Published

5 months ago

October 9, 2025

Alice Rush

ORE Catapult Showcases UK Wind Innovation

Emily Rees and Magnus Willett from ORE Catapult discuss the upcoming UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain Spotlight in Edinburgh. The event brings together innovative companies that are establishing the UK as a global leader in offshore wind energy, from small startups to major manufacturers.

Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes’ YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Emily and Magnus, welcome to the show. Hi, it’s great to be here. Thanks so much. Thanks so much for having us. You, you’re both preparing for the UK offshore wind supply chain Spotlight 2025, in which Joel and I are looking forward to attending up in Edinburgh on December 11th. Uh, and it’s an event that showcases where the UK stands in Global Offshore Wind Development.

Uh, but Emily, I, I know there’s some challenges in the UK at the moment and, uh, the UK is working through those. Want to talk to some of the. Those challenges and how the spotlight is gonna help work through those. Yeah, uh, of course. So, um, I think that, you know, we as the uk like have identified quite a while ago that offshore wind was a really massive opportunity for us.

You know, we’ve got a really amazing offshore wind resource, [00:01:00] um, and. So we really wanted to take advantage of it and, you know, push forward with a, with that industry. Um, the things that we’ve come up against is that, um, ability to then provide homegrown, um, supply chain, you know, actually have, uh, businesses in the uk being that, that main supply, um.

In the first port of call, you know, there was the, uh, a lot of the, um, sort of components that we, we sort of have to, to build the fixed bottom offshore wind was all coming from abroad, so it’s like, right, well, how do we reap the benefits internally of this really amazing industry that we can build? And so, um, having, uh, supply chain spotlight events where we can really shine a light on the different companies internally in the UK that are actually providing services and providing, um, the supply chain for offshore wind, um, is, is super critical.

And the, the catapult, um, the offshore renewable energy catapult, uh, where Magnus and I both from, um, is, you know, [00:02:00] really key into making that happen. I know when you look online at the re catapult and you see like the people that you partner with, the organizations, the, I mean OEMs, um, all of the innovative technical technology companies that are coming out there, it it, it’s, it’s so great to see.

Right. And then this is me sitting in my, my American chair a and I talked about this. We talked a little bit about it off air, about the fact that wind energy in general, when you’re, when you’re talking offshore wind, onshore wind, it is a huge. Industrial and economic opportunity for all the countries that are involved in it.

And simply because things like this don’t come along that often, right? Like you have the, you know, the automo, I look at it like that, like the automobile was a thing, right? Like, oh, we went from horses to this. This is a huge opportunity. It made a lot of people, a lot of money, put a lot of people to work.

Wind is the same thing in my perspective, and maybe not at that grand of scale, the automobile, of course, but. You are seeing with your organization, the involvement with people like we have the, the Siemens facility in [00:03:00]Hull, and I know you guys do a little bit of work with them, uh, bringing that manufacturing onshore into the uk.

But not only is it bringing manufacturing what you’re doing here with the UK offshore wind supply chain spotlight is taking. The small companies, the, the, the, the two person companies, the 10 person companies, the 50 person companies, and saying, Hey, we also have really smart people here that are doing really cool things in operations and maintenance or like, you know, helping with some cool innovation for, uh, construction or development.

So there’s a lot of things happening in the uk. I mean, one of the reasons why we’re talking to you guys right now is we want to, we wanna show the rest of the world that you guys are taking advantage of this opportunity and hopefully spur more people on to do the same thing. Absolutely. Right. I’m, I’m, I think the, the key thing for us is in the UK we’re now at a point where we’re trying to maximize the supply chain opportunity and, and, um.

The supply chain is a, is a big pyramid, right? You have, you do have your OEMs and your tier ones at the top, but that stretches all the way down into the university spin outs. And, [00:04:00] um, and the kind of the one two person bands and the, and Orca pull we’re, we’re here to support them as much as we are to support those larger organizations.

Um, and we’ve, we have to, you know. Uh, supported likes of GE and, and, and Siemens through our, our big testing facilities and blade test facilities, drive train facilities. But we’re also testing kind of two, three person, um, organizations. New, um, dynamic cabling solutions for floating wind, right? So we span across an entire, um.

An entire supply chain. And I suppose part of the Supply Chain Spotlight event that we run, um, every year is, is to, is to give all organizations an equal playing field, to present themselves, to project developers, to OEMs, to government, as to why their technology, why their business can solve some of the biggest challenges that offshore wind has in the uk.

