalent to about a thousand small cars. Were shipped from the Netherlands to the construction site, approximately 22 kilometers off jut Ludens West coast. The vessel La Aliza is handling installation with each shipment carrying five monopiles. The CEO of RDB offshore wind called this quote, A highly [00:01:00] symbolic moment and a great achievement, unquote, following years of planning. The Thor Wind Project features several sustainability innovations, including reused hard covers to protect the mono piles. CO2 reduced steel towers for 36 turbines. Recyclable rotor blades for 40 turbines. When fully operational In 2027, the wind farm will generate enough green electricity to power more than 1 million Danish households and create 50 to 60 local jobs.
Over in China, a fishing vessel that sank after colliding with a wind turbo in China's yellow sea failed to maintain proper lookout according to report from the China Maritime Safety Administration. The collision occurred around 12:25 AM local time on August 24th last year when the ZDUU vessel struck the southeast side of the Ong H one dash 40 wind turbine while returning from fishing operations, the accident sent [00:02:00] all 10 crew members overboard.
Eight were rescued, but one died and another was never recovered. The collision caused severe flooding and eventual sinking of the vessel while the turbine sustained only minor damage. Investigators determine the primary cause with the vessels, quote, failure to maintain proper lookout and negligent navigation practices. High intensity work, lights, impeded visibility, and the crew didn't properly utilize radar equipment. A secondary factor was inadequate public notification of the wind farms precise layout, unquote, by the operating company, which led to navigational oversight.
Moving over to Texas. The Texas House recently passed two bills aimed at improving recycling of retired renewable energy equipment. Currently, most wind turbines and solar panels end up in landfills when decommissioned, despite Texas law requiring complete removal of the infrastructure and land restoration. House House Bill 32 28 requires renewable energy companies to recycle all components. [00:03:00] Practicably capable of being reused or recycled and properly disposed of non-recyclable parts. A complimentary bill House Bill 32 29 establishes reporting and financial assurance requirements for recycling facility owners to prevent situations like the one in Sweetwater, Texas where GE allegedly paid millions of dollars to a company that shut down.
Without recycling the turbine blades.
And energy leader Enel has launched wind design, a international competition seeking innovative wind turbine designs that better integrate with landscapes while maintaining functionality. The contest. Offers substantial prices, including 250,000 Euros for first place, -
Nick Martocci, founder of Tower Training Academy, discusses their nationally recognized apprenticeship programs for wind turbine technicians and battery energy storage specialists. The company focuses on creating partnerships and initiatives that support career development and veterans' transition into the renewable energy sector.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Allen Hall: As renewable energy technology gets more complex and specialized every day, the industry needs skilled professionals ready to climb those towers and maintain critical systems. This week we speak with Nick Martocci founder of Tower Training Academy in Las Vegas. Tower Training Academy offers nationally recognized apprenticeship programs for both wind turbine technicians and battery energy storage specialists, helping everyone from recent high school graduates to career changers develop essential skills and certifications, while providing lifelong career support.
Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind Energy's brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow.
So we were just talking, it's been a year since we've spoken to you and I follow your Tower Training Academy YouTube page, LinkedIn page. I think you're on Instagram also.
Nick Martocci: Yep. Instagram. We got [00:01:00] Facebook. A lot of social media. Uh, a lot has happened in the last time since we've chatted. Uh, been able to send a few more apprentices through the wind turbine program.
Uh, I've been able to help out a lot of veterans. We had one veteran actually come through my program, uh, work with us vets to help veterans, uh, transition, uh, into the renewable sector, if you will, and help them out also with transferring them out of a bad situation. Uh, the veteran, he just. Fell onto some harm times and, uh, no, no lie before he was with my program, was actually living in his car and so he got with us vets and uh, was able to get a little assistance from them.
Also got with Salvation Army, got some assistance from them and the US vets actually pointed him towards my program. We were able to get him a sponsorship and to this day it's changed his life and he's still, even right now out in the field. Doing torque contention work. [00:02:00] That's awesome.
Allen Hall: That's a great story.
And I, on your LinkedIn page, I've noticed a couple of ribbing ribbon cutting ceremonies with local dignitaries.
Nick Martocci: Yeah, we had a congresswoman Susie Lee, her office was very, very helpful with getting, uh, some other help that we needed. Uh, moved along with, uh, a few other pieces, but she was out there to help us, uh, announce that we actually did become a, the first.
Approved apprenticeship for the Department of Labor that's active for our battery energy storage apprenticeship program. And so now we have both programs since last year. Uh, that was something that we had to kind of keep hidden behind the green curtain, if you will. And so I was working on that and now that's already up and running.
Uh, we had one apprenticeship approved before us a few years ago and they haven't sent anybody through it and. At the end of this month. Right now we're in March, so at the end of this month [00:03:00] we'll have 10 coming through my program already.
Joel Saxum: I think that's super important for the industry right now where that, that the renewables industry, because battery storage growing.
Right? I, I mean, I live in Austin, right? So it's just batteries after batteries going into the Ercot market and there's a lack of people, lack of technicians, -
Larry Ketchersid, CEO of Media Sourcery discusses their partnership with Everpoint Services to improve the recycling process for blades and solar panels, proving the circular economy. Their method uses innovative blockchain technology to create verifiable proof of proper recycling. By implementing this tracking method, asset owners can be certain their blades have been properly disposed of.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
The recycling crisis for wind turbine blades and solar panels demands better solutions as these materials pile up without proper processing and documentation.
This week we speak with Larry Ketchersid, CEO of Media Sorcery, who's partnered with Everpoint Services to tackle renewable waste recycling. Their innovative blockchain technology creates verifiable proof that your decommissioned assets actually reach proper recycling facilities, not abandoned in fields or landfills.
Stay tuned.
Allen Hall: Alright, Larry, welcome to the program.
