Show notes
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. The Canadian government sees this as a significant economic opportunity, potentially creating thousands of jobs and attracting investors. billions in investment. In a bold move to support innovative technology, the Norwegian government has proposed a substantial subsidy of up to 35 billion Norwegian crowns, or approximately 3.
29 billion U. S. dollars, for the country's first commercial floating wind power tender. This support aims to accelerate the development of floating offshore wind technology, which is still Considered immature and expensive, the subsidy is based on a reference project of around 500 megawatts in size, but the actual capacity realized will depend on various factors, including cost developments, and project maturity.
Moving to the UK, Leeds based engineering services company Renew Holdings has made a strategic acquisition, purchasing Dutch firm Full Circle Group Holding, BV, for 50 million pounds. The Full Circle specializes in repair, maintenance, and monitoring services for onshore wind turbines in the UK and Europe.
The acquisition allows Renew to enter the growing onshore wind services market. Which has been bolstered by the new UK government's lifting of restrictions. on onshore wind projects in England. In industry news, German wind turbine manufacturer Nordex reported a decrease in third quarter orders compared to the same period last year.
However, for the first nine months of the year, the company secured orders of 5, 000 megawatts of wind turbines, slightly higher than the previous year. The average sale price per megawatt of capacity remains stable at 900, 000 euros. with a slight increase to 920, 000 in the third quarter. Lastly, significant progress has been made on the 1.
2 gigawatt Baltic Power offshore wind farm in Poland. The first of four directional drills for the onshore connection has been completed in the Lubja Tova area. This 1. 4 kilometer tunnel will house power transmission cables Connecting the offshore wind farm to its onshore substation. The project, developed by PKN Orlin and Canada's Northland Power, is on schedule.
Construction of the onshore substation is over 40 percent complete, with full completion expected in the fourth quarter of 2025. Baltic Power will be one of the first European offshore wind projects to use Vestas new 15 megawatt wind turbines. And is scheduled to begin operations in late 2026. That's this week's top news stories.
After the break, I'll be joined by my co host, renewable energy expert and founder of Partilope Consulting, Rosie Barnes, CEO and founder of IntelStor Phil Totaro, and the Chief Commercial Officer of WeatherGuard Lightning Tech, Joel Saxum.
Joel Saxum: As busy wind energy professionals, staying informed is crucial.
And let's face it, difficult. That's why the Uptime Podcast recommends PES Wind magazine. PES Wind offers a diverse range of in depth articles and expert insights that dive into the most pressing issues facing our energy future. Whether you're an industry veteran or new to wind, PES Wind has the high quality content you need.
Don't miss out. Visit peswind. com today.
Allen Hall: Well, the biggest news in Denmark is that Equinor, Norway's energy provider, has purchased a 9. 8 percent stake in Ørsted, valued at approximately 2. 5 billion U. S. dollars. And this is causing a lot of shockwaves around the world because I, I think No one thought that Orstead would ever sell any part of it to Equinor.
However Joel, I do think this makes sense from a couple of levels, right, financially at the moment.
Joel Saxum: Yeah, there's from a lot of levels, right? It's, it's a win win for both of their goals. So, Equinor being, Equinor is Statoil. That's the Norwegian National oil company as was dong which is or set as the danish national oil company So you see this transition right dong has transitioned over to be this renewable energy giant Econor continued along its oil and gas path, but Econor has goals by 2050 to have so many so much renewables in their Investment portfolio.
This is getting them back Further along the lines to making those goals reality. Also it puts money and some powerful backing into Orsted. So win for Econor on the getting towards the renewable goal side, win for Orsted for getting some more capital behind them. And to be honest with you, if you have Econor that's invest in part of your company and you're working in the offshore world, well, Econor is a fantastic offshore player, whether it's oil and gas or not.
They know how to do things and they've invested heavily in offshore as well already, right? They're a part of Highwind and some other cool innovative projects. So to me, I think that they're not in the press release. They did say that they're not shooting for a board seat. If I was Orsted, I would almost ask them to be on the board.
I mean, you're here, why not come and be a part of the game?
Allen Hall: I think that would create an international situation, and rightly so. But it does, Phil, beg the question, what's the move by Equinor? Is it just there to back Orsted in a sense that they're neighbors? They're all heading in the same direction, because it does seem like, Equinor is getting back into more oil and gas at the moment, while Oersted remains firmly committed to renewables.
Is that just a play that both of them can win? That Equinor gets a little bit more of a renewable portfolio without them having to develop it? Yes,
Philip Totaro: at its most simplistic level. And largely because, this was touted as a possibility for a while, I'll say, but nobody ever really believed it was going to happen until it did.
But the reality is the reason that it happened was Orsted needs the stability of large minority shareholders like Econor because of not just the, the cash that they bring to the table to help, offset some of the, issues that, that Orsted's had, particularly with their, their offshore developments in the U.
S. But it,