Show notes
Allen and Joel discuss the best conferences in the wind industry in the upcoming months. Across the world, the wind industry is coming together to better the industry and share knowledge.
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You are listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here's your hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.
Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host Allen Hall, and I'm.
Here with Joel Saxum, who's up in Wisconsin, and Joel and I have been talking back and forth about all the conferences that we need to attend, and it's going to be that time of year. We need to be planning for the end of your conferences in 25. And then getting, uh, your registrations in for conferences in 2026.
It's coming up fast, Joel.
Joel Saxum: Yeah, I know. This is the time of year where like blade season is over. A lot of the heavy repair season is over. MCE work starts to get a little bit touch and go depending on where you are. We're getting into September, October. It starts to snow here soon in some places in the northern, uh, [00:01:00] latitudes.
So it's also coinciding with that is the time when companies starts. Spooling up their budgets for 26. And those budgets are operations and maintenance budgets. They also include for, you know, depending on the team, you're on, engineering asset management. It, it is conference budgets and it's, uh, you know, these things aren't cheap.
Uh, so that's one of the complaints that we have globally about a lot of these conferences is, uh, you know, some of 'em are getting up to, it used to be a couple hundred dollars to get in. Now they're 1500. 2000. I even heard of one to 2,500 to get in the door, which is. A bit extreme. So if I could say anything to the, uh, conference organizers, please stop raising the prices.
But like Allen said, it's that time of year to start planning these things. 'cause it's conference, the fall conference season starts kicking back off, uh, at a global way. So, uh, we're gonna walk through some of those conferences and, uh. Can I share with you our thoughts and the knowledge that we have around some of 'em and where we'll be?
Allen Hall: Yeah. And the, the first one on the list is one that it's just gonna pass by the time this podcast comes out, which is hu Some [00:02:00] and Hu Some's the big energy conference in Germany. And uh, it is. Just massively popular. It has been the, uh, counterpart to, uh, Hamburg every year. So the alternate year to year. So everybody that goes to Hamburg tends to go to Husam, and whoever goes to Husam tends to go to Hamburg.
It's a great place. There's a ton of technology there, and anybody that's of interest in wind needs to go there at least once in their lifetime and see it.
Joel Saxum: Yeah, it's like a, it's a wind mecca. Conference. So when we talk Huso, usually it's more focused on onshore. Hamburg is more focused on offshore, uh, which is really cool to see.
Of course, most companies that are playing in these spaces are dabbling in a little bit of both, whether you're an ISP or you're an operator or a financier, whatever it may be. But this is one of those conferences that Allen and I regularly tell people specifically from the North American market, if you haven't been over to the European conferences, the big European [00:03:00]conferences.
You should go, um, just to see what kind of technology, what they're doing, what's a little bit different. Have some conversations with some different mindsets around operations and maintenance or development, or whether it's greenfield, brownfield, whatever it may be. Because the Europeans are, you know, they've been in wind longer than we have over here in, in the North America, so they have some different ways of doing things and different technologies.
We always come back from there with, uh, some good context. I would say that. So, uh, encourage people to travel over there for that one.
Allen Hall: October is when the conference season for companies begins. There's a lot of user forums happening. Two in particular that, uh, we have been paying attention to the last couple years and participated in.
One is the Sky Specs user forum, or customer forum, which is happening October 7th and eighth up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Joel and I will be there again this year. Hosting some panels, uh, talking a little bit about lightning protection, uh, part in most of the us uh, most of their customers are in the US but [00:04:00] the Sky Specs event is really, really good.
If you're interested in optimum maintenance schedules for your turbines, what's going on with blades and new blades that are out in service? What's happening there? It's the way to connect with the industry, at least in the US It is, yeah. This year, the, the,
Joel Saxum: the focus of the event is predict. Prevent perform.
Um, so that they're gonna talk through a lot of the different, uh, solu solutions that Skys spec has. And it's not really a sales conversation, so I don't wanna say that, but it's, it's how these things fit. It's what can be done. And we've been, we were there last year as well. And it is, just to be clear, it is an invite only event.
So if you would like to go shoot us an email, um, and we could probably get you in there. But the conference is. Very focused on how to solve problems. You have this problem, this is how you solve it. We're looking at this strategy, this is how you implement it. Um, we've, we've ran into this issue at say, end of warranty.
This is how you do these things. Um, and it is a, [00:05:00] I really like it because it's an, it's an intimate setting. There's, you know, 50, 60 people there, and it's all engineers, asset managers from a, from. Uh, you know, scada engineers do blade engineers. It's, it's the group of some of the smartest people in wind. Um, a lot of 'em from the US and North and North American general.
Uh, but yeah, that event, um, we really like that one. So we'll be up there in Ann Arbor, uh, October 7th and eighth for sure.
Allen Hall: The other one, which is really popular is the Onyx event in Colorado, and it's in the middle of October, October 14th and 15th. That also, I think that's an invite only event, Joel, is that right?
Joel Saxum: Yeah. You got to reach out to Onyx. Um, we, we don't deal with that team directly usually, so if you wanna try to get into that one, you're on your own.
Allen Hall: Yeah. But I hear great things from it, people that have attended that event. Love it and have usually attend it quite frequently, every year. Uh, if, especially if you're needing some CMS help or some, uh, specific things with there, there's a lot of, uh, onyx [00:06:00] systems on a number of turbines, so it came delivered that way.
If you need help or insights as to what is actually happening with your turban, uh, it's a good place to go. Onyx, we've had him on the podcast. Smart people, a good resource, and you should think about going there. The, the first real big open event, uh, in terms of wind energy, particularly o and m, is the wind summit event in Houston, which is the first annual event, October 14th and 15th.
Joel Saxum: Yeah. So that one, uh, down in Houston, I believe it as the, is at the Asian Society, so downtown, um, near the medical center. Uh, it is going to be a lot of, uh, some of the same MA material that we're familiar with from our Melbourne conference last year. So, uh, again, a lot of value add. You can leave this event, um.
Learning something, something you can bring back to your team to uh, be able to implement to help in the future. And, uh, Allen and I, uh, as well as Rosemary here on the podcast, uh, of course [00:07:00] plus Phil Phil's about organizing this one. Uh, mostly uh, we will be presenting, we'll be hosting some panels moderating, um, and sharing some insights.
So that one is in Houston the same time as Onyx is, uh, going on up in Colorado.
Allen Hall: Yeah, the Wind Summit event, you can actually find [email protected]. You can check out the events happening there. Uh, and then Joel and I are look, going to attend or try to attend two events at the same time. I'm not sure how we're gonna pull that one off, but UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain Spotlight in Edinburgh, Scotland is December 11th, and just before that one is the Mi Plastics, uh, wind Turbine Blades Europe event, which is more of a supply.
Chain for blades, and that's in Dusseldorf, and I haven't been to the Dusseldorf event before. However, uh, everybody I talk to that has. Spin to that. Loves it and returns to it if you need anything in terms of sourcing materials, what's, uh, about to come out in terms of new resin systems, new kinds of fibers, new [00:08:00] technology, uh, things in the factory to make blades, uh, quicker, lower cost.
All that happens in Juel, Dorf Plus, uh, you get to, I think a lot of the OEM blade designers are there, so you can actually cross paths with the people that are designing blades. It's a, it is a good place to meet. Dusseldorf, uh, in December should be really nice. All the Christmas activities will be in full force.
It should be a good time, but, you know, be prepared. It's gonna be a little bit chilly, I'm afraid, Joel.
Joel Saxum: Yeah. But I think, uh, uh, at the same time as well,