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The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast

Allen Hall, Rosemary Barnes, Joel Saxum & Phil Totaro
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast
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  • Wind Power Succeeds to Meet Energy Needs
    While European wind giants like Maersk and Ørsted face cancellations and layoffs, America's offshore wind projects in Virginia and Massachusetts are surging ahead, proving that genuine energy demand trumps political headwinds when the physics and economics align. 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! It's an interesting time to be in wind energy....In a shipyard in Singapore, there's a vessel worth four hundred and seventy-five million dollars. It's ninety-eight percent complete, built specifically to install wind turbines off the coast of New York. And it's just floating there... abandoned. Maersk Offshore Wind walked away from the contract last week. Just cancelled it. Left Seatrium, the shipbuilder, holding a near-finished vessel with nowhere to go. The ship was supposed to build Empire Wind, but now lawyers are circling and nobody knows what happens next. This is happening at the same time Orsted, the company that pioneered offshore wind energy, announces it's cutting two thousand jobs. That's a quarter of their entire workforce. In Germany, Eno Energy just filed for bankruptcy, leaving two hundred and eighty workers unemployed and the state government holding thirteen million euros in loan guarantees. You might think the wind industry is collapsing. But, you'd be wrong. Very wrong. Thirty miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, workers just accomplished something remarkable. They hammered one hundred and seventy-six massive foundations into the Atlantic seabed, finishing the job in just five months... ahead of schedule... in what everyone agrees was perfect weather. And the weather along the East Cost of the US has been splendid this year. This is Dominion Energy's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, and when it starts generating power next March, it will be America's largest offshore wind farm. Two-point-six gigawatts of power, enough for half a million homes. But here's what makes this story truly odd in today's US political environment.... Republican Congresswoman Jen Kiggans from Virginia Beach stood up on the House floor last month to defend this wind farm. Not attack it... defend it. She explained that this project provides a five hundred million dollar power grid upgrade to Naval Air Station Oceana. She called it a matter of national security. House Speaker Mike Johnson from Louisiana, oil country, personally told reporters he delivered Kiggans' message directly to the President. "We want to do right by Virginians," he said. Think about that for a moment. In this political climate, a Republican Speaker is defending wind power. Why? Because Virginia desperately needs electricity. Data centers are consuming power at unprecedented rates, the military requires reliable energy, and this project has already created two thousand American jobs while pumping two billion dollars into the economy. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, something interesting is also developing. Chinese manufacturer Ming Yang Smart Energy just announced they're investing two billion dollars to build a turbine factory in Scotland. They're promising fifteen hundred jobs for Scottish workers, with production starting in twenty twenty-eight. The job creations and investment amount sounds great, but there are still many hurdles to overcome. The reliability and insurability of Ming Yang turbines is still a hot topic amongst wind energy engineers. And security concerns with Chinese turbines will surely raise eyebrows of the UK, EU and US governments. Only time will tell.... Remember that ship floating in Singapore?
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  • ORE Catapult Showcases UK Wind Innovation
    Emily Rees and Magnus Willett from ORE Catapult discuss the upcoming UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain Spotlight in Edinburgh. The event brings together innovative companies that are establishing the UK as a global leader in offshore wind energy, from small startups to major manufacturers. 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! Emily and Magnus, welcome to the show. Hi, it's great to be here. Thanks so much. Thanks so much for having us. You, you're both preparing for the UK offshore wind supply chain Spotlight 2025, in which Joel and I are looking forward to attending up in Edinburgh on December 11th. Uh, and it's an event that showcases where the UK stands in Global Offshore Wind Development. Uh, but Emily, I, I know there's some challenges in the UK at the moment and, uh, the UK is working through those. Want to talk to some of the. Those challenges and how the spotlight is gonna help work through those. Yeah, uh, of course. So, um, I think that, you know, we as the uk like have identified quite a while ago that offshore wind was a really massive opportunity for us. You know, we've got a really amazing offshore wind resource, [00:01:00] um, and. So we really wanted to take advantage of it and, you know, push forward with a, with that industry. Um, the things that we've come up against is that, um, ability to then provide homegrown, um, supply chain, you know, actually have, uh, businesses in the uk being that, that main supply, um. In the first port of call, you know, there was the, uh, a lot of the, um, sort of components that we, we sort of have to, to build the fixed bottom offshore wind was all coming from abroad, so it's like, right, well, how do we reap the benefits internally of this really amazing industry that we can build? And so, um, having, uh, supply chain spotlight events where we can really shine a light on the different companies internally in the UK that are actually providing services and providing, um, the supply chain for offshore wind, um, is, is super critical. And the, the catapult, um, the offshore renewable energy catapult, uh, where Magnus and I both from, um, is, you know, [00:02:00] really key into making that happen. I know when you look online