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In business, the urgency of addressing climate change and its associated risks has made sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) initiatives essential.  

While both frameworks focus on promoting responsible practices, a key distinction lies in the fact that ESG involves a systematic evaluation of sustainability using benchmarks and metrics.  

So, let’s learn about ESG vs Sustainability. What are the differences, and why do they matter?  

ESG puts significant importance on investing or responsible investing, as it establishes a set of standards by socially conscious investors. Sustainability in business means incorporating sustainable business practices.  

It underlines their role in shaping ethical and sustainable business strategies. 

In recent years, Australian businesses have increasingly recognised the importance of integrating ESG and sustainable principles into their operations. It helps mitigate risks, enhance long-term resilience, and align with global sustainability goals. 

What is Sustainability?

Sustainability means running a business that takes care of our world now without causing problems for the people who will come after us. There are three main parts to sustainability:  

Environmental Sustainability: This part is about not hurting the environment. It involves using less energy, creating less pollution, and not wasting natural resources. 

Social Sustainability: This part is about treating people fairly. It includes ensuring that everyone in the workplace is safe and treated well. It’s also about being fair to different kinds of people and getting involved in the community. 

Economic Sustainability: This part is about ensuring the business can keep making money for a long time. It involves being responsible with money, creating value, and using resources wisely. 

Corporate sustainability is when businesses try to be good for the environment, treat people right, and make money.  

Businesses can be successful and helpful to everyone in the long run by improving how people are treated at work, respecting human rights, and not wasting resources.

Understanding the Fundamentals of Sustainability

sustainable goals

Sustainability is a multifaceted concept encompassing a range of key terms and ideas. Some pivotal terms in sustainability include:

Biodiversity:

  • Biodiversity considers the variety of plants and animal species in the environment. 
  • Safeguarding biodiversity is critical for sustaining ecosystems’ natural balance. 

Sustainable Development:

  • Sustainable development ensures meeting present needs without compromising the well-being of future generations. 
  • Striking economic, social, and environmental balance is vital for sustainable business practices. 

Supply Chain:

  • A supply chain comprises the network of organisations, people, and activities involved in creating and delivering products or services. 
  • Integrating sustainable practices into supply chains is essential for minimising environmental impact and fostering ethical business conduct. 

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):

  • CSR entails initiatives taken to ensure a company operates ethically and sustainably. 
  • Examples: CSR efforts include charity work, clean-ups, and community contributions. 

Sustainable Investing:

  • Sustainable investing involves investors choosing companies with robust ESG performance and sustainable business practices. 
  • Investors prioritise companies demonstrating a commitment to ethical and sustainable principles. 

These key sustainability terms are vital for anyone aiming to implement environmentally and socially responsible practices within their business operations. 

It includes things like advanced sensors, computer programs that learn, and real-time monitoring. With these tools, companies can use energy in the best way, cutting down on waste and saving money.  

Being more efficient not only helps businesses make more profit but also makes their way of working more sustainable and strong for the future. 

What is ESG?

ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. It’s like a checklist to see how well a company does with the environment and people and profit by taking care of these elements. 

ESG aims to help people like investors. Investors use ESG to decide if they want to invest in a company. The three parts of ESG are: 

Environmental: This looks at how a company impacts the environment. It checks pollution, energy use, and how they handle waste. 

Social: This checks how a company treats its people and the community. It looks at how workers are treated, diversity, and how the company acts in the community. 

Governance: This looks at how a company is managed. It checks if the company is fair and ethical in its decisions, like having a diverse board, fair pay, and following the rules. 

Doing well in ESG can be suitable for a company in different ways, like making more money, having a better reputation, and avoiding problems with rules.  

More and more, companies are being rated on their ESG, and they share this information so that everyone knows how they are doing.  

In recent years, people care more about companies that are good for society and the environment, making ESG more crucial than ever.

Key Terms ESG

Comprehending various terms, metrics, and frameworks is crucial to making ESG reports properly. These terms establish a shared language and criteria, enabling you and your investors to assess the impact on the environment, society, and corporate governance.  

Here are some significant terms that merit familiarity: 

ESG Factors:

  • These encompass the environmental, social, and governance elements considered in ESG investing and reporting. 
  • Examples: Climate change, human rights, and executive compensation. 

ESG Metrics:

  • Also referred to as ESG data, these are pivotal performance indicators used to evaluate your ESG performance. 
  • Examples: Greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, waste management, and diversity and inclusion. 

