The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast

Allen and Joel sit down with Jonathan Cole, CEO of Corio Generation and Chairman of the Global Wind Energy Council, for an illuminating discussion on the future of offshore wind energy. Cole shares invaluable insights on navigating regulatory challenges across multiple markets, building sustainable supply chains, and securing project financing. He also emphasizes the critical role of community engagement through what he calls "social license" in developing successful offshore wind projects. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.comWind Energy O&M Australia Conference - https://www.windaustralia.com Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining light on wind energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, joined by my co host, Joel Saxum. Today, we're honored to have with us Jonathan Cole, a visionary leader in the global offshore wind industry. and a key figure driving the transition to sustainable energy. Jonathan is the CEO of Corio Generation, a global offshore wind powerhouse, launched in April of 2022. As a portfolio manager of Macquarie Asset Management operating independently, Corio has quickly established itself as a major player in the renewable energy sector. Under Jonathan's leadership, Corio has amassed one of the world's largest offshore wind development portfolios, boasting over 30 gigawatts of projects in various stages of development across Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Americas. Jonathan's influence extends far beyond his role at Corio. He currently serves as the chairman of the Global Wind Energy Council, GWEC. and his industry expertise has been recognized through numerous leadership positions. These include chairing the Global Offshore Wind Health and Safety Organization, the UK's Offshore Wind Program Board, and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapults Industry Advisory Group. He has also been a board member of Renewable UK and a member of the UK's Offshore Wind Industry Council. Before joining Corio, Jonathan played a pivotal role in shaping the offshore wind landscape at eBird DLA from 2010 to 2021, he spearheaded the creation and growth of Ebert Della's offshore wind business, transforming it into a market leader with approximately 14 billion Euros invested a project pipeline exceeding 30 gigawatts, and a team of 800 professionals spanning four continents and 11 countries. Jonathan's a very busy person and we appreciate his time. Jonathan, welcome to the program. Great to be here with you. You've been a busy person. I've been watching your LinkedIn account in all the countries and continents you've been on over the last couple of months. You're busy in offshore wind and you were just in New York for the climate week. What was some of the outcome from those sessions that you attended? Jonathan Cole: Yeah, it's a busy time for offshore wind and busy time for me, particularly. And I was in New York last week really with two hats on. One was with my Corio CEO hat on because we've got a big project out there in New York Attentive Energy. So I was spending some time with the team out there and hearing all the great work they're doing. But also I'm the chair of the Global Wind Energy Council, so I was out there with that hat on, helping on the advocacy piece more generally. So it was a really interesting week. I think New York Climate Week is a really importa...

This week on Uptime Power-Up, a method from Vestas for modifying control of a wind turbine using load probability, a blade tip swap-out for Cypress turbines from GE, and a wind turbine tower with solar panels installed. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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, Alan Hall, and idasaur's Phil Totaro, as we discuss the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will charge your energy future. Well, our first idea is from Vestas, and it is an idea where they're monitoring the Turbine tower loads for natural vibration frequency, and you say, well, why would you want to do that? Well, of course, as things change on a wind turbine, maybe something goes wrong. Those frequencies of vibration are going to change, and the system will detect those and say, hey, something is wrong. Here's probably what it is, which is a smart way of detecting failure modes in the turbine fill. But the other thing it could do, is push the turbine harder if it's not being driven hard enough and creating enough power. Philip Totaro: Yeah, and this is actually really fascinating because, again, this might not sound like the world's most revolutionary, innovation, but it's a practical solution to a challenge that is faced out there in the field when you're operating a wind farm. And specifically, in addition to just monitoring the, the tower loads and vibration over time, they have the option to monitor the max extreme load in relation to the original design load limit and readjust that max extreme load value over time as there's an evolution of the, the. Mechanical performance of, of the turbine. And that to me is, is really clever way of approaching this challenge of having additional safety factor. Or as we see in the United States where turbines get run a lot harder. Than they were potentially designed for. Sometimes because companies are trying to maximize their production tax, credit revenue. This is a way for a company like Vestus to keep an eye on whether or not they're exceeding a. Safety criteria, or by how much are you exceeding a safety criteria of, the design load limit versus the max extreme load limit, which will necessarily change over time. As components wear and, and as the tower sees certain load cases on it. So I, I like this one a lot. I think, again, this is a really practical and clever thing. It might not be, or sound like the world's most revolutionary. Invention ever, but I, I like stuff like this. This is a really great one. Joel Saxum: I think it's a functional way of ensuring the safety and operation of the turbine. Right. The, the ability to adjust and to understand what kind of loads are being sensed and of course, When we talk about load changes in turbines, it's every component is completely different, right? The loads in the blades and fatigue loads over time and what can be and can't be exerted on them. To, to look, like a 20 year old blade is a lot different than a one year old blade and a 20 year old piece of drivetrain is a lot different than a 20, a one year old piece of drivetrain. So adjusting those load limits by calculation and understanding as the turbine ages and operations change. It's something that should actually absolutely be d...