But also globally, right? Um, this is a global [00:05:00] market and the, and the uk, um, is, is is a leader in the deployment and the operations in the maintenance phase. And we have a huge amount of knowledge and we wanted to share that, uh, globally as as, as well as here in the uk. I know we have some questions and some topics we wanna get to, but I want to focus on that one point you said there, Magnus, of the the level playing field.

’cause when we were exploring this supply chain spotlight, one of the things that popped up to me was it doesn’t matter who you are, you get the same booth, whether you’re Siemens cesa, or you’re, you know, the two person band, same. Same, same style. Yeah. You, you get, everybody gets a level playing drill because everybody’s solution is needed.

I like that a lot. Yeah. It, it, it, it’s one of the core principles for us every year when we sit down with our, with our events team and our supply chain acceleration teams, it’s, you know, that’s a firing principle is to make sure that everyone gets a, a fair and equal opportunity to participate. And, and Magnus, the consequences of not having a supply chain in the UK are, are really severe when you look at it because of the.[00:06:00]

The amount of deployment the UK is talking about, the, the complexity of some of these projects, particularly floating offshore. There’s a lot of, uh, technology that needs to be developed and it needs to be developed very quickly, and especially on the servicing side, the o and m side. Uh, there’s a ton of knowledge sitting in the UK that can solve these problems, but it, it does feel a little odd.

I, I’d have to say, as a small business owner, I know how hard that is, is to take that first leap into. Showing a product, trying to get it introduced. If you come to the spotlight and in a couple of weeks in, in, it’s in December, so it’s not that far off. When you get to an event like this, this is the opportunity you need to get started or to expand, which makes I, I think, answers so many questions about how the UK is going to move forward in offshore wind.

We will work, um, through a number of different initiatives to understand, um, the challenges the industry is facing. [00:07:00] So we have a pretty good handle on, you know, what are, what are the challenges that they’re facing now, but also the challenges. What are the, what are the challenges they’re gonna face in five years time?

Right? Um, commercialization of technology does take a while. Um, and so we need to understand those challenges. And so Spotlight is, is is also part of that, right? It’s that knowledge sharing that, that exchange of information between, between the, the various different elements of the supply chain and the project developers to say, this is our challenges.

This is the solution we have and try and do and try and bring them together under one roof, um, and, and showcase their technology. And it’s important we get it right. You know, we, we, we, we have a, uh, an an, an ongoing energy transition. There’s an economic opportunity there. We have to try and maximize that, um, and provide as much opportunity for job creation, for IP creation.

Economic development and, and, and, and, and everything and, and far and few in between. So it’s super important we get that right. And part of that is just, [00:08:00] just you shine a, shine a light on these companies. A lot of things are happening in the UK at the moment, particularly offshore wind. But there’s been several wins and, and particularly into the way that the, uh, systems, I’ll call an overall systems of offshore wind are established from, uh, geez OCS to CFD to re catapult to all the s subject matter experts that are, that are there.

I wanna talk to that a little bit about, because I think a, a lot of other countries don’t realize necessarily the strength that is already in the United Kingdom. I think that the, the key thing here is that the sort of mentioned earlier that the, the, the UK has, um, been very, um, on board or at least signed up very early to this opportunity that we had to take advantage of a resource that would give us energy security in a, um, in a renew.

Right. So offshore wind being that opportunity. [00:09:00] So what that meant though is that, um, a long time ago, I mean, it was 20 years ago that the, the, the rocks that you mentioned, the renewable obligation certificates were the first piece that was put in there to try and incentivize companies to. Um, purchase their electricity from renewable sources.

So it’s like, right, okay, we know that we want to be starting this opportunity. Let’s, let’s, uh, put in a mechanism that’s, um, and, and incentivize that happening. But that what then evolved from that was then, um, we realized that, okay, we need to do more to really incentivize this happening. We need to put in some, um, some proper incentives to, to get developers to be really sure that they’re gonna be able to make money.

Out of these quite at the time, you know, quite high, uh, high risk on big developments. Um, and that was when we had feed in tariffs or fits. Um, and then we moved into A-A-C-F-D, which is a contract for difference scheme, which essentially means that the government [00:10:00] guarantees that, that a company that’s created, that’s generating, um, renewables will get a price for their.

For their electricity. But the great thing about contract, the difference and why they’re better, well, or they’re a different mechanism, let’s say, to just standard, you know, guaranteed price, which is what a feed in tariff is, is that if a company actually makes more money, if they’re, they can sell that electricity for higher, then the strike price that was agreed with the government for the contract for difference, they actually have to pay that back.