Frameworks:

  • These offer a standardised approach to assess your ESG performance. 
  • Examples: Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB). 

ESG Ratings:

  • ESG scores evaluate ESG factors and frameworks your investors and stakeholders utilise to assess your company. 

ESG Audits:

  • These assessments are conducted internally or externally to evaluate your ESG performance and pinpoint areas for improvement. 

ESG Risks:

  • These refer to potential risks from your ESG performance, encompassing issues like reputational damage, regulatory fines, and reduced investor interest.

ESG Reporting:

  • This involves disclosing your environmental, social, and governance performance to stakeholders, including investors, customers, employees, and regulators. 
  • In your ESG and sustainability report, include information on ESG factors and metrics, such as energy use, diversity and inclusion, and executive compensation, to enable stakeholders to assess your ESG performance effectively. 

ESG vs Sustainability, What are the Differences Between ESG and Sustainability

Sustainability

Distinguishing between ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and sustainability reveals their interconnected yet distinct nature.  

Both concepts revolve around environmental impact, social responsibility, and governance practices. However, the difference lies in their scopes and applications. 

ESG serves as a structured set of criteria to assess a company’s environmental, social, and governance performance.  

It functions as a standardised framework, providing investors and stakeholders with a systematic way to gauge a company’s societal and environmental impact and corporate governance practices.  

In contrast, sustainability is broader and encompasses principles that advocate for responsible and ethical business practices. It considers the relationship between environmental, social, and economic factors. 

The primary distinction emerges in the utilisation of these concepts. ESG is a specific tool for measuring and evaluating a company’s performance. It focuses on carbon emissions, diversity and inclusion, and executive compensation.  

On the other hand, sustainability is a comprehensive principle that spans various responsible business practices. It includes supply chain management, stakeholder engagement, and community development. 

While ESG provides a targeted assessment tool, sustainability is a holistic framework for promoting responsible and ethical business conduct.  

Both play crucial roles in shaping corporate behaviour. ESG offers specific metrics for evaluation and sustainability, guiding a company’s overarching commitment to ethical practices across diverse operations. 

Why do Sustainability and ESG Matter for Australian Businesses?

Sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) considerations are increasingly vital for Australian businesses due to several compelling reasons: 

Global Expectations and Trends:

The global business landscape is evolving, emphasising ethical and sustainable practices. International stakeholders, including consumers, investors, and partners, increasingly expect businesses to align with environmental and social responsibility standards.  

Australian companies need to meet these expectations to remain competitive on the global stage. 

Risk Mitigation:

Sustainability and ESG practices help mitigate risks associated with climate change, social issues, and governance shortcomings.  

As climate-related risks become more pronounced, businesses proactively addressing these concerns are better equipped to navigate regulatory changes, supply chain disruptions, and other potential challenges. 

Investor Preferences:

Both domestic and international investors are showing a heightened interest in companies with strong sustainability and ESG performance.  

Many funds and institutional investors incorporate ESG criteria into their decision-making processes, and businesses that align with these principles are more likely to attract investment. 

Social Licence to Operate:

Australian businesses rely on the support of local communities and stakeholders.  

Demonstrating a commitment to sustainable and responsible practices enhances a company’s social licence, fostering positive community relationships and reducing the risk of reputational damage. 

Regulatory Compliance:

The Australian regulatory landscape is evolving to include stricter environmental and social standards.  

Following sustainability and ESG practices ensures that businesses are compliant with existing regulations and better positioned to adapt to future changes in the legal and regulatory environment. 

Brand Reputation and Customer Loyalty:

Consumers increasingly make purchasing decisions based on a company’s ethical and sustainability practices.  

Businesses prioritising sustainability and ESG considerations build a positive brand reputation, foster customer loyalty, and tap into a growing market of environmentally and socially conscious consumers. 

Employee Engagement and Attraction:

Employees, particularly the younger workforce, are increasingly drawn to companies prioritising sustainability and social responsibility. Demonstrating a commitment to ESG principles attracts top talent and fosters a positive and engaged workplace culture. 

Final Thought about ESG and Sustainability

Incorporating sustainability and ESG practices is not just about meeting ethical standards. It is a strategic imperative for Australian businesses to remain competitive, attract investment, mitigate risks, and build a positive and sustainable future. 

Get a free solar quote from Cyanergy to keep up with your sustainable goals! 

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ESG vs Sustainability| Why Do They Matter?

