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Siemens Energy Receives Financing, Orsted Restructures Management, Vestas and Nordex Report Positive Earnings
Big news from Siemens Energy and Ørsted pushed the Uptime crew to record this special episode. Siemens Energy scored €15B financial backing from the government, banks, and industry to propel the company. Ørsted replaced their CFO and COO as the Danish energy leader looks to address the effects of Ocean Wind 1&2. Vestas and Nordex reported a positive Q3 with improved orders and financial statements.
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Allen Hall: Today’s episode of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast is a special episode because we have seen so many quarter three results coming in and the changes at Ørsted. We thought we’d put together the special episode. So this is unique. There is a lot going on at Siemens and energy and Siemens and Gamesa, and there seems to be a rift between the two companies and Ørsted is shuffling the deck chairs a little bit.
The CFO and COO are out and they’re bringing interim people into those slots. But we do feel like Ørsted is going to be heading in the right direction. It’s just going to take a little bit of time to recover. So in this episode, we talk to all those things. We also talk about Vestas having a really great quarter and Nordex doing fairly well for themselves.
So there’s some good news on the wind turbine OEM front. So stay tuned. There’s a lot ahead.
Siemens Energy has provisionally secured about 15 billion euros for financing various projects. The German government has agreed to provide about seven and a half billion euros of that in guarantees of the total of 15 billion that’s headed towards Siemens Energy. It’s a weird breakdown how this happens, Phil.
So banks are providing about 12 billion euros. The government is backing the banks for about seven and a half billion of that. Siemens, the mothership, is providing about two billion Euros to the sale of a joint venture shares to Siemens Energy. Siemens Energy is also putting up a 3 billion first loss tranche.
So there’s a, obviously a couple of players in the middle of this. There’s gonna be some restrictions on Siemens Energy where the management does not get dividends or bonuses during this guarantee period. This is probably good news for Siemens Energy, but it doesn’t really bode well going forward, right?
It just seems like there’s gonna be more tough times ahead.
Philip Totaro: Yeah, actually, it’s probably better than you think, Allen, because this provides investors confidence. It brings some closure and some certainty to what was an open issue. The government, it’s important to also note, the government in Germany is not actually putting up any actual cash at this point.
Joel Saxum: Just backing.
Philip Totaro: Yeah, it’s a backstop. So similar to what some financial institutions and other companies that were quote unquote too big to fail in the U. S. going back to the, the Lehman Brothers collapse and all that in 2008, 2009. You’ve got a situation where it’s a move that provides investors confidence.
They were, Siemens Energy and Siemens Gamesa came out and said we don’t actually need the cash per se anyway. We, what we need are it’s a mechanism to be able to provide the customers who are demanding the backstop a way to, to achieve that. Because of Siemens Energy’s financial results and reporting earlier this year, they had their credit rating lowered.
Which precluded the banks from wanting to be able to provide any kind of a backstop absent this government intervention. So again, I think this is, in general, a good thing and provides them with a glimmer of hope and a path forward. But overall, keep in mind what we talked about over the course of several weeks on the show before.
You have a scenario now where… The company either has to sell off assets to bolster their cash, they’re not selling any, new product and new projects. They’re talking about building a whole brand new wind turbine, which is at least a 18 month to two year endeavor. At this stage, they’ve either got to invest their way out of this.
Or they’ve got to sell assets and asset strip their way out of it. So this looks like the government got them to agree and got Siemens AG, the parent company, to also agree to invest their way out of it. Which is probably the better it’s certainly the safer path for the employees of the company and, helps protect jobs and, lots of other things, provides investors confidence, et cetera, et cetera.
So generally, I see this as a good thing.
Joel Saxum: I think one thing for listeners, viewers of the show right now it’s November 14th tonight. So we’re also looking at the financial calendar for Siemens Energy saying November 15th, which is tomorrow when we’re recording this, is when they’re going to release their fiscal year 20 or Q4 financial reports for this year. So press conference, analyst conference, all of that is going to happen in the next 12 hours to 18 hours as we record this right now. So this, the details of what we’re saying some ideas about what they’re actually going to do or how this money is going to help them in the future or whether how they’re going to invest, what they’re going to do to climb out of this hole.
Some of those questions may be answered in the general news here in the next 12 to 14 hours.
Allen Hall: And on other news on Siemens, they decided to not go forward with a blade plant in Virginia. So I think if you start connecting the dots here, Siemens Energy is hoarding cash and rightly they’re not going to expend any cash on a factory where they don’t have defined output. And there’s a lot of concern down in Spain at the moment with the unions about the Gamesa division. And there’s, if you read the Spanish press, there’s a lot of going back and forth between what they’re calling Siemens and Gamesa. Like they’re treating like there’s two separate entities instead of one combined company.
There seems to be a big disconnect at the moment. There’s a lot of moving pieces at the moment. And yeah, Joel, you’re right. When the financial numbers come out tomorrow and the plan, I assume we’re going to get a plan, then a lot will change for sure. Plus they’re not selling turbines either, right?
The onshore turbines, they essentially stopped selling them for the time being.
Joel Saxum: Yeah, financial guidance is one part of of, releasing quarterly results, of course, but the guidance that we’re really looking for is what’s the qualitative approach that you’re doing here? Like where are you going?
What are your plans? And as far as, we see we can watch. We can watch all the things happen out in the world and the moves they’re making, but nobody has come forward and said, boom. All right, guys, we know we’re in trouble. This is the plan going forward. And I would expect to see actually a little bit more detail on the issues that they’re having with the turbines that we know we need at the four and a half or 5 billion euro right down there.
I think we’re going to see a little bit more. I hope to see a little bit more detail on what those exact problems are and how they’re going to tackle them tomorrow during that investor call.
