The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast

Allen Hall and Joel Saxum visit Gulf Wind Technology in New Orleans, where they sit down with CEO James Martin and CTO David King to explore the company's innovative work in wind turbine technology. The conversation delves into Gulf Wind's unique facility, their approach to solving industry challenges, and their role in developing wind energy solutions for the Gulf of Mexico. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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, along with my cohost, Joel Saxum. And we are in New Orleans, Louisiana, of all places, at Gulf Wind Technology. And we have James Martin, who is the CEO of Gulf Wind Technology, and David King, the Chief Technical Officer at Gulf Wind Technology. And first of all, welcome to the podcast, guys. Great to be here. Yeah, thanks for coming to visit us. We've had a wonderful time here today going through the Gulf Wind Technology. offices and workspace. It is impressive. It's not something I knew we even had in the United States, honestly. And you guys have been working for a couple years on a variety of different projects and technologies. And we had a meeting this morning, just full disclosure, about all the things that Gulfwind has been involved with. I'm like, whoa, all right, I didn't know that. Some of it is top secret still, some of it not top secret. James, let's just start with you. I think people in the U. S. don't have a lot of experience, haven't met you before, haven't worked with Gulfwind. Can you just give us a brief background on what Gulfwind Technology is as a business? James Martin: Certainly, yeah. Gulfwind Technology, we are all first principles, blades engineers essentially, first. OEM industry for a number of years. We've seen some of the challenges that the industry is up against today, and we like to think that we can predict maybe some of the challenges for tomorrow. So with that team, we've been able to build assets, equipment get ourselves out there as problem solvers and offering technology solutions to basically problems that can reduce the cost of energy over time. It gets talked about a lot. We're going to talk about some of the assets we've invested in, but yeah, we've got reliability products that get involved with today. The problems of today's market. We're really passionate about the products of tomorrow. So more performance projects for the future. And we love running projects. So we like, we specifically, we've been working in our region to open up or demystify, remove roadblocks for the Gulf of Mexico market. Which have got some great technology problem statements in there Allen Hall: Because that's where we first heard of gulfwind was with the work with shell gulfwind, right? Yeah, that's It's a double edged sword and we had you on the podcast in a sense because we were talking about the first wind turbine being Installed in louisiana and gulfwind is involved with that. James Martin: Yeah, I mean we really thought Because a lot of our challenges about how to get technology to products how can we demonstrate that we can take it off a desktop study in terms of a solution or an idea, and how can we show it works? How can we de risk that for our customers? So the first thing we thought is that we really want to invest put our money where our mouth is, make sure that we can design, make sure we can test on a sub component level,

First up, Aerodyn Consulting's patent for a single point mooring system with dual wind turbines. This concept is only being utilized by MingYang for their OceanX wind turbine so far, but it's promising. Then Newtech Group's method for connecting modular wind turbine blades, which could make the concept more viable. Finally, a method for keeping your dogs ears out of their food. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to Power Up, the Uptime podcast focused on the new, hot off the press technology that can change the world. Follow along with me, Allen Hall, and IntelStor's Phil Totaro, as we discuss the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will charge your energy future. Phil, another busy week in the ID and patent world. And we're going to start off with the single point mooring wind turbine with two wind energy conversion units. That's a complicated name for something that seems rather simple from Aerodyn Consulting over in Singapore. And this idea has been implemented by MinYang and we've seen this, I think it's called OceanX, where they have two independent turbines on a platform. a master controller for the two and it's floating and it points itself on a single mooring system But there's more details to that you want to explain what else they have going on in this idea. Philip Totaro: Yeah, so this this is a pretty complicated and but clever idea And I actually want to take a step back and talk about the fact that nobody else in the industry at this point is using this technology other than Ming Yang, who's licensed the design from, from Aerodyn. And, and again, what this does is it's going to ensure that. Basically, the, the platform that has these two counter rotating turbines on it doesn't basically kind of yaw itself or shake itself apart from, from having the having the both rotors pointed in, in different directions. Directions that they shouldn't be pointed in. So the mooring system is kind of helping with with that to an extent. But it's also ensuring that the entire platform is able to yaw into into the wind in a way that's going to be favorable, including the typhoon that this thing actually just survived over in China. So when they deployed this prototype, it's, in a typhoon prone area. And it seems like this single mooring system did his job pretty well. Joel Saxum: Yeah, the single point mooring is not a new concept, right? It's just with this patent, it's filed with the addition of the twin rotor and how that thing works together. But single point mooring has been used offshore and oil and gas world for a very long time. There's a, There's a type of vessel called an FPSO. It's a floating production and storage and offloading facility. But these things are massive. If you've ever seen an offshore, what they, it looks like an offshore oil rig. They look like a big ship, but usually they aren't powered or anything. They're drug out there by tugs and they're hooked up to what is called the single point mooring system. And that single point mooring system is a way of affixing that structure topside to one spot and then it can rotate around it. in production and one of the downfalls of this this setup for operations and maintenance is not so much with this ming yang machine because it's a 16 megawatt machine it's a big big thing but if you have to put a lot of these out there a single point more Needs to be anchored off...

