Published

1 year ago

February 20, 2024

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

Eversource Quits Offshore Wind, Delays at Dogger Bank, Wind Innovators Honored

This week’s episode covers Eversource exiting offshore wind, delays at Dogger Bank wind farm, honorees of the Queen Elizabeth engineering prize, and the return of Wind Farm of the Week featuring Kay Wind farm. Allen and Joel also look forward to attending ACP OMS in San Diego!

Allen Hall: Joel, I think being in the podcast business is a lot easier than being in the AM radio business, clearly because down in Jasper, Alabama the station was alarmed by some guys taking care of the grounds. They had come out to, to mow and weed whack and whatever they’re going to do. And. At the tower site.

And when they got there, there was no tower. The tower was gone. I was left with a bunch of cables on the ground. And so the tower evidently was stolen. And the station manager at down there in Alabama doesn’t have any leads. They can’t figure out where this, all the equipment went to. And it wasn’t like it was a little tiny.

20 foot tower. It’s like a 200 foot tower. So talking about taking down a really big structure and somehow dragging it off into the woods and never to be found again. So there’s a, that’s a big problem. If the people are starting to steal your radio tower, you got

Joel Saxum: issues.

I just can’t see what anybody would do with it.

You’re not going to cut it up and sell it for scrap. Like every If this is national news now, every scrapyard is going to know. First off, look, so what are you going to do with it is one, if, and if you reinstall it eh, we’re going to install it so we can get TV from fricking Germany.

I don’t know. But if you’re going to reinstall it, someone’s going to see it. They’re going to be like, there’s the 200 foot tower. So I don’t know, unless it’s just a really extravagant prank that someone’s pulling, I’m not sure what you’re going to do with this tower. But kudos to the people that pulled it down.

I don’t know how you did that overnight.

Allen Hall: They don’t have any insurance coverage, because who would steal a tower, right? So now the station’s in trouble because the FCC which license all the radio stations in the United States has pulled their license. So they had an FM station and an AM station, the AM station got stolen.

The FM station evidently is still operational, but the FCC told them to turn it off. So now they’re stuck. They gotta go buy a new tower. Those things are not cheap, by the way, so that’s a big problem. And it just reminds me when you and I were been down in Oklahoma and Texas. That a lot of wind turbines now, thank goodness, are well locked up because there’s a lot of vandals out there and some of these wind turbines are located in remote places that we make sure that all those things are closed and secure like we hope that they are because there’s a lot of crazy stuff going on right now.

Joel Saxum: So one last question, Allen, at what point in time do we just get rid of AM radio?

Allen Hall: As soon as podcasts take over the world, that’s when, or when you can listen to it on a podcast on AM radio, that’s when you can do it.

Joel Saxum: That’s our next frontier, back to AM.

Allen Hall: Back to AM, amen.

Well, Joel, Eversource is pulling out of the offshore wind business here in the United States. Now, Eversource is a large electricity provider on the East Coast. They operate New England’s largest energy system with about 4. 4 million electric natural gas and wind Water customers in sort of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and up in New Hampshire, so they cover Hartford, Connecticut and Boston, Massachusetts, two big metro areas because they published their financials for 2023 and they had booked a 1.

9 billion dollar impairment. For its offshore wind investments for last year, and evidently, as part of that, they decided to sell their 50 percent stake in South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind projects to global infrastructure partners. Now, in return for selling those, you’re going to receive about 1. 1 billion in cash.

But that’s not going to close until like middle of this year. And it sounds like there’s a little bit of contingencies in place, just in case some costs overruns happened that how they’re going to split those up. But essentially Eversource is getting out of the offshore wind business. This is a big deal because now global infrastructure partners, which just got acquired by BlackRock, right?

That there’s a lot of financial transactions happening at the moment.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. The interesting thing here, and you and I talked about it off air, if you’re in the wind industry or in the, these, some of these players, Orsted, Iberdrola, NextEra, some of these larger ones, but when people said Eversource originally, like Eversource is going to do offshore wind.

Who the hell is Eversource? If you don’t live in the northeast part of the United States, you don’t know who they are. If you live up there, like you do, you understand they’re a big utility, they do a lot of things they are part of the infrastructure up there that supports that whole New England coast.

But interestingly enough, like Eversource has, they never had any business being an offshore wind. They don’t know anything about it. They’ve never done anything with it. And so my thought, and again, we talked about this off where my opinion was, cool for them to be involved in it. I think the state legislatures, of course, want their local people to be involved and be a stakeholder with what’s going on in that offshore wind play.

But they, in my opinion, they shouldn’t have put that much money into it. They shouldn’t have been a 50 percent holder with Orsted. They got a good partner, Orsted, of course, great partner. They know offshore wind. They’re the originators. They’ve been doing it for a long time. So they did good there, but it’s too risky.