So it’s almost like a, um, it’s a, it’s a. It’s much less of a, um, uh, a penalty, I suppose, just for the gov, you know, just for the, uh, an administration kind of trying to provide a, a, a revenue support. There also potentially is benefits if say there’s a, like, so for example, um, when we had incredibly high gas prices in the UK and all of the renewable energy, um, generators were actually making more money than they were anticipating, um, over 600 million.

Pounds was put into the u [00:11:00] was brought, put back into the UK like, uh, system. So, yeah. Anyway, the, the contracts for difference has been, has been really beneficial in that front. But actually what it’s been done is it’s meant that we’ve driven competition to, uh, to ’cause developers actually really want to get involved.

It also provides much better assurance for these big projects, which then incentivizes better margins for the developers. So make bigger turbines. Get your, you know, smarter financing, like put in place, um, operations that bring down your cost and then you can make more money and, you know, off you go. Um, and it’s really been a massive success story in bringing down the cost of offshore wind and therefore making it a actually realistic and viable.

Uh. Energy, uh, and electricity, uh, generator in comparison to our, our, you know, gas, um, generating, uh, plants and things. Why do you think that other Northern European countries haven’t followed suit in the same scheme? In, in those countries there’s quite a lot [00:12:00] more, uh, sort of government mandating of like, this is the way that we are going forward.

And there’s much more of a support on that front. I suppose Norway’s quite a good example of a, of a, a country where you’ve got a lot of. There’s a much higher, uh, support that’s provided from that, um, from that governmental sort of standpoint and let, it’s like, it’s like what the UK is also trying to do is it’s trying to generate competition, whereas it’s not necessarily, so I don’t get the impression that from those, the other European countries that maybe are not implementing CFDs is that they’re not necessarily so worried about the competition to drive down the cost.

Whereas the UK has been very much, that’s been a real. Um, motivator for implementing the revenue support systems that we have, but they absolutely have revenue support mechanisms to make offshore wind and wind energy, you know. Work for them. It makes absolute sense because it fits with the strategy that we’re talking about here, right?

[00:13:00] Like it’s, it’s, it’s, the idea is bring innovation, bring new strategy, bring competition, uh, embolden the, the country to come up with new solutions for manufacturing, for operations and maintenance, for all these different things. And that’s what you guys at the Ora Catapult are there to do. That’s your remit.

We’re here to bolster this supply chain, to make these things happen. I mean, we, we, we have gone through challenges, um, in terms of, um, the CFD, you know, particularly with the inflation re increases over the past few years. But the government has listened. Um, and then they, uh, and have made some changes. And, and that includes what’s called the clean in clean industry bonus, which is, is gonna help, um.

Uh, provide some funding into, um, uh, or encourage, uh, developers to support local, homegrown, um, supply chains, which are low carbon. Um, so really investing in sustainable su supply chains for the industry. Um, so I think, yeah, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve absolutely had our [00:14:00] challenges with the, with the CFD, but we’ve got a government who seem to, to be willing to listen to the industry and, and find that compromise between what’s right for the, the UK taxpayer.

Um, um, and then also what’s right for, for building industry. Um, and that’s, you know, we have a number of different mechanisms at re catapult to, to support the supply chain, but also to support the project developer and, and, and the OEM to help grow that sort of, uh, sustainable clean energy supply chains that can do things like, um, and she should do a lot of the manufacturing, um, uh, for floating wind.

Um. Foundations and, and, and the assembly of, of, of turbines and everything. So it’s, you know, it, we, we’ve had our challenges as well and we’re listening and we’re adapting with to, to an evolving market. I think. So what are those areas that are the focus for ORE Catapult to push forward offshore wind?

What technology areas are you focused on right now? We look across the whole, uh, life cycle of, um, [00:15:00] of, of the, of the project development, uh, of our offshore wind farm. Um, a big challenge in the UK at the moment is that it, it typically takes about 14 years for. For a project to go from sort of initial leasing all the way through to kind of FID construction and, and actually, um, generating power.

So, so that’s a, that’s a, a huge amount of time. So we, one of our kind of focus areas is around project pipeline or we, we call PO Project Pipeline, which is, um, environmental, uh, so data collection and trying to fast track that consenting. Process not to, to, to, uh, remove away from environmental protections which are in place, but to try and use new technologies, which can better inform our decision making in the consenting process.