Allen Hall: Going back to companies that are having issues at the moment, Ørsted’s CFO and COO stepped down and Mads Nipper is saying they needed, uh, some new capabilities among challenging times, essentially. Obviously Ørsted scrapped the OceanWind 1 and 2 projects off the coast of New Jersey, and they’re planning on taking about 5. 6 billion in losses. So there is a lot of reshuffling happening. Now, They have put a couple of people into those positions temporarily as interims and are still sticking with their financial guidance at the moment, including uh, dividends, but boy oh boy Ørsted is also in a mode of trying to protect their assets at the moment. And I think rightly right?
But, the weird thing is, all this started with Ocean Wind 1 and 2. It really did. And it’s cascaded into a much bigger problem.
Joel Saxum: Do you think that these heads are rolling a little bit based on some of the reports we were listening to? Like last week we talked about this, the New Jersey governor saying Oh, they don’t know what they’re doing and this and that.
But if you really look into that, okay, that’s one person’s statement and opinion. But when you look into it, they’re like saying, These hundred, this 300 million loss of the 100 million guarantee and stuff just weeks before they ended up losing it and rescinding their path forward. Ugh, that’s like a hard thing to stomach if you’re the board from Ørsted.
That could be why this happened.
Allen Hall: But, Phil, I don’t think that happened, right? There’s a lot of discussion in the industry of whether that 100 million was actually deposited in New Jersey. There’s some discussion of that was on its way, but wasn’t done, and that maybe Ørsted cut that off before the money was deposited.
Are you hearing the same thing?
Philip Totaro: Yes, and it also seems Ørsted’s claiming that their board of directors never really ratified that agreement. To be able to provide that deposit which is the legal claim that and legal standing that Ørsted has to be able to say that, if that money hasn’t already been sent and already been committed they’re not going to send it.
So this is gonna end up being decided by courts, probably absent calmer heads, which is almost never the way things like this get resolved. That say, you know what? Come back to the table. We are willing to renegotiate. We are willing to work with you in a collaborative fashion. I think this is, an American state local federal government saying, you know what europeans? You were the ones to come in and invest in, all these BOEM lease auctions. But at the end of the day, I think we want some more American blood in here building these projects. So go back to Europe. I, it’s just, that’s the feeling I get from some of this.
Joel Saxum: Yeah, we talked about that when these auctions went.
We were looking at, remember when we looked at the California auction, Allen? We watched it live. We were watching it, watching, it’s like, there is not one company in here that is American owned. It was, the closest was Invenergy, but Invenergy is actually 51 plus percent owned by the Canadian pension fund, so they’re technically a Canadian company.
But it was all of these auctions there’s… Nobody from the U. S. involved in most of them.
Allen Hall: Who’s going to do it? I still go back to, who’s going to do it?
Philip Totaro: Allen, it’s interesting too, because in this past week, Dominion Energy in Virginia came out and said, because they’ve gotten approval now for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind phase one, their 2. 6 gigawatt phase of this project. And they’re, with a preposterously expensive budget of 9. 8 billion for gigawatt project, they’re saying, hey, we don’t have any financial problems, but that’s because they baked in all these potential, increases because of inflation or whatever else.
It was already baked into their budget, so now they look like geniuses because they don’t have anything to renegotiate, plus they are the power offtaker, they don’t have a problem there. It’s just the situation where, you know, in New York and New Jersey, nobody wanted to play ball. If New Jersey hadn’t held up these tax credits and tax breaks that were supposed to go to Ørsted in the first place, if there was more certainty provided about everything.
Then these projects would have had the opportunity to move forward and probably should have. Ocean Wind 1 was already supposed to be under construction right now, as we speak. And it never, it never happened because they didn’t get all the development and permitting approved.
And we talked about this also last week on the show that, Ørsted said, Oh it wasn’t really New Jersey’s fault. But I think that’s just them being a little polite. And I’ll say it’s New Jersey’s fault because I feel like what else was it supposed to be? We’ve said repeatedly that if you have something like inflation and you have to raise electricity rates to pay for natural gas or some other type of electricity based on, alternative brown power or whatever you get, you don’t see people running through the streets screaming with their hair on fire that, Oh my God, my rates are going up.
People complained about it, of course anytime the rates go up, but you don’t see the same kind of reaction, visceral reaction. And I don’t know why offshore wind has been, like, vilified at this point into this, national evil thing.
Joel Saxum: It’s the same thing as any other wind project, though.
It’s the, you right now, Phil, are having a fantastic technical conversation with us. The majority of the United States doesn’t give a about the technical side of things they care about, it’s a political argument. It’s the same thing, right? I’m in northern Wisconsin right now and I have regularly have conversations with people about the future of electric vehicles versus internal combustion engines.
And there’s no technical conversation to be had, it’s a political conversation. Ah, get them damn things out of here, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, it’s this big government agenda and green this, green that, it’s garbage, it’s not, that’s not a technical conversation about why things, a pragmatic look at it.
It’s political. And that’s what the problem is with offshore wind. It’s, has purely political in reason when you have a conversation about it.
Allen Hall: New Jersey returned the 300 million if they have it back to Ørsted. Or the DOE put pressure on the state of New Jersey to, to provide that money back because that’s their only move to heal some of this wound.
If they don’t, I think the other non U. S. players in offshore wind are going to be really scared to dip their toe into the waters there, right? There’s just too much damage being done. You’re going to burn this marketplace for a good five to ten years.
Philip Totaro: Potentially, but two comments on that. One is, if you know anything about New Jersey, they ain’t giving the money back.
Number two, if. If Ørsted signed better contracts in the first place, which is I think, part of what happened with their COO and CFO, the investors were the ones that pressured them to step down. Ultimately, they were given an opportunity to leave without being fired. But at the end of the day, it’s the investors.
If you, if we go back to again the Ørsted investor call from last week, the investors were completely clueless. We just talked about this with Siemens. There was the investor call was basically Ørsted for 20 minutes, basically said a list of like facts. And here’s what’s going on. We’re pulling out of the projects impairments and write downs, et cetera.
