Weather Guard Lightning Tech
Blade Repair Academy: Tackling the Human Challenges in Blade Repair
Joel Saxum spoke to Alfred Crabtree from the Blade Repair Academy at Blades USA in Austin, TX. They discussed the challenges faced by blade repair technicians, including the physically demanding nature of the job, frequent travel, and high attrition rates. Crabtree also talks about the Blade Repair Academy’s mission to provide training and vetting for blade repair technicians, and initiatives to create a dedicated occupation and apprenticeship program for this field. Visit https://www.bladerepairacademy.com/home.
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Joel Saxum: All right guys we’re back here at Blades got Alfred Crabtree here from the Blade Repair Academy. Alfred’s big mission with the Blade Repair Academy is bringing new net capacity to the wind industry, right? We need more composite technicians. We need more composite technicians, that’s right. For sure.
We’re at Blades here. Alfred presented yesterday and this is one of my highlights from the conference, not because you’re sitting next to me and I’m saying this. Thank you. But just in general because we have had like we said, a lot of Subject matter experts, a lot of the, I’m in charge of all the blades for this fleet and that fleet discussions around inspection.
What should you do with your blades when they come out of the manufacturing facilities? DNV talking about certain things a lot of really good high level engineering stuff. Yes. But yesterday, Alfred brought A human element to the discussion. That’s right. So I’m, I say this right here, so it’s recorded and everybody knows that I’ve never repelled downwind.
That’s not my, where I’ve come into this sector. You have many times. So Alfred’s presentation yesterday was a fantastic video in the background as he spoke over it of himself, basically getting ready to drop over the hub and to send down a blade to do some work and all of the things that go into that.
While you were speaking about what’s really happening with the technicians in the field. That was the diversion. That was the thing that was different than everybody else. Everybody’s talking about high level engineering. This is what we do. You brought the human element. You said, this is what’s going on with the techs in the field.
This is how long they’re away from their families. This is the life cycle of a person in the field. This is how long they last. This is how we’re losing good capacity. That’s right. So you’re bringing different story to this environment that was built. From what I talked to a lot of other people as well very well received.
Alfred Crabtree: Yeah. I’ve got a lot of good feedback and the human element is really integral to all these initiatives and ideas. We saw a lot of science, we saw a lot of data, which is great. And a lot of business and all of that hinges upon two hands that can execute grinds with the grinder. And so that was, the focus of my talk was to bring that back into the conversation about how we deal with these problems we’re facing.
Joel Saxum: So we know we have a shortage of technicians, From the general wind technician to the specific people that worry about different problems. Hey, we’re talking blades here, right? We know we have that shortage. Can you talk to us a little bit about that life cycle of that person in the industry?
Alfred Crabtree: Sure, sure.
On average the life cycle of a blade repair technician is about five years. And it’s a short span whether you’re successful in the gig or not. And there’s a lot of factors that influence that. First off, the, it takes a couple or three years to become proficient. Yeah. With the grinder and to be able to execute.
It’s a very tough environment on the job to learn from because we have this vertical distance between the person who’s doing the work and the support person and the roles are really detached from each other. Also in this industry, people have been using skillset as a form of competition and they covet.
Their wisdom, but the tribal wisdom falls out very quickly because of this high attrition rate. So if you go out on this job, you have to be able to work outdoors in extreme weather conditions many hours a week. And we, a lot of us think we want that, but when you get there, you do it until you do it.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then work at height is a physiological switch that you either have or don’t. And there’s no way that you can macho through it. No, it’s, lead to poor health. And then the wear and tear and fatigue. You’re away from your family. Yeah, for sure. You can spend a couple weeks in a hotel room waiting for the weather to break.
That’s not good for your mental health. No. There’s a lot of challenges. And then let’s say you are successful and you’ve made a lot of money and now you want to buy a house and maybe met your partner or you’re having a child. There’s a lot of reasons why we a successful technician will want to get off the road.
Joel Saxum: Yeah. Then you want to be home. You want to be home. You want to enjoy that house that you spent all that time working for. Yeah. Enjoy that partner. You may find her or him in a random city somewhere.
Alfred Crabtree: You, this is very true. And in fact, if you’re meeting, having a successful episode in your life, you’re smiling and you’re more attractive.