Allen, Joel, and Phil dissect GE Vernova's restructuring of its offshore wind operations, potentially cutting 900 jobs globally. What will be the implications for the US and international wind energy markets? They also share key insights from the Sandia Blades Workshop, emphasizing the importance of prescriptive operations and digitizing tribal knowledge. Enter to win a bunch of Yeti and StrikeTape swag at https://weatherguardwind.com/yeti! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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: Hello everyone. Joel and I have been traveling across America talking with GE2X wind farm operators about how strike tape can protect their blades against lightning damage. If you work on a GE2X site, you need to visit our new website. weatherguardwind.com/yeti. We'll show you how your turbines can be protected against lightning with Strike Tape, and you can also register to win a nice Yeti Roadie 48 cooler, four Yeti mugs, and some Strike Tape swag. Just visit weatherguardwind.com/yeti. Phil, have you been to the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York? Philip Totaro: I have not. Allen Hall: Oh my gosh, you're missing out because they have the finalists, the twelfth finalists for induction into the National Toy Hall of Fame this year. And they include, are you ready? Drum roll please. Balloons, Pokemon cards, your own adventure books, which is a particular kind of interesting book. Hess toy trucks, which we see at Christmas time here in the United States. My Little Pony, which should have been an entrance a long time ago, honestly. How is that not already in there? Exactly my point. Remote control vehicles, stick horses, trampolines, and probably one of Joel's favorite, Transformers. I'm a Transformers fan. Hang on, let's go back to stick horses for a second, because again, how long has this museum been, or Hall of Fame been in business? I mean, are they, they're digging up some pretty legacy toy technology there. Stick horses are back. Have you seen those competitions of, where people are riding the stick horses over a competitive course where they're hopping over things and running around? Philip Totaro: There are some people that think that the United States Is not going in the right direction. I think these people are probably steering us in exactly where we don't need to be. Joel Saxum: Allen, when you said that the Toy Hall of Fame, I looked over at my bookshelf and I have to, I went and grabbed this toy, because to me, this is American Toy Hall of Fame material. This was, this toy was my dad's when he was a kid. And this is the original Mound, Minnesota built Tonka trucks. Allen Hall: I think we all need to take a moment and observe and salute the old Tonka truck. I Philip Totaro: will salute that. Joel Saxum: Working tailgate, I'm telling you, that's it right there. Philip Totaro: That's a toy. Joel Saxum: It even says USA on the tires. Allen Hall: Made out of American steel and the edges are sharp like they should be. I'm Allen Hall and here are this week's top stories. In a significant corporate development, the Spanish government has authorized BlackRock's stake in Natergy. This follows BlackRock's acquisition of GIP, which owns 20. 6 percent of the Spanish energy company. The approval comes with conditions, including support for energy transition projects and maintaining Natergy's headquarters in Spain.

BP has decided to sell its onshore wind business in the US, aligning with the company's return focusing on oil and gas. GE Vernova has partnered with Italian company Lizard Renewables to develop over a gigawatt of renewable power in Italy. Engie has added Ares Management as a partner in a 2.7 gigawatt portfolio in North America. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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 NF92324 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 market intelligence that generates revenue, then book a demonstration of IntelStor at IntelStor. com French power utility Engie has partnered with Ares management in a significant us renewable energy deal. Engie North America has attracted Ares management infrastructure opportunities fund as a minority partner in a 2. 7 gigawatt portfolio. of operational solar, wind, and co located storage assets across the U. S. This transaction, NJ's largest operating portfolio sell down in the U. S., involves 15 plants across ERCOT, MESO, PJM, and SPP. Okay, Phil, a lot of acquisitions and mergers happening again, this time with Engie. Philip Totaro: Yeah, this one is Interesting a little bit because it's More or less their first foray besides what they've done in offshore. It's one of their first kind of forays into significant minority ownership from a financially focused partner And, Ares obviously has an appetite. Ares owns a few other assets in the U. S., either majority or significant minority as well. And so to add this kind of a portfolio to the mix gives both companies, It helps both companies achieve what they want in terms of, freeing up some additional capital for Engie to go reinvest in other projects and, bringing on a partner that wants financially viable assets in their, in their portfolio mix. So, look, we've talked about a number of these kinds of deals in the past where, a financially focused company gets into a portfolio, either minority, majority but partners in some way, shape, or form with an experienced owner and operator and it's, it's good to see this, this matchup. And I would expect if there's anyone else out there that hasn't already, executed deals like this, they are probably looking to go in this direction because there is a lot of capital that it's sitting on the sidelines right now. You're, you're not seeing tons and tons of new capital go into new project build out because of interest rates and et cetera. But there is capital kind of sitting on the sidelines that wants to be able to get into renewables. This is still one way they can do that by partnering on a pre existing portfolio. Joel Saxum: And from an operational standpoint, Ares just, I think, a few years ago acquired the majority stake in Apex Clean Energy. And when that happened, I know the Apex Teams ended up operating their assets more themselves. So, and where they were traditionally kind of like letting other ISPs or whatever, or, or FSAs manage them, they turned into a different financial model. So you can look for some of these assets that Engie manages right now with the Ares funds and to possibly adjust how they manage these things. from a operational standpoint as well. But like Phil said,

Allen and Joel speak with Frank Martinez, Talent Acquisition Specialist and Veterans Ambassador for Pearce Renewables. With 32 years of distinguished U.S. Army service and 13 years at Pearce, Frank shares invaluable insights on creating pathways for veterans in the renewable sector. Pearce is leveraging veterans' unique skillsets and fostering a supportive work environment, with an impressive 10% of their workforce self-identifying as veterans. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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. Today, we're pleased to welcome Frank Martinez, Talent Acquisition Specialist and Veterans Ambassador for Pearce Renewables. Frank brings a unique perspective to our discussion combining 32 years of distinguished U. S. Army service with 13 years at Pearce Services. In his current role, Frank leads Pearce Renewables Efforts to recruit and train veterans for the renewable energy industry. This initiative draws on Frank's extensive military background and his deep understanding of the renewable sector. During his military career, which included both active and reserve service, Frank trained over 40, 000 service members. Today, Frank will share insights into Pearce Renewable's veteran recruitment and training programs. He'll discuss how the company is creating pathways for veterans into renewables and explore the valuable skills. Veterans bring to the sector and Joel and I are looking forward to hearing about these initiatives in veteran recruitment and training for the renewable energy industry. Frank, welcome to Uptime. Frank Martinez: Good to be here, Allen. Thank you. And Joel for having me on the show today. Allen Hall: So Frank, you have an extensive career in the military. My gosh. And I want to touch upon that just briefly because you don't run across people every day that have served over 30 years in the military. That's right. And you want to just give everybody some insight into what you did with the U. S. Army? Frank Martinez: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, you're right. I usually don't meet too many people that have 20 plus years, let alone 30 plus years. So that said, I know that it is pretty unique. I will tell you that, I love being part of the Army because I really cared about the mission. And what was the mission over the last 20 years? As you remember, we were at war. I had a really vested interest in helping those that were preparing to go to war be part of that solution. And so I did that for the last 18 years of my career. I was an instructor trainer for units Army, Air Force, and Navy that were going overseas to deploy Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, all types of contingent operations worldwide. So I was part of that and like you said there in the intro 40, 000 service members that I stood in front of and taught a subject to. And I'm very proud of that. So I was part of that solution that the army needed to get people ready to go to war. That is incredible. I think it's incredible as well. Just the opportunity to do that. When I was in it I was 100 percent dedicated to that mission and how serious it was. Because we're talking about people's lives, we're talking about America's sons and daughters at this point. It really I knew at the time when I was doing it that it was much bigger than myself. And so just to be part of that I wanted to ride that as long as I could,...