It’s too much out there, in my opinion. Again, take it for whatever you want, but the change over here going to global infrastructure partners. Now, global infrastructure partners, like you said part of BlackRock. Now, BlackRock through, I think there was a large value there, 12 Billion or something of that sort.

Yeah, it was a big number. Yeah. Yeah. And so the Larry Fink, of course, the CEO of BlackRock is saying, hey, that infrastructure investments are the future of some of these large large investments. So people knowing that energy is going to be the people with the big, deep pockets, knowing that energy infrastructure and infrastructure in general is going to be something that we’re going to have to bet on in the future.

Now they’re taking this spot. So they’re sliding in on the opposite side of Orsted. Eversource is moving out. Look to see a lot more of these things start to happen with big money, deep pockets is the way I see it. And

Allen Hall: Eversource is also discussing the sale of its water distribution business as to make up some of the deficit here.

So this has been a painful exercise for Eversource. And as we have seen from other electricity utilities in the United States they’re trying to cover their losses, and it makes you wonder what’s going to happen going forward. Are you going to see utilities step into these offshore projects? Or are they going to leave them to the European companies that can manage them, or in this case, Canadian companies that may be able to manage them?

Joel Saxum: Yeah, I know we talk about this regularly too, right? It’s frustrating that there isn’t more American involvement in offshore wind. You see all these big offshore wind, every company besides basically Dominion is From overseas. They’re from Europe. They’re somewhere that’s not here, and I know that frustrates people.

It frustrates me, right? I want to see these things happen, but you also have to understand that from an offshore marine environment infrastructure, that’s not something that we normally do in the U. S. The existing offshore infrastructure in the U. S., which a lot of people don’t know that much about, is mostly all Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and gas.

So there’s platforms down there. There’s those things as well. Those are a completely different. How would you say it? They’re a completely different engineering task, right? Most of those are one offs. A lot of them are there’s some in shallow water with jacket foundations, but it’s like you’re building one.

You build that jacket. It’s massively custom. It’s all custom built. It’s floated out there suction piled in. Wells are drilled. Things work. And then there’s the deep water stuff, right? There’s things in the Gulf of Mexico that are out in three, four thousand feet of water pumping oil. So we have some of that infrastructure, but not like offshore wind.

It’s a completely different animal. So while it is frustrating to not see American companies involved we need that expertise from the people that have done it. I think I would like to see some people tagging along, but I’d like to see them at five and 10 percent and have a couple of people sitting within the company to learn and grow.

But taking a 50 percent stake that was a risky risky gig from the beginning.

Allen Hall: Yeah, I’m not sure, it’s all happened pre inflation, right? That’s what happened, and at the time, I’m sure all the economics made sense, but the economy has changed so much in the last couple of years, it’s hard to really blame them.

It was like a one in a hundred year event, really. It’s tough, and I think the utilities, they have to try to find a way to fight them or to bring themselves out of this hole. But I think I don’t think a lot of U. S. utilities are not going to get. Knee deep into these projects from here on out, and they’re going to be the 5 or 10 percent range just to cover their downside.

Makes sense.

Joel Saxum: Even, Global infrastructure partners, like I said, in this deal there is some caveats to make sure that, the economy doesn’t start doing crazy stuff again, or they have the ability to make a

Allen Hall: move.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has been holding some public meetings to discuss some offshore sites off the coast of essentially New Jersey.

And they ran into some opposition from fishermen and who are arguing against putting some wind turbines where the, some of their fishing grounds are, and it really has to do with the cables. I don’t think they’re too concerned about where the turbines are placed so much as like, where are the cables, because a lot of fishing.

involves trolling the bottom of the ocean to capture the sea life they’re trying to go get. Now, this has caused a lot of issues for BOEM because when they had sighted these projects, they didn’t think they’re going to receive a lot of feedback on the fishing. Locations that they, or they didn’t think the objections would be as vocal as they are, but as we have seen in the press more recently, there’s still a lot of effort to push back on, on the East Coast, at least on these fishing areas.

And I’ve seen some more recently on the West Coast, Oregon, California, same sort of thing. It does seem like the BOEM is slowing down on its project development and locating these sites. Based on feedback and maybe getting a little more input from local businesses like fishermen to make sure their site is in the right place.

Again, there’s going to be a big push to try to put some sites out in the water, Joel. Are these going to take longer? And if they do take longer to get cited out, is it going to be less price paid for them because of the potential downside?

Joel Saxum: I think if you roll it back to the beginning of an idea here, the idea is that we’re using the ocean for a new purpose.

Change is hard. Change is difficult. Change You have to involve a lot of people to make sure you do it right. So right now, we’re talking about stakeholder management. Basically, everybody wants to use these pieces of ocean for something, right? We want to use them for offshore wind. We want to use them for navigation.

We want to use them for fishing. So you have to figure out how to work together. And whenever you have a community, such as the fishermen have basically had the run of this area forever. They haven’t had to deal with anybody out there using it in a heavily commercial activity, right? So they’ve been able to do what they want, right?