They didn’t provide any meaningful road map for okay what comes next? Other than now, we know a week later, they’re canceling projects in Norway that they can’t afford to participate in their, they’re pulling back from all these kind of pioneer frontier markets where they wanted to be. They’re reevaluating South Korea at this point, they’re re evaluating projects in Europe. The only things that seem to be continuing to move forward are obviously operational projects that they’ve already got throughout Europe and Taiwan which is a great market for them, but it’s because they can move forward in those kind of markets where there is certainty.
If governments, and this isn’t just a New Jersey or a New York or a US thing, but if governments aren’t going to provide certainty, we go back to that comment you just made about Siemens also cancelling their factory in Virginia. If you’re not going to provide people certainty, you’re not going to get them to invest.
They need to know that if they’re going to invest a billion dollars today, it’s going to turn into two billion dollars three years from now. Okay? That’s the kind of certainty that they need to be able to plow that kind of money into building a project, setting up a factory, creating jobs.
Joel Saxum: Is Mads Nipper in a hot seat?
Philip Totaro: Yes, but it seems if they wanted to get rid of him, Joel they already would have. The word coming out of Denmark is that the investors are still willing to stick by him at this point. But if this gets any worse then he might not survive it.
Allen Hall: I don’t know if that’s going to be the outcome here, right?
I know there’s, on the behalf of the shareholders, there’s a tendency to keep… The leadership in place, the top leadership in place, because they feel like they’re the best people to undo what has been done, right? When you bring somebody else in it’s going to take them six months to a year to figure out what’s all happened and then to implement whatever change they’re going to do.
Keeping Mads Nipper there is the best way to get out of this hole as quickly as you can. You may do something to him a year from now, but right now I think he stays.
Joel Saxum: Some continuity and someone who knows the organization, knows the people, knows the players. Someone that can, if there’s a roadmap that’s laid out, someone that can drive it.
Allen Hall: Yeah, I think the only thing you may hear over the next couple of months is that they’ve defined a successor and they’re going to bring that person in to be the right hand person from Mad s and off they go. Boy, right now, it seems like the best move is to keep him in place and to get out of this hole.
Otherwise, it could get a lot worse. Vestas returned to profitability in Q3 with revenue growth of 11 percent year over year to 4. 4 billion euros, driven by higher turbine pricing and double digit service growth. So the service business is really successful for Vestas at the moment. Order intake more than doubled to four and a half gigawatts.
Driven by some offshore orders and increased onshore activity in the United States and Europe. The average selling price increased to just a little over a million euros per megawatt so they’re getting, they’re able to ask a little bit more for each turbine. And looking at some of the challenges ahead and where they’re going to be putting their influence. Henrik Andersen, who’s the head of Vestas talked about the different marketplaces and he said, Australia is a great marketplace, US is a great marketplace, and he plans to be traveling there in Q4 to see customers. So that means usually there’s going to be some signings taking place. You don’t send the CEO somewhere without him signing a document.
And Canada is starting to look a little more positive because Canada has been quiet for four or five, six years, at least. And Vestas thought, Oh, there seems to be more activity happening in Canada, and maybe we’ll take a detour up into Canada, whether we’re in the U. S. That’s my interpretation of what was being said there.
There’s some good numbers from Vestas, unlike what’s happening at Siemens. I guess it really has been a good fortune for Vestas just to stay put and keep selling turbines.
Joel Saxum: Swinging back to your comment on them going to Canada, possibly. I do know that a lot of the installations that have been going into Canada have been Siemens turbines.
So if Siemens turbines have been getting installed in Canada, now there’s going to be a little bit of a market gap there. So Vestas, smart to take the tour north while they’re over here in the North America.
Philip Totaro: But in the meantime, they’re, the fact that they’re, everybody’s suffering, let’s put it that way.
Vestas is just suffering less because they’ve got a stable product portfolio that, has been based on, proven technology and an evolution of a proven design. They’ve got gigawatts and gigawatts of orders for all the, preexisting, the two megawatt, three megawatt and four megawatt platforms.
And now with the, six megawatt technology. They’re starting to get it. They don’t have, 10 gigawatts plus of orders, but they’re starting to get some traction. They even actually just recently signed the first formal deal for the seven megawatt platform in Germany.
It’s not a very big project, but it’s it’s a good kickoff. And what they’re, I think, looking forward to in the U. S. is confirmation and firming up of some offshore orders that were pre announced and until, the way Vestas operates, until the order is actually firmed, they don’t formally announce it or formally confirm it publicly.
But Australia is also an interesting market to pay attention to because… They are actually part of a number of projects down there where they are expecting something that could be, 20 to 30 gigawatts worth of orders. Not all at once, but they’ve got the the Asian hub that they’re, I think it’s in Western Australia, I want to say, I wish Rosemary was here to confirm it for us.
But the, there’s a number of projects that they’re involved in down there that are also trying to look at hydrogen production. They’re going to co locate solar with some of these projects, but you, you’re literally talking about. Some of these large, six, seven megawatt turbines with literally thousands, if not close to tens of thousands of units that, that could eventually be installed.
So they’re absolutely taking markets like Australia seriously.
Joel Saxum: One of the things to touch on here too, and they, in their statement, revenue grew by 11 percent year over year, this quarter at 4. 4 billion driven by higher turbine pricing. And this one double digit service growth. I do know that when they’re selling turbines, they’re signing up as many AOM contracts as they call them, AOM 3, 000, 4, 000, 5, 000. Although we did see one not too long ago that was a 30 year agreement, I think it was up in Finland, and that was a Vestas service contract. I think they’re, and what they’re doing a lot, so if you don’t know this model that much, Vestas does have a lot of their own people.
But when they get to a certain point where they can’t basically fulfill all of their service agreements, they will supplement that with ISPs. So that’s good for Vestas to have this service growth, but it’s also good for the whole industry when you’re talking revenue growth and jobs for people, because there is a lot of ISPs that will backfill some of those service positions as well, whether it’s blades or uptower oil changes, this kind of thing, like all of the people that we know out in the industry, a lot of them.