This week, Allen and Phil discuss NextEra's Inventus Holdings patent to increase the longevity of cable bundles on wind turbines. And Mitsubishi Heavy Industry's system for measuring lightning current on a wind turbine blade. Plus a groundbreaking method for swinging on a swing... Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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. It's been a beautiful day. Busy week in new ideas, Phil, and our lead off for this week is a cable bundle longevity on wind turbines invention from Inventus Holdings. And Inventus Holdings is actually who, Phil? Philip Totaro: It's NextEra Energy's holding company for all their IP filings. So, what's interesting about this is not just the invention they came up with, but the fact that asset owners and operators in the past Let's say five to seven years have started filing patents on a lot of different technologies, including something like this, where, they wanted something that would provide them better vibration isolation for the, the cables that are running up and down the tower on a wind turbine. And that's basically what it is. It's a, it's a cable harness. It's not particularly the sexiest sounding invention but it's the design was something developed by NextEra because of their field experience. They saw that there were a lot of cable bundles that were having abrasion related reliability issues, and they, they developed this as a means to provide some kind of vibration isolation and, and abrasion isolation for the, the cable bundles to preclude them having to go out there and, and service these things more frequently as they were having to do in the past. So, kudos to to NextEra on developing something that's going to. Save them time and money doing field repairs. So the, the concept, Allen Hall: it's a little hard to visualize, but if you've ever used a lathe, if you have, you're turning big objects in a lathe, you need a way to support it on one end it and let it rotate the same time. So it looks like a lay support it's basically what it is where the harnesses can move around internally to without friction to cause damage because a lot of operators have cable damage right there at the yaw deck because the cables rub against one another and against, and against the deck, which is crazy because the resulting failure modes are ugly and timely take a bunch of time to repair and, So good on Aventus and good on NextEra for coming up with this idea. So our next idea is a lightning protection system for turban blades from MHI, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry. And this one's a little unique. It's sort of in my ballpark here in the lightning world. Where they're trying to measure lightning current, where it attaches to the blade, and they're envisioning, the Mitsubishi engineers are envisioning, putting a metal leading edge on a portion of the blade near the tip, obviously, and then having a metal tip, and to measure the current on each one of those, to see where lightning is striking on the blade. It seems rather simple at first, Phil, but I think the implementation of this can be difficult. Philip Totaro: Yeah, and it's, it's funny because, I mean,

GE Vernova's CEO, Scott Straszak, announced at a conference that the company is on schedule to lose about $300 million in Q3. It seems the blade failures at Dogger Bank and Vineyard Wind are resulting in a big chunk of these losses. And many European companies have decided to leave Vietnam due to the country's relationship to China. Register to attend AMI's Wind Turbine Blades Boston, October 2nd and 3rd. Enter to win 2 VIP NASCAR pit passes at the Kansas Motor Speedway! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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 Philip Totaro: Phil, you were just at RE+ in Anaheim, sunny Anaheim. How'd it go? I was extremely sunny and face meltingly hot on the first couple of days from the heat wave we've had in California. It was like a hundred and three degrees on Monday and then it started cooling off thankfully more recently, but there were, I don't know the official number but they were telling me it was close to 40, 000 attendees. So I've done a few of these events before in at the Anaheim Convention Center, if you're familiar with it. It can hold that capacity, but it was absolutely bursting at the seams. And people absolutely everywhere. I've never seen that so jam packed. The interesting thing about it is there were many different exhibitors there. But the overwhelming majority of them seemed like they were supply chain companies. Which was a little disappointing on my part. I was, I was there to try to talk to project developers and financiers anyway. But the supply chain companies that were there covering the spectrum of both residential and utility scale solar, as well as battery storage technology, really interesting stuff. There's some, they're making great strides in some of the solar module manufacturing and sell. Technology and even some of the packaging and integration is getting pretty slick. Keep in mind, too, that, CAPEX for solar compared to wind is still You know what about 15 to 20 percent lower at this point? Especially in the U. S. market anyway so you're seeing, it's rather substantial amount of interest at this point in solar and hybrid battery storage projects. And everybody that was there, the energy of the event was good. We didn't sadly do an uptime wind energy podcast there. So they're a little light on the the wind energy content that, that the, rebranded solar Power International re, which is now repl, but we hope to be able to address that in the future. Allen Hall: It's a sunny conference for our solar and battery festival, which is really what it is. Makes sense. I just wish when we get to some of our wind conferences, we're in places that are windy. We don't tend to go to places that are windy, like Kansas or Oklahoma. Philip Totaro: I got news for you. It seems like next year we're gonna be in Phoenix Arizona, right? So that, that's gonna be hot and maybe a little miserable, cause I think it's happening in May. Allen Hall: Yeah, we're in a solar hotbed. We should be at a wind site. I know, irony. I'm Alan Hall, and I'll be joined by the rest of the Uptime hosts after these news headlines. The United States is seeing significant growth in offshore wind development. Massachusetts and Rhode Island are moving forward with three offshore wind projects totaling 2. 9 gigawatts. The projects, named South Coast Wind, New England Wind 1, and Vineyard Wind 2, are expected to power approximately 1. 6 million homes.

