Published

2 years ago

December 7, 2023

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

Calaway Solutions Offers Clarity Through Comprehensive Wind Turbine Audits

Wind turbine maintenance expert Garrett Calaway joins hosts Allen Hall and Joel Saxum to discuss his company, Calaway Solutions, which provides comprehensive turbine health audits and inspections. Calaway explains their process for assessing drivetrains, blades, generators and other components through visual inspections, drone imaging, and advanced techniques like borescoping. He highlights the need for impartial “data illumination” to determine the true condition of turbines, often unknown even to operators, and advocates for proactive maintenance over reactive fixes to maximize asset lifetime value. Calaway describes their diverse customer base and how regular audits can benefit owners, prevent issues, validate OEM work, ease transactions, and give insurers confidence by responsibly managing turbines.

Visit https://calawaysolutions.com/!

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Allen Hall: Welcome to this special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. As we know, wind turbines are a maintenance nightmare at times. And with so many variety of wind turbines, particularly across the United States and the world, it’s really hard to know what’s wrong with any particular turbine at any particular time.

And with the markets consolidating and the number of turbines that are exchanging hands, knowing the health of a wind turbine becomes critical. And that’s where Calaway

Solutions comes in. Garrett Calaway is the CEO of Calaway Solutions and has been involved in this industry a very long time. In this podcast, Joel and I will have in depth discussions with Garrett.

We’re going to pick his brain as to where these problems are, how to find them and how to diagnose the health of your turbine. So this is a really great episode. Garrett, welcome to the program and give us a little bit of background on, on where you came from and how you got to this place.

Garrett Calaway: Been in the wind business for renewable energy for about 12 years. Started as a technician at Siemens back when it was Siemens, not Siemens Gamesa in its heyday. Done major components. That’s actually where I learned bore scoping and, NDT process. I was part of the Siemens engineering engineering group.

Used to be called ST. Learned from everybody. Learned from the Danes. Learned from, the original guys that were building these wind turbines in the United States. Honestly, I got really lucky. From there, I ended up at Wanzek. I helped build their major component and renewable services group.

Yeah, I just decided that I was going to do this on my own. That I knew how to do it. We take that end of warranty style lockdown. We have that checklist. And what we want to propose to the world is that you do not wait till the end of warranty for this. You start at COD. You go through it, you do a 100 percent check of everything, not just a visual walk down.

External blades, internal blades, main bearing gearbox, generator, everything that you could think of, so that you have a real baseline. We want to say we come in and do a 100% And then throughout your warranty contract, but just for easy math, we’ll say that your contract’s five years.

We come back and we do 20 percent of your site randomly. And then by the time we get to the end of your warranty, you don’t even need an end of warranty walk down. You already know the problems that you’ve got, the utility has going on in their sites. They’ve preemptively ordered the parts that they know are starting to generate faster.

And so we actually get real life extension from these towers. We want to be in the renewable business, we need to make these things actually last and not just throw away pieces of machinery that still have life in them. And and so in part of that, we’ve, we do the visual walk down with our specialists.

We do external blade inspection. We have fully autonomous software. We’ve partnered with Thread to use their platform use their autonomous flight. And so we do the externals with that. And then we will go in with the Elios 2 and do internal inspections and we actually we partnered with Wind Power Lab on this.

You know We do what we are experts at.

Joel Saxum: Let me ask you a question here Garrett. Let me stop you for a second and ask you a question. So your customers right now, or when you started and you got into the, we’re going to do audits, we’re going to be your third party expertise, was mostly asset owners utility operators, whether it was regulated or unregulated, that’s who it was.

But I see, What I see is pretty, pretty extreme value for a financial customer, right? So someone that may be buying an asset, a bank that wants to come and look and see, is this something we should be taking a loan on, on, or say an insurance company that, hey, brand new wind farm to their portfolio, possibly, should we take this risk on?

And if this stuff was already done, if there was someone was already doing independent audits, does that make? Is it possible that it makes easier, premium reductions or the bank is like, Oh, okay, we’ve got this.

Garrett Calaway: These insurance companies, obviously they’re smart and they’re powerful, but they’re not renewable experts.

And if you’re going to go underwrite a massive project, you should know. And take that in that risk mitigation for yourself and know exactly what is going on with those assets. So part of this is getting, getting with the insurance companies and making the insurance companies go to the utilities of the OEMs and go, look, we’ll do this.

And we’ll even give you a better premium rate, but you have to have a third party organization come in that is no affiliation to you. Independent experts to give these audits. And if you maintain your towers in an appropriate way, you get a better, you get a better premium price, or there are discounts.

However but you’re Joel, you’re a hundred percent, you’re right on the money. Especially, wind turbines get bought and sold and traded. You might as well be, might as well be trading Pokemon cards at this point. And without these evaluations, how are these big financial companies, really, how do they really know?

And to my opinion, they don’t, they’re taking a risk. And it also, a lot of these companies, it just looks good to be in renewables these days.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. And you start to see a lot of that in the capital money exchanges. It just boosts their ESG. ESG points, ESG scores or whatever to be a part of these things.

So no matter what money usually comes, we had a conversation that some of that about that the other day, right at the, they’ll take the risk on just to have the the green stamp. So let me ask you a couple more questions about then the, how you guys support the market then. So you have your team and of course you have a couple of clients that you usually work with.

But how big is the team and how much work can you guys actually take on to help people with this?

Garrett Calaway: We’re 15 people. So we we’re growing still a small group, but truth is we can handle whatever anybody wants to throw at us. We’re incredibly efficient. So sending a one, like literally a, two man team or one man team.

Is, it is incredibly easy. So it’s just, it’s time, right? It’s just time and persistence and showing the good work in what we’re able to deliver and, and really it’s all about return on investment. You invest this amount of money for us to come into these inspections.

The return is exponentially more. And it’s just about showing that and improving that. And we’ve been doing it slowly and methodically.

Allen Hall: So the issue right now in the industry is that there’s very little you will know about your turbine, unless you’re the OEM, because the OEMs have all the data and a lot of operators do not get that access to that data.

So they can’t even analyze their own equipment. So the only way to really understand what a piece of equipment is performing like today is you can do, you can connect with someone like our friend, Phil Totaro, who’s looking at the power produced in the wind coming in and to try to ballpark it that way.

The only other way to do it though, is to actually physically walk on site and start bore scoping listening for that grinding noise and get inside. Cause otherwise you’re guessing at it, leads to a sort of a more broad problem is there’s a lot of wind turbines. There’s not a lot of technicians that can do some of these higher level things.

There’s really no one in the middle, right? So we have technicians to go and fix the equipment and just to keep it up and running. We have the OEMs and the full service agreements that are top level. Don’t worry about it. Everything’s under the tent. Don’t look at it. We’ve got this sort of thing.

And what’s missing is the middle, right? The experts that can come in and kick the tires on a turbine to tell you what its actual life is and what it’s, what is happening with it right now. That’s the missing link, right? That’s where Calaway comes in.