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Renewable Energy

MAGA Republican Runs in Wyoming

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Meet Reid Rasner (photo at left).  He’s a MAGA Republican running for congress in Wyoming–that’s a good fit.

He faces three challenges, however:

1) He’s openly gay, a terrible fit for Wyoming,

2) His politics appeals only to the true idiot.  While it’s true that voters there are not well-educated, they’re aware and alert.  They’ve seen trickle-down economics fail consistently since the days of Roland Reagan, and they’ll be very hard to convince that democratic socialism as it’s implemented around the world makes the nation’s citizens poor, and

3) I hate to judge a book by its cover, but he looks like a dullard.

MAGA Republican Runs in Wyoming

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Renewable Energy

Congress Should Address the Climate Crisis

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Asking the congress to “address the climate crisis” is something of a joke.  Most of them have their seats by virtue to their allegiance to Big Oil, and, for many, their position on climate change is that it’s a hoax.

Congress Should Address the Climate Crisis

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Renewable Energy

IWTG Consulting on Pitch Bearing Cracks, Loose Root Inserts

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Weather Guard Lightning Tech

IWTG Consulting on Pitch Bearing Cracks, Loose Root Inserts

Jon Zalar, founder of IWTG Consulting, joins to discuss broken blade bolts, cracked pitch bearings, loose root inserts, and early detection.

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: Jon, welcome back to the program.

Jon Zalar: Thanks for having me.

Allen Hall: Uh, last time I saw you, we were in Melbourne- Yep … at WOMA 2026, and that was a huge event. We know we’re gonna do it again next year in March three, the 3rd through the 5th, so you’re invited back, of course- I can’t wait … if you can make it. Yeah. Yeah.

It’s gonna be, it’s gonna be a good time. A lot is happening in the blade world and in the wind turbine world more broadly. A lot of things we’re hearing right now are related to blade bolt connection, pitch bearing inserts still. A lot of that still happening in the United States. What is the current status of, uh, the blade connection issues in the US?

I,

Jon Zalar: I feel like it’s a growing [00:01:00] issue, not super, super fast, but it seems to be getting a little worse. There’s, you know, more bolts breaking at that joint. Um, pitch bearing cracks are, seem to be pretty common. There’s different solutions for it, and then, you know, the root inserts are another thing that we’ve talked about before that seem to be happening more and more, or maybe more and more people are finding them ’cause they’re looking.

Allen Hall: What are the first indications that you have a blade bolt or some sort of joint issue at the root of a blade? What can you see?

Jon Zalar: A bolt laying in the hub bouncing around. Um, you know, from like a– looking at it from, like, the sensors on the turbine, it’s really hard to tell unless it gets really bad. Uh, some of the OEMs have some analytics developed to kinda start to indicate if there is a aero change because there’s missing bolts or root inserts are coming out, and they’re using that as a way to go figure out which ones to go inspect first.

Allen Hall: Really? Yeah. You think [00:02:00] the SCADA data will give you some indication that you have a, basically a little bit of a loose blade?

Jon Zalar: Yeah. I, I, I think because the number of turbines and the number of data points you have, I think there is a pretty good analytic out there right now.

Allen Hall: Wow. All right. I think a lot of our operators have not taken advantage of that.

Is, is that just b- based on the high-speed data, SCADA data, or is it low-speed data you could see that same effect?

Jon Zalar: I believe it’s on the low-speed data as well, but I bet the high-speed data was used to kinda develop it.

Allen Hall: Wow. All right. So that’s a huge help to operators. Yeah. So what are you looking for if you’re looking through SCADA data, what would be the couple of markers there that say, “Hey, maybe we ought to go look up at the– in the hub”?

Jon Zalar: I don’t know exactly what they’re using, but they would basically look for maybe an imbalance or looking for certain components that are being overworked.

Allen Hall: Oh, sure. Okay.

Jon Zalar: Yeah.

Allen Hall: So your pitch actuator may be getting a little bit overworked. It would seem like one of the places- I think that, yeah … that would get loaded, right?

Jon Zalar: Mm-hmm.

Allen Hall: Okay. [00:03:00] And any vibration monitoring going on? Because it, it, uh, in some cases you’re– I’m hearing, like, millimeter gaps-

Jon Zalar: Correct. Yeah …

Allen Hall: between the blade and the pitch bearing.

Jon Zalar: So probably a combination of the ALC sensors, at least on a GE turbine, looking at that. But the PCH box also is looking at the tower vibration, so it could be a combination of all three.