Doosan is localizing production of 10 MW wind turbines in Korea, aiming to increase the localization rate of components to 70 percent by next year. IPS has acquired the assets of ABB Industrial Services Business Unit. And Dongtam Group invests 200 million in a wind power equipment factory in Vietnam. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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 Tutaro. And this is your Newsflash. Newsflash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you want market intelligence that generates revenue, then book a demonstration of IntelStor at IntelStor. com. Doosan Enerbility has announced plans to localize 10 megawatt class wind turbines as part of a national project. The company is collaborating with four public power companies. and five small and medium sized enterprises. The project aims to increase the localization rate of components to 70 percent by next year with demonstrations planned after 2027. Phil, a 10 megawatt turbine is a big enterprise to try to complete. Is Doosan ready for that? Philip Totaro: Yeah, this is a great question because obviously Doosan as an industrial conglomerate in Korea, they've got a significant amount of experience with, building, and, and system integration. And for those that aren't familiar, Doosan also has in the past licensed wind turbine technology. And designs from different Western companies, including American Superconductor where, they've got I forget precisely the number of turbines, but it's, maybe a couple hundred in, in and around Korea that, that they operate. They're spending, what they're saying, is gonna be about 50 billion Korean won on this, which is a substantial chunk of, of money to, to put behind an R& D project to get a, a 10 megawatt turbine built. And really why they're doing it is because they want to, if, if people haven't been paying attention, there was a recent announcement between another Korean company, Unison where they're going to increase their collaboration and bring, Chinese developed technology into the Korean market. So, Doosan being I guess, patriotic national company wants to wants to be able to counter that, that move and develop their own, kind of homegrown or at least somewhat home developed technology, even if it, if it comes from a, a licensed design from a Western company, they're, they're looking to, build a lot of offshore projects in, in the Korean market. And, previously they were going to utilize 3 megawatt or 5 megawatt or even 8 megawatt turbines, but the fact they have the ability to, to hopefully go up to 10 should put them in, in good stead with some of the other project development companies that are, are going to be looking to use them as a, as a viable supplier. Allen Hall: Integrated Power Services has acquired the assets of ABB Industrial Services Business Unit. This acquisition adds five service centers across North America to IPS's network, expanding their capabilities in electric motor generator and switchgear repair and maintenance. The new locations are in Arizona, Indiana, North Carolina, Alberta and Ontario up in Canada and they're offering repair and on site services for electric motors up to 50, 000 horsepower and low and medium voltage switchgear from 480 volts to 15 kilovolts. Well, this is a unique acquisition.

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

Allen and Joel speak to Bryant Bertrand, CEO and co-founder of Ronin, to discuss their innovative power ascenders used in the wind industry. Ronin's technology makes turbine climbs faster, safer, and less physically demanding for technicians, potentially transforming maintenance operations. Their products are designed with the technician in mind, from operation simplicity to weight. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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. Today, joining us is Bryant Bertrand, CEO and co founder of Ronin. And for those of you who haven't encountered their equipment yet, Ronin is a company at the forefront of vertical access technology. They develop power ascenders aiming to make turbine climbs faster, safer, and less physically demanding for technicians. In today's episode, we'll explore how Ronin's ascenders are impacting maintenance operations from. Routine inspections to major component exchanges. And we'll discuss the technology behind the devices, their safety features, and how they comply with industry standards. . Will also share his insights on real world performance data and user experiences from wind farms across the country. So whether you're a technician looking to optimize your climb times or an engineer interested in the latest maintenance tech or a site engineer considering ways to enhance your team's efficiency, this conversation promises valuable insight. Allen Hall: Welcome to the program. Joel Saxum: Thanks for having me on guys. Bryant, give us a, give us the rundown. Give us the general thing here. What are you guys doing? What is the product? Bryant Bertrand: Yeah. So let me give you just a little background on myself. My team, we came out of the rescue industry. Predominantly we were designing hoists and winches for helicopters. So this is the mountainside Coast Guard rescue that you typically see on helicopters and believe it or not, there's not rescues happening every day and a lot of times these birds get multipurpose into commercial activities and those activities may be dropping a technician off on a transmission tower, an offshore wind turbine, oil and gas platform, but we would just see a ton of access issues for men and women that are climbing in these at height industries. And so we took a look saying how can we get some better access tools out there for these workers that are working on ropes. And we took a look at a lot of technology and specifically we looked at the military technology that was being deployed for power descenders. And you guys might have seen maybe videos of these devices coming out of the water SEAL teams or tactical teams doing on, off, offshore shipboarding with it. And we said how do we take this technology which is. Very nichey, very military, very high, highly tech and make a more commercialized product that's more looked like a tool. And that's really. Where Ronan was founded on, and we've seen great success there and bringing these tools in these industries. And they serve a number of great purposes in addressing access challenges and fatigue reduction and efficiency. And that's really the core founding message of this business is to bring this technology to the forefront. And allow it to essentially elevate the workforce. Allen Hall: So the key I've noticed from the Ronin technology is it's pretty compact an...