Garrett Calaway: 100%. We, what we like to describe it as data illumination.

We come in and, like you can look at your CMS, you can look at your vibrations and you will understand that maybe you’ll see some stuff. You’ll start seeing spike elevations and you’ll know that maybe your IMS or your high speed or your planets are going bad and all that. But even with that, you still have to go bore scope them.

Nobody, very few people are just taking the advice of the CMS and going, just change out those main bearings. You don’t, like we’re certain we’re a hundred percent sure. And that’s just in one if your insurance is involved, there is no way that is happening because they need a visual evidence of what that vibration sensing is doing.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. And then they want an audit chain too, right? They want to look through records. They want to make sure so they can push point blame. That’s where it’s at. Once it hits that threshold of value, nobody wants to take that. Yeah, nobody wants to take that hit. So I was like, ah, this is actually oh, you are here.

Garrett Calaway: Yeah. Allen you’re right there. That middle ground is it was where I saw the missing link. I saw what needed to be done.

Allen Hall: That still exists with CMS though. Garrett? The CMS systems provide you a level of information. Something may have changed. I think that’s what CMS is really do here is that they say something has changed, but unless have an expert.

A very knowledgeable person go in and look to see what’s causing that alarm or that change. There’s really no point to a CMS system, the way I see it, because they can’t diagnose.

Garrett Calaway: And here’s the other, here’s the other side of that with the CMS. That’s, and we’ll say your, we’ll just, we’ll say your, it’s a, we’ll call it a Winergy 151 or 150 bearing.

It’s your downwind high speed bearing. And let’s say that they’ve got some heat going, you’ve got some PT 100 sensors are going off, your CMS is going off. And so you know you have a bad bearing. That doesn’t really change of why, or that doesn’t really change why, and then back in the day it used to be white etching cracks, which was all metallurgic material issues, right?

But what else you’re not looking at is that generator in alignment? Is that coupler up to spec? Are you meeting these standards? Because if you don’t, if that generator, if you get a bad generator foot, you will blow those bearings out very quickly. And again, and if you’re not a dread, if you’re just looking at the CMS and even if you’re just bore scoping, that’s not a re, you’ve got to go further down the line to really get that, get to that root cause analysis.

And without my specialists and without that, that deep internal knowledge, you’re never going to get there.

Joel Saxum: I think that another part of it to touch on is the stakeholder management of the situation, right? So when you’re sitting there, say you’re a financial asset owner or you’re an asset, you’re an asset owner, that is technician or expertise light, or engineering light. And that’s fine, that’s a lot of people these days. But then they’re relying on these OEMs for their warranty contracts, or not even warranty contracts, service contracts. Say you have this three, five year service contract, that OEM then says, Oh, we’ve got it, we’ve got it, don’t worry, at the end of the contract you may be inheriting a piece of garbage.

Garrett Calaway: In my opinion, most likely you are.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, if you’re an asset owner that sits there is mostly on the sidelines and don’t have your own engineering expertise, whether it’s a, an, an operating expense issue or however your company’s designed, that’s fine. You can still call someone like yourself, Garrett, or Calaway Solutions and say, Hey guys, you know what, we’ve had these things up for, whether it’s from baseline or not, we’ve had them for, I don’t know, two years and we would like to actually go and you’re auditing the machine. But you’re also auditing

the OEM that’s doing the service contract at the same time. Because you’re proving, have they done what they say they’re going to do. Can we trust them for the rest of the, the rest of the contract? X, Y, Z, because a lot of it also happens this way. At five years that, that business development or salesperson from that service contract holding company comes back to that, to wind energy holder and says, Hey, we’d like to sign another five year contract with you.

Not everybody takes over the assets at the end of those contracts. So at that time, if they’re doing a good job and they get the high grade from Calaway, then you’d be more apt to be able to sign that service contract for another five years.

Garrett Calaway: The crazy thing is, and I remember being at Siemens and hearing about 20 year service contracts.

If I was an, if I was a utility, I wouldn’t. I would never do that. I would never do that.

Joel Saxum: The only 30 year contract I’m signing is a wedding certificate.

Garrett Calaway: Yeah. I mean, and but you’re right, us coming in as an unbiased group and we, and cause when I talked to people, they’re like, Oh, you really got it out for the OEMs.

I’ve got it out for bad quality. I don’t care if it’s the OEM, I don’t care if it’s the utility.

Joel Saxum: It could be a different ISP.

Garrett Calaway: A hundred percent. And we’re just here to illuminate the data. Now, and whether that’s good or bad, it doesn’t matter. It just is what it is. Data is, are facts. And so if another ISP is doing the work and they’re doing a stellar job, we’re not gonna, we’re not gonna dog them out.

We’re just gonna, we’re gonna give the information. And if that means, if we can do that and, or, and honestly, if another ISP wanted to come in and go, Hey, we’d like you to audit our work on this site. And then they give that information to the utility, they might as well just sign a lifetime contract because I guarantee you there’s not a single ISP that’s ever thought to do that. Audit themselves independently to show the utility that they are as good as they’re doing or as good as they say. And so it’s, and we’re about doing that for the OEMs too.

If the OEMs are doing a great job, thumbs up, pat on the back, hand clap. Let’s go. Congratulations. But if you’re not, if you’re not holding your end of the bargain here, if you’re not, then we’re going to show.

Allen Hall: Yeah, I think there are a couple of things about OEMs and full service agreements.

The full service agreements seem to vary by location, right? So it is really dependent upon who you have locally that’s taking care of your equipment. How well that turns out, right? It’s a, it’s still a people business and it’s even in a sort of high tech world. That’s still a people business and good people do good work generally.

But the thing is unless you try to check up on them once in a while, you don’t always know what it looks like. And it’s really, unless you’re an expert in some of these highly detailed metallurgical, gearbox, lubrication, even some of the power distribution stuff, you’re just not gonna know where all the problems lie.

And I think this is where the, this Calaway solutions comes in here because when you get on site, when someone says, Hey. I really need to do an audit. We’re coming up to end a warranty or as it’s happening more frequently now. Hey, we got someone coming in to look at the asset. They want to buy the asset.

We need somebody to go through these turbines and tell us, give us a status of, red, yellow, green kind of situation. What does that look like? And you get on site, there’s a hundred turbines. What are you guys doing when you go through these turbines and evaluate the health of them?

Garrett Calaway: Obviously you’re going to start with the basic turbine information, make model date of COD. And, but so the first step is you’ll, you typically, we’re going to send a two man team out one guy. One guy’s going up and getting into the bore scope. Second guys coming up, doing the visual walk down from basement walking straight into the stairs up the ladder, getting off every deck.

Checking, torque marks, pinging bolts around every flange, looking just eyes peeled, looking for every single detail. And then, by the time they get to the top, the person upstairs up tower, bore scoping, is, maybe through the helical section, getting into the planetary, finish that up, then the two teams link up, they do the main bearing.