This week, Allen Hall and Joel Saxum explore Suzlon Energy's record-breaking quarter, featuring a 5.1 GW order book and 96% earnings increase. They detail plans for the Wind Energy O&M Australia conference in Melbourne, aimed at sharing global technical expertise. Allen and Joel discuss the game-changing discovery of America's largest lithium deposit in Arkansas, and spotlight Michigan's Isabella Wind Farm project, which powers major automotive companies while generating substantial community benefits. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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: Well, Joel, we just don't seem to have the luck of some people, I'm telling you. Because a gentleman down in North Carolina found a 20 bill laying on the ground outside of a gas station and used it to buy, of all things, a scratch off lottery ticket. And that ticket was worth one million dollars. Joel Saxum: You know, Allen, sometimes they say, you gotta play to win. And if someone, if some, by some luck of chance, you get 20 and it's not, you're playing with the house's money, then. I think that, uh, maybe we need to just keep our heads on the ground a little bit more. Allen Hall: He had the opportunity to buy all kinds of lottery tickets. I don't know if you go into a gas station in North Carolina, there's several kinds there. He couldn't find the one that he wanted. So he ended up buying just one that seemed okay. And that was the winning one. So if he had chosen the ticket that they had, the ticket that he wanted, he wouldn't be a million dollars richer. Now, the real funny thing about this is they asked this gentleman, well, what are you going to do with all that money? And it says, we are going to head straight to Golden Corral and eat everything they've got. So he's gonna spend like 40 bucks worth of it? It's hard to spend a million dollars at Golden Corral. But, however, I, it did force me to take a look at the dessert menu. Cause that's one thing about Golden Corral is that they have a lot of desserts. It's like, it's a big dessert bar thing. And If you, I will read some of these to you and go, wow, okay, this is not bad, right? Chocolate dip marshmallow skewers. Come on. I'm out on that. No way. So they have cakes and pies. They always have cakes and pies. All right. All right. Right? Pumpkin pie, peanut butter pie. The Sweet Home Carolina cake, which is popular. Uh, carrot cake. Are you a carrot cake fan? I am, but it has to have good frosting. It's gotta be a cream cheese frosting. Otherwise, I'm out. Carrot cake is an acquired taste. I think it's an American taste, weirdly enough. Now, do you want it with walnuts? No walnuts. No nuts. I want it clean and clear. And I have had one with a little bit of ginger in it that was Joel Saxum: really good. Allen Hall: Oh, the ginger is terrific in carrot cake. I have to admit, I'm a recent convert on that one because I thought, there's no reason to put ginger into a cake. What are we doing? But it is quite good. So this, this gentleman is going to be a golden corral quite a while. I wonder what the calorie intake is going to be in his life for the next couple of years. Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Halladay, and I'll be joined by my Uptime co hosts after these news headlines. Vattenfall has expanded its landfill ban to include more wind turbine components b...

This week on News Flash, Allen, Joel and Phil discuss DOF Group's acquisition of Maersk Supply Service, TotalEnergies' growth in the renewables market, and Brookfield's acquisition of minority stake in four offshore wind farms owned by Ørsted. Welcome to Uptime News Flash. Industry news lightning fast. Your hosts, Allen 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: Joel, Norwegian offshore supply vessel company Dof Group has completed the acquisition of Denmark based Maersk Supply Service, which will be renamed Dof Denmark. The deal expands Dof's fleet to 78 modern offshore and subsea vessels, including 65 owned vessels, with the addition of Maersk Supply Service's 22 vessels. The combined company now has a workforce of more than 5, 000 employees and will continue offering integrated offshore services for both oil and gas and the growing offshore wind market. So you're seeing big players here, Joel, in offshore wind support. This is one of them. Joel Saxum: Yeah. From my past in offshore oil and gas, DOF is, they're in on every contract, right? They're a big company. They do things well and they do it right. Norwegians in the offshore world, you're always, you always look at them like the cream of the crop. Whenever they show up on site, they're expensive. And there's some specialists sometimes. But they are, they're always getting things done correctly. That's why people value them no matter where you are in the world. And DoF is a country, or a company, that values them. Full of all Norwegians. So, them grabbing Maersk, of course. The Norway Denmark connection of cousins or depending on which side you're talking to. Little brother, big brother. It's a, it's an easy tie up. Maersk, of course. A fantastic company with a lot of assets running all over the world. But also looking to you never know what they're going to do with this capital. Diversify a little bit try some other things. So Dof grabbing Maersk makes absolute sense to me. And if it was one company that would be buying some big chunks of Maersk assets as in Maersk supply service, Dof would be the one. Allen Hall: Total Energies has reported significant growth in its renewable energy operations for Q3 of 2024 with total power production reaching 29. 7 terawatt hours. Up 17 percent year over year. The company's renewable power production increased by 45 percent to 19. 6 terawatt hours with net power generation capacity up 36 percent to 21. 6 gigawatts. Total energies reached a gross renewable capacity of 24. 2 gigawatts with solar dominating at 15. 6 gigawatts followed by onshore wind. At 5. 9 gigawatts. Phil, Total Energy is just becoming a huge player in renewables and the growth in the Q3 is amazing. Philip Totaro: Yeah, and what's really fascinating is that with all the other oil and gas companies pulling away and pulling back from Investments in renewables totals remained committed to it and has always been one of the bigger, oil and gas and utility companies in Europe besides maybe, stack craft event fall to, well, you could say Orsted maybe but, they, they've remained committed to a renewables portfolio and have, based on their presence in the utility business around the world even in, as far foreign places as, as some of the Asia Pacific islands they've, they've had and own and operate renewable assets for, for more than a decade, going on, 15, almost 20 years at this point. So it's, it's good to see that they're. Not only committed, but they're actually seeing results because one of the reasons why a lot of these other oil and gas companies pulled out is because they were rationalizing that, hey, we can get better financial returns through oil and gas investments. Totaro's making a go of it with renewables and actual...

In this episode, Peter Winther, Key Account Manager at R&D Test Systems, discusses the construction of the world's most powerful main bearing test facility at the Lindø Offshore Renewable Center in Denmark. Winther provides fascinating insights into the engineering challenges and scale of this groundbreaking 25-megawatt facility, including details about its massive concrete foundation and the specialized testing capabilities designed to simulate decades of wear in just months. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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 Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining light on wind energy's brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering Tomorrow. Allen Hall: Today we're joined by Peter Winther, Key Account Manager at R& D Test Systems, a company that's revolutionizing how we test wind turbine components. R& D Test Systems is currently building the world's most powerful main bearing test facility at the Lindo Offshore Renewable Center in Denmark. They have already delivered the largest halt test bench for nacelle testing at the same location and now these facilities are pushing the boundaries of what's possible in wind turbine testing with capabilities up to 25 megawatts. Peter brings extensive experience in large scale test system development and has been instrumental in multiple groundbreaking projects at LORC. Peter, welcome to the show. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. All right, so you're building a 25 megawatt main bearing test system. Facility. That's big. That's very big. So just give it a sense of scale. How big is a 25 megawatt bearing? Peter Winther: The bearing itself, I would guess the inside diameter is more than four meters in a typical bearing constellation. The test bench on the other high, on the other side is also relatively big to be able to break that bearing or bearings, depending on what you're testing. The test bench itself pretty big. First of all, features a pretty decent size concrete block or foundation at the bottom, which is roundabout 35 meters long. It took 30 hours to cast the whole thing. It was a one continuous process. We had 280 trucks coming in and they were coming in every six minutes. And so we basically took all, I think, concrete production from Fyn, which is the island where Ålensø or the test bench is being realized. And then we had back off plants in case the plant went down because if you start casting, you can't stop, you need to go ahead. You can't have a cold joint. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the foundation itself. An essential thing when you make a foundation like this is also to make sure it cools in the right manner. You can't just cast it and then go away and then come back in an hour or a week and then all is fine because then you risk not having. The right material properties throughout the foundation. So we had a more than one megawatt cooling system, making sure that the cross-sectional temperatures throughout different cross sec cross-sections and the foundation was right and not too much of a difference, so we didn't get cracks and creeping and unwanted properties at the end because you, you can't really get rid of it. Allen Hall: When you take this project on, how many engineering challenges are there? Obviously building the. Concrete Foundation by itself is a massive undertaking. How many, how do you break this down and how many big hurdles ...