The Uptime team does a deep dive on the Mingyang Ocean X offshore turbine, exploring it's engineering features and possible effect on the offshore wind turbine market. Plus, you can wind two free NASCAR VIP tickets with Kyle Weatherman by entering at https://weatherguardwind.com/contest/! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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: Before we start the show, we have an announcement. Our favorite NASCAR driver Kyle Weatherman has two VIP tickets to the Hollywood Casino 400 NASCAR Xfinity race, and you can win these tickets. The race is held at the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. On September 28th, which is a Saturday, VIP tickets include premium access to the race, the pit area and the garage. You can watch the race on pit road and hang out with Kyle Weatherman and the DGM racing team. You will need to provide your own transportation to and from the race but it'll be a great event. In order to enter this contest you need to visit weatherguardwind.com slash contest where you can enter. I'm Allen Hall and I'll be joined by the rest of the Uptime hosts after these news headlines. The UK's latest renewable auction has given a significant boost to the offshore wind sector. With a record budget of 1. 5 billion pounds, the auction awarded contracts to 131 wind, solar, and tidal projects, capable of generating almost 10 gigawatts of capacity. Notable winners include Orsted's Hornsea 4 project in Iberdrola's East Anglia two, and three projects. However, analysts note that this still falls short of the capacity needed to meet the country's target of 60 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. The UK has reached a significant milestone in wind power generation capacity. The country has surpassed the 30 gigawatt mark of combined offshore and onshore wind installations. This milestone was achieved with the commissioning of SSE Renewable's 443 megawatt Viking Wind Farm. in Shetland this past June. According to Renewable UK, the UK's current wind capacity can meet the annual power demand of over 26 million homes and reduce carbon emissions by more than 35 million tons per year. In Sweden, Vattenfall has decided to pause the development of the Swedish Krikers Flak offshore wind power project due to unfavorable investment conditions. This project, located about 30 kilometers south of Trollberg, was estimated to generate 2. 7 terawatt hours of fossil free electricity annually. Fattenfall cited the lack of a reasonable connection point to the national grid offshore as a key factor in this decision. U. S. wind energy investment has seen a significant boost in the first half of 2024, according to Bloomberg NEF's Renewable Energy Investment Tracker. While solar investment fell by 12 percent to 26. 5 billion, wind projects secured 12 billion in funding. This surge has contributed to a 63 percent increase in total renewable energy investment in the U. S. Orsted, the Danish company developing Rhode Island's first commercial offshore wind project, has announced plans to expand its presence in the Ocean State. The company will open a new engineering, procurement, and construction hub in Providence, relocating to a 17, 000 square foot office building. Orsted also plans to double its existing 100 person workforce in Rhode Island in the coming years. Over in New Jersey, the leading light wind project is facing challenges. The company has requested a pause from the New Jersey Board of Publ...

This week, Allen, Joel and Phil discuss RES acquiring drone inspection company Sulzer Schmid, EDF Renewables entering the Korean offshore market, and Equinor's choice to downsize their renewables division. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit 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. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you want market intelligence that generates revenue, then book a demonstration of IntelStor at IntelStor. com. RES has acquired Solzer Schmidt. A Swiss firm specializing in autonomous drone inspections for wind turbine blades. This acquisition aims to strengthen RES's digital solutions and operations and maintenance services. Solzer Schmidt's 3DX blade platform uses autonomous drones for wind turbine blade inspections, providing 100 percent coverage and high quality inspection data, which is one of the reasons that RES acquired them, obviously. Phil, there's just, does seem to be a number of inspection companies and O& M companies merging to grow bigger and bigger at the moment. Philip Totaro: There is. And what's interesting about this deal isn't so much, the, the companies specifically getting together. It's the fact that yet another O& M company or an O& M generalist. Is getting a specialist in doing something, whether it's blade inspections, whether it's gearboxes, whether it's anything. This has been happening over the past six or, nine months and we've been talking about it on, on Newsflash. And the reality of this is, this is yet another kind of piece of the puzzle where you're gonna see more and more consolidation in the O& M space because the generalist O& M firms need the, the specialists not only for the contracts that they've got in place but also these capabilities because a company like res can bring scale to what they're doing here and it's it's an impressive thing. We didn't see any financial details of the deal disclosed, but it's still an impressive opportunity for for both companies to be able to. Continue moving forward together. Joel Saxum: So, Sulzer Schmid and the ebb and flow of drone companies has kind of its own carved out spot. They do a lot of work in the, in Europe. They recently had a contract to inspect over 4, 000 turbines with Vestas over in Europe. I think they've had it for two years. So that's very impressive on their side. They've gone in some of the technological directions of some of the others with You can fly your own, train your pilots on site fly your own drone. Here's a smaller drone with an autonomous flight software as a, as as well as their, big enterprise drones to do inspections, but what's really, it really is a shining part of their business is their software as a service. So that 3DX blade platform, if you've ever used it is very, very good. It's seamless. It's easy to look at inspections. The quality is there. So, big, good pickup by R. E. S. to grab Soltar Schmidt in my mind, probably the, the best fit for someone to grab right now of the large drone inspection companies, you have your Skyspecs and stuff, and they're starting to grow arms and legs themselves, whereas Soltar Schmidt has remained in the kind of that The niche that's good for an acquisition.