And it really depends on the man in the manufacturer. Cause if it’s GE main bearing, if you’re a one five, one X platform. You can just pry off that main bearing cover, clean out a bit of grease. Typically you’re looking down in that, that six o’clock position, but really it’s not three, six, and nine are typically where your damages are going to be on your main bearings.

That’s where the most load is. Pull that off, clean out a little grease in between, take a look, whether it’s bore scope or literally, sometimes you just take a picture because there’s a, giant crack missing. And then, we’re looking at the generators and then we’re hopping into the hub.

And we’re sending the Elios 2 drone, so we rabbit ear the hub with two, two blades sticking out, open hatches. Yep, and then we put the Elios drone in, and if you don’t know about it, it’s basically a caged drone. It’s in a sphere, and it’s about 40 About, I think it’s about 40 centimeters diameter ish, so it can fit into almost any pizza pan.

We do a very specific flight routine where all surfaces, every single part of the internal is done, but it’s done with video. So it’s a continuous 4K stream of video all the way down all the surfaces of the blades. And the reason that’s important is that if you go in there and just do a manual look and you’re just snapping pictures, you will miss something.

But if we have the video, then we compile it into, basically, and you can just, you have that. And you can just look at this full encompassing visual inspection. We hand that off to Wind Power Lab and they just go, I mean off the charts. From there, while we’re doing the internals and the team is on the internal side, we have a guy on the outside doing the external blade inspection so that we’re trying to condense this down to a most efficient package we can deliver.

Now doing all the bore scope, doing all the visual, doing all the blades. When you’re doing it, if it’s like you’re doing that kind of that super comprehensive audit, it’s one tower a day for a per team. It’s just so much to do. It takes so much to do. And from there we have these different reports.

We’ve got the external with Thread and their Unity server, which is absolutely amazing. We send off the data that we’ve collected to Wind Power Lab. And my real expertise is in, in the drivetrain stuff. And that’s just the truth of it. And so we’ll take on the internal, the drivetrain inspections and give our value mechanical stuff.

And honestly, more than, if we need to. particularly if it’s a Winergy box that we’re inspecting, I’ll send my reports to Winergy and be like, look, tell me what you think. And then we take all that information and we put it in a single source location. And and like I said, developing the grading is still a, it’s still in progress. It’s trying to figure out what that all we’re working it out. And that’s just because it’s new.

Allen Hall: Yeah. It’s hard to determine lifetime. You look inside a gearbox and say, it’s going to live a year or it’s going to live five. There’s a lot of variables there.

Garrett Calaway: Sure. But what you do know is, what you can absolutely know is if you’re low speed, if your bull gear and bearings are failing. That’s a new gearbox, for the most part. They have some companies that can change that out, and it’s a mess. But, and you do know, if you go in Borescope, the planetary system, if you find any spalling in there, you just, it’s a time bomb.

Now, it might last a year, it might last six months. It depends on how deep the crack is or how deep the spalling is, but you do know, you 100 percent know it will detonate to a point where it has to be changed out. So better to know now and have extra monitoring on there than, just hope, hope, hope is never a good plan.

Allen Hall: So what are the top three things that you see. So if you looked, it looked gearbox, drivetrain, all the major component mechanical, you’ve looked internal to blades, external to blades. What does that funnel down into typically, and I know there’s a lot of, each OEM has their own particular issue, of course, right?

Okay, but where do you usually end up here?

Garrett Calaway: Typically, your gearboxes are in a lot more trouble than you think they are. That’s that just from years and years of doing this and having worked with CMS and have gone out to do inspections where they said that there was 100 percent of crack there.

There was no crack there. And what we’ve found, and especially especially recently with another one of our, one of our large clients, they brought us in, we did 35 bore scope, comprehensive bore scope inspections, and they had a list of their of their Their warnings and errors that were going on, from their CMS. And we found, they were like yeah, there should be like a little bit of damage on the down, downwind high speed bearing. That bearing was wrecked and now that material spread to the, and now, and so it was like you thought you had one thing wrong, but you also have spalling on your IMS and your low speed and your planets.

There was no CMS warning. I’m like, no, you waited too long. Sorry, you waited too long to replace your IMS. You knew that, some of these guys, they knew their IMS was, or their high speed was bad for six months. By that time, right, just run it. And I get it, you got to have production. You got to keep, got to keep up that, with your power purchase agreement and all that, but it’s just so short sighted, like bad news doesn’t get better with time. It just doesn’t take care of what, take care of the problem in front of you. And then you won’t have this giant problem in six months or a year. And so now we’ve found is that people think they know what’s going on with their gearboxes. They don’t know what they’re going, but they don’t really know. The CMS does a good enough job to give you some hints, but unless you’re really in there digging around it, you’re, fishing in the dark, man.

Joel Saxum: So would you say that Calaway Solutions major message to the industry is be proactive?

Garrett Calaway: 100%. That’s everything. And that’s, what we call this is RAM, Responsible Asset Management. Take care of what you’re supposed to take care of. And take care of it now.

Joel Saxum: Let me talk to you about this one, because this is an interesting take, that last week, Allen and I were up at CanREA in Calgary, and we talked with a lot of asset owners up in Canada.

And the big difference there is they may not have the PTC funds like we have. But their power purchase agreements are stable and they’re much more lucrative. So they have had a better job. And we talked with some companies that were there like intercompany, Hey, we do a much better job of managing our assets in Canada than they do in the States.

And they’re why, and he’s a point fingers and engineers and joking back and forth the company. But the general, what it basically boils down to is, their budgets are higher for O& M, so they have the capability of being more proactive, doing inspections, getting blades repaired properly, doing whatever it may be, but they’re actually ahead of the game, whereas down in the states, because of the way things are ran from a business standpoint it’s a lot more reactive.

And I think if you could get someone to switch gears, to be proactive, their assets will become that much more valuable. Their uptime will become that much more available and they’ll be able to produce more energy. And that’s what we want for everybody.

Garrett Calaway: As far as my customers go. And I’ll just, AES to me they are far and above. They’re one of the most proactive.

It’s, to me, it’s. AES and like Pattern energy. Like those are the shining stars to me. I can’t say enough good things about those two groups. They are proactive. They want to get after it. They want to know what’s going on with their assets and they do it.

And, but also AES and Pattern are still performing. They have a vested internal interest in making sure those things run. And I think that there’s a place with this that unless you’ve got skin in the game to maintain them yourselves in some capacity, you will pass the buck to the OEM and the OEM will do what the OEMs do.

Joel Saxum: They’ll follow the contract to a T. But above that, they’re not going above and beyond. They got no vested interest in it.

Garrett Calaway: My customers know that when we’re out there, we’re there to do it perfect. No substitutions, we get it done. And if it’s not done right, somebody’s going back and doing it again on our dime.

Allen Hall: So your typical client is who’s calling you? Is it a ISPs? Is it OEMs? Is it the operators?

Garrett Calaway: We have an interesting, we have a kind of a spectrum of across the board. We definitely have had some conversations with Rangel about doing some of their work for them. We’ll, that we’ll see where that goes.