And so it definitely happens. And then another thing that we need to make a distinction between blade repair technicians and wind turbine techs are mostly based. Where their farm is. Locally. They work at XYZ Wind Farm and that’s where they report to work. There certainly are traveling techs, but almost, I’m pretty sure all the blade repair techs are traveling.
Joel Saxum: Yeah. There’s not very many wind farms that can support technicians that sit at a mall. So you have those two distinctions, of course. The, the construction side of things, they’re traveling as well. But either way, so I’ve lived that traveling life, but in the oil and gas world for a while.
It’s not. It’s not good for your health. It’s hard to have a routine where you can actually, you know, if you like the gym, or you like to eat well, or anything like that. It’s difficult. It’s a young person’s game.
Alfred Crabtree: I have hundreds of thousands of reward points on hotels, and cars, and airplanes, and I’m not the least bit interested.
I spent four out of eight years in hotel rooms.
Joel Saxum: Yep.
Alfred Crabtree: And yeah.
Joel Saxum: So it doesn’t, yeah, it’s not something that you’re like, I’m gonna go and do this for 30 years. No. It’s not gonna happen. It’s not. And one of the, one of the difficult things, and you touched on it, and I’ve had discussions with a lot of people in the industry about this is, there’s not always a clear and defined career path, right?
Very rarely is it like, oh, you’re a Tech 1, Tech 2, Tech 3, Tech 4 and then once you’re a Tech 4, they’re like, yeah, you’re a Tech 4. Can you go into project management? Do you go into HSE? Do you go to be a fleet manager? That’s difficult because there’s not, that path isn’t clear.
Alfred Crabtree: It’s not clear.
And if you think about it, you would have to have new net growth to enable those positions in management to open up for your alumni or, your esteemed composites experts. They, unfortunately that expertise leaves because there’s nowhere to go.
Joel Saxum: Yeah, and after you’ve done it for long enough, you’re, you just simply, the term is you get burnt out.
Huh. You need, you’re, I gotta be done with this. So that probably happens to most people by, and I’m gonna very much generalize here. If you’re doing it in your 20s, by the time you’re hitting 30, you’re looking for something else. And the trouble is, You’re now the person out there in the field that has all of this knowledge, like you said, the tribal knowledge.
Alfred Crabtree: That’s right, and it disappears. And part of that problem is this is not an occupation. The Department of Labor does not have a job description or a job title called a blade repair technician. Yeah. Blade repair is one line item in the wind turbine technician.
Joel Saxum: It surprises me because, I’ve focused on blades for most of my time in wind.
So that’s been such a forefront in my wind energy experience that the Department of Labor doesn’t even see it as a task.
Alfred Crabtree: But, it’s not incumbent upon them, it’s incumbent upon the industry to, to apply for and create, to create that description. So that’s an initiative I’m working on. long term.
Joel Saxum: Fantastic. So you had mentioned talking with the department of labor on that one. Is there any other initiatives that you’re trying to bring the wind industry together on?
Alfred Crabtree: Sure. I spoke at the wind workshop in Boulder a couple of weeks ago and I met the folks from IACMI there and they have a workforce development effort and staff.
And so I Commiserated with them pretty quickly and they’re out of Knoxville. I’m in Tennessee. So gonna work with them as a industry sponsor. I hope I’ve spoke with the Department of Labor and have looked into what it takes to create an occupation and then I’m working on an apprenticeship program huge studying What it takes to get to do that.
It requires a corporate or industry sponsor, and then we need about a dozen people who can speak on behalf of the program. And would they accept it as industry leaders? Okay. Bureaucracy is not my strong point, but I’m pretty passionate about it and so far everyone in the industry I’ve talked to is on board and willing to help.
Joel Saxum: It’s part of the IRA bill, right? There’s things in there now. I don’t know the specifics on it. I’d have to talk to some, People smarter than me, but I do know that there’s a line item in there that says if you want to qualify for XYZ, you need to have people that are working here as a part of an apprenticeship.
Alfred Crabtree: That’s right. And so what’s unfair is that there are apprenticeship programs for wind turbine tech. And so companies like ISPs that are just in blades to get that benefit. It’s really their clients who get the benefit. Okay. And so they have to hire contractors that have a certain percentage that go through that program.