at the re catapult and you see like the people that you partner with, the organizations, the, I mean OEMs, um, all of the innovative technical technology companies that are coming out there, it it, it's, it's so great to see. Right. And then this is me sitting in my, my American chair a and I talked about this. We talked a little bit about it off air, about the fact that wind energy in general, when you're, when you're talking offshore wind, onshore wind, it is a huge. Industrial and economic opportunity for all the countries that are involved in it. And simply because things like this don't come along that often, right? Like you have the, you know, the automo, I look at it like that, like the automobile was a thing, right? Like, oh, we went from horses to this. This is a huge opportunity. It made a lot of people, a lot of money, put a lot of people to work. Wind is the same thing in my perspective, and maybe not at that grand of scale, the automobile, of course, but. You are seeing with your organization, the involvement with people like we have the, the Siemens facility in [00:03:00]Hull, and I know you guys do a little bit of work with them, uh, bringing that manufacturing onshore into the uk. But not only is it bringing manufacturing what you're doing here with the UK offshore wind supply chain spotlight is taking. The small companies, the, the,
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  • New ONYX CEO, Smarter Farmland Contracts
    The hosts cover some recent turbine failures, Onyx Insight's new CEO and strategic acquisitions, research about wind turbine farmland contracts, and an article about hybrid brakes by Dellner. 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! 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, Alan Hall in the Queen city of Charlotte, North Carolina. Rosemary Barnes in Australia and Joel Saxon in the great state of Texas. Just before we hopped online to record this podcast, Rosemary was telling us about a number of turbine problems on LinkedIn and. Rosemary wanted to comment on them. These are some of the larger turbines. Rosemary are newer turbines. Uh, some of them onshore, some of 'em offshore  Rosemary Barnes: for the, yeah, for the most part. Um, yeah, both onshore and offshore. Some a little bit older, but the common thread is, um, [00:01:00] just like spectacular fail failures of multiple blades of one across multiple turbines of one, the one I saw most recently. Had blades smashed to pieces. It had towers that had just like fallen apart. Like it was, um, like they weren't bolted together. Like it was just blocks stacked on top of each other and they had, you know, just an angry baby had just topped them over. That's what it looked like. And um, I think what's really interesting is reading the comments in those and it just, without fail every single time, the first few comments are gonna be. Um, justifying how that is just cool and normal, like either by the company itself or the turbine manufacturer itself saying, oh, you know, oh, this was just a prototype. So, you know, it doesn't matter that it fell apart, like. Forgetting about the fact that, okay, it's just a prototype, but it's still an operational turbine that people would've been inside it to install it. They're inside it to maintain it. You know, people are inside those things. They're not supposed to be able to just fall apart by the time that it gets to that point.  Joel Saxum: I, I, I think I've seen some of these same posts, Rosemary, and one of the ones that I saw recently [00:02:00] was not even, it wasn't new, it wasn't prototypes. It was, it was like, there's a picture, there's three turbines with, or four turbines and there of the, of the dozen blades in the picture, nine of them are gone. It's just a nelle hub with like little stubs on three turbines, and those are only like 850 kilowatt, one megawatt, 1.5 megawatt machines. They're, they're old. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Yeah. And so I think a typhoon went through in that particular case and I made a comment, you know, like it's either poor turbine design or it's really poor site assessment. In either case, it's a failure, right? Like you don't put wind turbines that can't withstand a typhoon in a place that gets typhoons. Um, but you always, you always say people saying how this is actually great engineering. And I just thought this is just the classic example of that, um, that was written under this latest post, and I'll just read it out. The pictures point to the designers of these turbines. Having done that, designing to a certain wind speed, having done that to a high degree of consistency, I note three failure types [00:03:00] in the pictures, blade snap, tower, buckling and bolt failure, pointing to all parts,
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  • Offshore Turbine Toilets, BlackRock’s $38B Acquisition
    OEG celebrates 500 offshore turbine toilet installations while BlackRock acquires AES for $38 billion, signaling continued investment despite global wind auction slowdowns and European wind droughts. 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! Welcome to Uptime News. Flash Industry News Lightning fast. Your host, Allen Hall, shares the renewable industry news you may have missed. Allen Hall 2025: There's good news today from the wind energy sector, and it starts of all places with toilets. OEG and Aberdeen Headquartered company just reached a milestone. They've installed their 500th in turbine welfare unit across the UK's offshore wind sector. If you've ever worked on an offshore wind turbine, you know why this matters. These aren't just convenience facilities. Their dignity and their safety. The other difference between a dangerous transfer to a standby vessel and staying on the job. The units operate in the harshest offshore conditions with no external power or water. Nine offshore wind farms now have these facilities and they're making offshore work accessible for [00:01:00] women helping retain a more diverse workforce. And while OEG celebrates 500 installations, something much larger is happening in the American Midwest. Gulf Pacific Power. Just completed a major transaction with NL Green Power North America. Gulf Pacific acquired all of E