Thank you for having me.
So we met yesterday with Everpoint Services who is doing a quite a bit of business at the minute doing solar panel recycling and wind turbine blade recycling.
Correct. And we've talked about it on the podcast more recently about the efforts. To make sure that what leaves the facility is actually [00:01:00] recycled. There is a industry problem where blades leave a site and they get stacked up in some farm somewhere or some disposal site and never get chewed up or ground up and, and recycled properly.
And it's a black eye on the industry, right?
Joel Saxum: Yeah. You get, uh, I mean, we. The wind industry has detractors. We already know this. Right? And then when you have something that's like that, especially wind turbine blades, 'cause they're big, uh, and it's very visible, the problem then exacerbates itself. Right? I mean it, like you said, black eye on the industry.
But even with that happening, we still haven't gotten all the way to solving that problem that's, that's existing there. But you guys are working on it.
Larry Ketchersid: We are. We are. We, we have a solution that we cut our teeth on with, uh, tracking things like COVID-19 test kits. Okay. Right. So we, we started proof of authenticity when, uh, we were in the healthcare business.
And during Covid we had a partner that became an importer of, uh, COVID kits from Korea. And what [00:02:00] people didn't realize is if you leave the Covid kits out of the freezer, the efficacy goes down. So we had a automated workflow system that we turned into a proof of authenticity for. Tracking Covid kits from the manufacturer.
So we put little, I mean this was four or five years ago during the pandemic, we had these chemical barcodes that were temperature sensitive, and we put 'em on the, on the covid kits. So, and, and you had to scan 'em. So they weren't really interactive sensors, but from point A to point B, you could scan 'em.
Did the, the temperature go above a certain amount for a certain period of time, which made 'em bad, yes or no? And then we just track 'em all the way through. So it, it's very. Similar to what we're trying to do with tracking, recycling. I mean, we use this solution to track, uh, all sorts of things, but recycling is a really obvious use case for it.
So what we try to do is we, we, we take an asset. So an asset can be a solar panel, it can be a pallet of solar panels, it can [00:03:00] be a blade, it can be a tractor trailer, full of blades, whatever the customer wants. And we take as much of the evidence about an event and the life of that ... -
In this episode, we discuss an offshore vessel collision in the North Sea, highlight Louisiana's offshore wind ambitions, the latest developments in South Australia's renewable energy expansion. Plus we highlight an article from Buoyant Works in PES Wind Magazine. Register for the upcoming SkySpecs' webinar on turbine repair challenges!
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Allen Hall: On Wednesday, April 30th at 11:00 AM Eastern, get that on your calendar. SkySpecs, Uptime and PES Wind are hosting our next session of a 10 part series of wind related items on their webinar. So this time it's gonna be about the the biggest challenges facing turbine repair teams today. And we're gonna have four experts besides Joel and me.
I guess we don't count as experts, Joel. So we're gonna be talking to real experts. Sheryl Weinstein from Sky Specs, Alice Lyon from Lyon Technical Access. Craig Guthrie, who I've known forever from Takkion, and Jose Mejia Rodriguez from RNWBL. We'll be there to, uh, explain how you should be planning for this repair season.
What are some of the approaches that the operators use and what works and what doesn't work? Things that if you're in the repair business or if you work. For a large, uh, operator or even a small operator you want to hear and participate in, there'll be a q and a session. So get all your questions ready, but [00:01:00] you first have to register and you can register in the link and the show notes below.
Do not miss this event. April 30th, 11:00 AM Eastern. You won't wanna miss it.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here's your hosts, Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.
Allen Hall: Up in the Netherlands, three crew members were injured when an offshore support vessel struck a windman foundation. In the North Sea and the Royal Dutch Sea Rescue Society had to evacuate two of the injured crew members from the privately owned vessel. And a third uh, crew member went to get medical attention once they got back to port.
Now, this occurred about 15 miles from the Netherlands shores, and the Dutch have opened an [00:02:00] investigation, and my first responses to reading this news was. How are we driving ships into foundations still? And Joel, can you explain all the technology that is there to prevent you from doing this?
Joel Saxum: Well, every one of these vessels that operates in that environment is going to have a, a helm display, right?
That's gonna have all of the things called stent and aids to navigation. So it's gonna have all the buoys, everything in the water that you could possibly run into. Some of 'em even have detailed stuff like pipeline data and stuff so you don't drop your anchors in certain places. But either way, they're gonna ha they're gonna have knowledge of this besides the fact that you can look out the window and see the tur, see a turbine that's 500 feet tall in front of you.
That's a different story maybe. Um, but a lot of these vessels too, of this size. So this is a, um, a support vessel offshore. So there's all kinds of different classes of boats, things they do. But this thing may work in a wind farm. It may work for oil, uh, platforms, it may work for the fishing industries.
Like it can do a lot of different stuff. But as a, as a [00:03:00] emergency response. Uh, vehicle. They also should be DP one. And when I say DP one, that's dynamic positioning. -
The first Vestas V236 15 MW turbine has been installed offshore, GE Vernova makes significant improvements in wind for Q1, and Siemens Energy has an upgraded outlook following strong performance from Siemens Gamesa.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Welcome to Uptime News. Flash Industry News. Lightning fast. Your host Allen Hall, shares the renewable industry news You may have missed.
Allen Hall: The first of 64 Vestas V 2 36 15 megawatt wind turbines has been installed at EnBW's He Dreiht project off the coast of Germany. This March the first time Vestas' flagship turbine has been installed at an offshore wind farm. Uh, the installation is being carried out by Cadeler’s Vessel Wind Orca, which recently completed similar work at Scotland's Moray West Wind Farm.
