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284 episodes
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Date created
2020/03/24
Latest episode
2026/10/05
Average duration
19 min.
Release period
3 days
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Uptime is a renewable energy podcast focused on wind energy and energy storage technologies. Experts Allen Hall, Rosemary Barnes, Yolanda Padron, and Matthew Stead break down the latest research, tech, and policy.
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Check latest episodes from The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast podcast
Why Vestas Wants Chinese Wind Turbines Off Europe’s Grid
2026/10/05
Allen covers how Denmark, where modern wind began, is pushing back on China, as Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen argues to keep Chinese turbines off Europe’s grid.
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Morten Handberg Answers the Big Drone Inspection Questions
2026/10/01
Morten Handberg answers the big questions around drone inspections, including how often to inspect, how many turbines to sample, and how much AI results should be qualified. Contact Morten on LinkedIn
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Uptime’s Takeaways from Hamburg 2026
2026/09/29
The crew discusses Hamburg takeaways, including the industry mood, bigger blade risks, and OEM announcements.
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Nordex Invests in Türkiye, Vestas Wins First V182 Order
2026/09/28
Allen covers Nordex’s Türkiye expansion, Chinese turbine makers seeking European partners, Vestas’ first V182 order, and two Pennsylvania repowers.
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
How Active Training Team Kept 25,000 Tideway Workers Safe
2026/09/24
Dermot Kerrigan, Director and Co-founder at Active Training Team, joins to discuss how the immersive EPIC safety center helped London’s £5 billion Thames Tideway tunnel finish with zero fatalities and zero life-changing injuries. Plus similar centers built for Ørsted’s Hornsea projects and SSE, and the mobile program his US team runs for wind and solar sites.
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
GE Vernova and Vineyard Wind Settle, UK Approves Irish Sea Cables
2026/09/22
GE Vernova and Vineyard Wind drop all claims in their $4.5 billion dispute. Plus the UK approves Irish Sea cables for Morgan and Morecambe, a GE turbine order in Japan, whale recorders in the Celtic Sea, and previews of WindEnergy Hamburg.
Register for the SkySpecs Customer Forum
Meet with Nikki Briggs at WindEnergy Hamburg to discuss the StrikeTape Ultra LPS upgrade
Find Rosie & Matthew at Booth A1-115 at WindEnergy Hamburg
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Ørsted Finishes Revolution Wind, RWE Wins German Auction
2026/09/21
Allen covers record bank financing for clean energy, Oracle’s 1.7 GW Texas wind deal, RWE’s German auction win, Denmark scrapping its turbine cap, and Revolution Wind finishing off Rhode Island.
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
How CNC Onsite Cuts Repair Delays for US Operators
2026/09/17
Søren Kellenberger, CEO at CNC Onsite, joins to discuss the company’s new US office, uptower yaw ring repairs, and blade root insert replacement. Email [email protected] to learn more.
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Ex-Ørsted Employees in Demand, CIP Orders Goldwind Turbines
2026/09/15
CIP taps Goldwind for an Australian wind project even as Europe fights Chinese turbines. Plus, Alfanar’s $100 million bet on Senvion, and where laid-off Ørsted staff are landing.
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Orsted Wins Tax Fight, Vestas Breaks Onshore Height Record
2026/09/14
Allen covers Vestas setting the tallest onshore turbine record in Germany, Skyborn’s €3B Baltic wind financing close, Orsted’s UK tax fight win, and the debate over turbines as national security assets.
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Nordex Outsells Vestas, GE Vernova Rebuilds Wind Team
2026/09/08
Nordex closes in on Vestas in onshore orders, GE Vernova rebuilds its wind team, Nexxis buys BladeBug, and wooden blades draw doubts.
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s "Engineering with Rosie" Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Episode Transcript
The Uptime Wind Energy podcast, brought to you by StrikeTape. Protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide. Visit StrikeTape.com. And now, your hosts
Allen Hall: Well, welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall. I'm here with R- Rosemary Barnes, Matthew Stead, and Yolanda Padron, and it is another crazy week in wind energy. Uh, we should start off with GE Vernova, because if you've been following your LinkedIn pages, you will see a number of new faces and even a couple of press releases.