Allen Hall and Joel Saxum discuss the critical issue of failed blade bolt inserts with Edo Kuipers of We4Ce. Edo explains the problem, its widespread impact on the wind energy sector, and introduces We4Ce's innovative solution - an upgraded blade bolt insert that can be retrofitted in the field, potentially saving operators significant downtime and repair costs. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 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, along with my co host, Joel Saxum. On this episode, we're addressing a critical issue that is plaguing the wind energy sector, the problem of failed blade bolt inserts in wind turbine blades. And these failures have a significant concern for wind energy operators, leading to downtime, costly repairs, and the potential for liberated blades. Our guest is Edo Kuipers, owner and engineering manager of We4Ce. And We4Ce is based in the Netherlands. We foresee offers a range of services related to the design and engineering of wind turbine rotor blades. And they have designed an upgraded blade bolt insert that can be retrofitted in the field. And this new insert product could dramatically lower a wind turbine operator's downtime and blade repair costs. Edo, welcome to the show. Edo Kuipers: Thanks for having me here, Allen and Joel. Allen Hall: So this is a really interesting product, but I first, I want to get to how big of a problem do we have in the industry? And Joel and I have been traveling around the United States quite a bit. And pretty much every farm we stopped at had blade bolt insert issues. They didn't know why they were having them, but they had them and they were deeply concerned about it because of what could happen to the turban. And Edo, are you seeing the same thing? Are you getting a lot of reach out that way? Edo Kuipers: Yeah, more and more we see this. I think in 2021, we were contacted by the Indian market for the first time. Those were 40 meter long blades, 1. 5 megawatt platform. And those blades were like 13 years on the turbine. And then all suddenly started flying off basically. And more and more recently, this is popping up basically not after 13 years, but after six years, for example, already on a 2. x platform. So yeah, we have been contacted first on the Indian side. We have seen it in Brazil. We have seen it in Thailand, for example, also. So it's more and more addressing the problem. Also from the Northern America, we have the first context. Joel Saxum: So I think that if we describe basically the breadth of the problem so there's the, when you bolt the blades on, and if you're in a, if you're a wind technician, this stuff, right? You've seen it, you've done it. You've been around these things. For some people that are, yeah, some people that aren't as technician minded, you may not know exactly what the problem is, but what it is basically when you bolt the blades onto the hub, there's all these studs, right? And the studs come through, or the studs stick out, you stick it into the receptor on the basically on the hub, and then you bolt 'em on. But if the, where the stud connects into the blade. It doesn't stay true to its design and becomes loose, it starts to move, then however it's bolted doesn't matter at all. Edo Kuipers: Correct. Also, it's not a bolt problem, it's the connection between the steel bushing itself.

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

Joel and Phil dive in to liquidated damages and how the industry can avoid big payouts. GE Vernova is dealing with another offshore blade failure in the UK, and our thoughts on the latest renewable energy Instagram craze. And, a discussion on a very full eagle! If you have encountered metal staples in a GE 2.X-116 or 127 blades, reach out to Joel at joel.saxum@wglightning.com. There's still time to register for AMI Event's Wind Turbine Blade Conference in October 2-3rd! Click here - AMI Boston Wind Blade Conference Need low-cost lightning strike sensors for your turbine? Email Joel at Joel.saxum@wglightning.com. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: All right. Really urgent news story here. A supposedly injured bald eagle. Now, remember that the bald eagle is America's bird. Is it America's bird or national animal? National mammal? And it's also like the national symbol too. It's a national symbol. There we go. All right. So a supposedly injured bald eagle, which is America's national symbol. Was rescued from a national park in Missouri and found it was acting like it was too injured to fly, but they took poor Eagle in and did an x ray on it and realized. That it was just full of raccoon. What? It was full? It had too much food? Yeah, it was found healthy, but engorged with raccoon. In other words, too fat to fly. Philip Totaro: Is there tryptophan in raccoons? Allen Hall: Oh, there may be. Joel Saxum: I'll tell you a fun fact about the eagle as the United States national symbol. Ben Franklin actually wanted it to be the turkey. And his reason. His reasoning was, eagles are actually scavengers and they eat dead things and turkeys don't. Allen Hall: Both of those birds are huge. If you've ever been anywhere near a bald eagle, they are massive creatures. I, the thing that bothers me about this is that eagle was living large, relaxing, chilling, and then somebody grabbed him! Somebody scooped him up and with the x ray in him, the next thing he knows, it's like he's waking up in a hospital and all he wanted to do was watch the Cowboys game, I'm Allen Hall and I'll be joined by the rest of the Uptime hosts after these news headlines. Denmark is making waves in the renewable energy sector with a massive 13 billion euro investment in offshore wind power. Aiming to boost capacity by 10 gigawatts across three areas. This ambitious plan, representing the largest tender for offshore wind power ever issued in Denmark, introduces a novel financing model where companies are required to make concession payments and co invest with the state. Which will retain a 20 percent stake in each project. This initiative is expected to create thousands of jobs with estimates suggesting that each gigawatt of offshore wind power could generate around 9, 500. Direct and indirect positions and require a capital investment of approximately 2. 1 billion euros. Beyond meeting national energy needs, the expanded capacity is set to position Denmark as a key exporter of electricity to neighboring countries. and a producer of green hydrogen. The European Commission's wind power package is breathing new life into the continent's wind industry with major players like Vestas and Siemens Energy expanding their operations. Vestas is establishing a new nacelle and blade factory in Poland, potentially creating over 1, 700 direct jobs by 2026. While Siemens Energy plans to hire around 4,