L's interest in five operating wind facilities, totaling over 800 megawatts of capacity. The portfolio includes Prairie Rose in Minnesota, Goodwill and Origin, and Rocky Ridge in Oklahoma, and a facility in North Dakota. Projects with long-term power purchase agreements and high credit counterparties. And then there's BlackRock. The world's largest asset manager is placing a $38 billion bet on American clean energy. They're close to acquiring power Giant a ES, which have give BlackRock ownership of nearly eight gigawatts of wind power capacity. A [00:02:00] ES leads in sign deals with data center customers with artificial intelligence driving unprecedented electricity demand. That positioning matters. The weather numbers tell their own story about wind's challenging year. Most of Europe recorded wind speeds four to 8% below normal in the first half of this year. The wind drought curtailed generation in Germany, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom. But the Northeastern United States saw winds seven to 10% above average in parts of Norway, Sweden, and Northern China also benefited. And in storm, Amy, which is passing through the uk, it drove wholesale electricity prices negative for 17 hours. 20 gigawatts of wind power flooded the grid and the grid paid users to consume electricity. Too much wind, not enough demand. The offshore wind industry faces real headwinds. Global awards fell more than 70% in the first nine months of this year. Of about 20 gigawatts of expected auctions, [00:03:00] only 2.2 gigawatts have been awarded. Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark are preparing new frameworks to restore investor confidence and Japan designated two promising offshore zones, but confidence there is still shaken when Mitsubishi pulled out of its first auction due to some sorry costs. So here's what we have. An Aberdeen company celebrating 500 toilet installations that transform working conditions. A Midwestern power company expanding its wind portfolio by 800 megawatts and the world's largest asset manager, betting $38 billion on American energy infrastructure. All while offshore auctions stall globally, all while Europe experiences a wind drought and the UK experiences at times too m...
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  • RPA on New Jersey’s Electricity Rate Emergency
    Kyle Mason (Associate Planner) and Robert Freudenberg (VP, Energy & Environment Program) from the Regional Plan Association break down why New Jersey electricity rates spiked 17-20% in June 2024. They explore how outdated grid infrastructure, AI-driven energy demand, and stalled renewable projects are creating a perfect storm for ratepayers. 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! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress Powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Kyle and Rob, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having us.  Robert Freudenberg: Yeah, thanks. Great to be here.  Allen Hall: Uh, so I was doing a lot of homework online a couple of days ago and looking into, uh, some statements with an administration about the electricity rates in New Jersey, and I thought, well, I need, I need to do my homework because some of this is new to me and throughout all my research and spent several hours on it. Your organization is the only one that had any real data. So I'm glad you're joining us today. So, Kyle, I would like to start with you first, and, and. There's a fundamental challenge that's happening, uh, in New Jersey. Can you just paint a picture of what around New Jersey rate payers are facing with their electricity bills? Kyle Mason: Yeah, absolutely. So starting [00:01:00] June of this year, uh, electricity rates in New Jersey went up between 17 to 20%, depending on your utility company. Uh, that is a cause of a larger problem with the regional grid operator. PJM. Uh, PJM is the grid operator for New Jersey and 12 other states. It covers over 60 million people in a wide geographic area. Uh, they run a annual capacity auction, which secures power for when the grid is at peak load or when most power is being used on the grid. And that capacity market saw record high prices, which trickled down to. Increased electricity rates for New Jersey rate payers.  Allen Hall: Rob, from a policy perspective, how did we get here? Robert Freudenberg: Yeah, I mean, there are, there are so many ways we got here and that's part of the issue. Um, you know, I think what we've seen in, in the aftermath [00:02:00] of these rate hikes is everybody trying to point to one thing. Uh, and there is no one thing here. This is, this is a series of changes over time. Um, you know, we're. We're, we're looking at, um, the way we bring energy onto a system on an old grid. We have a very old grid. And we're trying to update it in real time. And the process to put things on the grid is, uh, taking a lot longer than it used to. And we're putting new and more, uh, various types of, of energy sources onto the grid. So, um, as we're, it's like trying to, to build the plane while you're flying it, and we're trying to update our grid. As we need the energy and as demand is increasing. So, um, you know, as we add these new and various sources, uh, to the grid, they're going through a process that used to take a few years, and now it takes many years. And we're also in a, in a phase where we're adding a lot of renewables, which are, you know, not big behemoth like power plants. Um, you know, they're [00:03:00] smaller, more distributed. So the process that's set up to bring new energy, new infrastructure online is outdated. And, um, you know, I think what we're, what we're finding is as we go and more energy is demanded that the system is not keeping up, uh, with the demand. And so we're falling behind and projects are getting stuck in the queue. And the, the federal government,
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About The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast

Uptime is a renewable energy podcast focused on wind energy and energy storage technologies. Experts Allen Hall, Rosemary Barnes, Joel Saxum and Phil Totaro break down the latest research, tech, and policy.
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