And if you do follow wind closely, you know that GE Vernova has been in a little bit of a tailspin, and that won't go on very long before they will try to right that ship. Well, here we go. Uh, GE Vernova, uh, is grabbing a bunch of talent. Claire McDonough, the chief financial officer who took [00:01:00] Rivian, the, the truck maker, through its IPO recently and led its cost-cutting push, uh, is leaving the electric vehicle maker to become the CFO of GE Vernova.
So not just wind, the whole kit and caboodle, uh, gas turbines and the, all the transformer businesses. Uh, and she'll start at the beginning of 2027. She replaces, uh, the retiring Ken Parks, and it sounds like Ken is gonna stay on and help Scott Strazik as an advisor, which I'm sure he appreciates. Uh, but, uh, Claire is not the only new face there.
Christie Hopkins, who spent more than 26 years at Siemens Energy and Siemens Gamesa, has joined as executive director for Wind North America New Units, leading sales across US, Canada, and Mexico. And then Gio Scialdone, who has been on the podcast many times with 3S Left, is leaving 3S Left. I'm-- That's a big hit, I'm sure.
Uh, and he's coming back to GE, where he started at many, many years ago as a technician and built the wind [00:02:00] farm outside my front door when I lived in Massachusetts. He'll come back as global head of, of commercial services and a number of other, uh, repowers and a number of other things. So basically between, uh, Christie and Gio, it sounds like they're gonna cover the planet, uh, for wind energy This is a big change, everybody.
Uh, our concern was, was GE gonna shut down the wind division? Yolanda, it looks like they're keeping it and reinforcing it with some really strong candidates.
Yolanda Padron: If they can hopefully get everything together and, and get at least the wind side, um, back to where it once was or close to it, uh, it could be a really good win for their operations sites, right?
Their operational sites who currently don't really know what the forecast is gonna be for their sites in five, 10 years if GE just goes down.
Rosemary Barnes: I was actually watching... There's this new creator, I don't know who they [00:03:00] are, but some creator I've been watching Instagram reels from where they go through just, uh, you know, like, historical things, but mostly related to business or government, and one of the ones that he was talking about that I thought was interesting was about, um, when engineering companies get a non-technical CEO in for the first time, like an MBA type, and what they typically do.
And I think that GE is usually, like, the just shining example of how to run businesses in that way. But the typical pattern is, and he had some examples, which I can't recall, so yeah, sorry, my, um, anecdote will be fact-free, but trust me, there are, is some data behind it. But it, it gave the example of, yeah, so the, um, y- you know, like, a traditional engineering company like Boeing might be an example, and GE Vernova would be another one.
They build up their strength and dominance by investing a lot in R&D, and all of the technical staff really care about the company and are [00:04:00] all contributing to, um, you know, making sure that they continue to dominate technologically. And then if you get an MBA-type manager in, the sh- the typical pattern goes that they fire a bunch of people that were working in R&D, like reduce the R&D spend massively, reduce the wages of all the technical people.
Technical people start to have less say in how the company, um, is managed. And in the short term, they get spectacular results from that, right? You know, profits go massively up if you stop investing in R&D for a few years, um, because, you know, R&D takes quite a while to, to pay off, so you're not gonna notice the pain.
You're gonna see the financial benefit immediately. You're not p- notice the pain for ages. And, you know, without going into too d- in-depth analysis about the wind energy companies that are around today, I think if you look at the companies that are going well You see that there are companies that continue to prioritize, um, research and [00:05:00] development and continue to prioritize the opinions of the technical people working for them.
And I personally think that GE is maybe gone just a little bit too long with the MBA-type way of running a company. Um, and that, yeah, like that's really great for a little while, but it's not a long-term strategy, and I don't know how you pull back from it. Um, I haven't seen any turnaround stories like that.
But yeah, just some, some food for thought that that might be part of the reason why they're struggling. But I would say that 'cause I'm an engineer, and yeah, engineers hate to be managed by non-technical people, so.