Um, so that’s one, um, that, that, that we focus in on. We focus in on supporting the next generation of turbines. Um, so. Uh, when I first started in the industry, uh, six, six years ago, uh, uh, or, [00:16:00] or castle, sorry, six years ago, you know, it was, it was a novel to have a sort of a, a 10 megawatt, uh, uh, turbine, right?

Or, uh, and, and, and I think 12 megawatt was sort of the standard. And now you, you’re hearing 22 megawatt kind of, uh, uh, commonly referred to 20 megawatt, uh, turbines. Um, and even, and even bigger, right? So. That’s a huge challenge and that’s a huge area of supply chain development that can, that can come with that.

Not just the big fancy blades and, and, and, and, and towers and the cells, but the, the ancillary technologies which go around that, um, floating wind absolutely has to be, is, is, is a key, key area for us as, as well. And that’s sort of how do you integrate new, new turbine solutions with new. New platforms and what are the challenges there?

Um, but a big, big focus, um, in the UK and, and a big sort of strength that the UK is in that operations and maintenance space utilizing the data that we’re generating. And, and, and that’s something that, you [00:17:00] know, in the uk if you look at our supply chain, that’s a huge part of our USP. That’s the part that we can export.

That’s the part that we have a knowledge to share with, with the rest of, um, rest of the world. Going back to the UK offshore wind supply chain Spotlight 25. So that’s gonna be in the beginning of December this year in Edinburgh. How many companies are gonna be there from the uk? Off the top of my head, I don’t quite know.

And it’s usually, uh, somewhere between about, um, 80 company, 80 to a hundred companies exhibiting. Um, so those are companies who we have supported through one of our support mechanisms. Oh, man. I mean, Alan, think about that. Here in the United States, if we were to put this event on tomorrow. How many companies would you have show up that are innovative, that are doing some technology, that are doing something to support the supply chain?

I mean, of course, besides, like, we have a lot of ISPs and people out here doing the, the boots on the ground work. But I mean, I, I think you can count ’em on your hands, your fingers and toes. I think we’ve got 80 or a hundred that we can even put in an event. Yeah. Well, I’ll tell you honestly, one of the things that I [00:18:00] have, I found quite, um.

Inspiring. Right. When I, when I came into the, the Wind industries, I was like, I’m, I’m a relative newbie, right. You know, Magnus has been with the Catapult for six years. I’ve only been with the Catapult for a year. Um, and so it, my, I’m, I’m quite fresh faced, you know, I, I get quite excited about various, you know, opportunities in the wind space, but I was super inspired to see how many companies are pivoting from using expertise from that they’ve used in other offshore industries.

Right. And they are bringing it to. To offshore wind and the applicability of it, because it feels like one of the big issues I had coming away from oil and gas and coming into offshore wind is I felt like when I was in my oil and gas services company, we didn’t talk about the things that we could provide at the offshore wind industry from a services point of view.

And I honestly was absolutely like when I arrived and was like, hang on a second, there’s so many places that you can apply that expertise and that knowledge. [00:19:00] So many, and that is why the UK is doing really well, right? And it’s one of the really inspiring things that we are doing is we are going, Hey, you’ve got all of this experience and knowledge for operating for offshore in the North Sea.

How about, how about just, you know, you can use it for, for offshore wind and we can benefit that industry from it. That’s not, that’s not just the uk. The US has that too. It’s not just oil and gas, right? It’s automotive. It’s aerospace. Like it, there is, there’s a lot of expertise across the UK and the number of companies that we see, so.

Their, the light bulb moment that their technology could apply to offshore wind. And they ha you have a conversation with them and they go, oh, that’s great. We could provide that. And it’s, and it opens up a new door to them. Um, and that, that’s really, um, I suppose if I could put a core, core part of what we do, it’s, it’s, it’s providing that expertise.

It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s providing the, the knowledge and the knowhow about the [00:20:00] industry to these companies. And, um, yeah, spotlight is part of giving them that. That and that opportunity to scream about what they can do. There are so many great companies in the UK and I think they miss the opportunity to be in renewables that the expertise like Megan’s, like you were talking about, they have expertise.

They’re extremely bright engineers and scientists and technology people, and even on the accounting side and the project management, there are so many experts in that field that are sitting in the UK that never thought about. If I can get an offshore wind that expands my business, I grow into this new marketplace, it gives me a little more of economic security.