Have nice big MSAs with Vestas and are supporting them through that as well.
Allen Hall: Over at Nordex, they’re having a good year also. Nordex received orders for 365 wind turbines, totaling 2. 2 gigawatts in Q3 from 277 turbines last year. The average selling price, and there’s different ways to measure this, Phil, as you well know, but it roughly is 850, 000 euros per megawatt, which is much less than what Vestas is getting for their turbines.
Orders received from 11 countries. That’s good. A broad market base. The largest markets are in Turkey, Chile, Germany. And Canada of all places, right? So Canada is an active wind turbine market right now, just like Vestas pointed out. So there is some momentum at Nordex and even though the average selling price is less than what Vestas is able to get, Nordex is just entering into different markets Phil?
That’s where the pricing difference comes about is. The price to get in the door in some of these places is a little bit lower.
Philip Totaro: Yeah, absolutely, Allen. So if you look at like China, for instance, the average turbine selling price per megawatt is, something around like 400, 000, a little less than 400, 000 dollars per megawatt.
This is 850, 000 euro per megawatt versus 1 million euro per megawatt that Vestas is talking about. So yes it basically depends on the markets that you’re talking about going into. A couple of things come to mind about Nordex, though. One is the fact that they’re also targeting Canada plays into this whole idea that, if Siemens isn’t going to be fulfilling some of the orders for the, five megawatt platform up there, Nordex has a proven turbine platform, the 149 and the 163 that could that could also step in.
And, so they’re targeting markets where uh, they’re actually getting a fairly good profitability. Again, going back to this a little bit, Turkey is a market where because of the the currency devaluation that you’ve seen over the past few years between the Turkish lira and the Euro, for instance, or the dollar.
I’m not surprised that they’re getting prices that are on average a little lower. The one other comment, however, that I’ll make is based on markets that are actually publishing annual energy production data, we’ve actually at Intelstor have started looking at turbine price versus megawatt hours produced.
Now, this is basically a metric if you’re looking at, I don’t know, an electric vehicle or something else. If you can go a thousand miles on something that costs like 5, 000, is that better than something that costs 5, 000 but it only goes 400 miles? And this is the equivalency there.
Nordex is having to lower their turbine price to basically get an equivalent price per megawatt hour that’s being produced to the bigger companies. GE and Vestas are leading the market in this. With products that are extremely efficient. Nordex has had a little bit of a gap there. And so in order for them to actually make orders, they’ve had to lower their price in a way that also helps compel some of the customers to, to take a Nordex Turbine, which they might not otherwise do.
Joel Saxum: Another thing not to be missed here, we’ve talked about Canada a few times. Canada in their budget 2023 passed their own version of the ITC credits. So there’s a 30 percent tax credit in Canada right now as well. So then there is some, red seal trades to, things to qualify to get, more jobs and things out there.
So they’ve put their own version of some tax credits in play to get them up there. So I would imagine anybody that is, has carte blanche in a business development role or sales role at these OEMs is going to be taking some trips to Canada to sell turbines.
Allen Hall: But isn’t the issue with Nordex the support?
That what I’m hearing from different parts of the world is, yeah, they’re having a hard time on the service side and a lot of self maintaining is taking place because Nordex can’t keep up with all the the turbine problems, which are normal, and this is not anything with the design. It’s just that just the average maintenance on some of these turbines, they just don’t have the people to support it at the moment, which is a drawback, right?
That’s, if you’re going to make a decision between a Nordex turbine and a say, a Vestas turbine, you see the different levels of service and you see the different performance numbers. I guess it forces Nordex into a lower price. It seems like they could rapidly increase their price if they had a little bit better service offerings.
Because that seems to be where all the operators want to be is they want to have a good service contracted by the sheer quantity that Vestas has sold over the last 12 months, it’s indicative of where the market has headed.
Joel Saxum: Me, like I play more in the ISP world. That’s my people.
That’s who I know in the industry. When you talk to them, most all of them here in the U. S. I’m going to speak of, U. S. and North America. They’re chasing towards, I want to get that MSA with Vestas, I want to get that MSA with Siemens, I want to get that MSA with GE. Nobody says, I can’t wait to get that MSA with Nordex.
And that might be, in part in due to the rates they want to pay for help and these different kinds of things, right? But that’s that’s just reality of what’s going on in the marketplace when you’re talking with the colleagues.
Philip Totaro: Although similar to what we talk about with supply chain and kind of volume discounts for certain components, it’s a similar type of effect with service providers.
If the, companies like GE and Vestas have partnerships already with some of the best independent service providers, and they’re locked into this kind of master agreement it could potentially preclude them from providing service to other OEMs. Which may be a deliberate strategy on their part to, to try and lock up the best people and the best companies.
Allen Hall: That’s going to do it for this week’s Uptime Wind Energy podcast. Thanks for listening. Please give us a five star rating on your podcast platform and subscribe in the show notes below to Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s YouTube channel, Engineering with Rosie. And we’ll see you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy podcast.
Wind Industry Operations: In Wind’s Next Chapter, Operations take center stage
This exclusive article originally appeared in PES Wind 4 – 2025 with the title, Operations take center stage in wind’s next chapter. It was written by Allen Hall and other members of the WeatherGuard Lightning Tech team.
As aging fleets, shrinking margins, and new policies reshape the wind sector, wind energy operations are in the spotlight. The industry’s next chapter will be defined not by capacity growth, but by operational excellence, where integrated, predictive maintenance turns data into decisions and reliability into profit.
Wind farm operations are undergoing a fundamental transformation. After hosting hundreds of conversations on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, I’ve witnessed a clear pattern: the most successful operators are abandoning reactive maintenance in favor of integrated, predictive strategies. This shift isn’t just about adopting new technologies; it’s about fundamentally rethinking how we manage aging assets in an era of tightening margins and expanding responsibilities.