And now you’re going to add in another stakeholder out there, where, it may impact the fisherman’s abilities, or so they’re putting forth. It will impact their ability to You know, make their catcher or do their things because there’s going to be exclusion zones. You can’t go dragging, you can’t go dragging net right next to a platform or something like that.

Like you get caught up. That wouldn’t be good. Other than that, you have to think about the subsea infrastructure, right? So sometimes. Depending on where you are in the world or what the regulations are, if you’re going to have an export cable coming from a wind farm to shore, sometimes it’s buried, sometimes it’s trenched in.

They have a trenching machine. They’re pretty cool. They look like tanks. They basically go on the bottom and they drive on tracks on the bottom of the ocean floor and they have water jets and they create a channel and bury the cable. But also with those, you have rock dumps that may go on top of them, mattresses, there’s all kinds of different things depending on the geotechnics of the subsea at that point.

But either way, that once was a nice, smooth, clean ocean floor with nothing on it that the bottom trawlers were able to just basically drag with nets. Now they can’t do that anymore. There’s gonna be definitely issues there with, involving more stakeholders. I can completely understand why they’re a bit up in arms.

It messes up their it’d be like if someone came to you, Allen and said, you can’t be, you can’t be a lightning engineer anymore. You have to figure out a way to be a, I don’t know, electrical engineer or a mechanical engineer or something. You know what I mean? You like, they’re taking away. Yeah.

Taking away your livelihood is what they’re doing. Understandably up in arms. I get it. But for the greater, I can say this easily sitting in my chair, right? I’m not, this doesn’t affect me as much, but for the greater good, there needs to be some give and take if we want to have offshore wind in this green energy transition.

Allen Hall: I don’t think the fishermen had a lot to worry about at the moment because it’s not going to. Be a lot of action in their area.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. Not the way it’s going right now. Yeah. There, there’s also takes where say in areas, I know that they’ve done some there’s a website that has some really cool subsea footage of block Island and the fishing and love wildlife around those platforms.

So if you had a fishing area and then all of a sudden there’s a bunch of structure in it, if you’re a fisherman, fish go to structure, bait, fish go to structure. So maybe the fishing grounds were here. And now all those fish migrate right into that wind farm to hide out a little bit, and then it makes your fishing not as good, too.

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Allen Hall: Over in the UK, the Dogger Bank Offshore Wind Farm project is behind schedule and by a lot. So there, there’s three phases to Dogger Bank. We’re talking about Dogger Bank A, really, which is the first phase here.

Developer SSE has warned that operations may not commence. Until 2025, and they were really scheduled to begin the end of this year and it’s all due to availability issues, supply chain delays weather, of course, and then access to ships, what it sounds like. So only 7 of the 95 Halley 8X 13 megawatt turbines have been installed.

Since the first turbine came online late last year the 3. 6 gigawatt docker bank project, when it’s all complete, will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm because it has three phases, each of 1. 2 gigawatts, and that, that’s a massive wind farm. Joel, it does seem like they’re really going to run into trouble here with ships just because if they get delayed, the ships have someplace else to be.

This project will drag on and I don’t know if there’s a really a way to deal with it at the moment besides hope for better weather.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, you want to hope for better weather and I guess it’s when you’re talking operations, whether it’s construction or I don’t know, you’re going to go to a site and paint someone’s house.

It doesn’t really matter. Usually the first section of that goes slower, right? You’re everybody’s, the crew’s kind of melding, meshing, getting together and you’re understanding logistics and things, how they work and hook up faster. So it’s completely understandable that you’d have a slow start to a project that happens a lot.

That’s always something. Project managers in construction are like, how can we alleviate this, these headaches at the beginning? However, only 7 of those 95 turbines installed since December start. It’s mid February now? It’s been, 10 12 weeks? That’s not good. That’s really slow. And it’s mostly chalked up to weather, right?

North Sea, wintertime, Dogger Bank, it’s not, that’s nasty. So you can understand that now, the problems that you’re running into right now, of course. Vessels are on contract, that’s how it works. You get a set amount of days, you pay for those days. You may have some squeeze room for overrun, but a lot of times, if you have a vessel from, Boscalis, Someone, if you have that vessel until June 1st, you might be able to get it until June 15th, but after June 15th, company XYZ is going to be screaming for it because they paid a contract for it to be over there.

There is a little bit of the term is coopetition, if you’ve ever heard of that. It’s when to partner with your competition of these conversations that are going to be happening in the background for sure at the vessel. The vessel companies are licking their chops.

Either way, they’re getting paid. They’re loving it. But we do know that there’s a lot of wind farms being installed all over the North Sea. We’ve got some coming here in the States. We got there’s all over the world. Taiwan screaming for ships are building some new ones in the APAC region right now.