Allen Hall: I wanna get Gio's title right because he is responsible for a lot at GE Vernova on the wind side. It would be Global Head of Commercial Services and Repower at GE Vernova. So global repower, that's a huge area, and in services, as we know, is one of the profitable areas within GE Vernova Wind. Very important position, and he's an engineer [00:06:00] That's good Maybe
Rosemary Barnes: that's the start of the comeback, comeback king.
Allen Hall: It, it def- definitely could be. Yeah. Well, the numbers are in for the first half of 2026, and Europe is having the best wind year ever. Wind Europe reported, uh, 8.8 gigawatts of new capacity installed in the first six months, uh, up 30% from the same period last year. Germany alone put up more than 500 turbines.
That's quite a few. Uh, but behind those numbers, there's another story that is unfolding, which is Nordex, the German turbine maker, is closing in on Vestas, the Danish wind tu- turbine maker, in the onshore market. Uh, in August, Nordex booked more than twice the megawatts that Vestas did. Uh, a Danske Bank analyst says Nordex has been quicker on its feet, picking up market share that left behind b- by Siemens Gamesa and GE Vernova.
Uh, although [00:07:00] Vestas is still way out in front in, in terms of total gigawatts that they're gonna produce. This is an interesting shift, right? I mean, we've been li- seeing this the last, ooh, year or so, where Nordex is picking up clients that were formerly GE Vernova or are even, like, massively dedicated to GE Vernova or Siemens Gamesa.
Uh, it does seem like there's an opening there, and so far, at, at least people we've talked to, uh, from the Weather Guard side, l- literally like Nordex. They like the response to problems and questions and things that maybe they hadn't seen out of other suppliers. Was this unexpected, or is this a, a sort of a natural outgrowth of where Nordex is headed?
Rosemary Barnes: Is this one year of this trend, or is it, has it been growing for a few? I,
Allen Hall: I think it's been growing for a couple. It's been growing
Rosemary Barnes: for a few years
Matthew Stead: now. Isn't it one month? Yeah. One month?
Allen Hall: It's one month, but if you- ... if you beat Ves- if you beat Vestas at all and you're Nordex, think, if you look, think [00:08:00] about four or five years ago, and I've, if I said Nordex had outsold Vestas, and maybe it had happened, uh, but it would just seem implausible
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah
Allen Hall: that that would
Rosemary Barnes: even occur No, I mean, if it's, if it's several years then, then fair enough, that's a turn. I just say that because y- you know, most of this capacity is offshore, right? And offshore projects are so lumpy. You, you know, like, when you make a sale, you make, like, a gigawatt sale. Um, and so I think it's pretty hard to take, like, a single year, or even, like, within a couple of years it could still be the same project.
So, um, that's one point. And then the other point is, like, when you look at the breakdown of, uh, what did we say? Europe put in 8.8 gigawatts, and 3.4 of that was in Germany. I think European countries do tend to be a little bit, like, protective of their own companies. Or, I mean, ev- it's natural for, for everyone, you know, has some sort of preference- Mm
whether it's explicit encouragement or support, or whether it's just, like, a warm, fuzzy feeling that you have for a company that's from your [00:09:00] country. I think that that possibly has something to do with it. So yeah, if I would no- if I was Nordex, I would see this as encouraging and probably not just consider it a slam dunk from here.
But, you know, something to, to grow on. 'Cause I, I know traditionally German companies have had some trouble succeeding as much outside of Germany as within it.
Matthew Stead: Mm. I think this is a good example of the, the last discussion we had about GE. I mean, you know, Nordex, Vestas, Siemens, Gamesa are investing in their development, investin
Siemens Gamesa Builds Hornsea Blades, NEMS Invests in Perth
2026/09/07
Siemens Gamesa starts Hornsea 3 blade production in Hull, Germany approves an Offshore Wind Act amendment, and Nexxis buys BladeBUG.