It’s been kicked down the line. We’ve had conversations with Pearce. We’ve had conversations with Siemens. And, I still got a lot of connections there. We do some investigations on their thermal events for Siemens. Utilities, obviously Pattern AES Excel is a big customer of ours.

We cater to, if you call and you want your information, we cater to you.

Allen Hall: So how do people get ahold of you? Are they going to LinkedIn? Are they going to your website? How are they finding you?

Garrett Calaway: You can get ahold of me on LinkedIn. You can get ahold of us go to our website and it’s, we actually just updated our website again.

It’s a bit more comprehensive and easier to navigate. Gimme a call, give, send me an email. gcalaway@calawaysolutions.com

Allen Hall: Let’s go over Calaway solutions.com. So Calaway is with one L-C-A-L-A-W-A-Y.

Garrett Calaway: Correct, yeah. Everybody spells it wrong, but yeah. Calaway Solutions, C-A-L-A-W-A-Y solutions.com.

Allen Hall: Garrett, it’s been great to, to talk to you. I knew you guys were involved deeply in diagnosing turbines, which is a really interesting business. But I didn’t realize you were that deep. You’re really into the internals of these turbines, which is fantastic because we need people to do that.

Calaway Solutions Offers Clarity Through Comprehensive Wind Turbine Audits

Renewable Energy

How the VEU Program Works: Step by Step for Homeowners

Published

15 hours ago

November 18, 2025

Alice Rush

Are you a homeowner in Victoria?

Working on how to make your home more energy-efficient while saving on bills, reducing your carbon footprint, and even getting discounts via government-supported programs?

If so, this blog is for you!

We’re going to take you on a walkthrough on how the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) Program works, explain the key players involved, and break down essential terms like VEECs (Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificates) and accredited providers.

You’ll also find a step-by-step guide for homeowners from the application process, getting quotes and installation, to certification and savings.

At Cyanergy Australia, we specialise in residential installations under the VEU scheme, so we’ll draw on our experience and share practical insights to help you make the most of this program.

Let’s get into the details!

In this blog post:

What is the VEU Program?

The VEU (Victorian Energy Upgrades) program is a flagship energy-efficiency initiative run in the state of Victoria.
Supported by the state government, this scheme enables households to replace outdated, inefficient appliances
and systems with energy-efficient alternatives.

This is often offered at little or no cost. From LED lighting and efficient hot water systems to smart thermostats
and insulation, each upgrade slashes your energy use and reduces your carbon footprint.

And the best part? The process is simple, transparent, and designed to make energy efficiency effortless.

In just a few easy steps, you can enjoy lower bills, a more comfortable home, and the satisfaction of contributing to
a cleaner, greener Victoria.

Some Key Outlines of the VEU Program

The scheme was developed under the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target Act 2007, which sets a commitment for
large energy retailers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency programs.
However, the VEU
airconditioning Rebate Program, which was previously set to end much sooner, has now been
officially extended until 2045

This ensures long-term support for Victorian homeowners seeking to enhance energy efficiency during heating
and
cooling.

The program is regulated by the Essential Services Commission (ESC) in Victoria. To become eligible, the
program requires installations only from accredited providers with approved products or services listed
in the Public Product Registry.
The legal mechanics essentially require energy retailers to meet annual targets for greenhouse gas
reduction.

They do this by acquiring certificates called VEECs, which
we’ll discuss in the next section.

Why the VEU Rebate Matters for Victorian Homeowners?

Upgrading to more efficient appliances or insulation often has high upfront costs and several other complexities. This can be burdensome for low-income households, so the government introduced the VEU program in order to remove financial barriers.

For example, by enabling discounts and rebates through a market-based certificate system, the program helps make it more financially appealing for homeowners.

What Does it Mean for Homeowners?

In Australia, many people often ask: Is the VEU Rebate Worth It? Well, here’s why the answer is ‘Yes’ for homeowners:

In practical terms, if you live in Victoria and upgrade your home via an accredited provider, you can get access to discounted or even no-cost energy-efficient products and services. Also,

The VEU Rebate directly reduces the cost of energy-efficient upgrades,
This makes improvements such as better insulation, solar hot water systems, and efficient heating and cooling widely accessible.
It not only lowers upfront expenses but also helps households save on ongoing energy bills.
The rebate helps to increase the comfort and value of their home and contributes to long-term environmental benefits.
It’s a practical way to invest in your home while easing financial pressure.

From our experience at Cyanergy Australia, many homeowners are pleasantly surprised by how accessible the program is when you choose a provider who understands it.

The Role of VEECs in Victoria’s Energy Future

So, what is a VEEC?

VEEC stands for Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificate. Each certificate represents one tonne of greenhouse gas emissions prevented or reduced through an eligible upgrade, such as installing LED lighting, upgrading heating and cooling systems, or improving insulation.

How do VEECs work?

A homeowner does an eligible upgrade via an accredited provider.
That upgrade yields a certain number of VEECs, based on the greenhouse‐gas savings of that item.
The accredited provider then sells those VEECs to large energy retailers who are required to surrender them to meet their legal obligations.
The income from selling VEECs enables the provider to offer you the discounted price for the upgrade. That’s how you get the benefit.

Now you might be wondering what an Accredited Providers (AP) mean.

An accredited provider is a business that’s authorised under the VEU scheme to conduct eligible upgrade activities, create VEECs, liaise with homeowners, and ensure agreement with the program’s rules.

Behind Every Upgrade: VEECs and Accredited Providers in Action!

Understanding VEECs and accredited providers helps you recognise how the discount or rebate works. Keep in mind you’re not getting a random free upgrade; you’re getting access to a government-backed scheme run through certified channels.

So, you should be clear about all these questions before upgrading

Is this provider accredited under VEU?
Which VEEC activity does this upgrade qualify for?
Which model or product is being installed, and is it on the approved list?

Step-by-Step: Claiming Your Energy Upgrade Benefits with VEU

The process of how the VEU Program works is straightforward and simple. It includes a few stepwise processes, from application to installation, certification, and monitoring.

Let’s explore each step together in the following section:

Step 1: Background Research & Eligibility Check

Initially, you have to contact an accredited provider in your area. However, before contacting, conduct some background research on their previous experiences and running projects.
The provider checks whether your home is eligible under the VEU program, taking into account your location, type of dwelling, desired upgrade, and the eligible products.
They will offer you a quote outlining: the product to be installed, the discount amount under VEU, and the amount you have to contribute.

Step 2: Quote Approval & Scheduling

After reviewing the quote, ensure you understand the product brand or model, the installation cost, and what items are included (such as labour and the decommissioning of the old unit).
Also, check the warranty and any additional or extra-cost items.
Once you sign off, the installation is scheduled to proceed. Accredited providers will provide you with a specific timeframe and keep you updated.

Step 3: Installation of the System

The system provider arranges qualified, licensed installers to carry out the work. The installed products must meet eligibility criteria and installation standards under the VEU scheme.
On installation day, it’s best if you are present so the installer can access the areas, remove old units if relevant, test the new product, take photos if needed, and ensure everything is working correctly.
After installation, ensure you receive the necessary documentation, including the invoice, product model details, and, if applicable, a decommissioning certificate for the old equipment, as well as proof of installation.