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 ...

In this episode, Allen, Joel, Phil and Rosemary analyze why 38% of Australian wind farms are struggling with profitability despite stable PPAs. They explore how solar saturation, coal plant inflexibility, and maintenance contract structures impact returns. Plus, the team examines BlueFloat Energy's withdrawal from New Zealand and what recent auction results in Maine reveal about the broader challenges facing floating offshore wind development. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 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: It is almost fall. I guess it is fall. Joel Saxum: It's almost November. Allen Hall: I was just outside today. It was like 70 degrees outside. It felt like the end of summer, not the beginning of fall. But we're almost in winter. We got another month or two before we hit the official start of winter, which means all the bears up in my area are starting to thinking about hibernating. But in the meantime, they're usually pretty hungry, trying to fatten up before the winter really hits. And This causes a lot of problems if you're around bears, and a lady in Montana had a problem where she went out to work in her pickup truck early in the morning and realized that it had been all torn apart by a black bear, of all things, which is the thing that I worry about the most around here. At this time of year, when you're bringing in things from the house, and a bear shows up and says, Oh, there's groceries in the car, hops in, and then panics, which is what happened to this lady. The bear panics and just destroys the vehicle. And this has happened very close to us, actually. And not that long ago, it was this summer, where bears were walking in our driveway, walked right by my wife, she didn't even know it was there. So it's serious that don't leave your car doors open. That's the one thing I remember in the fall. Don't leave your car doors open for any length of time. Otherwise, when you go back, you may have befriended a bear. Philip Totaro: Allen, I've seen videos where they're opening car doors. So don't even think about, you can close the door and they're still gonna get in. So I don't know, man. They're getting sophisticated out there. Joel Saxum: I've got another tip for you from my childhood. You always put your trash out in the morning. Before your kids go to school, before you go to work, put your trash out in the morning on the street. Because if you put your trash out outside of your garage the night before, you're gonna end up with trash all over the ground and the garbage man won't pick it up and you, i. e. me, as a young child, would have to go pick up all of our trash multiple times. So that's the hot tip. Allen Hall: It's either the bears, the raccoons, or the wildcats. Those are the ones you really have to watch out for. Get a cat down in your neighborhood because it can do a lot of damage. Joel Saxum: You would think that Allen lived in like Northwest territories or something and not in Massachusetts. Allen Hall: I can walk out my back door and pet deer right now. That's how close they're sitting next to the house. Cause it's hunting season also where I am and all the deer join into town. They're hanging up. Yeah, there's, they're not stupid. Joel, he's in the Berkshires. This is the wilderness. This is about as wilderness as you can get in Massachusetts.

This week on Uptime News Flash, Avangrid sells the Kitty Hawk North lease area to Dominion Energy. In Saudia Arabia, the government signed two major localization agreements for wind energy steel towers. And Enerjisa Üretim has secured a major 1 billion 10 year term loan for the development of the YEKA 2 wind power plant. Welcome to Uptime News Flash. Industry news lightning fast. Your hosts, Allen 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, Saudi Arabia has taken a significant step forward in its wind energy sector with the signing of two major localization agreements for wind energy steel towers. The agreements were signed by the Kingdom's Local Content and Government Procurement Authority with Al Yamama Steel Industries and Arabian International Company for Steel Structures. These deals are part of a large initiative that saw 107 agreements and memorandums of understanding signed during the Energy Localization Forum in Riyadh, valued at approximately 27 billion. I didn't realize there was that much money in steel towers, Phil, but wow. These agreements are impressive. Philip Totaro: Yeah, that that's for all agreements that they sign, not just the steel tower ones to, to clarify for everybody. But the, the interesting tidbit with this is the fact that, they obviously have a couple of, wind farms now in Saudi Arabia, one that's operational, one under construction, as well as a demo turbine from GE from, from a few years back. And they're, they're at a point where they're really looking at the future of renewable energy for themselves in, in their domestic market so that they can, have more control over, how much oil they export and, and where they export it to moving forward. So this gives them another knob to turn if they can use this renewable power for the power generation. Industry instead of leveraging their own oil abundant though it may be, they all recognize that there's a finite amount. So this is part of their efforts at domestication of part of the industry that they see as, as being an important element for them moving forward. So much so that their public investment fund has, has, Also made moves in the past to, put money behind renewable ventures in in Europe and Asia and even looking at the United States as well. So, this is them taking a step forward in terms of their renewable energy market. Joel Saxum: Yeah, Saudi Arabia keeps on basically reinventing itself and, and morphing into something that it wasn't in the past, which is very interesting. I, for one, I follow the, the Neom project very closely because it's really interesting to me. So they're spending a lot of money. I mean, they even went as far as to lure a lot of the PGA players away for their own golf league. And now they're setting up with Dana White from the UFC, they're setting up their own boxing league. So they're doing a lot of things. They're taking advantage of, of course, the money they have now to try and build what their economy is for the future. And, they have been a classically oil and gas economy. And, and that's where a lot of their sovereign wealth comes from. So they have the capabilities to make large structures and invest in, in, in industry. So going to steel towers for wind makes absolute sense for them. Allen Hall: Avangrid has successfully closed the sale of its Kitty Hawk North offshore wind lease area to Dominion Energy. The transaction was completed for 160 million dollars, comprising a lease acquisition payment of 117 million plus development cost reimbursement. While selling the northern section, Avangrade retains ownership of Kitty Hawk South, which has the potential to deliver 2. 4 gigawatts of power to North Carolina, Virginia,