According to ENBW with a total output of 960 megawatts, HDR is Germany's largest offshore wind farm, currently under construction, and will produce enough electricity to supply an equivalent of 1.1 million households. The project is expected to start operation in late 2025. [00:01:00] GE Vernova reported significant improvements in its win segment for the first quarter of 2025.
While wind orders decrease 43% organically to 640 million driven by lower onshore wind equipment in the US, revenues increase 13% to $1.85 billion driven by higher onshore wind equipment deliveries, and improved pricing. The company invested more than $100 million to improve performance in its approximately 57,000 wind turbine installed base, and terminated. Its last remaining offshore wind supply agreement. Is proceeding towards completion on both Vineyard, wind and Dogger Bank for its 2025 Outlook.
GE Vernova expects wind organic revenue to be down mid single digits with segment EBITDA losses between 200 and 400 million. Siemens energy, ags win business. Siemens Gamesa continues to outperform expectations with its lost before special items [00:02:00] narrowing to 249 million euros in the second quarter of fiscal year 2025.
This marked an improvement fund, 446 million Euros a year ago and outperformed analysts consensus estimates of 342 million euros. Revenue grew 16.2% on a comparable basis to 2.71 billion euros, beating forecasts of 2.38 billion euros while orders declined marginally year over year to 875 million euros.
They still exceeded consensus expectations. Siemens Energy is working to turn Siemens Gamesa around aiming to reach break even in fiscal year 2026.
Now, following these better than expected results, Siemens Energy has upgraded its full year outlook now forecasting comparable revenue growth of 13 to 15% for the overall company with Siemens ESA expected to record revenue growth of zero to 2%, improve from the previous forecast [00:03:00] of negative growth. And that's gonna do it for this week's news flash.
Stay tuned for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast tomorrow. -
You may have missed this fantastic with Loren Walton from NSK, so we're sharing it again. He discusses the challenges of main shaft bearing failures in wind turbines and NSK's Super-TF bearing technology as a durable solution. Loren also covers the limitations of previous diamond-like carbon coatings and how NSK's advanced heat-treated steel can improve turbine longevity.
Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug!
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Allen Hall: With modern wind turbines growing larger and main shaft bearings failing prematurely. The industry needs innovative solutions rather than relying on yesterday's technology. This week we speak with Loren Walton, manager of corporate accounts at NSK. NSK has developed super tough bearing technology, a special heat treated steel that creates a significantly harder surface without coatings delivering long lifespans and eliminating catastrophic failures in today's larger wind turbines.
Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow.
Allen Hall: Loren, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Appreciate your time today. Loren, we brought you in the program because you're an expert in bearings. You're with NSK, A lot of knowledge, a lot of history there. First, I want to ask a real simple question because we've run into operators all across the United States and the world.
Generally speaking, we just got back from Australia who are having problems with main shaft bearings. And maybe the first thing to do here is to describe what some of the problems are that operators are facing with the traditional main shaft bearings. Yeah. So
Loren Walton: traditionally what we were saying was a whole lot of, I guess I'll say combined loading, right? So it's a, radio load that is, up and down and some axial thrust that's coming in from the wind shear, right? So combining the weight of the main shaft, which is you're taking up from that radio load with that wind shear. So then you end up having some combined loading where.
The downed wind row is seeing a little bit more of load share than the upwind row. That's getting through the lubricant regime, which is then creating some micro welding and shearing, any amount of metal, any steel. When it's created, it's going to have some disparities. I use my fingers as the disparities, right?
So your roller, your raceway, or your raceway, your roller. There's gonna be some welding and shearing that happens when that is under high pressure. And so your lubricant is supposed to create a little bit of a gap between those. When you don't have that gap you end up with the welding and shearing, you end up with what we call peeling damage, and then that peeling basically goes over and over again, and you start having high levels of debris.
Inside of the system. And then once that debris starts going all bets are off, right? 'cause you can't really even model debris very linearly. It just goes into additional sping and then you end up, if you keep letting it run, you end up with a through crack inside of one of your components, which is typically your inner ring.
'cause it's press fit on the shaft.
Joel Saxum: And a important concept here as well is because main bearings are basically a sealed lubricant system. There isn't filters on these, right? So like when you start to get debris moving around in the system, it stays there. It just, it's not oh, let's go change oil on this thing.
And we remove the debris, we put a new filter on it, -
Mark Hoppe, VP of Public Affairs & Business Development at SkySails Power, discusses their containerized airborne wind energy system. The innovative technology captures high-altitude winds with kite-based systems, producing up to 50% more yield than traditional turbines. Mark delves into the operational mechanics, deployment in remote and island nations, and future market expansion.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Allen Hall: With traditional wind turbines, limited by location and high material costs, the industry needs innovative solutions for clean energy in remote areas. This week we speak with Mark Hoppe at SkySails Power. SkySails has developed a containerized airborne wind energy system that captures high altitude winds with unique kite technology producing up to 50% more yield than conventional turbines while being deployable nearly anywhere on the planet.
Stay tuned.
Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow.
Allen Hall: Mark, welcome to the podcast.
Mark Hoppe: Yeah, thanks, man. Nice to be here.
Allen Hall: I've been looking to talk to you for. Ooh, going on at least two years because I saw SkySails in Hamburg at the Hamburg Wind Energy Show, and I thought, wow, this is really cool. And then, and the display was [00:01:00] good and the information was good.
I just didn't know how much effort had gone into it at that point. And, and we're two years further along, obviously. The SkySails technology and the problem you're solving is really fascinating because there's a lot of places on the planet that could use wind energy, but a standard horizontal axis wind turbine is probably the not the right approach, and diesel ends up being the winner on a lot of these places.
Mark Hoppe: That's a problem. Definitely, definitely. So yeah, our technology solves a lot of these problems, but of course our technology is not just meant for these kind of places. So this is the entry point where we go in as, these places, they've faced a lot of issues when it comes to logistics, prices of the diesel because of the transport costs.