Step 4: Certification and VEEC Creation

Once the upgrade is complete, the accredited provider submits the activity under the VEU program, creating the corresponding number of VEECs based on the product, activity type, and the greenhouse gas savings achieved.
These VEECs are then sold to energy retailers who deliver them to the ESC (via the VEU Registry).
After this is all finalised, you begin to enjoy lower energy bills and improved energy performance.

Step 5: Monitor your System Regularly

It’s now just a matter of using your upgraded system, enjoying the improved efficiency, and monitoring your energy bills. Many upgrades (especially lighting, insulation, and efficient hot water) will deliver noticeable savings.
If anything goes wrong, such as product failure or installation fault, please contact your provider under warranty.
It’s wise to keep all documentation in a safe place, as you will need it during any official audits or future upgrades.

Here’s What You Can Upgrade Under VEU!

Hot Water Systems

Upgrade to an energy-efficient heat
pump
or solar hot water system for reliable hot water and lower energy use.

Heating & Cooling Units

Switch to high-efficiency reverse-cycle
air
conditioners or split systems to stay comfortable while cutting your power bills.

LED Lighting

Replace old halogen or incandescent bulbs with
energy-saving
LEDs and reduce lighting costs by up to 80%!

In-Home Displays (IHDs)

Track your energy usage in real-time and take control of your electricity bills with smart in-home displays.

Weather Sealing

Improve insulation to keep your home cool in summer and warm in winter, saving energy year-round.

Refrigerators & Freezers

Replace old, power-hungry appliances with modern, energy-efficient models to lower your electricity costs.

What are the Common Pitfalls of VEU & How to Avoid Them?

Did you know that even a minor mistake could result in your VEU
rebate being disqualified?

Yes, it happens more often than you’d think in VIC! But don’t worry! We’ve got your back.

Here’s a quick and easy checklist that helps you avoid any common mistakes and make sure your rebate works
smoothly

Don’t fall for fake, flashy rebate offers. If a provider arrives unannounced, offers a “free upgrade”
without a proper quote, or adds huge extra costs after you’ve agreed, this is a red flag.
Some businesses may claim to be part of VEU but aren’t properly accredited. Always check and avoid
non-accredited providers.
Even when the subsidy is real, if you want a product that’s reliable and suitable for your home, then don’t
install low-quality products.
Lack of transparency about upgrade scope: Understand exactly what you are paying, what’s included, and if
old equipment removal is included.
Find whether additional wiring or structural work is required in any place.
Never think the upgrade is “totally free” cause there may still be a homeowner or tenant’s
contribution.

Many upgrades are heavily subsidised, but some of them require your contribution, for example, when you
choose a
higher-end product than the subsidy covers.

Why Cyanergy Is the Smart Choice for Your VEU Upgrades?

At Cyanergy Australia, when we work with homeowners under the VEU program, we take care of all the paperwork and ensure you use eligible, high-quality products every step of the way.

Not only that, we clearly explain any additional costs upfront, so there are no surprises later. Once everything’s confirmed, we schedule your installation with our licensed professionals, ensuring everything meets VEU standards.

With years of experience in residential installations, we know what works and what homeowners truly value.

So, if you’re looking for expertise, transparency, and genuine savings, Cyanergy ticks all the boxes.

For more information, reach out to our experts and win a free solar quote today!

Glossary of Terms

Terms	Abbreviation
Accredited Provider (AP)	A business authorised under the VEU program to conduct eligible upgrades, create VEECs, and manage the process with homeowners.
Decommissioning	The removal or disposal of the old, inefficient appliance or system. It’s often required as part of eligibility to generate VEECs.
Public Product Registry	An official database maintained by the ESC, listing all approved and eligible products that can be installed under the VEU program.
VEU	Victorian Energy Upgrades program, the state government scheme in Victoria that supports energy-efficient upgrades for homes & businesses.
VEEC	Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificate: one certificate equals one tonne of greenhouse gas emissions prevented. This is created via upgrade activities and traded by accredited providers to energy retailers.
Victorian Energy Efficiency Target Act 2007	The legislation that established the VEU program. It mandates energy retailers to achieve specific greenhouse gas reduction targets by supporting energy-efficient upgrades across Victoria.

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The post How the VEU Program Works: Step by Step for Homeowners appeared first on Cyanergy.

How the VEU Program Works: Step by Step for Homeowners

Renewable Energy

LM Wind Power Cuts 60% of Denmark Staff

Published

16 hours ago

November 18, 2025

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

LM Wind Power Cuts 60% of Denmark Staff

The crew discusses LM Wind Power’s dramatic layoff of 60% of remaining Danish staff, dropping from 90 to just 31 workers. What does this mean for thousands of wind farms with LM blades? Is government intervention possible? Who might acquire the struggling blade manufacturer? Plus, a preview of the Wind Energy O&M Australia 2026 conference in Melbourne this February.

Learn more about CICNDT!
Register for ORE Catapult’s UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain Spotlight!

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!

If you haven’t downloaded your latest edition of PES Wind Magazine, now’s the time issue four for 2025. It’s the last issue for 2025 is out and I just received mine in the Royal Mail. I had a brief time to review some of the articles inside of this issue. Tremendous content, uh, for the end of the year.

Uh, you wanna sit down and take a good long read. There’s plenty of articles that affect what you’re doing in your wind business, so it’s been a few moments. Go to peswind.com Download your free copy and read it today. You’re listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by build turbines.com.

Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here’s your hosts, Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes. Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy [00:01:00]Podcast. I’m your host, Alan Hall in the Queen city of Charlotte, North Carolina. I’ve got Yolanda Padron in Texas.

Joel Saxon up in Wisconsin and Rosemary Barnes down under in Australia, and it has been a, a really odd Newsweek. There is a slow down happening in wind. Latest news from Ella Wind Power is they’re gonna lay off about 60% of their staff in Denmark. They’ve only have about 90 employees there at the moment.

Which is a dramatic reduction of what that company once was. Uh, so they’re planning to lay off about 59 of the 90 workers that are still there. Uh, the Danish media is reporting. There’s a lot of Danish media reporting on this at the moment. Uh, there’s a letter that was put out by Ellen Windpower and it discusses that customers have canceled orders and are moving, uh, their blade production to internal factories.

And I, I assume. That’s a [00:02:00] GE slash Siemens effort that is happening, uh, that’s affecting lm and customers are willing to pay prices that make it possible to run the LM business profitably. Uh, the company has also abandoned all efforts on large blades because I, I assume just because they don’t see a future in it for the time being now, everybody is wondering.

How GE Renova is involved in this because they still do own LM wind power. It does seem like there’s two pieces to LM at the minute. One that serves GE Renova and then the another portion of the company that’s just serving outside customers. Uh, so far, if, if you look at what GE Renova paid for the company and what revenue has been brought in, GE Renova has lost about 8.3 billion croner, which is a little over a billion dollars since buying the company in 2017.