I don’t know the exact- Okay … details, but between all of that, I think there are some analytics that kinda say, “Hey, go take a look.” And then I think there’s some other companies that have- tools that go monitor it.

Allen Hall: Mm-hmm.

Jon Zalar: Dial indicators remotely or even, you know, people going up there with dial indicators to go kind of rotate the rotor and kind of see if there is gapping between the blade and the pitch bearing.

Allen Hall: Is that a safe situation in your– from the gapping? I’ve heard this where they’ve basically took shims and they’re trying to measure this gap or some sort of dial indication. Is that a smart thing to do? Is it even reliable to do it that way? [00:04:00]

Jon Zalar: I, I, I think there’s some reliability there. And like, you know, these are really big parts, right?

So like a little bit of gap, it, it’s probably expected to a point, but growing gaps is where you should be a little more scared.

Allen Hall: So you’re– you would have to go do that quarterly, monthly, weekly? How, how often would you have to do it to see the progression? Because I’ve heard stories of, uh, a couple of weeks from nothing to hub crack to, “Oh, it took a year or more.”

Jon Zalar: I think it depends on the issue. I think for– if you’re looking at that, the bolted joint itself between the root inserts and the, uh, bolts breaking itself, I, I think they’re doing about quarterly. Now, the pitch bearings inspections are also quarterly. They’re al- they’re, they’re leveraging the drone inspections for the blades, and they’re looking at the pitch bearings to see if they’re cracked, right?

Uh, you guys are doing that too.

Allen Hall: Okay.

Jon Zalar: I think Coraly is doing a good job mitigating the risk, feels like.

Allen Hall: Wow. All right. [00:05:00] Yolanda, looking at pitch bearings, you’ve looked at a lot of drone images in your lifetime. Mm-hmm. How much can you see on drone images on pitch bearings? Can you see cracks and, or y- or do you see grease, which is a really indication that something is wrong in the bearing?

Yolanda Padron: You can see grease. You can see the cracks pretty, pretty well. Yeah. The drone images are, are really high quality. Uh, but you did mention that it’s something that you’re seeing a lot more. Is it because there’s a lot more aging fleets, or is it a problem with a lot of the new turbines that are coming online?

Jon Zalar: I, I think it’s an, I think it’s a more of a fatigue problem, so the aging of the fleet. And also, I think more people are looking at it, right? ‘Cause, like, initially the drones that were looking for blade cracks weren’t looking at pitch bearings, but then pitch bearings started cracking, so now they added that to whatever they buy off the drone companies, right?

Go look at my pitch bearings, for example.

Allen Hall: Hmm.

Jon Zalar: So I, I think it’s a problem of the more you look sometimes, the more you find.

Yolanda Padron: Hmm.

Jon Zalar: Yeah.

Allen Hall: So we [00:06:00] have root insert issues, which are being addressed by a couple of different companies- Yes … uh, uh, with somewhat similar solutions. OEM is offering one right now also.

Jon Zalar: I, I think there’s three solutions. There’s two uptower that are basically looking at ways to go fill the void between the root insert itself and the blade root. Um, and I– there’s another company that’s also more of a downtower solution where they’re actually, like, r- drilling out the root inserts and putting new ones in that are gonna last better, longer.

Allen Hall: Okay. So the drilling out is, would be CNC onsite. Correct.

Jon Zalar: Yeah.

Allen Hall: And they’re based over in Europe. But th- the drilling out is a take the blade down, set it on the ground sort of- Yeah. Right … doing really fine machining on the, on the blade itself. So that, that’s a different, completely different insert that’s going into that-

Jon Zalar: Correct

Allen Hall: new hole or- Yep … clean hole, right? So it’s a, just a, uh, totally different kind of product versus trying to inject [00:07:00] some s- sort of epoxy or resin into the, the void.

Jon Zalar: Right. Yeah. Uh, I mean, you would prefer to do it uptower. It’s gonna cost you less money.

Allen Hall: Sure.

Jon Zalar: But you wanna make sure you do it right, so I think, uh, I do foresee it being a combination of both solutions kinda going forward.

Allen Hall: Is it dependent upon, like, how much damage has been already done, or what the fatigue w- uh, an estimate on what the fatigue life is?

Jon Zalar: I think it’s strictly on measurement perspective right now. So how much gapping you have, um, kinda determines what potential solutions you have.