The problem you have here with some of these, if you’re like, Hey, we’ll move another one in, we’ll move another one out, this, the fittings and the structures and how each vessel handles each type of, say, monopile or transition piece, or the rigging for the crane, or the measurement systems for the verticality of the monopile when it’s being driven, or the specific ROV intervention tools that need to be used subsea to hook things up.

Those are usually specific to one RFP, to one wind farm, to one construction site. The same thing in oil and gas. If you’re going to develop a subsea oil field, you spec out every single bit of what’s on each vessel. The tools, the instruments, the kit, the, all the, everything that interacts with anything that goes off subsea has to be custom built.

And so you can’t really just if you’re on a Seaway 7 vessel installing these things. You can’t really just switch over to a Deme vessel the next day when they move out. It doesn’t work like that. It’s not like switching out a Chevy truck and a Ford truck to go to a wind site on shore. It doesn’t, that’s not how it goes.

I guess the way, what we have to hope is the we get some really good weather for the teams out at Dogger Bank and they start ginning. They start grooving, moving and grooving and getting some things installed. Otherwise there will be some delays. It is what it is.

Allen Hall: When this podcast releases, Joel, we will be in sunny San Diego at ACP OMS and there’s looks like it’s going to be a pretty big crowd there just checking on LinkedIn.

I know everybody’s getting ready for the 2024 repair season. There’s a lot of activity and 2023 was a pretty high damage year from what I could tell. And I expect also Blades, which is happening while this podcast releases down in Austin, Texas, is going to be widely attended, and it seems to be gaining traction even over in Europe, when I was just over in Europe, and people from there were going to be attending Blades, so it’s going to be a lot of activity.

It’s conference season at the moment.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, it’s starting up here in the States, for sure. I’m in Austin right now. Right now, it’s What day is it today? It’s Wednesday. It’s Valentine’s Day. I’ve been talking all week, last week, about, clients, friends, colleagues people to meet up with talk blade problems, talk lightning problems for the next few weeks, so my schedule is crazy.

Plus, I’m, it starts Sunday night, people flying in, I’ll go grab a couple friends from the airport have some blade conversations for Monday and Tuesday, of course. BladesUSA is a great event a lot of good engineers there, a lot of good topics. And you’re involving the engineers and the stakeholders at the operator level, at the, at, the people who own the wind farms.

And then also a lot of the blade repair companies are there, and some of the, retrofit companies and stuff are in town for that. So it’s a lot of the correct grab of stakeholders around blades are there. And then that Wednesday morning, I’ve had a couple of jokes, a couple conversations the last few days, those planes that are leaving Austin, heading to San Diego, they’re going to be a captive audience.

It’s going to be all people coming, two and a half, three hour flight everybody coming from Blades going to the operations, maintenance and safety conference. Annoying that they’re in the same week, to be honest with you, but they were smart enough to put one on Monday, Tuesday, and I say they because it’s ACP and Wind Power Monthly or Haymarket or whatever, and they’re two separate organizations, but Blades is Monday, Tuesday, and we have OMS is Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, Friday I know we have booths at both of them, so we’re going to be taking a lot of meetings, talking to a lot of people, doing a lot of podcast recording, which is always great.

But OMS, yeah, it’s, that’s always a good one to kick off the season, we’re in February here. Most people have their tenders lined out. And if they don’t, or if they need a little bit of backfill with some capacity for some blade teams or, uptower teams, gearbox teams they’re going to sort it out here shortly.

So it’s a good time to be good, but good time to be out in the market, talking with people. OMS is always nice in San Diego there, but we did hear there might be some rain. So pack a rain jacket.

Allen Hall: It looks like it’s going to rain. We’re going to have recordings with a number of companies that are going to be at OMS.

And if, obviously, if you want to talk to us about being on the podcast, that’s a good place to connect with us right on the OMS floor. One of the things I’m noticing this year too, Joel, is that there’s just a lot more of the operators getting involved in the blade repair. And that full service agreements are not as favorable as they once were.

So the activity on the engineering side seems to be much more active and maybe that’s just coming out of the inflationary period and everybody’s getting going. The comedy is picking up a little bit, but it does seem to me the amount of engineering that’s going on the blade side is at a peak. I haven’t seen it this active in a couple of years.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, I think the other side of it is in the United States, of course, our fleet is starting to mature, right? We had a lot of installations that, GE 1 5s went crazy in 2011, 12, 13, all this stuff. They’re now coming 10 years, so if you had an FSA that was 10 year they’re starting to, Hey, are they going to renew the FSA or take it on themselves?

The data points to You might be better off taking your operations on yourself or having an ISP help you out. So a lot of that activity for sure, Allen.

Allen Hall: And Booking a independent service provider may be hard at this point.

Joel Saxum: You’re a little late. You’re late in the year.

Allen Hall: Yeah. And also technicians that are looking for positions this summer that’s a good place to be, right?

If you’re out in San Diego, definitely stop by and drop off a resume or if you’re at Blades, drop off a resume. Get involved. I’ve seen a lot more technician activity and people reaching out, like, where can I find a position for the year? There’s a lot of job sites, everybody. Get on LinkedIn and connect up with those companies via LinkedIn.