Norges Bank Investment Management has committed $1 Billion CIP's C IV renewables fund. Fortis Energy and PowerChina have agreed to collaborate on developing 850 MW of wind and solar in Serbia and southeast Europe. Evren, a renewable platform by Brookfield and Axis Energy, will invest $5 billion for renewables in Andhra Pradesh, India. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you want market intelligence that generates revenue, then book a demonstration of IntelStor at IntelStor.com. Norway's sovereign wealth fund, Norge's Bank Investment Management, has committed one billion dollars Billion dollars to Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners fifth flagship renewable energy fund, CIV. The fund invests in offshore and onshore wind, solar farms, grid and distribution, and also storage. Investments will be equally split between North America, Western Europe, and developed countries in Asia Pacific. But why is Norway putting a billion dollars into CIP? What's the plan for that fund? Philip Totaro: It's a good question, Allen. I, I think Nordisk Bank has actually had a fairly decent track record of diverting some funds and, and investing them into renewables funds. Including some much smaller previous investments in with CIP and, and other project development companies or investors in, in renewables. The reason that they're doing it is because and again, as you mentioned, this is the sovereign wealth fund of Norway. They're really just looking to diversify their investment stream beyond just oil and gas. And so I, I don't know what led them to this relationship with CIP to say, you know what, billion dollars, here you go. But that's that's a lot of money and a lot of trust in being able to invest it and, and see a return that I'm sure Norges Bank is, is looking for. Joel Saxum: Yeah, I think it's stable cash looking for a stable investment. And right now you, as you seen the big, the black rocks and the other pension funds these, what would be the equivalent of the size of like the sovereign wealth fund of Norway, putting money into renewables and into infrastructure for the future. Something to remember here is that CIP, the directors of CIP, and the direction of that company, they're all ex Ørsted. So when you see CIP and Orsted kind of playing in the same arenas, it's because they're from the same stock. So, but one of the things that CIP does is they do and I like the way they're spreading this fund around, but they do do a lot of work in the APAC region and other places around the world. So not only are you geographically diversifying your investment but putting it in infrastructure as well. Allen Hall: Turkish company Fortis Energy and Power China. I've signed an agreement to cooperate on the development and construction of over 850 megawatts of new solar and wind projects in Serbia and Southeast Europe. The partnership aims to support the region's transition to greener and more sustainable energy. Fortis is currently developing 509 megawatts of wind farms in Serbia. For which it recently secured permits. All right, Phil, we've seen a lot of action with Turkey and China,

This week on Power-Up, we discuss Ventus Engineering's monitoring system which improves power production, GE's system for finding broken blade heating systems, and Vestas's lifetime extension strategy. Plus an interesting approach to diet control... Check out IntelStor's IP Prism offering and more! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 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 Innosaur's Phil Totaro, as we discuss the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will charge your energy future. Hey Phil, we got Joel Saxum here for our look at some really interesting wind ideas. And the first one is from Ventus Engineering. And it has to do with a monitoring system for wind turbines, which uses multiple data streams and looking at generator power output, mechanical measurements, torque, cell direction, and some meteorological conditions. And this is all processed real time using a computer to then assess where the rotor and the blade should be. to improve power production and the condition of the tower. So it's usually a combination of, from what I can tell, SCADA, LiDAR, and a lookup camera to watch the rotor essentially. And, and Phil, when I reviewed this patent, I thought, man, that seems pretty complicated to, to do this. Is this. Is this idea going to move forward, do you think? Philip Totaro: This, so this company that's developed this concept they are trying to commercialize it, and they, the real interesting thing about this, and the reason I wanted to talk about it on the show was, the, this combination of the lookup camera combined with SCADA data and LIDAR is, is a little unique, so the lookup camera idea for helping to improve rotor imbalance or, or pitch calibration issues that's been done for, I don't know, about 12 or 13 years now in the industry. Obviously using a nacelle mounted lidar is not a new idea and, and certainly SCADA data monitoring, not a new idea either, but the combination of all those, I don't think has actually been done before in this kind of specific implementation where. They are intentionally trying to visualize any kind of issues that might cause these kinds of imbalances that would impact adversely impact performance. So this is a, it's potentially complicated, but it's also a level of sophistication that the industry is now capable of, of implementing because we've got a reasonable degree of maturity with all those three different concepts. So again, the skated data, the LIDAR system and the lookup camera. So Joel, I, what, what do you think about the commercial viability of this? Joel Saxum: So this to me is a CMS system on steroids that has multiple sensors and can give the operator more data. So I think that there is a, there's definitely a possibility for back office engineers and people that are responsible for the operation of these turbines, a safe operation and efficient operation of turbines to use something like this. Allen Hall: Our next idea comes from Stefan Klumper for General Electric over in Spain. And it deals with failures in the blade heating elements. And the one thing we know about blade heating elements is they like to break. And when they break, they can become very difficult to detect where that break occurs. So what. This concept is,

The Uptime team participated in Active Training Team's (ATT) Thrive USA program launch, showcasing their revolutionary approach to safety training. Allen and Joel discuss ATT with Dermot Kerrigan, the company's director. Their immersive actor-led scenarios are transforming safety culture through emotional engagement, de-escalation tools, and a focus on safety leadership. Their innovative UK-based training model is being adapted for the U.S. market through Thrive USA, bringing their effective approach to the expanding wind industry in the States. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall. We all know the risks involved in our work, and all of us have participated in safety training. Recent serious accidents in the U. S. and abroad have placed a heavy toll on our industry, and I, like many others, have been concerned about a fall off in the effectiveness of safety training. Thank you And the overall safety culture. This podcast is fundamentally about safety training, but not your average run of the mill safety training. Joel Saxon and I were invited by active training team, a UK based company to participate in their thrive USA training event. Our host was Dermot Kerrigan director at active training team. The thrive USA event was held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was well attended by health and safety representatives from large wind OEMs, developers. and owners, and it was a full house. The training I experienced was markedly more impactful, relevant, and memorable than any safety program I've encountered in my career. After the event, Joel and I sat down with the aforementioned Dermot Kerrigan of Active Training Team alongside Sara DaSilva, Deputy Project HSC Manager at Ørsted and Graeme Cooper, Global VP of Energy Transition with Jacobs to discuss how Active Training Team will change U. S. training methods, hopefully permanently. Enjoy the show. We're in Boston, Massachusetts. Actually we're in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a lovely area. And we're here for one reason to participate in the Thrive USA training event, which is conducted by Active Training Team. And we have. Dermot Kerrigan, the director of Active Training Team, who has come all the way to America to train us Americans on how to do it right. I wouldn't say that. Dermot you're making our podcast even more famous because you're the first guest we have on the you're the first guest that has an IMDB. Okay. Yes. Yes. Now you're going back a while. Because that's part of ATT. That there is an immersive experience that involves actors in the actual training scenarios. It's live. It's immersive. It's wraparound. And that is the brilliance you have brought to safety training. And maybe the thing to do here is just to start off by describing what this training experience is. Dermot Kerrigan: What is it? Any behavioral psychologist will tell you that if you want to reach someone's intellect, the best way to do that is via their emotions. So put simply, if I can move you, I can make you think. So if you're trying to get someone to think about safety, their role in safety how their behavior influences other people, and actually it's individual behaviors that produces a culture. And a very good way to do that is by telling a story. And if you're trying to tell a really impactful story theater, film, or a combination of the two,