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s "Engineering with Rosie" Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Episode Transcript
Uptime News FlashSeptember 7, 2026Happy Monday, everyone. Well, let's talk about the biggest wind farm on earth. It doesn't exist yet, but its blades are being built right now. Over in Hull, England, Siemens Gamesa just started making blades for Ørsted's Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm. That's two point nine gigawatts, one hundred and ninety-seven turbines. Each blade is longer than a football pitch. Fourteen hundred workers build blades in that factory, turning raw materials into finished product. When complete, Hornsea 3 will power more than three million British homes. It's the single largest offshore wind farm in the world.And if we slide over to Germany for a moment, the German cabinet just approved an amendment to the Offshore Wind Act, the WindSeeG. It's headed to the Bundestag next. The goal? New rules by January first, twenty twenty-seven. But the Offshore Wind Energy Foundation says the draft does not go far enough. Sixteen gigawatts of awarded projects are still waiting on final investment decisions. Sixteen — that's quite a few. The foundation wants a new way for developers to hand back sites they can't build, so those sites can be re-tendered quickly under conditions that actually work. Sort of a use-it-or-lose-it approach. That's the idea.We'll head a little further east to India. India ranks fourth in the world for installed wind power, but probably not for long. A government official said this week that India will overtake Germany and become the world's third-largest wind energy nation by twenty thirty — one hundred seven gigawatts of installed capacity. India added a record six gigawatts last year alone, shattering their previous record of a little over four gigawatts. And twenty-eight more gigawatts are under construction right now. Impressive.Let's head down to Western Australia, because a company called National Electric Motor Services, NEMS for short, is building a one million dollar facility in Perth to test and repair wind turbine generators. Right now, Australian wind farm operators ship their broken generators overseas for repairs, and that takes months. NEMS is the only authorized service center for ELIN Motoren in all of Western Australia. This is the fifth project funded through Australia's Wind Energy Manufacturing Co-investment program. Local repair, faster turnaround, and homegrown capability — that's all good.And staying in Australia, Perth-based Nexxis Technology just bought a British robotics company, BladeBUG. BladeBUG is a robot that uses suction cups to crawl across wind turbine blades. Nexxis already has a robot called Magneto that uses electromagnetic adhesion to climb steel structures. If you put the two together, you can inspect almost any surface on a turbine, or about anything else. Add AI and machine vision, and you have robots that can see what human eyes might miss, from places human hands shouldn't have to reach. It's safer, faster, and it's going to be a lot smarter.One more story before we finish today. Siemens Gamesa has now installed more than 300 recyclable blades in six countries. The secret is a new resin. Unlike conventional resins, this one lets you separate the blade components at end of life, so you can separate the fabric from the resin. Cool stuff. Jonas Pagh Jensen, head of sustainability at Siemens Gamesa, says the technology is ready for full-scale use. And Siemens Gamesa has already installed 36 GreenerTower units — steel towers with 63% lower carbon emissions. So although sustainability may have faded from the headlines, it's still in tender documents, and it's showing up more than ever. In Denmark, the Netherlands, and France, buyers are all asking about recyclability and decarbonization before they award contracts.So what should you be watching this week? Recyclability is no longer a nice-to-have — it's a must-have, and it's showing up in tender scoring. If your blades can't be recycled at end of life, you may not win the contract to begin with. And a lot of supply chains are going local. Australia doesn't want to ship generators overseas anymore. India is building its own turbine factories. The countries buying wind power want it built at home. For professionals in the wind industry, the competitive edge is shifting — it's not just who can build the best turbine, it's who can build it locally, recycle it fully, and inspect it without putting a person in a harness.
India Locks Down Turbine Data, Danish Wind Jobs Dip
2026/09/01
India now requires turbine data, control centers, and R&D to sit inside its borders. Plus a study on reverse flow loads in parked blades, Envision's spare parts push across Southeast Asia, and Danish wind employment falling to 32,700.
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime's Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary's "Engineering with Rosie" Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Maine Approves 800 MW Wind Farm, Ming Yang Lobbies UK
2026/08/31
Allen covers Clearway's 800 MW wind farm in Maine, the state's largest ever, along with Suzlon's $1.2 billion project in India and Masdar's growing battery pipeline in the UK. Then Mingyang lobbies the UK's new Prime Minister to reverse its ban from British waters.
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime's Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary's "Engineering with Rosie" Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Up in Maine this week... they picked a spot for a wind farm. Eight hundred megawatts. The biggest the state has ever seen. Hold that thought. Halfway around the world... India broke ground on something even bigger. And in between... a Chinese company knocked on Britain's door. Again.