Get on their websites, go to their career pages, look there because there’s a lot of opportunities at the moment and it’s one of the fastest growing jobs in America, being a wind turbine technician. Get going because it’s going to be a good season.

Joel Saxum: I’ve been involved in quite a few different industries and trade shows and whatnot, and I don’t think there’s one that I’ve been around that’s quite like OMS.

OMS, of course, Operations Maintenance Safety, so it’s very much focused on the operations in the field. And to be honest with you, if you’re looking to be a blade tech or an uptower tech and you haven’t inked what your contract is going to be like or working for a specific company this year, It’s It might be worth hopping on a plane to San Diego and walking that floor and handing out your resumes at that show because there’s going to be a lot of people there.

A little bit different this year, usually it’s at Coronado, right down on the beach. And the actual exhibition, it’s not that good, to be honest with you. American Clean Power, I’ll say that. When you had it in the tents out on the lawn, not the best, but this year it is in a hotel in a center with an actual exhibition floor.

There’s going to be over 100 people exhibiting. So a lot of things in the wind and stream movement at OMS for sure.

Allen Hall: All right, British engineer, Andrew Garrad, and Danish citizen, Henrik Stiesdal, were announced as the 2024 winners of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering for their pioneering work, advancing wind turbine design and deployment, the over 40 careers for both of those gentlemen the laureates made critical innovations now used in most modern high capacity wind turbines, including some of the world’s largest wind turbines.

Their groundbreaking work has enabled widespread adoption of wind power around the world. And Her Royal Highness Princess Anne attended the ceremony at London’s Science Museum, which had to be cool. Come on, Joel. That’s cool. And praised the role of engineering in society. And it, so if you’re not familiar with the Queen Elizabeth Prize, it’s there to promote excellence and visionaries in engineering, inspiring young people to consider it as a career.

So this is a really, Fascinating prize. I like it. It’s like the Nobel Peace Prize for engineering sort of thing. Yeah. And it does come with some cash award, right?

Joel Saxum: Yeah. It’s a 1 million pound. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s big time. Unlike the Nobel Peace Prize, which is basically money off of dynamite.

I hope this money comes out of the royal family’s pockets because they can stand to lose a little bit. Either way I think that anybody in the wind industry, if you don’t know who Andrew Garrard or Henrik Stiesdal are, please Google them the next time you get a chance and you’ll see historic websites devoted to the things that they have done.

There’s so much information about their what for the modern day wind turbine, 450, 000 of them in the world right now. Plus, offshore, onshore, these two guys were a huge part of everything that you see today. So if you’re a technician, if you’re a developer, if you’re anybody in the wind industry, you owe it to these two these two men that are, we’ll call them like a royalty, wind royalty maybe that have come out and done all these things.

So take a peek at it, do yourself a favor next time you’re sitting around on the couch or something. Pull your phone out and Google their names and you’ll see some really cool stuff. And congrats to the two of them. And and thank you for the work that you put in in your engineering minds to get us to the point we’re at right now.

Allen Hall: They have to be amazed at the rapid deployment of wind that we’re now talking about 20 megawatt machines when they first started their kilowatt machines, it, there has been a rapid growth in that industry. I do timing is everything. And so if right time, right place part of it, that’s true, but getting engineering, was key early on and if you do look at some of the early inventions in wind, you’re like, Ooh, pretty sketchy, but we’ve gotten through that period. And it, there is a, I do think these prizes help raise awareness about the careers you can have in engineering. And the, if you’re a high school graduate or going into college, it’s such a tough time to try to figure out what you want to go do.

Engineering is one of those tough trails, and it’s nice that you can see some hardworking engineers be rewarded for their efforts because yeah, engineering’s not easy, right? And a lot of people are involved in a lot of these wind projects that you never hear of, but they should be commended also.

Joel Saxum: There’s, in the United States, we talk about the fact that there’s not a DTU.

There’s not a TU Delft. We don’t have a university dedicated to wind. And at the university level, it’s there is actually reports out lately that I’ve read, sad for me that says that engineering as a major is starting to decline in the United States. A lot more people taking, I don’t want to say this.

I don’t want to make anybody angry, but a lot more people taking a little bit easier paths through university to get degrees. Engineering is one of the toughest things that you can really do there. But you can see that engineering in general shapes our society. If you look around you, everything that you touch, feel every day is designed by someone.

That is an engineer. I know the majority of big things that happen are designed by engineers. They’re the ones that make progress. So we need more of them out there. So we haven’t had a Windfarm of the Week in quite a while, but we want to get back into that of course. So the Wind Farm of the Week this week is Kay Wind.

