Show notes
The Uptime Podcast team celebrates their fifth anniversary, reflecting on their journey and contributions from team members. They also discuss Siemens Gamesa's India operations acquisition by TPG and future renewable energy investments. Additionally, the episode covers innovations in carbon-negative building materials.
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Allen Hall: We just celebrated our fifth year of podcasting, everybody. So the uptime podcast is of officially five years old. I can't believe we've made it this far. That's we were trying to do the math on it the other day at five times 50. Roughly. It's 250 odd episodes. That's a lot of episodes,
Rosemary Barnes: but that's only the weekly episodes.
What about all the others? You're not only putting out one a week these days.
Allen Hall: No, it's two or three or four, right? It's somewhere in there. But I just wanted to say congratulations to each of you on behalf of the Uptime podcast and all the work that happens behind the scenes. Everybody listens to the finished product, and I know it sounds great and the comments are great, and the ideas are great, but there's.
A ton of work that goes into this every week to give you this content, and everybody that's been on the podcast as a guest, it was just trying to remember all the faces and names that are. Big and wind that have been on the podcast. It's amazing the people we've touched, the people we've met that are friends that have come from the podcast.
It's a nice little family, weirdly enough. And it's one of those it feels like a pair of comfortable shoes that hey, when you go to a conference, you just know everybody and you, and they know us. You feel like we've known them forever because we just spend every week together talking about what's happening in wind.
It's a great little experience.
Phil Totaro: Can we add that, a big thank you to everyone who listens because we wouldn't keep doing it if you weren't also showing up. Thank you to everyone that listens. Again, your feedback is fantastic. Good and bad. It it keeps us entertained.
So we thank you all.
Joel Saxum: I would say from my seat as well, Alan, thank you for having all of us and organizing the things that you do. And the unsung hero that you guys don't hear from or usually see unless you're a guest on the podcast is Claire Hall in the background. Who's our producer who puts all of these episodes together and is juggling work life.
School, a million different things to make sure this thing goes out every week. So thank you Claire as well. And of course, Rosemary.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah I was gonna say that, Alan has abnormal persistence. I think it took it like now it's obvious why, the value and why we would all keep going and why we come back every week.
But yeah, Alan's efforts, especially in the early years was like, just. Just kept on doing it week after week. And, when I started, all I had to do was show up and try and read the material beforehand. I definitely would not have been doing a weekly podcast for, I think I've been on it for four years or so.
I wouldn't have been doing that on my own, that's for sure. I think yeah, 90% of the success comes from Alan's abnormal persistence. So Thanks Alan.
Allen Hall: Yeah. I appreciate everybody coming every week. I know we've all been through ups and downs over the last several years, rosemary, you've grown a family.
And Joel is. Been in and out and I've been in and out and Phil too, right? So between the four of us, we can actually make a decent podcast, which is what I like listening to. And I, we actually reduce the there's a lot of back and forth. We don't put on the air because. We disagree quite a bit, but that's what makes it fun for, at least for me.
I know Rosemary and I sometimes sound like we, we don't get along, but actually we quite do. I like Rosemary. I think she's fantastic and I think she brings a ton to the podcast, but there are times it doesn't seem like we, we get along. I'm fine with it honestly. And Phil, brings in all the investor and the analysis and the data stream and all that which just.
Puts depth to this and puts the numbers together so it makes sense and Joel's experience in oil and gas and in wind and working for a company in Denmark and all those pieces that you can't. Find anywhere, make this podcast work. It's just what it is. It was just great. So I'm just thrilled we met, made it five years and thanks to everybody that's listened and we're gonna cross a million subscribers on YouTube in the next couple of weeks.
Thanks to everybody who has. Has joined us on this journey, and yeah, let's look forward to the next five years to see if we make it that long.
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Now here's your hosts, Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Ro and Rosemary Barnes.
Allen Hall: A consortium led by TPG. Is set to acquire Siemens Gomesa renewable powers, India operations. Now that deal, Phil is valued at 500 to 550 million, and it comes as Siemen energy works to streamline its operation. Following some significant challenges over the last year or two.
Phil, do you know all the groups that are involved along with TPG and what's the approach inside of India once they close this deal with Siemens cesa?
Phil Totaro: That's a really good question, and I don't know if we know all the answers yet, but it looks like Siemens energy is slated to retain a little bit less than 10% share in, in the company.
TPG Capital is working with the consortium of local companies. Have prior experience in the renewable energy sector. So that's a good sign. They've got nine gigawatts of installed capacity in India at this point with, legacy kind of Ga, Mesa technology.
So the question is they bought the whole thing, including the manufacturing facilities of which they have, I think three. It's. Interesting that it's a, an investor TPG capital, basically, that's taking majority ownership of this and not somebody that's, again, they've brought in these couple of guys that, that run these other two investment partners that are I.
Experienced in the Indian renewable space, but I don't know if that's enough to keep everybody going. The capital infusion is certainly enough to keep the manufacturing operations going if they want to, but are they really getting orders? I'm assuming this means they've got the license to keep manufacturing these, two to three megawatt Siemens ESA designs.
So where do they go from there?
Joel Saxum: Phil, when Alan and I are doing, we do quite a bit of communication work and lightning stuff in the Indian market and we run into a lot of G one fourteens. A ton of them actually. So in my mind I'm thinking, okay, we know that when this thing was up on the block to be sold, they were people that were looking at it, were wanting mostly from what I saw, was the services revenue.
They wanted to take over that service organization 'cause they wanted the revenue. From that, in my mind, I'm thinking. Who's on the hook for the risk of warranty? Because if they're built, if there's stuff that has been deployed, are they take, are they buying the warranty risk or does that still go back to Siemens Ag?
Of course, we probably won't. The details of this won't be public, but at this point in time, I don't know because that seems risky as hell to me.
Phil Totaro: Yeah. And for those that aren't familiar, legacy ESA technology, of which the G one 14 was a derivative of, the technology that they originally licensed from Vestas and made the G 80 series and the G 90 series that was lightning prone is all get out.
And, those things have suffered immeasurably, throughout the world. The G eighties, g and g one 14 of are. Just absolute lightning magnets. I'm sure there's someone that's gonna be accepting whatever risk there is.
Joel Saxum: If you own G eighties, G nineties, or G one fourteens, call us.
We can help.
Allen Hall: Private equity firms are capitalizing on depressed, renewable energy stock prices to acquire clean energy assets at attractive valuations. Now despite the challenging market conditions for wind and solar companies, investors see strong long-term fundamentals in the sector, particularly as oil majors retreat from the renewable energy commitments.
Now Phil, we've seen a lot of this activity over the last year. Brookfield is a big player in acquisitions at the moment. Masar is making a lot of moves. There is ripe fruit. Out there that is valued right to grab now, and I think you're gonna see a lot more of these acquisitions happening because the more recent acquisitions have not been in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
They've been in the billions of dollars and a lot of billions. I don't see this changing anytime soon.
Phil Totaro: Yeah. And particularly as the oil and gas companies pull back some of these companies you mentioned Brookfield and Masar Master also just announced they were contemplating an IPO. So that's gonna give them even more resources to, to plow into that if they go that route.
But the reality of it is too, that these are also companies that have made the long-term commitment. To renewables and a renewables portfolio. They're not just getting in to flip an asset. They're getting in to build out their portfolio of what they can own, what they can operate, what they can repower.