In this episode, Allen and Joel speak with Tom Brady, CTO of SkySpecs, to discuss the challenges and solutions in managing multiple data sources in wind farm operations. Brady explores how SkySpecs is revolutionizing wind turbine maintenance through integrated data analytics, advanced drone technology, and AI-driven decision-making tools, while sharing a glimpse into exciting R&D developments that promise to transform the industry's approach to predictive maintenance. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.comWind Energy O&M Australia Conference - https://www.windaustralia.com Welcome to Uptime Spotlight. Shining light on wind energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, along with my co host, Joel Saxum. We're going to discuss a challenge that's becoming increasingly critical in our data driven world, managing and integrating data from multiple sources in wind farm operations. In the age of smart turbines and lot sensors, wind farm operators are awash in data. But here's the catch. According to a recent industry survey, a staggering 54 percent of operators find managing multiple data sources to be difficult or very difficult. It's like trying to conduct an orchestra where every instrument is playing from a different sheet of music. In today's episode, we'll be diving into this data dilemma. We'll explore why integrating data from various sources is so challenging, how it impacts decision making and operational efficiency, And, most importantly, what innovative solutions are emerging to tackle this issue. But that's not all. We are also pulling back the curtain on some exciting R& D projects at SkySpecs that promise to revolutionize how we handle data in the wind energy sectors. From advanced analytics to machine learning, we'll get a glimpse of the future of wind farm data management. Our guest is Tom Brady, the CTO at SkySpecs. And Tom leads the technology vision and development at SkySpecs, overseeing the creation of innovative solutions for the wind energy industry. His expertise in managing complex data systems and R& D initiatives is crucial to addressing the challenges of multi source data management in wind farms. Tom, welcome to the program. Tom Brady: Glad to be here. Thank you for having me. Allen Hall: So we have a lot to discuss actually. So we just got the grand tour of the Sky Specs R& D facility. Both facilities. This is true. We were in the offices also this morning and, we meet with operators all the time. And one of the things they'll tell us is, or especially if he asked them for data, they go, yeah, we have it, but I don't know how to access it. Or I'm not sure what system it's in. Let me go figure it out. Let me call somebody see if they can figure out where the data is. Or I have too many logins. Oh, absolutely. That's a common one. Yeah. So what is happening right now? Is it just because we're just getting so much information? We just lost track of it. We don't have any place to put it. We're using Google Drive still. Some of the operators are using Google Drive, which is insane to me. Is that where we are in the wind industry? Tom Brady: I would say all of the above. Winding back a little bit to when we got started in the industry back in 2016, we launched our autonomous drone inspection or blade inspection product.

This week we discuss Flender's adjustable rotor shaft assembly, designed to mitigate gear misalignment issues. Then Dolfines' innovative solution for onsite repairs of floating wind platforms using a telescoping crane. Finally, we highlight Goodyear's fun and practical glow-in-the-dark tires, which can help locate your vehicle in the dark and add a unique aesthetic touch. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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, our first idea of the week is an adjustable rotor shaft assembly for wind turbines. And as we know, there's all kinds of issues with anything rotating equipment on a wind turbine. Particularly if it involves gears and teeth. Well, this idea from Flender describes an adjustable rotor shaft assembly for connecting a gearbox to the generator. And the key feature is it uses a curved tooth coupling with the releasable support element which allows the both ends to move relative to one another, which And a lot of wind turbines, if you've been up in them, there is a lot of movement at times, and it lets that misalignment not destroy. The assembly. And this is really slick because we have all kinds of issues, like I've said, on anything with teeth, on, on some of these bigger wind turbines as the, the blades get bigger and they get taller and everything's moving around. Phil, this makes a lot of sense. I'd be surprised if Flinders not using this already though. Philip Totaro: Yes, I would hope so. We haven't been able to confirm it, but presumably for the turbines with larger capacity gearboxes for the, the larger onshore machines and maybe even some of the offshore ones. I would hope that this technology is being utilized because it will absolutely help make a difference in kind of bending moment and gear misalignment issues which can create a lot of maintenance work for, for the turbines. While the services folks may not be happy about it because they might be losing some, losing some revenue opportunities the owners and operators absolutely would love this kind of technology to be implemented because it's it's going to allow for a gearbox to be able to, to be operated in a slightly wider loads window which is also kind of an interesting application to this because, even in a market like the U. S. where we know that a lot of owners and operators are, are kind of PTC farming. They're not just wind farming. And what that means is they want to be able to extract as much out of the turbine as they can. for the first 10 years of, of an asset life. A technology like this might actually be helpful in making sure that the gearbox lasts the full 10 years before you see any kind of major drop off in performance. So any technology where you can accommodate this kind of gear misalignment is going to be a good one for owners and operators and, and the gearbox manufacturers themselves. Joel Saxum: Yeah, I mean, if you have a small rigid component then you can have a fixed gear, fixed location. It's easy to keep it in line where you don't have a whole lot of crazy loads on it. But like, Allen was saying at the beginning of the section here, when you're bent,