The evidence was overwhelming at this year’s SkySpecs Customer Forum, where representatives from over 75% of US installed wind capacity gathered to share experiences and strategies. The consensus was clear: those who integrate monitoring, inspection, and repair into a cohesive operational strategy are achieving dramatic improvements in reliability and profitability.
Takeaway: These options have been available to wind energy operations for years; now, adoption is critical.
Why traditional approaches to wind farm operations are failing
Today’s wind operators face an unprecedented convergence of challenges. Fleets installed during the 2010-2015 boom are aging in unexpected ways, revealing design vulnerabilities no one anticipated. Meanwhile, the support infrastructure is crumbling; spare parts have become scarce, OEM support is limited, and insurance companies are tightening coverage just when operators need them most.
The situation is particularly acute following recent policy changes. The One Big Beautiful Bill in the United States has fundamentally altered the economic landscape. PTC farming is no longer viable; turbines must run longer and more reliably than ever before. Engineering teams, already stretched thin, are being asked to manage not just wind assets but solar and battery storage as well. The old playbook simply doesn’t work anymore.
Consider the scope of just one challenge: polyester blade failures. During our podcast conversation with Edo Kuipers of We4Ce, we learned that an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 blades worldwide are experiencing root bushing issues. ‘After a while, blades are simply flying off,’ Kuipers explained. The financial impact of a single blade failure can exceed €300,000 when you factor in replacement costs, lost production, and crane mobilization. Yet innovative repair solutions, like the one developed by We4Ce and CNC Onsite, can address the same problem for €40,000 if caught early. This pattern repeats across every major component. Gearbox failures that once required complete replacement can now be predicted months in advance. Lightning damage that previously caused catastrophic failures can be prevented with inexpensive upgrades and real-time monitoring. All these solutions are based on the principle that predicted maintenance is better than an expensive surprise.
Seeing problems before they happeny, and potential risks
The transformation begins with visibility. Modern monitoring systems reveal problems that traditional methods miss entirely. Eric van Genuchten of Sensing360 shared an eye-opening statistic on our podcast: ‘In planetary gearbox failures, they get 90%, so there’s still 10% of failures they cannot detect.’ That missing 10% represents the catastrophic failures that destroy budgets and production targets. Advanced monitoring technologies are filling these gaps. Sensing360’s fiber optic sensors, for example, detect minute deformations in steel components, revealing load imbalances and fatigue progression invisible to traditional monitoring. ‘We integrate our sensors in steel and make rotating equipment smarter,’ van Genuchten explained.
Other companies are deploying acoustic systems to identify blade delamination, oil analysis for gearbox health, and electrical signature analysis for generator issues. Each technology adds a piece to the puzzle, but the real value comes from integration. The impact of load monitoring alone can be transformative.
As van Genuchten explained, ‘Twenty percent more loading on a gearbox or on a bearing is half of your life. The other way around, twenty percent less loading is double your life.’ With proper monitoring, operators can optimize load distribution across their fleet, extending component life while maximizing production.
But monitoring without action is just expensive data collection. The most successful operators are those who’ve learned to translate sensor data into operational decisions. This requires not just technology but organizational change, breaking down silos between monitoring, maintenance, and management teams.
In Wind Energy Operations, Early intervention makes the million-dollar difference
The economics of early intervention are compelling across every component type. The blade root bushing example from We4Ce illustrates this perfectly. With their solution, early detection means replacing just 24-30 bushings in about 24 hours of drilling work. Wait, and you’re looking at 60+ bushings and 60 hours of work. Early detection doesn’t just prevent catastrophic failure; it makes repairs faster, cheaper, and more reliable.
This principle extends throughout the turbine. Early-stage bearing damage can be addressed through targeted lubrication or minor adjustments. Incipient electrical issues can be resolved with cleaning or connection tightening. Small blade surface cracks can be repaired in a few hours before they propagate into structural damage requiring weeks of work.
Leading operators are implementing tiered response protocols based on monitoring data. Critical issues trigger immediate intervention. Developing problems are scheduled for the next maintenance window. Minor issues are monitored and addressed during routine service. This systematic approach reduces both emergency repairs and unnecessary maintenance, optimizing resource allocation across the fleet.
Turning information into action
While monitoring generates data, platforms like SkySpecs’ Horizon transform that data into operational intelligence. Josh Goryl, SkySpecs’ Chief Revenue Officer, explained their evolution at the recent Customer Forum: ‘I think where we can help our customers is getting all that data into one place.
The game-changer is integration across data types. The company is working to combine performance data with CMS data to provide valuable insights into turbine health. This approach has been informed by operators across the world, who’ve discovered that integrated platforms deliver insights that siloed data can’t.
The platform approach also addresses the reality of shrinking engineering teams managing expanding portfolios. As Goryl noted, many wind engineers are now responsible for solar and battery storage assets as well. One platform managing multiple technologies through a unified interface becomes essential for operational efficiency.
The Integration Imperative for Wind Farm Operations
The most successful operators aren’t just adopting individual technologies; they’re integrating monitoring, inspection, and repair into a seamless operational system. This integration operates at multiple levels.
At the technical level, data from various monitoring systems feeds into unified platforms that provide comprehensive asset visibility. These platforms don’t just display data; they analyze patterns, predict failures, and generate work orders.
At the organizational level, integration means breaking down barriers between departments. This cross-functional collaboration transforms O&M from a cost center into a value driver. Building your improvement roadmap For operators ready to enhance their O&M approach, the path forward involves several key steps:
Assessing the Current State of your Wind Energy Operations
Document your maintenance costs, failure rates, and downtime patterns. Identify which problems consume the most resources and which assets are most critical to your wind farm operations.
Start with targeted pilots Rather than attempting wholesale transformation, begin with focused initiatives targeting your biggest pain points. Whether it’s blade monitoring, gearbox sensors, or repair innovations, starting with your largest issue will help you see the biggest benefit.
• Invest in integration, not just technology: the most sophisticated monitoring system is worthless if its data isn’t acted upon. Ensure your organization has the processes and culture to transform data into decisions – this is the first step to profitability in your wind farm operations.
