Show notes
The Uptime hosts examine Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's federal oversight mandate, the administration's plan to replace Idaho's cancelled Lava Ridge Wind Farm with six nuclear reactors, and critique a recent wind conference in Australia. The discussion also covers French utility EDF's plan to sell 50% of its North American wind portfolio to raise 2 billion euros for nuclear upgrades in France. Sign up for the next SkySpecs webinar! Register for UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain Spotlight 2025!
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!
Allen Hall: [00:00:00] Mark your calendars December 11th at the Royal Highland Center in Edinburgh, because you'll want to be at the UK offshore wind supply chain Spotlight 2025. This isn't just another conference. It's where the UK's offshore wind supply chain comes together. Co-hosted by ORE Catapult and the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership.
Spotlight 2025 is where developers connect with suppliers and where the next breakthrough in offshore wind technology gets its moment to shine. So whether you're looking to forge new partnerships, secure critical investments, or simply stay ahead of the curve in this rapidly evolving sector, you'll need to register for this event.
Remember December 11th in Edinburg for Spotlight 2025. Just Google. Edinburgh Supply Chain Spotlight 2025. You can register today.
You're listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by bill turbines.com. Learn train and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. [00:01:00] Visit build turbines.com today. Now here's your hosts, Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Tartaro, and Rosemary Barnes.
Allen Hall: Well, greetings from Charlotte, North Carolina to the Queen City.
I'm Alan Hall and I'm here with Phil Tartaro from the Golden State of California. And Joel Saxon is at an undisclosed location in a secure bunker, so that's not gonna leak out where he is. And Rosemary is enjoying the winter months in beautiful Australia. And we have some interesting topics this week, but I wanna lead off with Rosemary.
Went to another WIN conference, WIN plus conference in Australia. Rosemary.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, actually I, I feel petty, um, dissing this conference now because this is the one that Alan, you and I did a whole episode on how bad this conference was last year and, um. That's what caused us to feel like we needed to organize our own wind energy conference.
Uh, that covered some technical topics, but you're walking around the conference, like, why is there so much hydrogen stuff at a wind energy conference? And I'm like, okay, well maybe that's like what they perceive that, you know, most of the [00:02:00] new projects in Australia, all the big ones say that they're associated with hydrogen.
So maybe that's it. And then I started seeing a lot of, um, carbon capture things and, you know, like eels and all sorts of, all sorts of things related to. CO2. Um, so that confused me. Um, and then I saw that it was also a carbon capture conference too. So yeah, the exhibition was, was not, not too bad. I had definitely had lots of good conversations with people.
Um, some interesting things like, um, the drone, uh, yeah, drone inspections, a few new capabilities coming up. There were a couple of people with good drones, um, that can. Test the resistance of an LPS and say that they can do a whole turbine in an hour and a half. So, um, that's, that's pretty good. There was also some cool NDT, uh, non-destructive testing stuff and a really small portable ultrasound machine, and they wouldn't give me a price, but it seemed like maybe, um, a wind farm could own one and use it to [00:03:00] sometimes check repairs.
I know I've heard some operators in Australia have been saying how. Um, they are a bit confused about whether their repairs are good or not because they do see the same blades coming in for repair over and over again. And I haven't actually, um, seen, seen the data to know is this the exact same location or is it somewhere else?
But you know, if you're having a problem like that, then in investing in a small ultrasound machine and the expertise to use it. 'cause it's definitely not something where just any random off the street can, can interpret. The results. But this particular machine, and I haven't looked into it, I just had the chat at the booth yesterday.
They say that it can work on quite curved surfaces, which, um, usually it, it will struggle. So if that's true then that could be quite handy. But yeah. Um, I didn't go to any of the presentations 'cause I was so, I dunno, I'm gonna say disgusted. I was actually disgusted by it last year. Not just like disappointed or not interested.
It was like a stronger emotion than that because it's just like, you know, they get all these people here. Kind of promise that you're gonna learn [00:04:00]something about, about wind energy. But instead they just put people on stage who, uh, either one, they work for a company who has sponsored the event. If you sponsor the event, then it comes with a certain number of speaker slots attached to it.
Um, or two that they, you just explicitly pay for the presentation and I can't remember, but I think it's around about 10,000 US dollars. So this year I saw just a few of the, there's some smaller stages in the exhibition area. Um, I saw some like weird ones on hydrogen where they're still talking like it's, I don't know, 2018 and no one's really sure what hydrogen can or can't do.
What else? Oh yeah. And the other thing, um, I did pass this hilarious, um. Hilarious little scene where they had a backdrop that said Women in net zero future, um, like written on the background, not like projected on there, written there. And then, um, you know, panel after panel was, uh, yeah, full of, full of men.
This particular photo took is extra funny 'cause it just looks like five versions of the exact same guy. It's, it's like, you know, [00:05:00] say same age, same haircut, same race. It is just like, is this just, yeah. So that is a handy tip for organizers that if you're gonna, you know, write women on your background, maybe think about how many women that you have speaking worth going.
Um, and uh, again, it, you know, reignites. My, uh, passion for putting together an event where you actually, you know, talk about the technical issues and, um, you know, present information that people can learn from. Um, yeah. You know, um, companies with products can learn about what the problems that operators are facing and operators can learn about solutions that exist.
So that's, um, yeah, we we're working at the moment on that for next conference. I think that's, uh, also the goal of what's, um, we've got Wind Summit coming up in Houston in a few months, so there are good events out there.
Allen Hall: Don't let blade damage catch you off guard. OGs, ping sensors detect issues before they become expensive, time consuming problems.[00:06:00]
From ice buildup and lightning strikes to pitch misalignment in internal blade cracks. OGs Ping has you covered The cutting edge sensors are easy to install, giving you the power to stop damage before it's too late. Visit og ping.com and take control of your turbine's health today. Uh, the White House has issued a new order requiring interior Secretary Doug Bergham to personally approve all wind and solar energy projects on federal lands and waters.
And. Uh, this enhanced oversight covers everything from leases to right of ways to construction plans and operational approvals across literally millions of acres of federal property. And the interior Department is saying that it aims to end preferential treatment for what it calls unreliable subsidy, dependent wind and solar energy.
And my first thought of this is like, all right, fine. Do it. Let's see how long this lasts, [00:07:00] because I don't think the administration can produce the amount of energy that it needs to produce in the short amount of time they're gonna be around. Without wind and solar, they're gonna have to let some of these projects through, or there's going to be big time power constraints.
Right. Phil?
Phil Totaro: The bigger issue is offshore as, as pertains the Department of the Interior for onshore wind. I mean certainly solar, but for onshore wind. We only have out of the 55 gigawatts or so that's either, um, already been approved for construction and has started construction. Uh, is in the interconnection queue or hasn't been fully approved and permitted yet?
Um, I think it's like less than six gigawatts that's even on or touching any kind of federal land or requiring any kind of federal permit, which would fall under this jurisdiction. So, and most, like I said, most of the stuff's already been approved, so there's not much that it's going to impact onshore wind.
Solar will be [00:08:00] more. Modestly impacted, um, just because for utility scale projects, they sometimes use federal land. Um, but for the most part, we, we don't really get out there and, and touch that, where this has obviously the, the biggest implication is what we've already seen since January, which is offshore wind.
Um, but that's not really a big. Change. Although what's interesting to me is we'll see, you know, with this whole push for accountability, um, you know, we'll see if they're willing to stand behind their, uh, you know, approvals and assessments the same way they're challenging ones issued by previous administrations.
Joel Saxum: I mean, 'cause at the end of the day, there's not,