In this episode, the hosts discuss GE Vernova's financial results and blade issues, and announce the Wind Energy O&M Australia Conference. They also touch on innovative wind turbine recycling projects and the latest in safety equipment for wind technicians. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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: Down in Dunedin, New Zealand, they have a problem with people in front of the airport, uh, hugging it out too long as they depart. They've actually put signs out, max hug time, three minutes. Uh, because they've had problems with people just hanging out, cuddling, I guess, in front of the airport at the, on the drop off area. And the, when I saw this story, I thought, man, I've been to, I had probably a hundred, at least a hundred U. S. airports and dozens overseas. I've never seen this happen anywhere else on the planet. So maybe just New Zealanders are just friendlier people? They like to cuddle? Is, is that the difference, Rosemary? Rosemary Barnes: New Zealanders are very friendly, I would say. Yeah, maybe, maybe that's it. Joel Saxum: It reminds me of my grandma. My grandma would give you a hug and then never let you go. And if you tried to like get away, she'd put her, put a hook around you and that's it. You're, you're there, you're there, you're there for the evening. Now Allen Hall: did she give you some candies too? They individually wrapped candies as you, as you departed. Joel Saxum: She was more of a, less than a individual candy. She was more of like a, here's a rum and coke that, that was my grandmother . Philip Totaro: We do not encourage underage drinking on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, and I'll be joined by my Uptime co hosts after these news headlines. In a major development for the U. S. offshore wind sector, GE Vernova has announced plans to remove and strengthen additional blades at the Vineyard Wind Project off the Massachusetts coast. This decision follows a blade failure incident in July. G. I. V. Ranoa's Comprehensive Quality Assurance Program now includes the re examination of more than 8, 300 ultrasound images per blade and physical inspection using specialized crawler drones. While eight new towers and nacelles have been installed since mid August, the company emphasizes that operations and power production will resume only after meeting all requisite safety approvals. Britain's energy sector is undertaking a transformative initiative as energy ministers direct the national energy system operator to develop the country's first strategic spatial plan for energy infrastructure through 2050. This groundbreaking blueprint aims to revolutionize the nation's approach to energy planning by identifying optimal locations for new infrastructure development. The government anticipates this comprehensive approach will significantly reduce grid connection waiting times. and provide investors with unprecedented clarity on project locations. The initial version of the plan, scheduled for release in 2026, will focus primarily on electricity generation and storage, encompassing offshore wind farms, hydrogen assets, and pump storage hydro facilities. In Scandinavian waters, Statcraft is advancing ambitious offshore wind development plans with their application for a 2.

In this episode, we discuss Ocean Winds and Electrobras' new partnership to develop offshore wind projects in Brazil, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners' strategic alliance with Stiesdal Offshore, and Venterra Group's acquisition of Oceanscan to strengthen offshore wind 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.comWind Energy O&M Australia Conference - https://www.windaustralia.com Welcome to Uptime News Flash. Industry news, lightning fast. Your hosts, Allen 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: Ocean Winds and Electrobras have announced a new partnership to develop offshore wind projects in Brazil. The collaboration, revealed at Brazil's WindPower 2024, combines Ocean Winds offshore wind development expertise with Electrobras position as a leader in Latin American energy. Ocean Winds currently manages about 18. 5 gigawatts of offshore wind projects globally. and has registered 15 gigawatts of wind projects across multiple Brazilian states. Now, Phil, OceanWind has been pretty aggressive in hooking up with other places to develop offshore wind. Brazil makes imminent sense. Philip Totaro: Well, it does, as long as they get their act together on how they're going to run their auctions and how the lease areas that they've identified are actually going to be kind of tendered out because they've allowed multiple different organizations to submit bids and, and layouts for, for offshore wind farms. They're still getting some of their site assessment data figured out and they don't have any kind of regime established like they do for onshore wind as far as the, the power offtake auctions are gonna transpire and, and how that's all gonna work. So there's, there, it's still kind of a relatively, Immature market with a huge amount of potential. There's I think something like 140 gigawatts of projects that have been proposed down there at this point including those by Ocean Winds, which would now presumably involve Electrobras. So they're hoping to be able to leverage, this utility power offtake as a means to get their projects hopefully to the the front of the queue. Joel Saxum: Like Phil said, as long as they can get some of the regulatory and politics and the PPA stuff figured out, they're in a good place. Because not only do they have great wind resources, Brazil knows how to operate in an offshore environment. They've been doing offshore oil and gas there for many, many, many years. So, Port facilities, work boats, all those things exist down there, and as does a mariner economy to boot. So, they build their own vessels, they do all kinds of great stuff in Brazil. They'll be able to support the offshore wind market from a technical and operations standpoint. Easier than some of the emerging offshore markets will have. Allen Hall: Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has formed a strategic alliance with Stiesdal Offshore, acquiring a minority stake through its Copenhagen Infrastructure Partnership. Five Fund. The partnership focuses on driving innovation and cost efficiency in floating offshore wind technology. Stiesdal Offshore plans to expand its services from design and development of floating foundations to becoming a comprehensive provider of floating win...

In this Uptime Spotlight, Joel Saxum discusses the C1 Wedge Connection with Managing Director of C1 Connections, Jasper Winkes. They explore how this innovative wind turbine foundation interface addresses challenges in the expanding offshore wind industry, especially for larger turbines. The design benefits include structural enhancements, faster installation, lower maintenance needs, and possible cost savings for both offshore and onshore wind projects. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Joel Saxum: I'm Joel Saxum filling in Allen Hall's shoes as your host for this innovation focused guest episode of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. Today we're talking about wind turbines and massively important connections in between the towers and transition pieces. Bolted L flange have been used for decades to connect steel cylindrical structures. We know this. However, as the wind industry continues to push structural engineering limits with increased capacity for these behemoth wind turbines, specifically offshore, a need for new tech to solve the loading problems has emerged. Enter stage the C1 Wedge Connection. With over seven years of development and two years in the field Jasper Winkes and team have developed the next generation of steel structure connections. Jasper, welcome to the show. Jasper Winkes: Thank you very much for having me. Joel Saxum: Great. So we, you and I talked a little bit off air about kind of the technology where it's been, where it's coming, where it's going, but it's driven by offshore industry trends, right? We've all seen, if you look in the North sea, small turbine big, Bigger, all of a sudden now we're 15 megawatts and some people around the world are talking about what could be the next generation. What are those trends that are driving your technology? Jasper Winkes: Yes, indeed. As you mentioned, we've seen a massive growth in turbine size over the years. And on one hand, that's of course the growth of the rotor. And they always say the rotor is the motor. So you need large rotors to extract energy from the wind. But of course, large rotors also require tall towers. So we see that there's an exponential increase in overturning moments over the past years whereby essentially the bolted L flange has now reached the point where it is already struggling to deal with the loads and soon will no longer be able to take the loads. And of course, where that point lies is really project specific but it's an issue that has been flagged by many industry experts for years already. That L flange has been used since we started putting steel together hundreds of years ago, so in, but in a turbine, you see the L flange in between every tower section in even up in the tower, some places, right on, in a cell on blades, whatever. But what we're focused on is tower connections and even the transition piece and some of that monopile interface. So where, and what are the issues that these, the traditional L flange technology, you explained it to me, maybe you can explain it here to our listeners. Yeah indeed, we see that the heavy loaded connections, and of course, the more down the substructure, the heavier loaded the connection is, because you've got a longer lever arm to where the rotor is pushing on the structure itself. You see there are overturning moments which are already approaching one giga newton meter. For people to put it in perspective,