That also includes in, in the diesel prices, which then makes the diesel even, even pricier. So, and due to, they have to spend a lot, a lot of money on the diesel. Then they have the issue that they don't have [00:02:00] the money for social development, for example. 'Cause they have to subsidize their power prices and all this comes along.
So what we have as a solution for that problem is that we have a containerized wind power system. It's so-called airborne wind energy system which uses the high altitude wind, which is more powerful. So we fly in heights between two and 400 meters, sometimes even higher. It depends on the width direction and everything.
And due to that we can use the higher wind and then produce 50% more yield than the typical wind turbine at the same size. So that's crazy.
Allen Hall: Yes, that's, that's really good. I think the technology and the approach is innovative. So the, the solution to get rid of all the dependence on diesel and some of these electric grids that are very unreliable is to put in basically electric [00:03:00] generation through a, a kite in the sense the technology seems.
Relatively simple, but I've looked at this up close. There's actually a lot of technology here because the system itself is really containerized. It's like dropping a diesel generator on site somewhere, but except it's a kite. Instead, you wanna explain basically how the system operates and w... -
In this episode, we discuss Ørsted's new report proposing a 30% reduction in offshore wind energy costs by 2040, and explore the potential role of automation in wind energy manufacturing. Plus a reminder to register for the next SkySpecs webinar, focused on turbine repair trends and best practices. And the La Joya Wind Farm in New Mexico is our wind farm of the week!
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Speaker: [00:00:00] You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now, here's your host. Allen Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.
Allen Hall: Well, you won't want to miss the next SkySpecs webinar, which is on April 30th at 11:00 AM Eastern Time us Which Joel, that's like, uh, it's like 5:00 PM Denmark time, right?
Roughly.
Joel Saxum: Mm. Mm-hmm.
Allen Hall: Yeah. And this is the second webinar in the joint series with Uptime and PES Wind. This edition features industry leading repair vendors and discusses the latest trends, challenges, and innovations, shaping the turbine repair landscape. Now this is who schedule to appear. Sheryl Weinstein, principal blade engineer with SkySpecs and.
If anybody knows Sheryl she knows Blades. This is [00:01:00] somebody you want to pay attention to. Alice Lyon, owner and CEO of Lyon technical access. Uh. Really knowledgeable about Blades. Craig Guthrie, who I've known for a long time now, director of Blade Service at Takkion and Jose Israel Mejia Rodriguez, who's director of engineering at RNWBL.
And if you've worked with renewable, uh, they do a terrific job keeping turbines up and running. So this discussion will be, uh, talking about best practices for operators and owners and repair teams. But so just, there's a lot of confusion at times on, on how to. Keep your organization running smoothly.
Well, these experts are gonna be giving you a, a lot of good advice and how to source repair vendors and, and how to evaluate vendors and get certifications and safety records, which are getting more and more critical as the season goes on. So you won't wanna miss this. April 30th, 11:00 AM Eastern us.
Click the link in the show notes [00:02:00] below to to register for that event and tell a friend, because this is gonna be a, a great webinar. Ørsted has released a significant new report titled Offshore Wind at a Crossroads, and you can go on Google and download this document. It's, it's a pretty thick white paper and it examines the current state of the European offshore wind industry.
And Rosemary and I were just over in Copenhagen. We saw. A lot of the offshore wind industry at the Wind Europe event. Now the report focuses on the urgent need to revitalize Europe's offshore wind industry, and it outlines the policies and industry action required to unlock investment and stabilize some of the costs and accelerate the deployment of offshore wind at.
There are a number of highlights in this. The one of them or two of them, let's go with the big ones, which is, um, Ørsted proposed a joint commitment between the governments and industry to auction at least 10 gigawatts of CFD capacity over the next 10 years. So [00:03:00] 10 gigawatts per year over the next 10 years, which would be a hundred gigawatts plus another five that would be for c corporate offtake.
So like a PPA, uh, sort of situation. And for doing this, with that commitment, the, the industry would then mobilize investment to try to lower the levelized cost of energy by 30% ... -
The U.S. Interior Department halts the Empire Wind Project due to environmental concerns, prompting political backlash and legal considerations. The Offshore Wind Industry Council releases a framework to better protect marine life, and a new assessment reveals job opportunities in the Canadian offshore wind energy market.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Welcome to Uptime Newsflash, industry News Lightning fast.
Allen Hall: The United States Interior Department has ordered a halt to all activities related to the Empire Wind Project off the coast of New York.
In a director's order dated April 16th, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management instructed Empire offshore wind, LLC to suspend ongoing activities. Related to the Offshore wind project. The stoppage order follows in part feedback received from the National oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about environmental concerns.
In a July, 2023 assessment, NOAA determined the project would quote, result in significant adverse impacts to essential fish habitat federally managed species, the prey, and other resources, unquote. Noah expressed particular concerns about the project's overlap with the Clara Bank and important [00:01:00] ecological area that provides valuable habitat for numerous fish species.
Interior Secretary Doug Burnham stated The project is being stopped until further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis unquote. New York Governor Kathy Hoel has criticized the decision pledging to fight it.
Empire Win one is already employing hundreds of New Yorkers, including 1000 good paying union jobs as part of a growing sector, unquote. She characterized the order as quote, federal. Overreach and vowed to protect union jobs, affordable energy, and New York's economic future. Equinor, the parent company of Empire Offshore Wind, LLC announced it would comply with the order and suspend offshore construction, but is engaging with the relevant authorities to clarify the matter and is considering legal remedies including appealing the [00:02:00] order unquote. The Empire Wind Project Construction included up to 147 wind turbine generators with a substantial submarine cable network connecting the turbines to the mainland electric grid in New York.