Allen Hall: So the gaps aren’t big, right?

So the, the gaps I hear are one millimeter is k- kind of sort of start a problem.

Jon Zalar: Mm-hmm.

Allen Hall: Three millimeters is, “I need to be making decisions.”

Jon Zalar: Yeah. So- That, that’s what I’ve heard, too. Yes.

Allen Hall: Three millimeters is about a eighth of an inch.

Jon Zalar: Mm-hmm.

Allen Hall: So it’s not a lot of m-

Jon Zalar: But you can see sunlight through it if you’re s- down there.

Allen Hall: Okay. That’s not… Well, you should see. That’s not

Jon Zalar: good either. Yeah.

Allen Hall: Right. Okay. So in a, in a three millimeter situation then, you’re doing what? [00:08:00]

Jon Zalar: You’re trying to decide if the uptower solutions are something you wanna go try, ’cause they’re still in the trial mode from my understanding or-

Allen Hall: Okay …

Jon Zalar: people are learning a lot.

So I think when you get to that point, you’re calling some of those companies to say, “Hey, I have this issue. I got a couple blades with, you know, .3. Can you guy- you guys wanna come take a look at it, see if your solutions, if you guys wanna go use it or not?” And then I think the ones that get too bad, from my understanding right now, is they’re, they’re replacing the blades.

Allen Hall: So they’re taking the whole blade down.

Jon Zalar: Yes.

Allen Hall: And what’s the thought process in that? Uh, versus drilling out the inserts and putting new inserts in. Is there just a composite degradation that’s happened around those joints that it just puts it at risk or, or you have actually aged the blade much faster than you would otherwise have done?

Jon Zalar: I, I think they aged that particular connection too much. So I, I- Wow … either between the [00:09:00] fatigue or lack of epoxy resin, w- whatever the actual root cause is for that root insert coming out, when it gets that bad, it’s like you’re not gonna be able to inject enough To make it adhere

Allen Hall: You can’t de-age it.

Jon Zalar: Correct.

Allen Hall: Right?

Jon Zalar: Yeah.

Allen Hall: Bring back the youthfulness of the blade. Wow. All right. And we have seen this worldwide. I know in the, in the States you hear about it all the time, but it, this seems to be not a US- Correct … problem.

Jon Zalar: It’s a worldwide problem, yes.

Allen Hall: Okay. So if, if it’s a worldwide problem, are there more solutions on the way?

I know you talked about three of them already.

Jon Zalar: I have not heard of any other ones except those three as of today.

Allen Hall: Wow.

Jon Zalar: There could be other people working on it. I think there should be.

Allen Hall: So, yeah. You would think so, yeah. So we’ll, I guess we’ll eventually hear about it on the podcast. Usually people with technology will contact us.

They might call,

Jon Zalar: yeah. They might call you, they might call you tomorrow.

Allen Hall: Sure, they may. So that leads to sort of a subsequent issue, which I think is getting grouped together. So the [00:10:00] hub crack, pitch bearing crack, root insert pullout issue is also discussed with blade bolts being broken.

Jon Zalar: Correct.

Allen Hall: Are they related or are they separate engineering problems?

Jon Zalar: If you look at them individually, you’d probably come up with some separate answers, but if you combine them all together, you kind of start looking at is there too much loading happening in the leading and trailing edge of the blade? ‘Cause the hub cracks, the root inserts, and the blade bolts, from my understanding, are happening at those two highly loaded areas of the, the blade or that whole rotor connection.

So I mean, I do feel the root cause is probably a little higher loads than anticipated.

Allen Hall: I think everybody’s talked about when they’ve done the injection method and the drilling method, all they’re discussing is leading edge, trailing edge.

Jon Zalar: Yes.

Allen Hall: And how– It’s a question of how many- Correct … are you gonna replace.

So th- [00:11:00] that’s, those are the two highly loaded spots on the bolted connection.

Jon Zalar: Correct.

Allen Hall: And that’s where blade bolts are also breaking or, or the bolts breaking elsewhere around the periphery?

Jon Zalar: I don’t have all the data, but what I had seen, it’s very similar areas.

Allen Hall: So if you don’t pull the insert out, you’re then loading the bolt.

Cr- Right It’s one or the other, right? Right. Yeah. So the, the, the load path is the load path, so it’s coming through the insert into the bolt. Bolt’s carrying it into the pitch bearing. Pitch bearing’s carrying it into the hub.