This week on Power-Up, Allen and Phil discuss Bachmann's turbine monitoring system that combines vibration and acoustic sensing, Blade Robot's innovative drone delivered LEP robot, and a vest that allows you to carry your pets with you. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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 idasaur's Phil Totaro, as we discuss the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will charge your energy future. All right, Phil, our First idea is called a method and device for monitoring a machine state of a machine system, in particular a wind power plant. Now that's a lot of words for what is relatively a simple concept from Bachmann, and their idea is a means of monitoring for natural vibration patterns, which is kind of what they do already. So this falls right into their Their skill set, where they're looking for natural vibration frequencies of a wind turbine over time, and the, the beauty of this system is as the wind turbine ages and vibrations start to change a little more erratically, they can point out that something is off. Not necessarily be able to pinpoint it without having more data, but to say, Hey, this wind turbine has been altered. Let's go take a look at it. Bachmann does a lot of updated control systems for a number of turbines. This could be rather Phil Totaro: interesting if applied. And here's the really cool thing about this. I think if you're familiar with like motor racing, for example Formula One racing, they actually have. People who spend all day listening to their own car and their competitor's car to try and get the acoustic signature of the engine and see whether they're running it at full power, whether they're de-rating it, or whether or not there's like a, some kind of a mechanical issue during the course of the practice sessions, qualifying or the race. And, and that's kind of what Bachmann's adopting, is that same type of philosophy, to not only do the, the vibration monitoring, but combining that with the acoustic sensors that will allow you to determine if the pitch of your gearbox has changed a little bit through mechanical wear. A lot of just the vibration monitoring can throw up a lot of false positives. So combining the acoustic detection capability with the vibration monitoring actually, hopefully, improves the quality of detecting positive, well, we're calling it a positive, but detecting an issue. In the in the mechanical systems. So, kudos to, to Bachmann for, for coming up with something quite innovative. And, and I think that this is something that they are if they're not already using it, they are going to be using it commercially soon. Allen Hall: Well, in the area of leading edge erosion, there's been a lot of work from a number of companies and Blade Robots, which is an outgrowth of Festus. Has a new concept, which I, I think I've seen, Phil, where they have their leading edge robot, and if you've been at any of the international conferences, you may have seen this robot where the blade is sitting horizontally on the turbine, so everything's uptower, and the robot sits on the blade and then starts sanding and grinding and applying a new coating, As it moves towards the root, pretty slick. The, the issue with this whole approach though,

This episode Allen and Phil examine China's move to end its domestic wind turbine price war and its global market implications. They discuss Germany's countermeasures and the complexities of international manufacturing in the U.S. wind industry. Additionally, they highlight an innovative bolt tensioning system featured in PES Wind Magazine, showcasing advancements in wind turbine maintenance technology. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Well, Phil, a Minnesota man has won the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh off with a 2, 400 pound squashy dub. Travis Ginger of Nalvin traveled his gargantuan gourd to the competition in Half Moon Day, California, of course, Phil, not for where you are where it was placed on a massive scale and dubbed the heaviest in the contest. The win marked Giger's fourth top spot win in the Safeway World Championship pumpkin weigh off. And if you're not from the United States, Safeway is a grocery store. It's Really big in California and a couple other places. So a 2, 400 pound squash. Now that's not the most he's ever. grown. And back in 2023, he raised a 2, 700 pound pumpkin named Michael Jordan. Now I don't understand why they have to name these things. That is the mystery to me is why would you have to name a pumpkin or a gourd? It is what it is. And it's just heavy, right? Philip Totaro: I mean, I'm, I'm impressed not only by the, the growing of something that large, but the logistics of getting it from the Midwest out to California. I mean, we talk in the wind energy industry about the logistics around, shipping components and, and things like that all the time. I mean, how the hell do you even truck a 2, 400 pound? And that's, that's gotta be a pretty, that's got, that's a big rig right there, isn't it? It'd be Allen Hall: Travis to start. Moving some blades around. There's been some blades that look like they've been moved like pumpkins, I've seen lately. Yikes. Philip Totaro: Yeah, well, Aion, we did catalog the fact that blade damage was the number one cost impact on, on repairs, so. Maybe this guy can teach the industry a thing or two. Allen Hall: 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, France is making waves in offshore wind development, announcing plans to tender for 9. 2 gigawatts of projects in the coming months. This includes two fixed and three floating wind farms to be built off the coast of the Ficon, Brittany, the Gasconia Gulf, and the southern Mediterranean. These installations are part of France's ambitious goal to have 45 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2050. Francis, Energy Minister, emphasized the importance of these projects for the industrial value chain, urging companies to maintain their local presence for turbine manufacturing and installation. Crossing the Atlantic, Hydro Québec and Lyons, de l'Energie de l'Est. has unveiled a plan for a new wind farm in eastern Quebec. The project, which could generate up to one gigawatt, represents a three billion dollar investment in the region and spans over 700 square kilometers. This development also includes First Nations marking a step towards economic reconciliation. The project aligns with Hydro Quebec's strategic shift towards collaborating with communities from the outset. In the United States,

