Show notes
This week we discuss Sinonus' innovative approach to using wind turbine blades for energy storage and the G+ Global Offshore Wind Health and Safety Organization's report on safety incidents. Allen and Joel discuss Active Training Team's (ATT) immersive safety training methods, featured in PES Wind Magazine. We also highlight Mississippi's first utility-scale wind farm, Delta Wind, featuring 41 Vestas 4.5 MW turbines.
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: A UK plane passenger awoke from a long nap thinking he'd arrived at the destination, only to realize the aircraft was still stuck at the gate. And if you haven't seen this little clip, this guy was sleeping for a couple of hours. Over in the UK, wakes up, asks his neighbor, Hey, are we there yet? And she turns and says, no, we haven't left.
We recently had that happen to us coming back from San Diego, where I took a nap, and I swear, it must have been an hour and a half later, we hadn't moved. And I don't, I think Rosemary, you've been on some really long flights too. Are you getting stuck on the ground for some of these flights?
Rosemary Barnes: It is so annoying when you're stuck on the ground, like before you've got a, I don't know, an 18 hour flight or whatever to get stuck on the ground for hours.
And you're like, we're not even, we're not even progressing. It's really hard to deal with mentally. But they do often make it up because obviously they can, they don't fly as fast as they can around the world all the time. They fly in the way that's most fuel, more fuel efficient. So sometimes they can burn a bit more fuel to get you there faster. If they, yeah, if there's an economic reason for them to they're going to have to, pay some penalties or hold a, of the next flight for people who are, yeah, need to transfer.
Joel Saxum: You could have been on a flight like Allen and I were. Where, we were supposed to board at 4pm, we didn't end up boarding until 9pm, and then once we boarded, and everybody got settled down and we were ready to push back from the gate, then they informed us that the pilots had timed out on their daily time limit, so they Did we all off boarded and then had to get moved to flights the next day.
Philip Totaro: I once fell asleep on a train in Switzerland that eventually led me to being escorted out of the country. It can happen.
Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm Allen Hall and here's this week's headlines. Vestas has received a massive 577 megawatt order from Tag Energy to supply wind turbines for the second stage of the landmark 1. gigawatt Golden Plains onshore wind project in Australia. Vestas will deliver 93 of their megawatt turbines during the first quarter of 2025 with commissioning expected in 2026.
Vestas is currently working on the first stage of the project that will utilize 122 of the V162 6. 2 megawatt machines. When completed, the Golden Plains site will be Vestas largest onshore wind farm to date. Vestas has also secured a 660 megawatt order from RWE for the Nord Sea Cluster A offshore wind project in Germany.
A delivery of the 44 15 megawatt turbines is expected in 2026. Vestas will also service the turbines under a five year agreement followed by an operational support agreement. Meanwhile in the U. S., Dominion Energy is installing its first model pile foundations for the 6. 2 gigawatt coastal Virginia offshore wind project, marking the official construction kickoff.
The 9. 8 billion project, slated for completion in late 2026, will ultimately feature 176 turbines. On the West Coast, RWE is set to commence site surveys for its planned 1. 6 gigawatt floating wind farm 20 miles off of Humboldt County, California. RWE is using an autonomous underwater vehicle for the surveys to minimize impacts on marine life and fishing.
In other U. S. news, the future of popular Chinese drone maker DJI remains uncertain as Congress weighs a potential ban over national security concerns. A ban could disrupt key industries reliant on DJI drones from agriculture to search and rescue and stifle competition and innovation in the drone market.
However, proponents argue it would bolster American drone companies. This situation highlights the complex considerations around foreign technology, and national security. And finally, a new Columbia University report reveals surging local opposition is blocking hundreds of renewable energy projects across the U. S. with dozens of new restrictions in just the last year.
Offshore wind faces particularly tough Stiff challenges as high profile developments battle lawsuits over impacts on endangered species and shorelines. While some opposition appears coordinated, experts believe much reflects the genuine grassroots concerns over perceived ecological risks.
The report warns that growing resistance could seriously impede climate progress, underscoring the urgent need for officials and developers. To better address local worries and build community support for critical and renewable energy development. Failure to effectively navigate this opposition may threaten the nation's ability to achieve a cleaner energy future.
That's the week's top news stories. Now here's our panel renewable energy expert and founder of Pardalote Consulting, Rosemary Barnes. CEO and founder of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel Saxum. In the race to transition to a cleaner, more sustainable future, as everybody has talked about on this podcast the rise of renewable energy sources like wind and solar have been a game changer, everybody.
But the, one of the biggest challenges is storage, right? So there's been a lot of companies looking at different kinds of storage. There is a Swedish startup that's looking at, using the carbon fiber in wind turbine blades as a storage device. That company is named Sinonus and they are talking about structural batteries.
So essentially taking the carbon fiber that's used as structure for these really long wind turbine blades and using the carbon fiber as an electrode and a conductor and also load bearing structural aspects. Now, And this is Rosemary, and this is where I want to get you involved in this. They're saying that they can add electricity storage without adding any extra weight to the structure.
And I'm trying to understand. For multiple reasons, Rosemary, because you've been involved in blade design, structural design. You're a composites expert. And you had the opportunity to play around with lightning and icing systems or de icing systems on blades. There's a lot, electrically, that can happen on a wind turbine blade.
Is using the carbon a good way to store energy? on a blade?
Rosemary Barnes: I, it's really disappointing that they haven't even given a stab at how much could be stored in a blade. Because and I don't fully understand the mechanism. I have worked on projects that used carbon fiber in blades as a, yeah, as a heating element.
And even considered the possibility of using the. Connective parts of a blade as a lightning conductor, purposely doing it rather than, having to try. Obviously the blade wants that to happen. When lightning hits it, it does want to go through all those conductive elements, but to, design it so that it's on purpose and that it won't damage the blade structure.
So definitely consider all that, but it was never like this article that I've read says that it's a way of getting something for nothing. And I think that's a a really strange interpretation of that phrase. Like when I hear the phrase getting something for nothing, I don't think, Oh, you don't add any weight to a turbine.
I would think you don't add any cost to a turbine, which obviously is not going to be true. It's also not going to be true that you don't add any weight to the turbine, because obviously there are components that need to be added. It doesn't, there isn't batteries in every single cup of fiber blade out there already, or you're going to need to do some sort of tweaks, and I don't know what they are, because it hasn't been mentioned in the article.
Yeah, definitely not something for nothing whether or not it's worth it or not would just totally depend on how much energy storage could be in there. But it, I don't know, to me, it feels so much it's a kind of a recurring idea that pops up again and again in conversations that I used to have when I was, working, leading the Blade de icing team and now it pops up in comments on YouTube.
People always want to, take what's there. there and then get something else out of it. So a really common one that I hear is, okay, why don't we store weights at the top of a wind turbine and then lower them with an electric winch when you the wind isn't blowing and then you've got energy storage.
Oh, Hey, you've got this big steel cylinder. You could be using that for compressed energy storage. Yeah, or pumped hydro, put a reservoir at the top of the nacelle. Everyone always wants to do these like little add ons. And I think that the first thing that you've got to consider is, how much would it cost to add a lithium ion battery that does the same thing as what you're trying to do?
If it's a small amount of energy stored and it's a small lithium ion battery, Then, but it's so obvious that's what you would do. It's, it's a very neat, simple system.