Jon Zalar: Correct.

Allen Hall: Hub carrying it downtower. So eventually, one of those, uh, links in the chain is- The weakest.

Yeah … is, is the le- is the weakest. What is it about blade bolts that is so dangerous? We hear– we walk onsite to an O&M building, there are signs saying, you know, “Pay attention for loose bolts. Look around on the ground for loose bolts.” We’re gonna– and as electrical engineer, like, “Whoa.” Bolts should not be falling out of this tower.

What i- what is that sort of sequence where a [00:12:00] bolt would escape from the nacelle?

Jon Zalar: So let’s just use one bolt. One bolt breaks, falls in the hub, bouncing around, doing some– potentially doing some damage inside the hub. And ’cause these turbines, you don’t need to go out there every day ’cause they do run pretty good, right?

Right. You just do your regular maintenance. And if you don’t really know about that, ’cause, like, it bounces around for a while, then it usually gets, like, lodged behind a, uh, either center box or pitch cabinet or actually in the front sometimes. Kinda don’t know it happened. But, you know, frees itself up, keeps bouncing around, it, it could escape through the hatch covers ’cause, you know, people have to get into the hub anyway.

And I’m sure a lot of people listening here that have sites, like, you know, probably found some bolts laying on the ground, which is a little scary.

Allen Hall: Right. So is, is the busting the hatch opening levers? I know there, there’s a couple different ways to get into that hatch. Yeah. But, uh, is it just completely busting the hatch?

Yeah. So it’s– [00:13:00] okay. So you see a– so if you see a loose hatch panel, you have an issue. You probably gotta be careful about coming up on that turbine?

Jon Zalar: Potentially. A lot, a lot of hatches are, you know, not always maintained well.

Allen Hall: Right. I’ve seen them, I’ve seen loose ones, yeah.

Jon Zalar: Yeah.

Allen Hall: Okay. So that, that would be a sign that– but though if, if you’re approaching a turbine, one look on the ground.

And Yolando, you, you’ve seen a lot of turbines. So are you, are we looking on the ground and seeing what’s around the turbine before we approach the turbine now? Yeah. Just, just a sanity check?

Yolanda Padron: Yeah. Be aware also of what’s happening on site, right? Because if it’s some- if it’s a problem on site, you need to be extra careful when you’re approaching any turbine there.

Uh, is it something that people maybe should start thinking about implementing, like, a sensors earlier on than when they’re seeing the issue actually happen?

Jon Zalar: Yeah. I, I, I think that’s a potential, ’cause it, the quicker you catch it, the less damage you’re gonna do, and it also reduce the risk of [00:14:00] it, um, falling out of the hub And I’ve worked with a couple of my, uh, customers for some, like, potential ways to detect it.

Still kind of trialing it right now. But I, I do think there’s gonna be some benefit from a safety reduction, but also from a strictly a damage. ‘Cause, like, you get a couple bolts bouncing around there, and you bang up some cabinets or some pitch motors, that’s expensive and hard to go fix.

Yolanda Padron: Yeah, we were talking about it earlier too.

Like, it goes down, it can hit a transformer, it can hit, like, a truck or someone.

Jon Zalar: Chance of it hitting someone. Yeah. I mean, I don’t care what hard hat you have on, it’s not gonna do anything.

Yolanda Padron: Yeah.

Allen Hall: So what kind of sensor should you be putting onto the turbine if you don’t have access to the SCADA data or you don’t know what the correct algorithm is to suss out there’s something wrong up there?

But a, a bolt breaking is not gonna be something that a SCADA would even pick up, I don’t think. One bolt out of the whole- Yeah. No.

Jon Zalar: No way. Okay. I mean, there’s a– I think there’s, like, [00:15:00]one company looking at more of a, like, mechanical way to, like, prevent the bolt from coming out. I forgot the name of it.

Allen Hall: Okay.

Jon Zalar: Um, and then what I was looking at was more of a, like, you know, microphone type detection to kind of listen for that.

Allen Hall: It would make a lot of noise.

Jon Zalar: Yeah. It seems like it works. It, um, yeah, still more development needed on my end.

Allen Hall: So- The engineer in me was, is saying, “Why are we not putting strain gauges on bolts?”

I picked on the leading and the trailing. It’s like right dead center there to look at, even if it’s just two strain gauge bolts to see what the loads are.