In this week's News Flash, Allen and Phil discuss Xcel Energy adding 4.2 GW of clean energy to the US Midwest, The European Investment Bank's partnership with Intesa Sanpaolo to unlock up to €8 Billion for clean energy, and Empire Energy and The Herrick Corporation's partnership to form an offshore wind venture. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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  Welcome to Uptime News Flash. Industry news, lightning fast. Your hosts Allen 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. Excel Energy plans to add 4. 2 gigawatts of clean energy in the upper Midwest by 2030. The plan includes 3200 megawatts of wind, 600 megawatts of battery storage, and 400 megawatts of solar. This could reduce regional emissions by up to 88 percent compared to 2005 levels. The company will extend operations at two nuclear plants and has cut one planned gas plant. The remaining gas plant will be hydrogen capable. Now, Xcel Energy notes that the wind power remains key, but solar deployment is lower than previously considered due to economic factors. Factors. Phil, this is an interesting approach by Xcel Energy that they're really focused on wind. I was at a recent conference where a lot of wind operators said that their focus over the next couple of years will be on solar for a lot of their operations. Philip Totaro: Well, and, and Xcel has been traditionally very solar focused but the fact that they would pivot to wind at this point themselves is reflective of the market dynamics for wind and price stabilization and in the merchant markets, as well as for utility power offtake agreements and the fact that they've Excel has committed to building more transmission in Minnesota North and South Dakota, Wisconsin, and, and even out into Michigan, that's going to facilitate some of this capacity build out. So, the fact that they're kind of putting these plans in place and getting approval from the, the various state regulatory bodies to, to be able to build both the transmission and then, this wind solar and battery storage cap Capacity. That's very impressive that, they're, they're going to be able to push forward with it. It doesn't obviously uncork any more than what they've committed to thus far again, because of the, the transmission constraints, but at least they're, they're committing to, starting to fund that process of, building out more transmission and modern transmission that will allow for more renewables to to achieve penetration on their their portion of the grid. Allen Hall: Empire Energy Partners and the Herrick Corporation have formed a joint venture to enhance the US offshore wind supply chain capacity. They will explore manufacturing components for fixed and floating offshore wind projects, including monopiles, transition pieces, secondary steel and towers. The venture combines Herrick's steel production experience with Empire Energy's EPC capabilities. This is fascinating, Phil, because we really haven't seen this sort of partnership in the United States yet. Over in Europe, this happens quite a bit. Will we see more of this sort of de risking, but at least trying to move forward on offshore wind? Philip Totaro: I certainly hope so. And this is actually in direct response to them,

This episode Allen and Joel speak with Bill Slatter, CEO of Eleven-I, about their innovative blade monitoring technology. Eleven-I's sensors provide real-time data to detect and prevent blade damage, potentially reducing maintenance costs and improving turbine efficiency. Gain insights into the challenges of wind blade lifetimes, the importance of proactive monitoring, and the future of blade condition monitoring systems in the wind energy industry. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, joined by my co host, Joel Saxum. As we have all experienced, wind turbine blade failures can lead to costly downtime and repairs. And Eleven-I is tackling this challenge head on with their innovative monitoring technology. Their systems provide real time data that helps increase efficiency and reduce maintenance costs. And if you are new to Eleven-I, they are based in the UK. Near Manchester, England. Today, we're joined by Bill Slatter, CEO of Eleven-I. We'll be discussing the challenges in Windblade Lifetimes, Eleven-I's solutions, and the impact on the industry. Bill, welcome to the show. Bill Slatter: Thanks for having me. Allen Hall: There has been a number of horror stories over the last several months in regards to Blades And I know Eleven-I has been called into action on some of those because I've dealt with the operators on those projects but there does seem to be a lot of blade issues at the moment. And it mostly, at least in my opinion it evolves from not knowing what is actually happening with the blade. Bill Slatter: So one of the things that Eleven-I is trying to do is not just detect damage, but help understand what's causing most of those damaging conditions. It's something that we've. We've been trying to pioneer is yeah, picking out what causes damage, not just picking out when it's happened. Is that already too late? I think that's one of the things that the industry is picking up on. We need to Obviously pick out that damage earlier on. What would happen if we could actually get to the point where we're preempting damage and stopping it happening? Joel Saxum: So I think Bill, that's one of the things of course we've known each other for a couple of years now, and that was one of the things that originally, when I was in my blade life attracted me to you and your solution. Of course, I like working with you because you're a nice guy. But, on the other side of that, it is what Eleven-I brings to the table as far as its CMS technology, and you immediately caught me when we had our first call and you showed me a presentation about, and you're like, this is an active movement of what's happening in the blade now, And you guys are doing things rather than, hey, we've detected a crack, it's, we have these physics engines, we're trying to do, we can, we're looking at modeling fatigue over lifetime, we're trying to understand why these issues are happening, or being able to warn operators or give them flags of hey, you're overloaded here, or you've got this going on, Before, and what we feel like a lot of other CMS systems do, they're like, Hey, problem, flag, come and inspect. So can you walk us through a little bit about what sets the Eleven-I solution apart from the rest of that Blade CMS marketplace? Bill Slatter: Absolutely. I think one of the sort of things that perhaps differen...

This week on Uptime Power-Up, an idea from Takkion for re-boring the gearbox and adding an insert without needing cranes and a method from Alliance for Sustainable Energy for a fillable wind turbine blade. Plus a way to rest your head while standing up. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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 idasaur's Phil Totaro, as we discuss the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will charge your energy future. Alright guys, this week some really interesting ideas on the docket. This first one has to do with replacing parts of a gearbox. If you've been around gearboxes long enough, you realize that there's a nice set of bearings in them and sometimes the bearings get overloaded. And they start to spin inside the housing. When that happens, it creates some unevenness and you essentially have to pull the gearbox out of the turbine, sit on the ground and work on it or replace it. But this idea from Renew Energy Maintenance, which is a part of Takkion now, I believe, has a way of basically taking some, some machinery, some equipment up tower and re boring. This gearbox, we're putting an insert in or a sleeve in so that the bearing can be set properly so that the gearbox then functions correctly. Now Phil, this is a big money saver, right? To have a piece of equipment that saves you from bringing in a crane? Philip Totaro: Well, it, and it's not only that, it's the fact that, on site maintenance is something that's always subject to a certain level of precision. But when you start talking about doing gearbox repairs and replacements, and this is, as you're mentioning, if you basically have a situation where the bearing raceway kind of machined itself out, you're probably gonna have to fit something new in there. But in order to do that, you've got to kind of refresh the bore. And so what this idea is, is effectively a tool that allows you to rebore this hole and stick a sleeve in there, then put the bearing, the new bearing raceway in there so that everything still kind of fits in a, in a compliant way. On the original gearbox housing. But it's doing so, like you mentioned, in a way that it doesn't require a huge crane for lifting the gearbox out and lowering it to the ground, where you would normally want to do repairs. Of this level of precision when, when we talk about doing up tower repairs on like a blade, you might be able to, to get away with, shaving things down up there and while guys are dangling off and ladies are dangling off ropes and, and whatnot. These, these technicians. The, the reality of that is there's a, there's a certain level of precision involved with that, and you can probably get away with, minor idiosyncrasies or minor variations in, in the quality of that type of work. When you're talking about boring a new hole in the gearbox housing, it has to be done with a certain level of precision in order for everything to still, fit properly, like the bearing raceways, the sleeve that they're talking about in this patent application. Everything's gotta be able to fit in a certain tolerance level. So, the fact that they've invented this tool that's gonna allow for, this repair that would normally involve a large crane pick, or, even if it's a turbine level crane pick.