Build partnerships, not just contracts: look for technology providers and service companies willing to share knowledge, not just deliver services. The goal is building capability, not dependency.
• Measure and iterate: track the impact of each initiative on your key performance indicators. Use lessons learned to refine your approach and guide future investments.
The competitive advantage
The wind industry has reached an inflection point. With increasingly large and complex turbines, monitoring needs to adapt with it. The era of flying blind is over.
In an industry where margins continue to compress and competition intensifies, operational excellence has become a key differentiator. Those who master the integration of monitoring, inspection, and repair will thrive. Those who cling to reactive maintenance face escalating costs and declining competitiveness.
The technology exists. The business case is proven. The early adopters are already reaping the benefits. The question isn’t whether to transform your O&M approach, but how quickly you can adapt to this new reality. In the race to operational excellence, the winners will be those who act decisively to embrace the efficiency revolution reshaping wind operations.
Unless otherwise noted, images here are from We4C Rotorblade Specialist.
Contact us for help understanding your lightning damage, future risks, and how to get more uptime from your equipment.
Download the full article from PES Wind here
Find a practical guide to solving lightning problems and filing better insurance claims here
Wind Industry Operations: In Wind’s Next Chapter, Operations take center stage
Weather Guard Lightning Tech
BladeBUG Tackles Serial Blade Defects with Robotics
Chris Cieslak, CEO of BladeBug, joins the show to discuss how their walking robot is making ultrasonic blade inspections faster and more accessible. They cover new horizontal scanning capabilities for lay down yards, blade root inspections for bushing defects, and plans to expand into North America in 2026.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter 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 YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” 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: Chris, welcome back to the show.
Chris Cieslak: It’s great to be back. Thank you very much for having me on again.
Allen Hall: It’s great to see you in person, and a lot has been happening at Blade Bugs since the last time I saw Blade Bug in person. Yeah, the robot. It looks a lot different and it has really new capabilities.
Chris Cieslak: So we’ve continued to develop our ultrasonic, non-destructive testing capabilities of the blade bug robot.
Um, but what we’ve now added to its capabilities is to do horizontal blade scans as well. So we’re able to do blades that are in lay down yards or blades that have come down for inspections as well as up tower. So we can do up tower, down tower inspections. We’re trying to capture. I guess the opportunity to inspect blades after transportation when they get delivered to site, to look [00:01:00] for any transport damage or anything that might have been missed in the factory inspections.
And then we can do subsequent installation inspections as well to make sure there’s no mishandling damage on those blades. So yeah, we’ve been just refining what we can do with the NDT side of things and improving its capabilities
Joel Saxum: was that need driven from like market response and people say, Hey, we need, we need.
We like the blade blood product. We like what you’re doing, but we need it here. Or do you guys just say like, Hey, this is the next, this is the next thing we can do. Why not?
Chris Cieslak: It was very much market response. We had a lot of inquiries this year from, um, OEMs, blade manufacturers across the board with issues within their blades that need to be inspected on the ground, up the tap, any which way they can.
There there was no, um, rhyme or reason, which was better, but the fact that he wanted to improve the ability of it horizontally has led the. Sort of modifications that you’ve seen and now we’re doing like down tower, right? Blade scans. Yeah. A really fast breed. So
Joel Saxum: I think the, the important thing there is too is that because of the way the robot is built [00:02:00] now, when you see NDT in a factory, it’s this robot rolls along this perfectly flat concrete floor and it does this and it does that.
But the way the robot is built, if a blade is sitting in a chair trailing edge up, or if it’s flap wise, any which way the robot can adapt to, right? And the idea is. We, we looked at it today and kind of the new cage and the new things you have around it with all the different encoders and for the heads and everything is you can collect data however is needed.
If it’s rasterized, if there’s a vector, if there’s a line, if we go down a bond line, if we need to scan a two foot wide path down the middle of the top of the spa cap, we can do all those different things and all kinds of orientations. That’s a fantastic capability.
Chris Cieslak: Yeah, absolutely. And it, that’s again for the market needs.
So we are able to scan maybe a meter wide in one sort of cord wise. Pass of that probe whilst walking in the span-wise direction. So we’re able to do that raster scan at various spacing. So if you’ve got a defect that you wanna find that maximum 20 mil, we’ll just have a 20 mil step [00:03:00] size between each scan.
If you’ve got a bigger tolerance, we can have 50 mil, a hundred mil it, it’s so tuneable and it removes any of the variability that you get from a human to human operator doing that scanning. And this is all about. Repeatable, consistent high quality data that you can then use to make real informed decisions about the state of those blades and act upon it.
So this is not about, um, an alternative to humans. It’s just a better, it’s just an evolution of how humans do it. We can just do it really quick and it’s probably, we, we say it’s like six times faster than a human, but actually we’re 10 times faster. We don’t need to do any of the mapping out of the blade, but it’s all encoded all that data.
We know where the robot is as we walk. That’s all captured. And then you end up with really. Consistent data. It doesn’t matter who’s operating a robot, the robot will have those settings preset and you just walk down the blade, get that data, and then our subject matter experts, they’re offline, you know, they are in their offices, warm, cozy offices, reviewing data from multiple sources of robots.
And it’s about, you know, improving that [00:04:00] efficiency of getting that report out to the customer and letting ’em know what’s wrong with their blades, actually,
Allen Hall: because that’s always been the drawback of, with NDT. Is that I think the engineers have always wanted to go do it. There’s been crush core transportation damage, which is sometimes hard to see.
You can maybe see a little bit of a wobble on the blade service, but you’re not sure what’s underneath. Bond line’s always an issue for engineering, but the cost to take a person, fly them out to look at a spot on a blade is really expensive, especially someone who is qualified. Yeah, so the, the difference now with play bug is you can have the technology to do the scan.