Jon Zalar: So like there are s- there are bolts that are, or that are made with the strain gauges built in that you can use to go, you know, monitor that. But you also need to understand like what was the design intent.

So unless you’re working with the OEM, you don’t really know what you’re seeing is good or bad. You just say, “Oh-

Allen Hall: You just see a number.

Jon Zalar: Yeah. Right. I mean like, and if you install, I don’t know, four, you’d be like, “All right. Leading and trailing edge are higher [00:16:00] than the other two.” Well, yeah, it’s supposed to be, but like is a 10% difference expected or not expected?

Allen Hall: Is that something where if you’re, especially if you’re in a full service agreement, and a lot of these turbines are- Yeah … for the first couple of years, if you were to do that, it’s something you would just say to the OEM, “Hey, this is, these are the loads we’re seeing from the strain gauges on these bolts.

Does this make sense to you?” Or, or would an OEM just not even respond to that kind of inquiry?

Jon Zalar: I mean, I think it’s all about relationship with the OEM. I, I, I think

Allen Hall: it- I think they would wanna know.

Jon Zalar: I have a feeling they probably are looking.

Allen Hall: Okay.

Jon Zalar: I mean, ’cause I mean they have the test turbines too that they probab- that, that I know they have instrumented heavily.

Allen Hall: Yeah. So they, they’re probably getting at least some feedback. Th- that’s the problem. Yeah. And you worked on the other side, right? I have. So you worked for an OEM doing the RTAs. The first problem is you don’t have data, so now you gotta go get the data.

Jon Zalar: Correct.

Allen Hall: And that data is not available tomorrow. No.

‘Cause you’re gonna have to go run some sort of design of experiment to go figure out if [00:17:00] there is even a true problem or even what the root causes could be.

Jon Zalar: And it, and it’s expensive to go instrument a blade and get the data back at the right speed and connected to the turbine data. I mean, I rem- I, I used to say it’s about like 300 to 500,000 to go put a couple gauges on a blade just with all the equipment you need to get the data correct.

Allen Hall: To get the right data.

Jon Zalar: Get the right data at the right frequency connected to the controller. It’s, it’s very expensive.

Allen Hall: Wow. Okay. Yeah. I, I don’t, I don’t see a lot of operators doing that.

Jon Zalar: And especially connecting it to the operating data, right? So like if you go put a strain gauge and I don’t know, you’re curtailed, you’re only making, I don’t know, a megawatt- Doesn’t matter.

And if you don’t know what the turbine’s doing and you’re looking at this, like, strain gauge data, it’s really hard to correlate anything.

Allen Hall: So you need a full suite of data. Yeah. That includes weather data- Yeah … at some level, right? Gust winds and- Oh,

Jon Zalar: yeah …

Allen Hall: average wind speed. You need the anemometer. You need which, which way [00:18:00] the n- cell’s pointing.

Y- uh, you would need a lot of information- And what the controller’s- … to even suss it out …

Jon Zalar: and what the controller’s doing, right? Right. ‘Cause, like, every turbine, the controller’s trying to, like, you know, balance the rotor the whole time. It’s trying to, you know, micro pitch depending on what the winds are doing.

And if you don’t know what all that stuff’s doing, like, it’s really hard to correlate a strain gauge measurement to is that bad or not.

Allen Hall: It’s a complicated problem.

Jon Zalar: Yes. That’s why RCAs take, you know, a long time, and they’re not done in two weeks.

Allen Hall: No, they’re done in a year.

Jon Zalar: Yeah.

Allen Hall: Typically, or longer. So what should an operator be thinking about now?

If, if we s- get our drone images back, we’re scanning through them like, “Oh, there’s a crack” What am I doing next besides calling you and connecting to your LinkedIn page?

Jon Zalar: So right now with the pitch bearing crack, um, some of the OEMs are providing stiffener plates to put over the crack and try to run it.

Allen Hall: So that’s a doubler plate, basically. A double plate. Doubler

Jon Zalar: plate, yes. [00:19:00]

Allen Hall: Yeah. Okay. So even in a, in a crack scenario, that pitch bearing, if given mechanical support, can run like that?

Jon Zalar: That’s my understanding, yes. That, that potentially could run for some period of time. I don’t know if it’ll make it 20 years or not, but it’ll buy you time for sure.

Allen Hall: Does that involve a crane to do that work or is that just… My recollection, that was in pieces, like there, it’s not a ring, it’s a, a couple of pieces that you’d be able to bolt on without taking the-

Jon Zalar: No, it’s a- … blade down … it’s a, it’s a single piece that-

Allen Hall: It’s like a single casting kind of thing.