Renew Holdings purchases Full Circle for £50M, following the UK decision lift restrictions on offshore wind. BlackRock's holding of voting rights and share in Vestas has increased to 7.59%. And EQT has acquired renewable developer OX2 for $1.58 Billion. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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 Lightning Tech, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. Newsflash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you want mar, ket intelligence that generates revenue, then book a demonstration of IntelStor at intelstor.com. Renew Holdings and engineering service company base in Leeds has purchased full circle. Group Holding BV, a Dutch firm specializing in onshore wind turbine repair and maintenance. The acquisition, valued at 50 million pounds, was funded through Renew's existing resources and banking facilities. This move follows the new labor government's decision to lift restrictions on new onshore wind projects in England. Well, UK government changed and they have become more proactive on onshore wind. That made a nice little market for all the repair companies in the UK to be gobbled up by larger players. Philip Totaro: Yeah, precisely, and at the end of the day Full Circle is one that already has a lot of contracts in place on the aging fleet, so there are going to be repowering opportunities in addition to new build in, both Lower England, Scotland, Wales, et cetera. So you're, you're going to see a company like Full Circle continue to thrive, but all the other O& M shops and, and independent service providers over there are going to start probably getting a lot more attention and potentially work if you start seeing more build out in the market. The funny thing about the UK is even a lot of the, well in Ireland you'd have to say too, a lot of the new build, doesn't always get the OEM full service agreement. So they've tended to rely a little bit more on the independent service providers in that market, again, particularly for the older assets. So, this is a, it's, I guess it's a good time to be in the The service and repair business. Joel Saxum: I think you're going to continue to see a lot more of this happen. We've been talking about for the last few years is this market consolidation of these smaller ISPs. And I say smaller, but 50 million or 50 million pound acquisition is not a small acquisition. So full circle repairs, but having those contracts in place makes them attractive for an acquisition. So I know that you've seen some, there's been some larger ones scooping up and buying up and buying contracts and a little bit of mark margin compression and things over there in that market. I would still continue to look for, like, Renew Holdings. I don't know anything about the internal workings of that company, but I would bet this is not their last acquisition. And you've seen other large groups doing the same thing. Mulahan and some others. So, keep watching that space. Especially, like Phil, like you said, as the Labour Party has lifted that moratorium on work in the, in the UK. Allen Hall: Vestas has disclosed a notification from BlackRock regarding a change in its group structure. Following the acquisition of Global Infrastructure Management,

This episode explores the recent acquisition of a stake in Ørsted by Equinor, discussing its implications for the renewable energy sector. We delve into the EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism and its potential impact on wind turbine prices. Additionally, we examine Form Energy's latest funding round and the challenges of scaling up new energy storage technologies. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: So, down in the south, which is hurricane prone, one of the ways you know to evacuate is to check out the Waffle House. Now, if you've never been to a Waffle House in the South, it is delicious for breakfast, or pretty much any time. It's open 24 hours a day, Joel. You can always go in and get some coffee and some eggs and some waffles. Joel Saxum: The best time for a Waffle House is 2 a. m., because it is Allen Hall: But the weather forecasters at the Waffle House appear to have an inside knowledge of where these storms are going because everybody's paying attention to if the Waffle House is closed, that means get out of town, or if it's open, then maybe it's not going to be so bad. So instead of listening to the National Weather Service or your local weather agency, weather person were relying on the Waffle House to determine the fate of hurricanes now. Joel Saxum: Allen, it's a little why I made a reaction when you did this is I actually have a LinkedIn post that I put together about the hashtag WH index the Waffle House index that is, was coined by a FEMA director back in 2004. And what it was is he was down in Florida surveying and I can't remember what hurricane that was, but surveying a hurricane damage and the only place he could find that was open was Waffle House. So he, then he separated into three things. It's green for Waffle House is all a go, yellow for Waffle House has a limited menu, and red for Waffle House is shut down. And if all the Waffle Houses look red around you, you better evacuate. Allen Hall: It's a good rule of thumb. And I know people in Western North Carolina. Eastern Tennessee and now sort of central Florida are really going to have a bad go of it. And yeah, serious stuff, everybody pay attention, keep your head down, get out of the bad weather. Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, and I'll be joined by my Uptime co hosts after these news headlines. In a major development for European offshore wind, Total Energies has agreed to acquire a 50 percent stake in two large scale offshore wind projects from RWE in Germany. The combined capacity of these projects is a staggering 4 gigawatts. Located northwest of the German island of Borkum, investment decisions are expected by 2027 and 2028, with full commissioning planned for 2031 and 32. The partnership not only strengthens TotalEnergy's presence in the German electricity market, but also significantly contributes to the country's efforts to decarbonize its energy sector. Across the Atlantic, Canada has passed groundbreaking legislation opening up its east coast to offshore wind investments. For Bill C 49 creates a framework for developing offshore wind energy in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. The bill amends the Accords Act, allowing federal and provincial governments to jointly manage offshore wind resources. As a result, regulatory bodies have been renamed to reflect their expanded role.