The Offshore Wind Industry Council has published a framework report to help offshore wind industries better coordinate underwater noise management, various seabed activities, including surveys, turbine installation, and unexploded ordinance clearance need improved coordination to protect marine wildlife. Conservation measures already exist in areas like the Southern North Sea, a marine protected area for harbor purposes. The report identifies a critical need for better planning when government thresholds might prevent multiple projects from operating simultaneously. Key proposals include a coordinated framework for cooperation and a transparent decision making process to quickly resolve scheduling conflicts. [00:03:00] Juliet Shrimpton and Ben Sykes from Ørsted emphasize the importance of balancing biodiversity protection with clean energy development to meet UK's 2030 targets.
And Marine Renewables Canada's new assessment reveals significant opportunities for atlantic Canada's wind energy supply chain. Under medium development scenarios. Offshore wind projects could create up to 6,000 jobs during peak periods while onshore wind could generate 5,000 jobs. Of 1070 companies assessed for offshore wind.
Roughly 25% were considered highly applicable b... -
Brett Tollgaard from Sunrez discusses their new leading edge protection solution, created using a durable UV-cure resin system. Using this solution reduces downtime due to quick cure times and strengthens leading edges for years to come.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Bret Tollgaard: Bret, welcome back to the program. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
Allen Hall: A lot has happened at Sunrez and you guys are the magic UV cure resin systems that everybody is using at the moment, but there's a bunch of new products that are coming out that I think a lot of operators and ISPs need to be aware of.
One of 'em. Is a fill of material that looks great when you're trying to fix the leading edges, which are just mangled from all the dirt and debris and rain. It's not something you can just kind of smooth over very easily. And a lot of times operators spend a bunch of times sanding, grinding, trying to get it where they can apply some sort of liquidy coating to it, and it never really looks great and it's not really smooth.
Bret Tollgaard: Sunrez has fixed that. We sure have. We've got a lot of customer feedback about some of the things that they'd like us to expand our UV cure portfolio on, and one of the big ones was leading edge protection. There's been a ton of different solutions and stuff used over the years. Some with success, some.
Slightly less mild [00:01:00] success. Uh, and so we thought it was an opportunity kind of right for the picking. And so, uh, the chemist spent a reasonable amount of time trying to develop a highly filled, uh, UV curable resin system that will live up to all the abrasion, whether it's rain, uh, you know, particulates in the air, et cetera.
And so we've undergone some really reasonable rain erosion testing thus far, and it's shown to be a pretty good result. And so it's been a slightly soft rollout as we really kind of finalize the formula in the system. But we really do think it's a product that the, uh, customers are gonna love, whether it's a pre impregnated, uh, fiberglass version, or potentially a, a putty version as well.
Joel Saxum: I mean, the LEP market is, you're always hearing about new LEP, right? There's this LEP test, there's a whole conference devoted to leading edge erosion that. The DTU puts on, but it's because it's such a prevalent issue, right? Like. Alan and I in the field looking at reviewing blade damages for lightning and things.
But we see all, all kinds of leading edge erosion. That is, it's crazy how annuity these turbines, some of these turbines are a [00:02:00] year, two, three years old, they're still in warranty and the leading edges look like they've been hit with a sandblaster. It's crazy. So the fact that you guys are working on something and what we really like, of course, about the UV cured products is that you get up there, you put it on, boom, you hit it with the uv.
You come off the tower, you turn it back on. 'cause a lot of operators, and this is, this is where sun really shines. A lot of operators are always talking about downtime. Downtime. When we talk about installing strike tape, how long do I need to leave the turbine off before? Well, we've working on some solutions.
We don't have to, uh, but. It's a, it's a very common thing and I really, what I really enjoy about what you said was customer feedback. So that means that you guys are in the market, you're trusted in the market, and people feel, feel good enough to come back to you and say, Hey, what about this? What about this?
What about that?
Bret Tollgaard: Yeah. -
David King from Gulf Wind Technology discusses RootFusion, their up-tower blade root bushing repair method. By eliminating the need for cranes, the solution reduces costs and operational complexity. And their NDT diagnostic process allows for non-invasive inspection and repair.
Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug!
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Allen Hall: David, welcome to the podcast again.
David King: Yeah, thank you very much. Thanks for having me. It's an exciting event that we're here at. So we're really looking forward to this.
Allen Hall: There is so much happening at Gulf Wind at the minutes. Uh, just been watching some of your intellectual property pop out and some of the new things that are at this show.
Uh, all kinds of areas that you're investing in, in terms of blade repairs that have been needed for probably two or three years and. At this point you, you have good solutions. The one I think we're most interested to hear about is the blade route, bushing, or insert. Repair that happens of tower because
Joel Saxum: everybody's asking about it.
I think that's the important thing there is, first off, we need to get some common language around what this problem is. Yeah. So everybody's calling it root, bushings root and this infusion like, ah, what are we actually calling? What are the terms, how you brand this? Exactly.
David King: Yeah. I mean, just you say it's really been a long time coming.
It's something we've been involved with now for well [00:01:00] over. Three years, and we got introduced originally as an RCA. And so, you know, when you get into something like a root cause analysis, you know, one of the first things you gotta do is actually establish the terms you're gonna use, establish the definitions, create a common framework that you can communicate around.
And so when it comes to this particular issue, a lot of it really starts with how do customers get sensitized to this? We've seen everything from some customers getting sensitized through, uh, unfortunately a blade failure. A blade that ends up on the ground.
Joel Saxum: Yeah,
David King: that's probably the worst scenario. We've seen others where they'll see things like.
Dust, uh, on the outside of the gel coat that's starting to build up, uh, gapping, where you have fundamentally a, a visible gap forming between the blade root and the pitch bearing, uh, where you see visible daylight in some cases. Yeah. Um, you really want to try and catch things, obviously much earlier than that, but kind of the, the, the common themes here all around a loss of connection between the metal root bushing and the composite laminate, which caused the blade to become loose from the pitch bearing.