So it’s never really been. Hugely profitable over that time. And remember a few months ago, maybe a month ago now, or two months ago, the CEO of LM [00:03:00] Windpower left the company. Uh, and I now everyone, I’m not sure what the future is for LM Windpower, uh, because it’s, it has really dramatically shrunk. It’s down to what, like 3000 total employees?

I think they were up at one point to a little over when Rosie was there, about 14,000 employees. What has happened? Maybe Rosemary, you should start since you were working there at one point.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I dunno. It always makes me really sad and there’s still a few people that I used to work with that were there when I went to Denmark in May and caught up with a bunch of, um, my old colleagues and most of them had moved on because a lot of firing had already happened by that point.

But there were still a few there, but the mood was pretty despondent and I think that they guessed that this was coming. But I just find it really hard to see how with the number, just the pure number of people that are left there. I, I find it really hard to see how they can even support what they’ve still [00:04:00] got in the field.

Um. Let alone like obviously they cut way back on manufacturing. Okay. Cut Way back on developing new products. Okay. But you still do need some capabilities to work through warranty claims and um, you know, and any kind of serial issues. Yeah, I would be worried about things like, um, you know, from time to time you need a new, a new blade or a new set of blades produced.

Maybe a lot of them, you know, if you discover an issue, there’s a serial defect that doesn’t, um, become obvious until 10 years into the turbine’s lifetime. You might need to replace a whole bunch of blades and are you gonna be able to, like, what’s, what is gonna happen to this huge number of assets that are out there with LM blades on there?

Uh, I, yeah, I, I would really like to see some announcements about what they’re keeping, you know, what functionality they’re planning to keep and what they’re planning to excise.

Joel Saxum: But I mean, at the end of the day, if it’s, if [00:05:00] the business is not profitable to run that they have no. Legal standing to have to stay open?

Rosemary Barnes: No, no, of course not. We all know that there, there’s, you know, especially like you go through California, there’s all sorts of coast turbines there that nobody knows how to maintain them anymore. Right. And, um, yeah, and, and around there was one in, um, in Texas as well with some weird kind of gearbox. I can’t remember what exactly, but yeah, like the company went bankrupt, no one knew what to do with them, so they just, you know, like fell into disrepair and couldn’t be used anymore.

’cause if you can’t. Operate them safely, then you can’t let no one, the government is not gonna let you just, you know, just. Try your luck, operate them until rotors start flying off. You know, like that’s not really how it works. So yeah, I do think that like you, you can’t just stay silent about, um, what you expect to happen because you know, like maybe I have just done some, a bit of catastrophizing and, you know, finding worst case scenarios, but that is where your mind naturally goes.

And the absence of information about what you can expect, [00:06:00] then that’s what. People are naturally gonna do what I’ve just done and just think through, oh, you know, what, what could this mean for me? It might be really bad. So, um, yeah, it is a little bit, a little bit interesting.

Allen Hall: Delamination and bottom line, failures and blades are difficult problems to detect early.

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Miss C-I-C-N-D-T Maps. Every critical defect delivers actionable reports and provides support to get your blades. Back in service, so visit cic ndt.com because catching blade problems early will save you millions. Yolanda, what are asset managers [00:07:00] thinking about the LM changes as they proceed with orders and think about managing their LM Blade fleet over the next couple of years, knowing that LM is getting much smaller Quicker?

Yolanda Padron: Yeah, and this all comes at a time when. A lot of projects are reaching the end of the full service agreements that they had with some of these OEMs, right? So you already know that your risk profile is increasing. You already know. I mean, like Rosie, you said worst case scenario, you have a few years left before you don’t know what to do with some of the issues that are being presented.

Uh, because you don’t count with that first line of support that you typically would in this industry. It’s really important to be able to get a good mix of the technical and the commercial. Right? We’ve all seen it, and of course, we’re all a little bit biased because we’re all engineers, right? So we, to us it makes a lot of sense to go over the engineering route.

But the pendulum swung, swung so [00:08:00] far towards the commercial for Ella, the ge, that it just, it. They were always thinking about, or it seemed from an outsider’s point of view, right, that they were always thinking about, how can I get the easiest dollar today without really thinking about, okay, five 10 steps in the future, what’s going to happen to my business model?

Like, will this be sustainable? It did Just, I don’t know, it seems to me like just letting go of so many engineers and just going, I know Rosie, you mentioned a couple of podcasts ago about how they just kept on going from like Gen A to Gen B, to Gen C, D, and then it just, without really solving any problems initially.

Like, it, it, it was just. It’s difficult for me to think that nobody in those leadership positions thought about what was gonna happen in the [00:09:00]future.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. I think it was about day-to-day survival. ’cause I was definitely there like saying, you know, there’s too many, um, technical problems that Yeah. When I was saying that a hundred, a hundred of versions of me were all saying that, a lot of us were saying it.

Just in the cafeteria amongst ourselves. And a lot of us, uh, you know, a bit more outspoken Danish people don’t really believe a lot in a strict hierarchy. So certainly people were saying it to directors and VPs and CEOs, but, um, yeah, it was, uh, I think it was more about like the commercial reality of today is that there won’t be a commercial.

Tomorrow to experience these engineering problems if we don’t make these, um, decisions. Now, if, if that makes sense. As a really complicated way of saying we need to be able to sell this product, otherwise we’re not gonna sell anything. And then no one will be, no one will have a job in 10 years regardless.

So. We’ll solve, you know, whatever quality problems that arise from doing too many new technologies at once, at [00:10:00] least we’ll be, the company will still exist to be able to have a go at solving them if we, you know, make these sales. Um, which it won’t if we don’t. So I think that that would be the, like the other point of view, like it’s really easy to say now, oh yeah, we should have, um, we shouldn’t have done that, but yeah, I, I’m pretty sure management’s gonna tell you why they did it is for the sales.

Joel Saxum: This is an odd case being lm an ex Danish company now owned by GE Renova, which is a US based company.

Allen Hall: Global.

Joel Saxum: Global really. But yeah, but when we get into this, too big to fail type thing, right? So like Siemens cesa, having the German government back them up with a note, um, when they were having troubles a year and a half ago.

Uh. Is there a award like the too big to fail in the United States where the government bailed out the auto worker or the auto manufacturers and stuff like that. I don’t see that happening here because the company’s too small. But at what level do governments [00:11:00] intervene? Right? So it’s, I know every government’s gonna be different and every, but there’s have their own criteria and there’s not a hard set, probably line or metric of like, oh, you have this much impact on society, so we must support you to make sure you survive.

Well, when Rosemary, when you say like in, when you were there, you were there five years ago, 2020, right before COVID. Right. At that point in time, 20% of the world’s blades were LM blades of the global fleet. Well, if that’s was true still, that would be a hundred thousand plus turbines in the global fleet.