So blade service providers may be putting people through. A useless apprenticeship program for them just to get this contract to get involved in this business And so if we had a separate program that was just for blade techs, I think that would level the playing field.
Joel Saxum: Yeah for the opportunity for companies to take advantage of that and we’re looking at the same concept I like to speak on it a lot is rising waters floats all ships.
That’s a huge theme for me, right? So if we bring that standard up and we bring this an accreditation Or an apprenticeship program or something forward. For blade technicians, whether they come through your program or anybody else, right?
Alfred Crabtree: We’re raising the whole industry exactly and I think to that end if I can get a lot of the industry leaders involved I think here’s what there’s my challenge to the industry.
Let’s create a scholarship to fund Let’s say 400 new technicians to enter the field and at the same time upscale 200 existing technicians, we need upscale technicians today to take care of the serial flop problem. Yeah. Yeah. And we’re going to take those people away from just your preventative and your typical maintenance that comes up.
So we need to backfill that. And if we can’t. As an industry contribute to new net growth. It’s not, we can, we take it out of the realm of competition and we’re not competing with skill sets. People aren’t jumping for a dollar here and there. That doesn’t help anybody. That’s the other half is that technicians can take advantage of this market of scarcity and jump from ship to ship.
Joel Saxum: And it leads to poor quality, to be honest with you. Yes. Because it’s great, technician on an extra dollar. I’m not gonna blame you for that. But when we jump from company to company, before you even get involved in, I’ve seen this, before you get involved in company A, when you came from company Y, you don’t know their HSE policies, you don’t even know how your fuel card works in your truck, before you’re heading to site, whether there’s a different process on a different thing, because in the industry, a lot, to be honest with you, unless you have work instructions from an OEM, and you’re working on blades, there’s not a lot of stuff that’s standardized.
Unfortunately. Unfortunately. And that’s something you’re working on. Yes. So let’s, we’ll switch topics a little bit. Alfred, the, how I originally got in contact with you was Blade Repair Academy. Tell us about Blade Repair Academy.
Alfred Crabtree: All right. Blade Repair Academy is a startup that my partners and I began about a year ago in the, if you build it, they will come.
There we go. Thing, we’re grinders we’re field techs, a couple of us. And we know what you need to be able to do the work. And, I contend that it’s the grinder that you have to unlock, because everything depends upon the grinder, and in my opinion, existing training programs don’t give you enough time or enough scale and size to really reflect an analog to what you do in the field.
So that’s what we are doing. We have simulated lightning strikes that people repair. We have a learning management system, it’s a database, and we have people They fill out a report while they do their repair. Just like you’re in the field, but in a controlled environment. Exactly. And since every repair panel and damage is the same, then we can compare everybody’s work.
Yeah. Everybody has to take out a certain size of core. And so now I have a rubric to grade on and we now have insight. And one of the main things that I offer as a product is a vetting service. Where that’s huge. If you’re going to hire somebody who has skills. You have no way to prove it until he’s been out in the field and you get some feedback.
And that may cost you half your season if the guy’s not really what he thinks he is.
Joel Saxum: And monetarily, if you have someone up there doing poor quality repairs. Wait, that could screw you. You could lose contracts. For sure. There’s a lot of, there’s a lot of let alone the safety and other things, but the quality side of it.
That’s a different, whole different game.
Alfred Crabtree: I think that’s the main reason why people hold back from growing their teams, because they’re afraid of losing quality control, because they can’t control the input. They can’t control what’s coming in. So we vet, we, let me just finish here. Yeah.
We vet people. They can come and execute one of these repairs with just work instructions, no prompts under the instruction and then. They’ll complete it and you’ll have a report and you’ll know what they’re capable of.
Joel Saxum: I think that’s huge. You’re, so you’re saying one of the things, of course, full training programs here, but we’re, you’re talking, we can vet people.
If you’re an ISP and your engineering staff doesn’t have the time, or you don’t have the time in HR, whatever you want to grow your team, send a couple of guys over to Alfred that he can vet them. QC them, make sure they are what they say they are. That’s right. That’s one thing. The other concept that you and I have talked about off air a little bit as well is the idea of upskilling people to execute on some of these serial defects in the fleet.