So just kind of walk through that system maybe a little bit. Um, you've got the composite blade which has to transfer [00:02:00] load into a metal pitch bearing,
Joel Saxum: right?
David King: Metal pitch bearing's gotta be able to spin so the blade can pitch, produce, power, and do all the things we need to do. And it's one of the most complicated parts of the blade really.
'cause you're trying to transfer load from composite to metal and you have this massive stiffness difference between metal. And composites. And so it takes some very clever engineering to bring those things together and, um, get an even load distribution. And so the way that's done today is through a metal root bushing.
So it's essentially a, uh, precast metal piece, um, that has geometry to it that allows both mechanical and a chem... -
In this episode, Rosemary and Allen discuss their experiences at WindEurope 2025 in Copenhagen, covering exhibitor highlights, offshore wind projects, industry challenges, and the evolving focus on quality and technology in wind energy. Register for the next SkySpecs Webinar!
Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug!
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.
Rosemary Barnes and I are in Copenhagen at Wind Europe 2025 at the Bella Center, which is a full with about 15,000 visitors and 350 exhibitors. This is a massive show. It's the second largest, I would say, in Europe typically. Right? So Hamburg is bigger, but this is, this is. Still massive.
Rosemary: I haven't been to Hamburg.
This is the biggest probably conference that I've been to. I think probably, 'cause I used to go to, I used to go to a lot of European conferences, but like niche ones, you know, on specific topics like winter wind or, I don't know, various types of manufacturing. But this is, yeah. All wind and you say 350 exhibitors.
If you had told me three and a half thousand, I, I would've believed you because I feel like I have seen so, so few. I mean, I've seen so many good exhibits, but not, I haven't scratched the surface of what's here. And we've only got, I've only got one day left. You're going home, so yeah, your time's over.
We've [00:01:00] just
Allen Hall: walked. Through the hallways quite a bit and the highways to see what is here. It's a different vibe than what you would see in Australia or see in the United States. It is much more focused on offshore.
Rosemary: Yeah.
Allen Hall: And big scale offshore wind projects.
Rosemary: Yeah. But you know what the Australian NCES are all about offshore wind as well.
It's like a, a, a weird thing that those of us. Working in the industry, you know, in operations. Can't quite get our head around how little people talk about the kind of wind energy that we actually have. Um, but here in Europe, obviously they do actually have offshore and a lot of the future development will be in offshore.
So it makes sense here.
Allen Hall: Bristol's here. R B's here. Ge Renova. Vestus. Of course, they all have massive displays.
Rosemary: Za not a lot. Nordic
Allen Hall: had some. Yeah. New, new items.
Rosemary: I haven't seen much, um, Chinese presence here, like
Allen Hall: almost none. Yeah.
Rosemary: Which this time, time surpris me a little bit. [00:02:00] Yeah.
Allen Hall: And there's not a lot of American presence here either, besides ge Renova as the American, but they're sort of split, right?
They're all over the world.
Rosemary: Americans are busy right now. There's stuff going on at home
Allen Hall: just a little bit. Sure. Uh, but I, uh, I think some perspective there would be good as we get going, because I'm gonna, I'm bringing the American perspective, Rosie, you're bringing the Australian perspective a lot of.
Uncertainty about the United States at the minute. Uh, much talk of aren't you super concerned about what's happening in America? And I said, it's just another day in America really. And uh, what you read in the papers is not necessarily what's happening on the ground, uh, but I think other, and Europeans have a different perspective and that's great.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Allen Hall: Uh, but it does lead to some weird discussions and maybe Australia, well, you, Australia has a similar problem with America at the moment, but. It, it's, it's still, it's, it feels real. -
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. -
Allen Hall and Joel Saxum speak with Tyler Gifford, Director of Repower at Deutsche Windtechnik, about the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on wind turbine repowering. They explore the 80/20 rule, overcoming challenges, and optimizing older wind assets to improve reliability and efficiency.
Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug!
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast Spotlight. I'm your host, Allen Hall, along with my co-host Joel Saxum. Today we're diving deep into one of the most significant developments in wind energy, the Inflation Reduction Act, and its impact on wind turbine repowering. Joining us is Tyler Gifford, director of Repower at Deutsche Windtechnik.
Tyler leads Repowering initiatives across nine wind energy facilities in five states, managing over one gigawatts. Of clean energy capacity. His hands-on experience with multiple turbine platforms and deep understanding of wind farm operations makes Tyler the perfect guest to discuss the complexities of wind turbine repowering under the IRA.
Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining light on wind energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow.
Allen Hall: Tyler, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Guys, there's a bunch of questions that we want to ask you about the IRA bill and how Repowering is happening, but as we talk across the United States, there seems to be a lot of challenges there. What are some of those challenges that wind farms that are getting close to Repowering are facing?
As they start to make some of these decisions?
Tyler Gifford: Good question, Allen. I mean, typically with Repowering, a lot of people think of, I'm gonna tear the tower down and I'm gonna start fresh and I'm gonna put a whole new one up. So what we think about is there's another approach to this, the 80 20 and the IRA has really introduced a new opportunity in the industry to where we can take older assets that are, have been operating reliably for years.
And you, you can evaluate, understand your fair market value, and there's an opportunity to where that fair market value is so low to where you can go out and you can understand what, what is a value add upgrade for this, this asset. Does it ha doesn't necessarily have to be a whole drive, train or take off the hole in the cell and put a hole in the cell on it.
It could be that your fair market value is so low that you wanna evaluate. Typically owners wanna evaluate two things they want. Hire a EP, they want to increase a EP or they want to improve reliability. Those are the two big things that owners want. So with, for, so for Deutsche Wind Technic, that's what we do.