That would be LM blades. And if we have. Issues with them and we can’t solve them. I think one, one of the, one of the things that we’re, that we’re probably thankful for is there is that many, so there has been a lot of independent engineering expertise that’s been able to fix some of them. A lot of independent ISPs, you know, out there, service companies, blade repair companies that have been able to figure out how to make these things even, you know, regardless of getting the layup pattern or layup designs or any kind of engineering information from, from Malam [00:12:00] or from the OEMs.

Um, we have been able to maintain them, so that’s good. But is there a level where, I know Alan, you were shaking your head, but is there a level where anybody steps in from a government standpoint to save lm?

Allen Hall: I would almost bet that Renova has talked to the Danish government. Somebody at LM has, I would have to think that they have already.

And has been, at least in the press, no response. And with this latest announcement, it doesn’t seem like the Danish government wants to be involved. So my, my take on it is they have an American stamp on ’em right now, and Denmark and the United States are not playing nice to one another. So why would I help ge?

Why would I do that? And that’s not a bad response.

Rosemary Barnes: Potentially it wouldn’t even have to be necessarily the US or the Danish government that might have to get involved, because I know in Australia, and I’m, I can’t believe it’s different anywhere else. You have to be able to safely operate, uh, an asset like a, a wind turbine.

And that’s, um, some, [00:13:00] a responsibility of both the asset owner and the operator, but also the manufacturer and so they can compel to provide the information that you need to operate safely. I’ve always wondered how, um, ’cause you know, all the OEMs not talking, uh, LM or GE specifically here, they, they don’t really give away enough information to, um, operate assets safely, in my opinion.

So that is the key thing that you just, you can’t lose otherwise. You’re going to end up with blades that have to be scrapped or that you have to, you know, guess that it’s probably okay and then see how it goes. And, you know, that’s. Good a lot of the time, but it’s, it’s gonna make things less safe into the future.

You would expect to see more blade failures if you saw that happening a lot. So, you know, I would at least wanna make sure that you’re keeping, keeping people, keeping those models and keeping the people that know how to run them. Enough of them around. [00:14:00] Or making them publicly available.

Allen Hall: Don’t miss the UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain Spotlight 2025 in Edinburg on December 11th.

Over 550 delegates and 100 exhibitors will be at this game changing event. Connect with decision makers, explore market ready innovations and secure the partnerships to accelerate your growth. Register now and take your place at the center of the UK’s offshore Wind future. Just visit supply chain spotlight.co.uk and register today.

How soon before ING Yang puts in an offer to buy LM and or TPI? That’s gonna happen in the next six months. It has to.

Joel Saxum: What about instead of buying the factory, what if someone rises from the ashes and just buys the molds?

Allen Hall: I think you have to eat the workers. I think that’s gonna be the trouble,

Joel Saxum: but I don’t think you want them.

Allen Hall: Wow. That’s a hot take.

Joel Saxum: But honestly, like the quality coming out now, and I’ll, and I will caveat this as well, the [00:15:00] quality is not their, the quality is not all their fault. The quality of some respects is the way it was designed for manufacturing. But there is issues that we have seen and has been, have been uncovered that have been in the news, in the, in the free press that show that stuff happening in factories that shouldn’t be happening.

So do you actually want that or do you, this is why I say someone rises from the ashes and, and or, and creates something with a bunch of inco, you know, like knowing the pitfalls and the, the, the things that have happened that are bad, the things that can go well that are good. You know, when we talk to some of the people in the industry that have been around blade manufacturing, and they, and they have told us, man, we’ve seen.

Quality, uh, control mechanisms thrown on the shelves, even though we know they work just because people, defactor didn’t wanna use them for whatever reason. I don’t, you know, you don’t know, um, whether it’s inspection, whether it’s, you know, robotics this, or whether it’s [00:16:00] this solution here. Like there’s a possibility that we could do this way better.

Maybe there’s this case right now where someone is like, you know what, robotics, let’s do this. Let’s try to make it happen. Let’s get rid of this incumbent knowledge of automated blades and start fresh from a. Scratch

Allen Hall: my other hot take was GE sells their wind business,

Joel Saxum: the entire wind business.

Allen Hall: Yeah.

Joel Saxum: To who

Allen Hall: Ing Yang or somebody?

Anybody,

Rosemary Barnes: if they wanna do that, I’d recommend doing it in the, um, current administration would probably be the most likely to allow that to happen because I would imagine that, uh, another time that people might not be so happy that, uh, the US has therefore no wind turbine manufacturer.

Allen Hall: Does anybody else not think so that that’s a possibility.

They’re not listening to offers right now.

Joel Saxum: I would say Mitsubishi maybe. I don’t think Ming Yang. I don’t think some, I don’t think a Chinese, no, but I do think a Korea and a Japanese, a German

Allen Hall: could do it.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. Well, that would entertain the offer. [00:17:00]

Rosemary Barnes: What about one of the large ISPs buying, you know, the ability to, you know.

Properly, properly service blades for, you know, many, many, many manufacturers. There’s a lot of knowledge that you’d get there. Um, the ability to replace blades, maybe it splits into two and there’s, you know, one company takes it for manufacturing into the future, and which case they’re probably just buying factories and not really worried about much else.

And then somebody else buys molds and, um, knowledge. Models, those sorts of things

Joel Saxum: as a pitch for what exactly what you’re saying. So now let’s go back to, um, was it Larry Fink who said that they’re in investing in infrastructure, big time in the future, energy infrastructure is the future, da, da, da. And they, or like BlackRock’s been throwing money at everything, right?

They’ve been just buying, buying, buying, buying, buying. If some, someone came to them with the right [00:18:00] plan, there’s where your capital could come from. Who is it? Right? You know, that there’s players out there that may not be in the ISP world, I think is, p is interesting, Rosemary, but like a, a next era that’s like this with GEs,

Allen Hall: Adani,

Joel Saxum: a Donny’s in too much hot water to to, to make a deal with that, to let the SEC allow that.

Rosemary Barnes: Here’s my hot take. So LM started at the lm, it stands for lco Mills Fabric, which means, um, furniture manufacturer, right? So they started out making furniture, then they were making, um, caravans, I believe, and then there were, so that was all wood. Then they started making caravans outta fiberglass. Then they started making boats because those are also fiberglass and wood kind of things.

Then they moved into wind turbine blades and became LM glass fiber. So now they’re only doing fiberglass things. And then it was LM wind power. They only were doing wind power. Maybe, you know, [00:19:00] are they gonna go into, I don’t know, making airplanes next, or, or rockets, or are they gonna take a step backwards and, you know, go back into furniture?

Allen Hall: How do you put a value on a company that’s losing money?

Joel Saxum: That’s where I was going, Mr. Hall, October of 2016 when GE bought them, they paid one point. Six, 5 billion US dollars. I don’t think that that’s was probably a too wild of a price back then, but there’s no way that they’re worth that much now with what has has happened.

That being said, say they’re worth, I don’t know, I’m just gonna throw a number out there. Say they’re worth 800 million, half of that. I don’t see that as like a crazy amount for someone else, like Rosemary said, that may be crossing industry silos to pick up. Some factories, some, some composites knowledge, some other things as well, as long as they get, get into it.