Jon Zalar: Right. And I, I think you need some like small crane, like a jig crane or one of those-

Allen Hall: Just to support the blade while you do it?

Jon Zalar: And to go put it in, right. Okay. Yeah, I don’t think, you’re not taking the blade off. You’re not taking the

Allen Hall: blade down.

Jon Zalar: Correct. Yeah. It’s, it’s done with the blade up there.

Allen Hall: Okay.

Jon Zalar: You’re putting new, putting longer studs in and putting the plate on.

Allen Hall: So first step is let’s get the joint reinforced. Right.

That’s the easy first step.

Jon Zalar: Right. Although there has been some cases where since [00:20:00]you’ve put that stiffener plate on, the loads get spread out to the end of the plate, and then you- Sure … you could see cracks there.

Allen Hall: Okay. All right. So the loads- It, that- … have to go somewhere …

Jon Zalar: loads have to go somewhere. That’s, that is a bottom line.

Allen Hall: All right. So you’re just changing where the load path is, so you have to be cognizant of that. Okay. Sure. Fine. But if you have, uh, especially in the United States, you don’t have 10 of these turbines, you have 50, 100- 100 … 200, 300 of these things, or thousands as it, as it turns out. Are there simple solutions that can be applied to, just to give me a sense, like that turbine’s having a problem, but the one next to it’s not, and, and just, just from a maintenance spin standpoint where I’m not just blanketing everything and trying to do everything to all these turbines at once, how do I, how do I manage this?

Jon Zalar: I, I think it’s like being very observant. So like, you know, making sure you’re looking at the pitch bearings from the drone images, right? Um, also talking [00:21:00] to your maintenance people like, “Hey, are, are you finding a bunch of broken bolts? Like, what positions?” Like, you know, if I was back at the OEM, I would like to have as much data as possible on this issue.

Like how many bolts are, when did you find them, what positions? A lot of times we, when I was there, like we would not get all that information, so it’s like really hard to run an RCA without that information.

Allen Hall: Sure. Yeah, where did this bolt break in the ring?

Jon Zalar: Right.

Allen Hall: Could tell you a lot. Is it just a b- bad lot of bolts, or is it something more load related?

Jon Zalar: Correct.

Allen Hall: Wow. Okay.

Yolanda Padron: Yeah, I think that’s a really good point, too, to make sure that you’re connected with like every stage of the operations. ‘Cause I know that everybody’s obviously really, really busy on a wind farm, but it’s really common for like an engineer to have certain data and the site team to just be running around and having a lot of data, but maybe they don’t realize that, oh, it’s important to know how many bolts per tower are coming down.

Jon Zalar: Correct. Yeah

Allen Hall: That’s a lot of work

Jon Zalar: It definitely-

Allen Hall: It’s a tremendous effort if you’re gonna [00:22:00] go after this problem and, and solve it RCS

Jon Zalar: are hard. They

Allen Hall: are. Yeah. All of it. Yeah. Machines are complicated today. There’s a lot of computer-driven s- things about them, and then you have these loading issues, and you have composite materials.

Th- there’s just, y-

Jon Zalar: you got to get- It’s a very complex

Allen Hall: It’s a machine, right? Yeah. It’s a complex machine. So how do people reach out to… You’re, you’re the head of IWTG, which is based in South Carolina, but you do consulting worldwide. Yes. And, and you are a huge resource because you understand the complexities of these problems.

How do people get ahold of you and, and get something started if they have a, a, a blade bolt issue or an insert issue or a cracked pitch bearing? Where do they start?

Jon Zalar: They can send me an email, jzalar@iwtgconsulting.com.

Allen Hall: Okay. And you have a great LinkedIn page, so you can connect with you on LinkedIn.

Jon Zalar: Yes.

Yeah, I have one

Allen Hall: of those. Yes. Or you could just come to WOMA in [00:23:00]2027. Yeah. You can. You can meet John there and, and arrange everything there. So John, it’s great to see you, and thank you for coming up. We, uh, we’re recording this at the world headquarters of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and, uh, John just lives down the street in, in, in US terms.

Yeah. So it’s, it’s great to have John come and visit us up here in North Carolina. So John, thank you so much for joining us.

Jon Zalar: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

IWTG Consulting on Pitch Bearing Cracks, Loose Root Inserts

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