Southern Power owns Kay Wind. It’s in Kay County, Oklahoma. The 299 megawatt facility with 130 Siemens 2. 3 80 meter tall towers. The facility was built with a 400 million construction loan. And the project was delivered back in 2015. So power gets sold into Kansas and also Oklahoma under 20 year PPAs.

The thing I want to touch about this wind farm, if you Google it, you’ll find out that in 2017, the team at Kay Wind was recognized for its exceptional achievement in operations and management at the Wind O& M Conference in Dallas. So the project team won the Wind Farm Team or Technician of the Year Award back in 2017 and they beat out over 100 entries.

So this is at that point in time, Apex was a part of it as well but the Southern Power Apex team there at Kay Wind, Doing a lot of fantastic things with a bunch of turbines that were built in the United States, right? They were built at the Siemens facility in Hutchinson, Kansas, and the blades were made in or the nacelles were and the blades were produced at the Fort Madison, Iowa.

Kay Wind, you are the wind farm of the week.

Allen Hall: That’s going to do it for this week’s Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Thanks for listening, and please give us a 5 star rating on your podcast platform and subscribe in the show notes below to Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s YouTube channel, Engineering with Rosie, and we’ll see you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

Eversource Quits Offshore Wind, Delays at Dogger Bank, Wind Innovators Honored

Renewable Energy

GreenSpur Rethinks Generators for More Efficient Wind Turbine Operations

Published

1 day ago

July 15, 2025

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

GreenSpur Rethinks Generators for More Efficient Wind Turbine Operations

If you manage wind turbine operations, you’re probably acutely aware of just how much generator weight, complexity, and maintenance affect uptime and cost. In a recent Spotlight interview with the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, Jason Moody, Chairman, GreenSpur Wind, explained how the company’s axial‑flux technology is reshaping generator design to meet today’s offshore and floating wind challenges.

Listen to the full interview to learn how GreenSpur is putting a whole new spin on wind turbine design

The Weight Problem and The Axial-Flux Solution

It’s typical for today’s direct‑drive generators used in offshore turbines to weigh more than 150 tons. Big machines for big jobs, right? But that weight has a structural ripple effect: heavy generators necessitate heavier towers, reinforced foundations, thicker steel, and larger blades— and all of that heft increases capital and installation expenses, initially, and contributes to ongoing maintenance and operations expenses.

When large generators are needed on floating platforms, those dynamic loads require even heavier ballast; structural integrity gets more complex. Some floating wind designs have tested hybrid and geared systems to reduce weight, but combined systems add complexity. While the industry’s goal, always, is to reduce LCoE, larger systems weigh more, and more complicated designs rarely improve efficiencies.

So for floating wind installations, particularly, GreenSpur’s axial-flux design – with a significantly reduced weight – offers clear advantages.

As Moody points out, hybrid and geared systems can be “even more complicated” – and not just on electrical efficiency.

“As they spin faster, they get hotter, and then…you need more high-tech cooling systems, which is another point of failure,” he said.

“So the LCoE really does start to suffer with these more complex, advanced systems.”

“What we’re trying to do is introduce a new technology that can address the problem (of excess with) and hopefully address some other problems as well.” – Jason Mondy, GreenSpur

What are the Advantages of Axial Flux Generators?

While most traditional radial-flux generators have concentric cylinders where magnetic flux flows between them (see more here), Greenspur’s axial flux design has the rotor and stator arranged as discs along the axis of the machine, and the magnetic flux flows parallel to this axis.

Because Greenspur’s axial flux generator employs a modular architecture, multiple smaller stages can be connected in parallel. This allows for easier scaling, customization, and potentially a lighter overall design for higher-power applications.

GreenSpur’s axial-flux generators are significantly lighter than traditional radial motors. And, unlike current generators that need active cooling systems (which bring their own maintenance headaches), axial‑flux machines reduce or eliminate this demand.

Also, because GreenSpur’s designs work with a variety of magnets – from low-cost ferrite to rare-earth materials – they offer a lot of cost control options, too.

GreenSpur Rethinks Generators for More Efficient Wind Turbine Operations

How does an axial flux generator work? Uptime explains everything.

The Wheels are Turning Now

While axial flux is not a new design concept, GreenSpur’s implementation puts a new spin on things. Where else are axial flux design used? In Lamborghini’s Temerario, pictured, as well as in high-end vehicles from Mercedes Benz, Ferrari, Jaguar and other manufacturers.

Temerarior image from Yasa motors.

Other Operational Impacts for Turbine Installation, Maintenance

Lower weight means fewer cranes and smaller barges. Translation: Easier, less-expensive installation and repairs

Structural Compatibility is a lifetime benefit, as axial-flux components could slot into new turbines with few structural upgrades, and make retrofitting existing foundations easier

No active cooling means lower maintenance costs, as there are few issues with fluid leaks, fans and pumps.

Strategic Moves for Owners, Operators, and Managers

Axial‑flux generators offer a fresh paradigm: lighter weight, simpler design, potential cost reductions, and enhanced suitability for offshore and floating farms. For operations managers – and also investors – this is welcome news because it also means: shorter installation times, lower and less-costly maintenance, and simplified inventories.