Start in Aroostook County, Maine. The woods up there grow timber... and wind. The Maine Public Utilities Commission chose Clearway Energy to build eight hundred megawatts of turbines on commercial timberland in the rural north. Avangrid will string the power line to connect those turbines to the New England grid. Commission Chair Phil Bartlett says the project will save Maine ratepayers at least three hundred and eighty-seven million dollars. Two-point-four billion in economic output. Thousands of construction jobs. Six hundred megawatts stay in Maine. The rest goes to Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont. Five states... one wind farm... one forest.
Now fly east across the Atlantic. In Rochdale, England... Abu Dhabi's Masdar just flipped the switch on its second battery storage plant in Britain. Thirty-five megawatts. Seventy megawatt-hours. Enough to power thirty-five thousand homes a day. And it responds to grid swings in milliseconds. This is part of Masdar's one-billion-pound pipeline of battery projects across the UK. Three gigawatt-hours planned. One of the largest storage buildouts in the country. Wind needs a partner. Batteries are volunteering.
Now south... to India. Suzlon just broke ground on thirteen hundred and twenty-five megawatts of wind in Ananthapuramu, Andhra Pradesh. The investment... about one-point-two billion dollars. Sixteen hundred new jobs. Suzlon already has a blade factory in the region. Capacity... twelve hundred and sixty megawatts a year. And the company is training twelve thousand young people, including three thousand women, in green energy skills. India's wind sector just crossed fifty-eight gigawatts. It was twenty-one gigawatts in twenty fourteen.
And staying in India... Saudi Arabia's Alfanar Group just put one hundred million dollars into its Indian turbine subsidiary Senvion. Thirty-four million released this month. The rest in weeks. Senvion builds one-point-five gigawatts of turbines a year. Saudi money. Indian manufacturing. Global ambition.
Now... one more item. And this one has an edge. Ming Yang... the Chinese turbine maker banned from British waters on national security grounds... wants back in. The company had plans for a one-point-five-billion-pound factory in Inverness, Scotland. Fifteen hundred direct jobs. Eight thousand in the supply chain. Labour ministers shut it down in March. The Ministry of Defence worried about spying. European rivals complained about Chinese state subsidies. Now Ming Yang is lobbying the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, to reverse the ban. The company says it can deliver "growth in every postcode." That phrase... is Burnham's own. A government spokesman says there are no plans to review the decision.
So what does this week tell us? Supply chains are going local. Saudi capital into Indian turbine factories. Maine insisting on new transmission before new generation. Britain locking the door on Chinese hardware while Abu Dhabi builds its battery network. The message is clear. Countries want wind power. But they want to own the pieces.
Watch for this. Permitting... not technology... is the bottleneck now. Maine's project was authorized in twenty twenty-one. It is twenty twenty-six and they are still years from turning a blade. And storage is no longer a side conversation. Masdar's billion-pound UK commitment says batteries are becoming infrastructure... not experiments.
For professionals in this industry... the work ahead is not just building turbines. It is building trust with governments who are choosing energy security over speed.
And that is the state of the wind industry for the 31st of August 2026. Join us for the Uptime Wind Energy podcast tomorrow.
Morten Handberg Answers the Big RCA Questions
2026/08/27
Blade specialist Morten Handberg on when an RCA pays off, what SCADA data can and cannot tell you, and why erosion gets written off as wear and tear.
The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime's Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary's "Engineering with Rosie" Youtube channel. 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: Morten, welcome back to the program.
Morten Handberg: Thanks, Allen. It's so-- It's, it's so such a great, great pleasure to be back again.
Allen Hall: We have a lot to talk about today because of root cause analysis and the number of operators that are really struggling with RCAs, of when to do them or when not to go down the RCA pathway.
It, it-- There's a, a ton of confusion in the industry about it, and we thought, well, this would be a great time for Morten to come back and explain when is the right time for an RCA. So Morten, when is the right time for an RCA? What should we look for? Or wh- how big of the problem sh-should it be [00:01:00]before I find somebody to help me do this RCA?