Much faster and do a lot of blades, which is what the de market demand is right now to do a lot of blades simultaneously and get the same level of data by the review, by the same expert just sitting somewhere else.
Chris Cieslak: Absolutely.
Joel Saxum: I think that the quality of data is a, it’s something to touch on here because when you send someone out to the field, it’s like if, if, if I go, if I go to the wall here and you go to the wall here and we both take a paintbrush, we paint a little bit [00:05:00] different, you’re probably gonna be better.
You’re gonna be able to reach higher spots than I can.
Allen Hall: This is true.
Joel Saxum: That’s true. It’s the same thing with like an NDT process. Now you’re taking the variability of the technician out of it as well. So the data quality collection at the source, that’s what played bug ducts.
Allen Hall: Yeah,
Joel Saxum: that’s the robotic processes.
That is making sure that if I scan this, whatever it may be, LM 48.7 and I do another one and another one and another one, I’m gonna get a consistent set of quality data and then it’s goes to analysis. We can make real decisions off.
Allen Hall: Well, I, I think in today’s world now, especially with transportation damage and warranties, that they’re trying to pick up a lot of things at two years in that they could have picked up free installation.
Yeah. Or lifting of the blades. That world is changing very rapidly. I think a lot of operators are getting smarter about this, but they haven’t thought about where do we go find the tool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Allen Hall: And, and I know Joel knows that, Hey, it, it’s Chris at Blade Bug. You need to call him and get to the technology.
But I think for a lot of [00:06:00] operators around the world, they haven’t thought about the cost They’re paying the warranty costs, they’re paying the insurance costs they’re paying because they don’t have the set of data. And it’s not tremendously expensive to go do. But now the capability is here. What is the market saying?
Is it, is it coming back to you now and saying, okay, let’s go. We gotta, we gotta mobilize. We need 10 of these blade bugs out here to go, go take a scan. Where, where, where are we at today?
Chris Cieslak: We’ve hads. Validation this year that this is needed. And it’s a case of we just need to be around for when they come back round for that because the, the issues that we’re looking for, you know, it solves the problem of these new big 80 a hundred meter plus blades that have issues, which shouldn’t.
Frankly exist like process manufacturer issues, but they are there. They need to be investigated. If you’re an asset only, you wanna know that. Do I have a blade that’s likely to fail compared to one which is, which is okay? And sort of focus on that and not essentially remove any uncertainty or worry that you have about your assets.
’cause you can see other [00:07:00] turbine blades falling. Um, so we are trying to solve that problem. But at the same time, end of warranty claims, if you’re gonna be taken over these blades and doing the maintenance yourself, you wanna know that what you are being given. It hasn’t gotten any nasties lurking inside that’s gonna bite you.
Joel Saxum: Yeah.
Chris Cieslak: Very expensively in a few years down the line. And so you wanna be able to, you know, tick a box, go, actually these are fine. Well actually these are problems. I, you need to give me some money so I can perform remedial work on these blades. And then you end of life, you know, how hard have they lived?
Can you do an assessment to go, actually you can sweat these assets for longer. So we, we kind of see ourselves being, you know, useful right now for the new blades, but actually throughout the value chain of a life of a blade. People need to start seeing that NDT ultrasonic being one of them. We are working on other forms of NDT as well, but there are ways of using it to just really remove a lot of uncertainty and potential risk for that.
You’re gonna end up paying through the, you know, through the, the roof wall because you’ve underestimated something or you’ve missed something, which you could have captured with a, with a quick inspection.
Joel Saxum: To [00:08:00] me, NDT has been floating around there, but it just hasn’t been as accessible or easy. The knowledge hasn’t been there about it, but the what it can do for an operator.
In de-risking their fleet is amazing. They just need to understand it and know it. But you guys with the robotic technology to me, are bringing NDT to the masses
Chris Cieslak: Yeah.
Joel Saxum: In a way that hasn’t been able to be done, done before
Chris Cieslak: that. And that that’s, we, we are trying to really just be able to roll it out at a way that you’re not limited to those limited experts in the composite NDT world.
So we wanna work with them, with the C-N-C-C-I-C NDTs of this world because they are the expertise in composite. So being able to interpret those, those scams. Is not a quick thing to become proficient at. So we are like, okay, let’s work with these people, but let’s give them the best quality data, consistent data that we possibly can and let’s remove those barriers of those limited people so we can roll it out to the masses.
Yeah, and we are that sort of next level of information where it isn’t just seen as like a nice to have, it’s like an essential to have, but just how [00:09:00] we see it now. It’s not NDT is no longer like, it’s the last thing that we would look at. It should be just part of the drones. It should inspection, be part of the internal crawlers regimes.
Yeah, it’s just part of it. ’cause there isn’t one type of inspection that ticks all the boxes. There isn’t silver bullet of NDT. And so it’s just making sure that you use the right system for the right inspection type. And so it’s complementary to drones, it’s complimentary to the internal drones, uh, crawlers.
It’s just the next level to give you certainty. Remove any, you know, if you see something indicated on a a on a photograph. That doesn’t tell you the true picture of what’s going on with the structure. So this is really about, okay, I’ve got an indication of something there. Let’s find out what that really is.
And then with that information you can go, right, I know a repair schedule is gonna take this long. The downtime of that turbine’s gonna be this long and you can plan it in. ’cause everyone’s already got limited budgets, which I think why NDT hasn’t taken off as it should have done because nobody’s got money for more inspections.
Right. Even though there is a money saving to be had long term, everyone is fighting [00:10:00] fires and you know, they’ve really got a limited inspection budget. Drone prices or drone inspections have come down. It’s sort, sort of rise to the bottom. But with that next value add to really add certainty to what you’re trying to inspect without, you know, you go to do a day repair and it ends up being three months or something like, well
Allen Hall: that’s the lightning,
Joel Saxum: right?
Allen Hall: Yeah. Lightning is the, the one case where every time you start to scarf. The exterior of the blade, you’re not sure how deep that’s going and how expensive it is. Yeah, and it always amazes me when we talk to a customer and they’re started like, well, you know, it’s gonna be a foot wide scarf, and now we’re into 10 meters and now we’re on the inside.