This week the Uptime crew looks at Ørsted's current financial state, reviewing recent difficulties and the pathway forward. What factor have offshore cancellations played? Is the American offshore environment too difficult? Will they source Chinese turbines? Who are their competitors? And our wind farm of the week is Cedar Springs Wind Farm in Wyoming! Register for the AMI Wind Turbine Blades Event! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I just want to know when I go to Copenhagen next time are they going to be shooting me with squirt guns like they're doing in Barcelona? You're not a tourist there. You're on business. Am I? I like Copenhagen. It's quite nice. Rosemary tells me it's a good place to hang out and the restaurants are quite good. There's Michelin restaurants all over the place. Rosemary Barnes: I lived in Denmark for five years and I went to Copenhagen once in that time. It's It is a cool, it's a cool city. Europe's full of cool cities. It's so expensive to get from Western Denmark across to Copenhagen. You have to, yeah, it's like there's a bridge you have to pass each way that's like a hundred dollars for the just in one, one toll. Yeah and I was, it was much easier for me to get to Hamburg or Berlin. So I usually went there when I Had a need for big city stuff. Also the I really liked seeing music events, concerts and stuff like that, and Germany is much, much better for that than Denmark. Allen Hall: Can somebody say something nice about Denmark? Rosemary Barnes: Denmark doesn't need anyone to say anything nice about them. Denmark has the best PR out of any country in the world. Like how Facebook whatever? And it's just, like little reels about some amazing thing in Denmark. It's just. You get bombarded with it. Joel Saxum: Have you ever seen the Danish plug? It's actually like the power plug. It's actually a smiley face. That's how smiley they are. Rosemary Barnes: Everyone knows the Australian plugs are the best design though. Joel Saxum: Are they like the English? Rosemary Barnes: No, they're different. And they just it's just so secure, like you got angled pins that you plug it in and it is. In, none of these, the US ones with the parallel things where it's always just like sagging out a little bit with live, live wires, just just there, it, ugh, change it. Wait. And that's why you can only have 110 volts. It's survival. Have to lower your voltage so our kids can survive it. Allen Hall: The reason we have 110 volts is because we have the ability to mine copper. And we had the wealth to put in a little bit extra copper everywhere else in the United States versus Europe. Europe's at 220 or whatever it is, 221 because they have less access to copper, it's more expensive. Rosemary Barnes: So you're lazy and inefficient is what you're saying? Allen Hall: No, we just use the resources that are available. I'm Allen Hall and I'll be joined by the rest of the Uptime hosts after these news headlines. Brisbane based power generator Renewable Energy Partners has proposed a 5 gigawatt wind power complex in Queensland, Australia. The Bogunda wind farm is planned to be installed in phases. The initial phase is expected to be 2 gigawatts, with the capacity to generate electricity for 200, 000 homes annually. The project will be connected to the proposed CopperString 2. 0 transmission link.

This week Allen, Phil, and Joel discuss Ramboll's acquisiton of K2 Management, Sumitomo Corporation's acquired stake in EEW Offshore Wind Holding, and Aurora Energy Services acqusition of Altitech Blade Services. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: 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 WeatherGuard, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you want market intelligence that generates revenue, then book a demonstration of IntelStor at IntelStor. com. Danish engineering firm Ramboll has acquired K2 Management, a wind and solar energy consultancy. This move expands Rambl's global wind division to over 900 people across 20 countries, including a new presence in Vietnam, Thailand, and Portugal. The acquisition is part of Rambl's strategy to grow its wind business to over 1, 000 people by 2025, enhancing its ability to provide services across all stages of wind energy projects globally. Now, Phil. Why the push to get into places like Vietnam and Thailand and Portugal at the minute? Philip Totaro: Well, it's interesting because they're, K2 has done a really good job over the years of doing a lot of owners engineering services and other consultancy services around project development, particularly in these kind of emerging markets. So, you And Ramble historically has gotten a lot of feed contracts doing, some of the EPC basically scope of work and, and design work on Offshore sites the fact that they would fold K2 management's capabilities in with what they already have is, is going to provide the combined company the opportunity to get a wider scope of work from a lot of these, particularly a lot of these emerging markets where. In an emerging market, you want to turn key service provider. This gets them one step closer to, to doing that. Joel Saxum: Yeah, this, to me, this is a huge acquisition in the space. If you're in the offshore wind space or in the wind space in general, and we're just talking wind, not solar and everything else that both of these companies do two big players, you're joining up. So it, like Phil said, you're going to have a full suite of capabilities in a lot of parts of the world, because there's parts where K2 operates where Rambo doesn't, or where K2 has made inroads and Rambo hasn't. Allen Hall: In Germany, EEW Group has reorganized its business into three holding companies. Japanese firm Sumitomo Corporation has acquired a stake in one of these, EEW Offshore Wind Holding. This holding company focuses on the monopile business and associated mechanical engineering activities. This partnership aims to secure EEW's position as a global market leader in offshore wind foundations. And Phil, there's a lot of work happening in foundations at the minute and a lot of movement in the business world about that. Philip Totaro: Yeah, and, and for Sumitomo's benefit they have a lot of contracts to do, both foundations and to partner with other companies to do topsides on offshore substations in particular. So, like we just talked about with with Ramboll and K2 getting together. And having kind of complementary capabilities. This is a similar thing where Sumitomo obviously already has some presence in, in monopile fabrication, but EEW is without a doubt the,