We meet with those owners and we understand, okay, you may have an asset that's 2015 or 15 to 20 years old but there's a way that, that you can take advantage of these PTCs, just like the bigger operating assets out there. So we'll evaluate, look at, what, what are your pain points? What's causing you to lose reliability, lose availability.
What's causing turbine or what's causing technicians to have to go out there and climb? What are your pain points? And then we start to target those pain points by finding upgrades that will go after those, those things that are causing causing. Those, those reliability concerns. So that could be things, it could be drivetrain it could be, it could be that you need to focus on your blades.
But it could also be smaller things, things that get overlooked. It could be condition monitoring systems that some ... -
Alex Fournier, Director of Composite Operations at Enertek, discusses the importance and training of SPRAT certification for wind turbine technicians. He details the certification levels, recent changes in safety standards, and the significance of proper protective gear and equipment maintenance in rope access and blade repair.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Allen Hall: With wind turbine scaling up and rope access becoming more critical. Technicians need proper training for safe and efficient blade repairs. This week we speak with Alex Fournier director of Composite Operations at Enertek, Alex brings insight on the spread certification process and how recent changes are enhancing safety.
Efficiency for technicians working at Height.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow.
Allen Hall: Alex, welcome to the program.
Alex Fournier: Thank you guys for having me once again.
Allen Hall: Yeah, we're glad to have you back. There's been so much so many changes that has happened since the last time you were here, but today we want to talk about SPRAT training and. What this means for the industry and what the latest and greatest is in terms of sprt.
And for those who don't know what SPRT is, it's actually an acronym like most things in Wind, it's the Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians, and they create [00:01:00] the standards around. The knowledge you're supposed to have and the skills you're supposed to have if you want to climb with rope access.
Now. I, Alex, I wanna start off first, like how big of a problem do we have right now on the training on rope access technicians? I see a lot of variation across the United States in particular. Are you seeing the same thing, that they're just not so much a concrete standard everybody's using?
Alex Fournier: I think in Canada, like we don't have that many schools that offer the course, first of all. So I think we don't have much in the east Coast. We probably have what? Three, four. In the west coast they have a little bit more. And it's often like vendors that will offer it. So it's a mistress, for example, offered a course.
They do IDA and spread. I did my course at Novel in Montreal, which is one of the best training center I've seen in all my years of Rob Access. Celtic Falcon too in the East coast. Really good training center. But I [00:02:00] think since we don't have that many, everyone is kinda like on the same page, so everyone talked to each other and the course is pretty well structured, at least in Canada.
Before when I started the course was four days, and then you had one days for the exam. So it's a lot to learn in four days, but now they changed it to five days of course, and then one extra day for the exam. So that give you much time to train and, if you don't understand something you can.
You can really take the time to really understand it. So you're ready for the exam.
Joel Saxum: Alex, let me ask you a question about SPRAT and ia, right? 'cause Sprat is the North American version. IRATA is usually the EU version or rest of the world version. They are they're organizations that push this safety forward and there's, this is how we should do things.
And a lot of times a company will adopt it, say, X, Y, Z operator says, if you're gonna be on ropes on my site, you must be sprat level, this level, that level, that, however. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but this is my take on it. They're not actually like a [00:03:00] governmental association. -
Allen and Joel discuss Nylacast's article in PES Wind Magazine about corrosion solutions in offshore wind and Vattenfall's major investment in Germany's largest offshore wind farm. They also talk about MIT's strategic alliance with GE Vernova and the ethical concerns around AI in engineering.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Speaker: [00:00:00] You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here's your hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.
Allen Hall: If you checked your mailbox or checked online, the new PES Wind magazine is out and it is full of great content this quarter.
There's a very interesting article because we've been talking a lot about offshore wind and some of the problems with offshore wind as one of them is corrosion. Just betw between us engineers, it comes up quite a bit. Like, why are we making things outta steel that you don't need to make outta steel, why you're not making them out of plastic?
And that's what, uh, the people at, uh, Nylacast engineer products are doing, um, on some hang off clamps, Joel, uh, which are traditionally really cheap clamps that are made outta steel and rust like [00:01:00] crazy.
Joel Saxum: Yeah. You know, from my oil and gas offshore background, that was one of the things that was always a pain in the butt.
IIRM contracts, as they call 'em, offshore inspection, repair, and maintenance. There's so much focus on coatings, paint coatings, paint coatings, and it's a special coating, and it's this, and you can only apply it during this, and everything has to be painted. And if you can't allow rust to start anywhere on an offshore facility, it's in a high corrosion environment, right?
You have salt water, salt spray temperatures, it's always kind of wet. It's a marine environment. And so erosion moves very fast, right? So in the, in the oil and gas world, they started creating some things out of like HDPE, which is high density, polyethylene, plastic. Um, it's even so dense. You can mill it.
It's really cool stuff. But that's what, um, the PO the kind of Nylacast engineered products is working with some of these plastic products to replace some of those components in offshore wind turbines that are a pain in the butt to maintain. So when we talk about these hang off clamps. [00:02:00] They grab the cables and other things and they, and they hold them in place in the turbine as need be.
If those are made outta steel and have a coating on 'em, and you get a little bit of vibration and that coating starts to wear away or starts to get a little bit of rust, you've got a huge problem. You've gotta take the cables out, you gotta take the things off, you've gotta replace 'em. You gotta either replace them or you gotta grind on 'em and repaint them.
It is a nightmare. So they're, what they're doing with these, um, uh, hang off clamps that are, you know, basically plastic instead of metallic. Or a plastic type instead of metallic is there, they're removing that need for IRM contracts in the future.
Allen Hall: I think it's great. It makes a ton of sense. And I'm surprised you haven't seen more of this because, uh, nylon and and derivatives in nylon are easily recyclable.