Yeah. And the outside. Why did you not do an NDT? It seems like money well spent Yeah. To do, especially if you have a, a quantity of them. And I think the quantity is a key now because in the US there’s 75,000 turbines worldwide, several hundred thousand turbines. The number of turbines is there. The number of problems is there.
It makes more financial sense today than ever because drone [00:11:00]information has come down on cost. And the internal rovers though expensive has also come down on cost. NDT has also come down where it’s now available to the masses. Yeah. But it has been such a mental barrier. That barrier has to go away. If we’re going going to keep blades in operation for 25, 30 years, I
Joel Saxum: mean, we’re seeing no
Allen Hall: way you can do it
Joel Saxum: otherwise.
We’re seeing serial defects. But the only way that you can inspect and or control them is with NDT now.
Allen Hall: Sure.
Joel Saxum: And if we would’ve been on this years ago, we wouldn’t have so many, what is our term? Blade liberations liberating
Chris Cieslak: blades.
Joel Saxum: Right, right.
Allen Hall: What about blade route? Can the robot get around the blade route and see for the bushings and the insert issues?
Chris Cieslak: Yeah, so the robot can, we can walk circumferentially around that blade route and we can look for issues which are affecting thousands of blades. Especially in North America. Yeah.
Allen Hall: Oh yeah.
Chris Cieslak: So that is an area that is. You know, we are lucky that we’ve got, um, a warehouse full of blade samples or route down to tip, and we were able to sort of calibrate, verify, prove everything in our facility to [00:12:00] then take out to the field because that is just, you know, NDT of bushings is great, whether it’s ultrasonic or whether we’re using like CMS, uh, type systems as well.
But we can really just say, okay, this is the area where the problem is. This needs to be resolved. And then, you know, we go to some of the companies that can resolve those issues with it. And this is really about played by being part of a group of technologies working together to give overall solutions
Allen Hall: because the robot’s not that big.
It could be taken up tower relatively easily, put on the root of the blade, told to walk around it. You gotta scan now, you know. It’s a lot easier than trying to put a technician on ropes out there for sure.
Chris Cieslak: Yeah.
Allen Hall: And the speed up it.
Joel Saxum: So let’s talk about execution then for a second. When that goes to the field from you, someone says, Chris needs some help, what does it look like?
How does it work?
Chris Cieslak: Once we get a call out, um, we’ll do a site assessment. We’ve got all our rams, everything in place. You know, we’ve been on turbines. We know the process of getting out there. We’re all GWO qualified and go to site and do their work. Um, for us, we can [00:13:00] turn up on site, unload the van, the robot is on a blade in less than an hour.
Ready to inspect? Yep. Typically half an hour. You know, if we’ve been on that same turbine a number of times, it’s somewhere just like clockwork. You know, muscle memory comes in, you’ve got all those processes down, um, and then it’s just scanning. Our robot operator just presses a button and we just watch it perform scans.
And as I said, you know, we are not necessarily the NDT experts. We obviously are very mindful of NDT and know what scans look like. But if there’s any issues, we have a styling, we dial in remote to our supplement expert, they can actually remotely take control, change the settings, parameters.
Allen Hall: Wow.
Chris Cieslak: And so they’re virtually present and that’s one of the beauties, you know, you don’t need to have people on site.
You can have our general, um, robot techs to do the work, but you still have that comfort of knowing that the data is being overlooked if need be by those experts.
Joel Saxum: The next level, um, commercial evolution would be being able to lease the kit to someone and or have ISPs do it for [00:14:00] you guys kinda globally, or what is the thought
Chris Cieslak: there?
Absolutely. So. Yeah, so we to, to really roll this out, we just wanna have people operate in the robots as if it’s like a drone. So drone inspection companies are a classic company that we see perfectly aligned with. You’ve got the sky specs of this world, you know, you’ve got drone operator, they do a scan, they can find something, put the robot up there and get that next level of information always straight away and feed that into their systems to give that insight into that customer.
Um, you know, be it an OEM who’s got a small service team, they can all be trained up. You’ve got general turbine technicians. They’ve all got G We working at height. That’s all you need to operate the bay by road, but you don’t need to have the RAA level qualified people, which are in short supply anyway.
Let them do the jobs that we are not gonna solve. They can do the big repairs we are taking away, you know, another problem for them, but giving them insights that make their job easier and more successful by removing any of those surprises when they’re gonna do that work.
Allen Hall: So what’s the plans for 2026 then?
Chris Cieslak: 2026 for us is to pick up where 2025 should have ended. [00:15:00] So we were, we were meant to be in the States. Yeah. On some projects that got postponed until 26. So it’s really, for us North America is, um, what we’re really, as you said, there’s seven, 5,000 turbines there, but there’s also a lot of, um, turbines with known issues that we can help determine which blades are affected.
And that involves blades on the ground, that involves blades, uh, that are flying. So. For us, we wanna get out to the states as soon as possible, so we’re working with some of the OEMs and, and essentially some of the asset owners.
Allen Hall: Chris, it’s so great to meet you in person and talk about the latest that’s happening.
Thank you. With Blade Bug, if people need to get ahold of you or Blade Bug, how do they do that?
Chris Cieslak: I, I would say LinkedIn is probably the best place to find myself and also Blade Bug and contact us, um, through that.
Allen Hall: Alright, great. Thanks Chris for joining us and we will see you at the next. So hopefully in America, come to America sometime.
We’d love to see you there.
Chris Cieslak: Thank you very [00:16:00] much.
Hillsdale College is a rightwing Christian extremist organization that ostensibly honors the United States Constitution.
Here’s their quiz, which should be called the “Constitutional Trivia Quiz.”, whose purpose is obviously to convince Americans of their ignorance.
When I teach, I’m going for understanding of the topic, not the memorization of useless information.
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