Morten Handberg: So the obvious question is typically when something really bad happens, then I think everyone can agree that, you know, we should definitely do an RCA to get to the bottom of this. And that's also just from a-- It's both from a technical perspective to sort of figure out, you know, why did this happen, and, you know, um, who...
Well, what is the, what is the main cause? Is it, is it something that, you know, it was happening while we were operating the asset, be it turbine or whatever? Uh, was it something that was inert in the bla- in the, in the turbine, the blade, the gearbox that was just waiting to happen? So that's always very important to know.
Also because it tells you what is the chance of this happening again, you know, and, and can you prevent it in a meaningful way? Um, and there's also a, a safety aspect to it because it's-- so it also tells, you know, uh, what if, you know, you don't want blade falling left and right. You don't want gearbox ex- [00:02:00] gearboxes exploding.
You don't want towers to collapse. We can all agree on that. Uh, and you don't want this to happen because you don't, you don't want to run the risk that someone gets hurt, uh, hurt by it. So then RCA is a really important tool to investigate and find out, well, what happened here, and how can we prevent it, and what is the chances that it happens another time?
So that, that is sort of the-- That we can always agree and we would do it when, when something really terrible happens. Then there is the, you know, not so critical ones where, you know, you are just in time, uh, that, that, that you catch it, and then the question is, what is the-- when is then the right time for that?
Allen Hall: There seems to be a couple of phases in the lifespan of a turbine where the RCA, it becomes a little more critical. In that first year or two, particularly if the turbine is under warranty or you're getting close to the end of the warranty, there-- at least from a lot of operators I have spoken with, that, uh, [00:03:00] they would like to do an RCA as more of a documentation of what has happened on the site to then maybe claim serial defect maybe l- at another point.
There's just like the record-keeping part of RCAs, which I'm not sure is the right level of effort for what you're trying to accomplish. Is, is the RCA the right approach there if you have a, a gearbox issue or a blade issue early in the life cycle of a turbine?
Morten Handberg: There is definitely before the end of warranty, there is a, there is an, there is an aspect, you know, when should you actually do an RCA?
And it should, it, it should benefit you in a way where you can-- where there is an economical benefit, because it might not be a massive critical issue, but something that will lead to a lot of maintenance down the t- down the line. Um, but if you want to make it successful in the warranty claim, then you really need to know what is the, what is the cost behind it.
Is it wear and tear? Is it [00:04:00] a manufacturing defect? Is it, uh, environmental conditions, uh, that are, that are causing it? And these, these becomes really important. That's also why you can, you, you can, you can do an RCA on erosion, uh, because it, it can be important if you see massive, uh, erosion degradation that you really want to understand, what are my local conditions?
Um, and a good example here is Australia, because Australia doesn't work like Europe. We-- You can take all the experiences we have from Europe, but it does not work in Australia. So you might want to do your, your, uh, root cause on that specific issue localized, uh, to really understand it, and that's when RCA becomes really strong to sort of find out what are the underlying mechanisms, uh, that enables this.
But you can also pour in a lot of cost and effort into relatively minor defects, uh, or issues, um, where it does not really benefit you in the long run, and that will always be a challenge before end of warranty because you don't really know what will, [00:05:00] what will hit you down the long run, and that's where you, you know, then, then it becomes more of a strategic decision.
You know, breaking bolts, if you've seen one, maybe you don't want to do an RCA on it. That does not really seem to matter to you that much. It's just random occurrence. But if you start to see it, uh, in, in quick succession on multiple turbines, adjacent bolts, then it's important for several reasons. One, you might-- If you're still within warranty, you really wanna know why is this happening and, and how do you fix it long term so this not-- does not become a headache for the next 25 years?
Um, so you want to, you want-- you really want to understand that. And two You can, you can live with a few broken bolts on the blade, but there, there will become a critical point where the blade will liberate and then, uh, it will, it will col- it will, it will, yeah, leave the turbine or, or collapse on its own, uh, depending on the turbine model.
And, and that is really critical to, to, uh, to avoid and, and to, uh, to [00:06:00]understand that. Um, and maybe the outcome of the idea of the RCA is monitoring, but that is a really important knowledge to have.