Although axial-flux turbines aren’t yet mainstream, the promise of reducing the LCoE combined with more streamlined, efficient operations, is a powerful lure to get behind the technology.

Those who want to learn more about axial-flux integration, pilots or trial deployments should contact GreenSpur. As axial-flux engine production is already scaling up in the automotive industry, it will soon be wind energy’s turn to benefit from the technology and design.

This article is based on a June, 2025 interview with Jason Moody, Chairman, GreenSpur Wind. Listen to the entire conversation here, on Spotify, or WATCH on YouTube!

How to Prepare for Axial Flux Generators?

Tips and considerations for those ready for this efficient upgrade to wind turbine operations include:

Training: O&M crews must understand axial‑flux-specific drive electronics, winding structures, and maintenance procedures. proactive training plan will be essential.

Pilot Programs: Collaborate with GreenSpur or OEMs to install axial‑flux prototypes on pilot turbines, ideally in planned outages or new builds.

Develop Inspection Protocols: Begin documenting how axial‑flux units behave under load, vibration, thermal cycling, and blade pitch events.

Evaluate Asset Life Cycle Savings: Estimate savings from reduced downtime, simpler maintenance, lighter lifts, and material costs to put real numbers behind expected gains.

https://weatherguardwind.com/greenspur-axial-generators-more-efficient-wind-turbine-operations/

Renewable Energy

New PTC Legislation, AES Potential Sale

Published

2 days ago

July 15, 2025

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

New PTC Legislation, AES Potential Sale

Register for the SkySpecs webinar! The crew discusses the resignation of Wind Europe CEO Giles Dickson and his impact on the organization. They examine a new executive order from the White House targeting ‘unreliable’ wind and solar energy sources, analyzing its potential effects on tax credits and the renewable energy market.

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!

You are 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.

Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Winner d podcast. I’m Alan Hall in the Queen City, Charlotte, North Carolina.

I got filter the tower out in California and Joel Saxon is in wet Austin, Texas. It rained again today. The storm waters have been severe, like a hundred year flood Situations in Texas have been very dangerous and a lot of people have been injured down there. yeah, our condolences go out to everybody affected down in Texas and there’s supposed to be some more severe.

Rainstorms in the East coast of the United States. So hold on tight. there’s a lot of news going on [00:01:00] this week around the world. the one that sticks out first and I wanna bring this to the attention of everybody that, if you haven’t heard yet, is, wind Europe. CEO Giles Dixon has announced he’s stepping down after 10 years as leading WIN Europe.

And I was stunned when this happened. And obviously, I. Don’t have any influence in when Europe being an American. I just watch from the outside and I, from what I’ve seen and attended the conferences over in Europe, everything from what I’ve seen under his tutelage has been great. And the promotional materials and all the information that when Europe provides, has been outstanding.

so Giles is going to go back to teaching. He’s gonna go back into the schoolhouse. but it, seems like it’s a shock to everybody at, Wind Europe, at least that’s the outward appearance. Board chair Henrik Anderson, who is the head of Vestus Praise Dixon’s, tremendous contribution, noting [00:02:00] that he will leave Wind Europe stronger than he when he arrived.

And that’s clearly the case. Phil, do you have any insight as to what’s going on behind the scenes over in Wind Europe and with Giles?

Phil Totaro: I do not, but I can also speak from personal experience, having met him, I wanna say back in 2018 or probably 2017. and I can certainly attest to the, the work that they’ve done.

As you might be able to see, I’ve got two, things sitting here behind me that are awards from, the Wind Europe and, predecessor to, that, we’ve, done a lot of work over in Europe and it’s been facilitated by, the Wind Europe, events that they do as well as the publications that they’ve put out.

certainly my thanks go out to, to him and, [00:03:00] wish him well on his, future endeavors.

Joel Saxum: I would say from an American standpoint, been to wind Europe now, man, I don’t know how many times, half a dozen times or something like that. They do a really good job over there. And this is from, the leadership comes from the top of just circling the wagons, right?

Bringing everybody out to the show, getting more voices involved, giving, getting executive leaders from a lot of these large operators, giving them the space to talk and putting them, in an area where their voices are listened to. So like when, the last time I was at Wind Europe, I think it was in, bill Bao.

so I went, walked into Bill Bau, and when you walked into the conference center, there was big banners hanging of all of the key speakers and what their messages were with pictures of their faces, six feet tall, hanging in all the hallways. And I thought, what a great way to get visibility to the industry, right?

Because if anybody walks in here, because of course at those shows you get, impartial news [00:04:00] agencies and other things going. You see that stuff right in the, European realm. I’m like, I recognize the face of the CEO of RWE and, these things like they pop up. They’re, good at getting in the face of the, public and getting their message across.