Now, so this is a concept and it’s a little bit, it was new to me, but man, you thought through it, you’ve got it. But the concept in my mind is, hey, we know we have this OEM that has this issue and here’s the work instruction. Send me the guys. I’ll have them go through the work instruction.
They’ll be stamp approved from Blade Repair Academy. They can execute on the COD effect. Get them out there and get them fixing it.
Alfred Crabtree: That’s right. And we can tailor the curriculum and the sample board to the layup that they’re facing. We can simulate the damage that they’re facing. And of course, we can quickly validate. and or supplement and, Train them till the point that they can go out and do that work. And with a finite amount of money set back to solve these problems that are, we know are going to continue to recur. We have to come up with the system to rapidly deploy and take care of these things while they’re sitting in a yard and not deal with them when they’re up on the turbine.
Joel Saxum: Yeah. We’ve got to keep those cranes moving. Yeah. And at the same time, so we’ve got that we’re talking about getting serial defects fixed and then we’re going to go into the field and we’re going to put complete net new capacity. So new blade repair technicians that maybe haven’t been on a blade before.
We’ll get them through your program so that we can see if they have the skills to go do it. Instead of finding out half of the season that they don’t.
Alfred Crabtree: That’s right. We believe that, you’ve got a five year lifespan with a technician. Let’s plan on that. Okay. And if we do that, we know that it’s probably wise to front load the training so you can get productivity out of these people really early, right?
And the matrix of skills and the things that you vet for, you’re going to vet for safety. The whole industrial training thing, the GWO path. Love it. Great. Then you’re going to vote. Then, in my opinion, you should vet for composite skills. Okay. Because you can be a good technician who can grind, but maybe.
You’re not going to be able to work at height, but we don’t need to throw that technician away. We need, there’s plenty of work on the ground, especially in the serial flaw world. So then you vet for height and then we all, and any employer has to vet for character and that’s especially important in this game because you’re putting a guy on a rope or in a basket, hundreds of miles from your office who is there to self manage.
And So on top of all these things we gotta have, it’s a brutal, it’s a brutal regime to get a good blade
Joel Saxum: deck.
And the existing issue today, or one of the existing issues, this is everything you just explained. And now that person is being asked many times to train someone in the field. And it’s uncontrolled at that time it’s hey, the weather just broke, we just got up on a blade, I don’t have time today.
Alfred Crabtree: That’s a very common place. It’s the standard, and the field is a very hard place to trade. If you’re up on blade, you have very little cognitive bandwidth left. And you’re under pressure to perform. You’ve been on standby for five days. And guess what? You may be really good at your job, but that doesn’t mean you’re a teacher.
Exactly. In fact, the techs who really crush it are usually head down, blinders on, don’t meet anyone. Yeah. For sure. Extreme stuff. It’s and it’s a, I think we also need to emphasize this is a craft, okay? We’re not swapping out parts. Yeah, we have it’s science meets art. It is. You have to make choices about what you remove from the blade.
Joel Saxum: And then you, and by the way, it’s moving and it’s bucking and you’ve got a 36 grade video where you’re showing the guy and all the different, I was just walking through the steps of the video you showed during your presentation and the clip rope clip, rope. I’m like, just remembering that sequence of how to keep yourself safe up on the ropes.
You haven’t even got the grinder out. Yeah. And so to be turned on, to be switched on, you’ve got to be, into what you’re doing at that point. Otherwise, it’s unsafe otherwise. So if you’re being asked to do too much in the field, it’s tough. So in my opinion, and this is why I’ve gravitated towards your message and talking with you is we know we need new net capacity right now, dedicated blade composite repair, training facilities and entities.
Some ISPs are doing it internally. Yes. But there isn’t a facility that has the push that you have, that I see.
Alfred Crabtree: I scaled up to a facility that I could easily put 200 people, even 400 people a year through my program. There, I, not many companies are going to invest like I did to build a facility that is that deluxe for the four to eight people that they’re going to, they’re going to train.