That’s huge. And now is the time to get into a, a spotlight or to just even to wander the floor to see what it’s about. And I think this is an easy opportunity because to go to the spotlight 2025, it’s relatively inexpensive. You’re gonna Edinburgh, it’s not hard to get to. It is a massive opportunity to [00:21:00] look around and just kind of feel out what is there for you.

Absolutely right. So it’s, it’s a very, very, uh, relatively low cost, um, uh, e event to attend. Um, the companies who are there, we, we support to be there. So, um, we provide them with the ex exhibition space. Um, and, and they, they, they get to showcase their technologies as, as, as well. And, um, learn. Learn from one another, right?

So they’re not just trying to speak to project developers and, and to, to government or, or, or even to us. They’re there to speak to one another and figure out how can we collaborate more together? We have complimentary technologies. Um, you know, how do we fit, how do we, how do we, how do we put that jigsaws together?

And that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s a real key, um, thing there as well. And, and that’s the thing is that when we talk to, uh, UK companies, we’ve had a number on the podcast that have tremendous products. Absolutely tremendous products. They don’t realize. Maybe next door, [00:22:00] just up the road as another company is doing a complimentary piece and connecting those together I think is key.

Even though the UK relatively is a small country, some, some in some ways is very kind of hard to get around and it’s hard to figure out where all these places are because a lot of these small, innovative companies are not necessarily, don’t have flashy names or great. Big websites or don’t spend a hundred thousand pounds on a booth somewhere, so it’s hard to find them.

But in, in these kind of events, these, these more dedicated, focused events on technology and growth, particularly in the uk and these spotlights are fantastic of connecting companies together. This is the, this is your opportunity because a lot of other conferences are so much more expensive. They’re further away.

They’re probably in Germany or in Denmark or in Spain. This is the one, this is the one to see what is really happening at the Ground Street level in the uk. And we need to get people to sign up because one of the things it’s gonna happen is [00:23:00] that you’re gonna run outta tickets for this, even though it’s in December.

It’s gonna get busy as soon as everybody realizes, like, yeah, I, I need to get over there. So this event is in Edinburg, it’s UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain Spotlight 2025. It’s in Edinburgh on December 11th at the Royal Highland Center. Which, from what I can tell, looks like a beautiful facility. Is there anything else I should know before I get ready to come to that event?

I mean, it’s right, be right beside the, the, the Edinburgh airport. So it’s super, super, super easy. Um, I think for me the, the, the kind of, the big plea would be from a, an international audience, from the audience, um, uh, is, uh, across, across the US is that there is innovative companie. In the uk who could maybe compliment your technology, right?

So we’ve talked about the, the uk, UK to UK company collaboration and, and action. There’s, this is a global challenge, right? There’s, this is a global market. Um, we need more collaboration between, between countries, more opportunities for [00:24:00] collaboration. So if, if you have, um. Uh, audience members who want to learn more about the UK and, and are developing a technology or they have a solution or a service and they’re thinking, you know, we could be doing this, but there’s a uk, there might be a UK company there, there, there probably, there probably isn’t.

There’ll probably be a spotlight as well. And Emily, you’re promising good weather in December in Edinburgh, right? Obviously there won’t be any rain. Nice and warm, sunny, balmy, almost. Yes. I think balmy is exactly the words that I would describe Edinburgh in December. It’s charming and wonderful, and you’ll get the proper Scottish, uh, gravitas that comes with the, the, the grayness and the rain.

I mean, it wouldn’t be right without that experience, so you, you need to google this event to sign up. That’s the easiest way I found it. It’d just go UK offshore wind supply chain spotlight 2025 and you’ll see it. You can click in and register. It’s inexpensive. It’s in December. You know you want to go, you wanna be in [00:25:00] Edburg in December.

It’s beautiful. So Emily and Magnus, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Love having you, and looking forward to the event. Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you very much.

https://weatherguardwind.com/ore-catapult-uk/

Renewable Energy

Wind Industry Operations: In Wind’s Next Chapter, Operations take center stage

Published

7 hours ago

February 26, 2026

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

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.

Wind Industry Operations: In Wind's Next Chapter, Operations take center stage

Contact us for help understanding your lightning damage, future risks, and how to get more uptime from your equipment.

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Wind Industry Operations: In Wind’s Next Chapter, Operations take center stage

Renewable Energy

BladeBUG Tackles Serial Blade Defects with Robotics

Published

10 hours ago

February 26, 2026

Alice Rush

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.