Allen Hall: That's a good point about the monitoring aspect because I think a lot of times when a operator chooses to go down the RCA path, what they're expecting is just to get a report of this is the conditions that created the damage or created the unexpected outcome Uh, it, sometimes you may not be able to get to that final answer, and the answer can be, we need to put conditioning monitoring on to have a better understanding of what the fault is.
That's not a invalid RCA. That's a really useful tool. But a lot of operators don't think of an RCA as being that sort of outcome. That, that is actually where a lot of the industry problems can be solved, right, is to get the engineering up in upfront to then maybe have a little longer time or maybe instrument another [00:07:00] turbine to see how big this problem is.
I- is, is that the approach that which you would, uh, aspire to apply to some of these wind sites today?
Morten Handberg: I think that monitoring, uh, understanding the monitoring requirements is a very critical point, uh, outcome of an RCA. Both-- And you can use it both during your investigation to sort of find out when you have, you know, uh, to, to find out how do you detect it efficiently, uh, but also what are the right methodologies and what is it actually that you want to achieve, uh, with mitigating this issue, and then what, what kind of, what kind of monitoring do you need.
So for instance, if you have, if you have, if you have cracks starting in your laminate, you know, do you need acoustics? Uh, do you need deflection monitoring? Um, is it es- is it vibration monitoring, or is it, um, or is it some kind of, uh, video monitoring, um, that or, or infrared scan that, that, that you need to, to keep, um, to, to, to ca- And again, the essential [00:08:00] part is then how do you catch it in time that it does not become a critical issue?
Uh, and, and then by using the RCA to find out, well, what is the best methodology to, to detect this and detect it in a cost-effective way, uh, that, that leaves you in, in good shape to, to maintain your turbines. That is a, you know, that is a really strong value proposition for the RCA.
Allen Hall: Morten, when I talk to a lot of operators about doing an RCA, uh, they don't have access to high-speed scada, scada data.
They, they have access to low speed, depending on what their arrangement is with the OEM. Uh It's really hard to get the high-resolution data, and they do not have the algorithms that maybe be able to tell them something about the turbine. They'll just have sort of raw data streams. How important is it to get some of that high-speed data and the understanding of how that turbine is working as a, a fault [00:09:00] happens or s- some sort of failure happens?
Morten Handberg: It kinda depends on what it is that you're, that you're looking for. So for a lot of... for, for, so for SCADA data, it will, it will give you, um, a more holistic view of what, how the turbine is performing. It will give you the power production, wind speeds, wind turbine, uh, the blade pitching. Um, so it kinda gives you an understanding about how it is, how, how it is operating, but it st- does not really give you any specifics about the condition of, of the blades, of the gearbox, of the bearing, of the main shaft, of the tower.
So, um, so it
Podcast reviews
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Fresh Hops 2024/12/04
Informative and witty
I never miss an episode
Itchyfeetpete 2023/09/14
A Constant Favorite
These folks dig into the nitty gritty details of the industry with content coming out several times a week!
Jeremy R Norris 2023/05/04
Uptime = Knowledge
Uptime is a podcast for true Wind Energy knowledge seekers. Wealth of information from true industry experts, very engaging and easy to listen too. Hi...
MSPJMG 2023/03/14
False claims are never good for progress.
The a claim made during EP75 - Sr. VP on Chris Howell From Veolia: On Recycling Wind Turbine Blades & A Circular Economy on August 25, 2021 is absolut...
B. Voter 2023/01/19
Three viewpoints
It's fascinating to recognize so much depth of experience among the three of them. Allen has dates from air flight history and economic data from memo...
letmerun 2023/01/04
Rosemary is amazing
Rosemary clearly has experience and a great mind. I really appreciate hearing her opinion. Not as impressed with the Americans, but the dialogue is in...
race rolland 2021/12/16
I work for the 2nd largest US Wind Generator
This channel has 8 total reviews. Why would you invite an inflammatory Aussie commentator on to discuss what she clearly knows little about... the cha...
Amatayy 2020/07/04
Great insights!
Fantastic podcast about improving wind farms
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