And then in the start of the season, the manager is going to take his hat off and they’re going to put his training hat on and he’s going to be doing double duty. You’re going to get it done. And then you’re going to go back to managing the season starts and you trained for, and you had tried it three and in the middle of the season, you can’t adapt, but if you use a third party like blade repair Academy, you can hire that guy, we can vet them.
You can put them right out. Good to go and you can scale up and down. It’s a paradigm shift, but I think people should look into it.
Joel Saxum: One of the cool things that you told me about your facility and the Blade Repair Academy thing that you’ve got going on is everybody in the industry seems to be on board.
So you’re getting even materials companies donating some stuff like, Hey, here’s some new material. Here’s this, we’re looking at doing a, a U UV cure kind of demos and these kinds of things with this product. And so when a technician comes through there, they get exposure to a lot of the state of the art technologies and stuff.
Alfred Crabtree: That’s going, yeah, We really want to be a technology demonstration center and part of it is just. That I’m a kid and I love playing around with this stuff and experimenting, but it’s also about finding best practices and new uses. We have, we have legacy chemicals and we have legacy protocols because we’re afraid.
To try different things in the work environment. And so I’ve got a lab where you can come and it’s okay. If you mess up the repair, you learn from the mess ups more than you do the good stuff. Yeah. Let’s try this new chemical, the UV cure systems out there. Game changer, cutting cure times from six hours to 20 minutes.
Yeah. We’re watching it right down here. They’re doing it on the floor here. They’re doing it on the floor here with no VOCs one part systems. The suppliers are coming up With solutions and I’ve had a couple come to me and ask for our feedback because they don’t know about The field scenario and they’ve changed formulations based upon our feedback and changed packaging.
Yeah. We’re grateful. Yeah. Obviously it makes sense to, for suppliers to put their products in our hands and get them in the hands of people. And I think that’s win for everybody. It’s very, we’re out, we’re agnostic and we take all comers and we’ll, we’ll do LEP demos and put a few stuff, a few products up against each other.
Yeah. Infusion is a new technology that we’re exploring. We’re having actually a couple of clinics Thursday and Friday and Monday and Tuesday. So I’m always open to hear from anybody and get visits from anybody. We know we have to validate our claims and we have to be vetted and we’re new in the industry.
So I encourage anyone who wants to talk about it or come down and see what we do. It’s definitely unique.
Joel Saxum: I like it. I like the whole concept and I think that the industry needs it. Not only our U. S. Sorry, but globally it’s needed. Yes. We need capacity everywhere.
Alfred Crabtree: It’s amazing the Interest I’m getting on LinkedIn
Joel Saxum: from all over the world.
Yeah. Let’s touch on that okay So we’ve went through the message about what technicians are going through in the field we’ve talked about Blade Repair Academy, some of your initiatives and the things you’re doing. The last thing here, how do people get a hold of you? They want to get a hold of Blade Repair Academy, how do they do it?
Alfred Crabtree: bladerepairacademy.com I’m alfred.crabtree@bladerepairacademy.com. You can find me on LinkedIn. The video we were talking about is on YouTube, if you look up my name. And the commute, it’s just it’s the rappel from the nacelle down to A damage area and what it takes and what we’re trying to what I was trying to convey yesterday to people was, you know There’s a human being who has to get here in these conditions doing these Exerting himself or herself to this degree.
Joel Saxum: So keep that in mind when you’re, hiring or firing or Commending or and when you need someone vetted send them to Blade Repair Academy.
Alfred Crabtree: Yeah send them to us. We can really help you make sure your workforce is dialed in
Blade Repair Academy: Tackling the Human Challenges in Blade Repair
My maternal grandfather was born in southeastern Pennsylvania in 1903 and told me when I was a boy that in the 1920s, times were so good that saloon owners would offer a free lunch, consisting of bread and butter, cheese, cold cuts, pickles and the like. “Sure, they were hoping you’d buy a glass of beer for a nickel, but they really didn’t mind if you didn’t and simply scarfed down a free sandwich.”
He went on to tell me that nowadays, there’s a popular slogan: There’s no such thing as a free lunch, “but believe me, there was at the time.”
From today’s perspective of greed and selfishness, this whole story sounds like a fairy tale. Corporations and the congresspeople they own want one thing: to suck the life out of us.
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.
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