It does fit all the things that wind energy is looking for. It doesn't. Rust recyclable, easy, lightweight, simple. We need to be moving this direction. So if you haven't checked out PES Wind, you go to PS wind. -
Allen discusses the WindEurope 2025 conference in Copenhagen, EDP Renewables' equipment sale in Colombia, RWE's rescue exercise in Germany, and the milestone of U.S. renewable energy surpassing coal. We also highlight Oklahoma's wind energy growth and the UK’s Rampion Two offshore wind farm expansion.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
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.
Speaker: Well, this week the Premier Annual Wind Energy Conference and Exhibition Wind Europe 2025 kicks off from April 8th to 10th at the Bella Center in Copenhagen. With over 15,000 attendees and more than 550 exhibitors at the event.
This year's conference is going to be huge. It's going to have over 350 speakers covering wind Energy's role in the future of energy systems sectors. Coupling through electrification and power to X technologies for decarbonization. Now students receive free entry and can participate in a dedicated program exploring careers in the industry.
Rosemary Barnes and I will be attending wind Europe this week, so if you'd like to be on the podcast, please meet with us on the show floor.
Over in Columbia, EDP renewables is selling equipment earmarked for its alpha and beta wind farms as part of its exit from Columbia. The Portuguese company is auctioning 90 complete Vestas V 1 62, 5 0.6 megawatt units through its Spanish portal. The auction includes nacelles, hubs, powertrains, 450 tower sections and 270 blades. And all the turbines have been maintained by Vestas and audited by an independent certified company.
If you're interested in these 90 turbines, reach out to EDP renewables for more details.
RWE recently conducted a six hour rescue exercise at its North Sea Ost Offshore wind farm in Germany, simulating various emergency scenarios. The company temporarily suspended operations to practice rescuing injured technicians under real conditions, uh, scenarios included evacuating and injured worker from inside a turbine and rescuing a technician [00:02:00] from a service vessel.
The exercise was planned in collaboration with the German Association for Maritime Emergency Management and involved a rescue helicopter and paramedics.
A new report from Global Energy Think tank. Ember shows renewable energy from wind and solar generated more electricity in the US than coal last year, a first since coal peaked in 2007. Coal generation has fallen to a historic lows of 15% of total usage while wind and solar produced 17% of the nation's electricity.
In the middle of the United States, Oklahoma now generates about 41% of, of its electricity from wind and solar outpacing coals since 2016.
Now this transition continues despite state legislators considering bills that would restrict the location of new renewable energy projects. Over in the uk the Rampion two offshore wind farm off England's Sussex coast has received government consent to add up to 90 new wind turbines. The expansion project will nearly double the [00:03:00] size of the existing 116 turbine facility. Developers say the enlarged wind farm could power over 1 million homes and reduce carbon emissions by about 1.8 million tons annually. Construction is planned to begin in 2027 with completion expected by 2030. -
Max Le Tallec from SOCOMORE speaks about their new SOCOBLADE product, in partnership with Hontek. The product was originally created to protect military helicopters, and is now an LEP solution that reduces downtime, maintenance costs, and power losses.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit 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: Imagine spending half a million dollars on leading edge repairs only to watch them fail again in just 18 months. That's the reality many wind operators face today. This week on the Uptime Spotlight, Max Le Tallec joins us from Socomore to discuss how helicopter technology designed to withstand combat conditions is now protecting wind turbine blades.
The wait for a military grade leading edge solution is finally over.
Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind Energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow.
Allen Hall: Max, welcome to the program.
Maxime Le Tallec: Thank you. Thanks for welcoming me.
Allen Hall: I think we're gonna talk leading edge erosion and what to do about it. I want to back up a little bit because there's a lot of operators with a lot of leading edge erosion. Why should they care about the leading edge erosion? Why does that matter?
Maxime Le Tallec: The, we've seen the blade today been eroded, almost destroyed with holes of the size [00:01:00] of a fist which. Create issues on the aerodynamics of the blade and the downtime and major repairs or major downtimes on the blade.
Allen Hall: Yeah. And that turns into a lot of expensive repairs, obviously.
And we're also hearing from a lot of operators about the power. Loss of you hear numbers from anywhere from a fraction of a percent to somewhere north of three 4%. Are you hearing those same sort of things? Just the power loss gets to be so expensive.
Maxime Le Tallec: Yes. And even up to five certain are saying so that's why you need to be preventive on this aspect and actually not to wait for the damage to come on the plate.
Joel Saxum: I think that when we talk a EP loss, it's exacerbated even more in the market nowadays when we're starting to look at these 5.5, 6.1, 6.8, and I'm just talking about onshore turbines, these big megawatt turbines. If you're losing 1% from that big turbine, that's a lot more than it would've been, 10, 15 years ago on a GE 1.5, or you're not lo, you're [00:02:00] losing, but 1% doesn't hurt you as much.
But when you start talking these big, long blades, like everybody has to have a leading edge, erosion, leading edge. Protection strategy in place to make sure that they don't get to that point where they have big repairs or they're losing a bunch of production. Are you, are operators engaging with you guys now with your with the new product? Socoblade?
Maxime Le Tallec: Yes. A lot of companies, so our product today has been on the market for a while. This is the non-tech technology, which actually we scale up today. So we've worked for more than a year now with Ontech to scale up the manufacturing, to make the product available worldwide. So the product is pretty well known already in North America and the world spread farms to farms.
Now with our headquarter in Europe and our local forces we are reaching more and more European farms as well. We've seen a very high interest back in December during a Dusseldorf show. The everyone is coming. Yes.
Allen Hall: Yeah. That's unique. [00:03:00] So Hontek has developed a leading edge erosion, preventive coating that came from the military and on helicopters originally.
And that technology has now evolved quite a bit. Into, - Se mer