With the understanding that this is a fire sale and [00:20:00] things need to be fixed,

Rosemary Barnes: isn’t, um, ozempic Danish? So there must be some, build, some Danish billionaires. Maybe there’s gonna be some national pride that that kicks in and makes somebody want to, you know, like Denmark is quite known for wind power. Um, if you combine, you know, the demise of LM with vest also.

Announcing a whole lot of job cuts. I, it’s not such a fast stretch to think that some Danish billionaire is gonna be like, you know what, Denmark should still have wind industry and I’m gonna make sure it happens.

Allen Hall: No shot. I don’t see it. I, it would be awesome if they did

Joel Saxum: Maersk, lm,

Allen Hall: but Meers doesn’t wanna lose money.

Why you, why would you invest in something that’s going to lose money for the next five years? Who’s doing that today?

Joel Saxum: Let’s just do a little comparison. So TPI claiming bankruptcy the other day when we looked at the Val, the market cap of them, they’re publicly traded. They were a hundred million, weren’t they?

Like a couple, six months ago,

Allen Hall: [00:21:00] $1.5 million.

Joel Saxum: Oh my God. It’s 1.5 million. Do you mean you could buy TPI over 1.5 million?

Allen Hall: I can get a second mortgage and have a pretty good take of that business. It has no value because it’s not making money. You, you’ve, it’s EBITDA times X.

Yolanda Padron: It’d be really interesting to see like an is like them turning into an ISB.

Like I will fix everything that I manufactured, gear, the molds, or like I will replace the parts.

Rosemary Barnes: It’s hard as well. I just make a few blades here or there. Um, because they only get cheap when you make thousands of them. But that said like sometimes people have to pay, at least in Australia, like it’s not uncommon that you need a new blade.

You have to pay a million dollars for it. So in that case, you know, like that’s apparently, you know, TPI, you buy TPI for one and a half and you make two blades in your first year. Then you know,

Yolanda Padron: you make a blade set, you’re done.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. So they were worth a hundred million in market cap a year ago today. [00:22:00] So it’s like a 99.6% decrease since last year.

Allen Hall: When you file bankruptcy, stuff like that happens. Here’s gonna be the rub. Whoever decides to do whatever with it, they’re gonna have to have a lot of cash because I guarantee you vendors have not been paid or. Or vendors are asking for money upfront before they make a delivery, and that’s not the way that GE likes to operate.

GE likes to operate. I buy this thing and then six months later I pay you half and another six months later, I may pay the remaining half. They don’t like to pay things upfront and. It’s gonna be a problem.

Joel Saxum: Net 180, and then on day 179, they’re gonna find a magic error in your invoice and it resets the clock.

Allen Hall: Australia’s wind farms are growing fast, but are your operations keeping up? Join us February 17th and 18th at Melbourne’s Poolman on the park for Wind Energy o and m Australia 2026, where you’ll connect with the [00:23:00] experts solving real problems in maintenance asset management and OEM relations. Walk away with practical strategies to cut costs and boost uptime that you can use the moment you’re back on site.

Register now at WM a 2020 six.com. Wind Energy o and m Australia is created by Wind professionals for wind professionals because this industry needs solutions, not speeches. So looking for something to do in February while America is in the middle of a winter snowstorm. You wanna go to Australia for?

Wind O and M Australia 2026 and it is going to be February, what, Joel?

Joel Saxum: 17th and 18th at the Pullman on the park in sunny. Melbourne

Allen Hall: and Rosemary, what’s on the schedule for the event in Sunny Australia?

Rosemary Barnes: Well, it’s, uh, agenda just full of the topics that Australian operators are talking about at the moment.

Um, there’s, you are gonna be [00:24:00] topics on compliance. Um, also training is a, a big thing. Training and resources to get workforce up to speed. Um, also some on big data and ai, they’re catchy. Uh, yeah, hyped up terms. But can you actually do something useful with it? I mean, you definitely can, but how do you, um, and then just heaps of stuff about just specific asset management problems that people are having be a lot of talking about problems.

And there’s also gonna be a lot of talking about solutions. So that’s kind of the point. It’s the, it’s the place where you can get. Both sides. ’cause I think, yeah, both sides are very important.

Joel Saxum: I think one, one of the things that is was good about the event last year and we’re excited about this year as well, is we tried to fit in as many networking opportunities as we could.

We’ve got a lot of coffee breaks. We’ve got breakfast, we’ve got a cocktail hour, we’ve got lunches, we’ve got all these things, and it’s kind of designed around keeping the whole crew together in one spot. So we’re able to share information, have those conversations. Oh, you have this asset. Oh, I [00:25:00] know this one.

Um, operators, speaking to operators, speaking to ISPs about specialties fixes. What are you doing? Could we implement that in our fleet? Those kind of things, right? And that’s about the, we, we talk on the podcast and in our daily lives regularly. Everybody here in the podcast is about collaboration and sharing information and sharing knowledge, and that’s the way that we’re gonna forward the, uh, industry.

So we’re really excited. Again, again, this is round two. We’re bringing this event down to Australia. Last year was great. I think we had basically every major operator represented, uh, at the event. And we’re gonna repeat that again this year.

Rosemary Barnes: I really like the size of it. Last year, I think we were about 170 or 180, which was our limit for that, that event, we did sell out this year.

We, uh, increased that a little bit to 250. Um, but it’s a good size. It’s not like, I don’t know if there’s any other, um, introverts out there, but usually when I go to an event, I get so exhausted from just. Uh, I don’t know the, the pressure of if there’s [00:26:00] an exhibition hole that you’re supposed to wander around and, you know, like the last conference I went to had like probably 20 parallel streams and it’s just like, what am I supposed to see?

Oh, these sessions all sound similar, which is gonna be the good one. Um, and then you’re trying to meet up with people as well. This event, it’s targeted enough. It’s one session. You’re gonna find probably at least 95% of the sessions interesting if you are working in wind energy, o and m in Australia. So you just go there, you sit down, you watch the interesting information, and every single person that you run into when you at lunch or coffee or whatever, every every single person is gonna be someone you can have an interesting conversation with.

So it’s just. It’s a lot, uh, it’s a lot easier for someone who, I mean, you, Americans, you’re all, uh, it’s like national law, right? That you have to be extroverted. It’s not allowed to be any kind of other personality type in America. But in Australia, there’s a lot of, uh, a lot of introverts. And, uh, I would say that this is a much, much more introvert friendly event than [00:27:00] your typical big, big, broad conference.

Allen Hall: Well, you won’t want to miss Wilma 2026. In order to get, what are those 250 seats, you need to register and you need to register now. So visit wma w om a 2020 six.com and. Get signed in, get registered, and we’ll see you in Australia in February. That wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

Thanks for joining us as we explore the latest in wind energy technology and industry insights. If today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Just reach out to us on LinkedIn and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you found value in today’s conversation.

Please leave us a review. It really helps other wind energy professionals discover the show and we’ll catch you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy [00:28:00] Podcast.

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