And I would like to see us do more of those things here. under giles’s tutelage there, fantastic job. he said he’s gonna step back and go to teaching and give back to his local community where he’s from, and I think that’s fantastic. it’s a, a career shift.

He’s given a lot to the wind industry. and moving on. So now, we have those Giles in Pierre walk and talk videos that they put out every, so often, they’re gonna have to find someone else to walk and talk with.

Allen Hall: That’s gonna be hard to do. Those win flicks are really well done. They’re great promotion for the industry in, Europe.

I, there’s very little that I’ve seen that even really compares to them the amount of knowledge you’re gonna get in about four and a [00:05:00] half minutes about what is actually happening on the ground in Europe. You just don’t find it anywhere like that. The, they are really good tuned to all the inner workings of the eu, the individual countries, all the manufacturers.

They have the pulse of that industry and it’s, gonna be a lot to live up to wherever they nominate to be. The next CEO win Europe. It. It has a high bar. A very high bar. Don’t let blade damage catch you off guard. OGs. Ping sensors detect issues before they become expensive. Time consuming problems from ice buildup and lightning strikes to pitch misalignment and internal blade cracks.

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The executive order titled, ending Market Distorting Subsidies for Unreliable Foreign Controlled Energy Sources. Does that make an acronym, guys? I don’t think it does. The order directs the Treasury Department to strictly enforce termination of clean energy tax credits already included in the recently passed budget reconciliation bill.

the feeling on the street is this was done to placate some of the. Congress, people that wanted more action against wind and solar, mostly from petroleum, based states, and that they didn’t feel like they got enough in the legislation, so they wanted to reinforce it. I, don’t think this has any real effect, but in in the larger scheme, but the one area which can.

Be adjusted with or played with is the [00:07:00] timing of when projects have to go in and what the percentage of projects has to be done to qualify for the tax credits. And Phil, you want to provide some insights into what can happen with the qualification aspect.

Phil Totaro: Yeah, so let’s start with understanding what got approved in the bill.

Any project that starts construction after July 4th, 2026 will no longer be eligible for a production tax credit. Going back to Alan’s comment about this executive order, the intent. There is to direct the Treasury Department, which oversees obviously the IRS, which has a final say in what the qualification criteria are for getting the, Companies who wanna claim the production tax credit, you have to submit an application to be able to do that. they are being directed under this executive [00:08:00] order to reexamine whether or not there needs to be changes. That would be I. Basically considered anti renewable. So anything that can take, money off the table for wind and solar is, what they’re trying to accomplish with this.

And what they can do, that’s outside the scope of the bill is they can. Have, the threshold for what constitutes start of construction raised such that, let’s call it about 15.3 gigawatts out of the 30 gigawatts that’s already, into the, construction and permitting queue.

There’s about 15 gigawatts of that is at jeopardy if we can’t. if they raise these thresholds and if we can’t get started on construction with all that by, July 4th, 2026.

Joel Saxum: Phil, I got a question for you ’cause I wanna clarify this. We know that solar PV [00:09:00] onshore wind almost exclusively, and I think it is exclusively, will harvest PTCs over the lifetime instead of the 30% ITC credit for CapEx, however.

Offshore wind usually goes for ITC. And so I wanna clarify this also pertains to ITC as well. That’s, under, under the same rule set as the PTC. Yes. and ITC if you don’t know, is investment tax credits versus production tax credits. So you, that’s a onetime, wham. on, I think 30% of the CapEx of a project.

And that’s why you see it in offshore wind because it’s so dang expensive for offshore wind. But this, so the same set of rules is gonna hit both of those, right?

Phil Totaro: Yes. And, regardless of the executive order, Joel, the, it, the changes in the law that they just made in the tax and budget bill, they passed these changes in the law, actually potentially preclude.

The Mar Wind project in Maryland and the New England one and two [00:10:00] projects, in, Massachusetts, Connecticut, et cetera. that general vicinity where, multiple states are gonna be off taking power, those projects may not be able to get their construction finance in place and. Meet the start of construction threshold, by the time that they need to be able to, in order to claim the, tax credit.

So they could be, these projects are potentially in jeopardy now of not being able to claim that ITC, because of these, the change in the law passed by Congress and the con in combination with. The executive order that is likely to, increase the threshold for what constitutes startup construction on a project.

Joel Saxum: Could you see someone with a bold strategy saying, you know what, because PTCs may run out, we’re gonna take the 30% ITC bam right now on an onshore wind project. A big one. Could you see that?

Phil Totaro: Potentially, yes. Particularly if it’s [00:11:00] gonna, it’s the down to the number crunchers at that point. And if somebody says, you know what?

That makes a lot more sense than getting a reduction. look, we’ve, Intel store’s done this analysis. We released a research note about this. It’s gonna reduce, this. Change in the law is gonna reduce what? the revenue that asset owners for wind in the USA get by about $16 billion.

Now, keep in mind that ever since they started this production tax credit back in the early nineties, it’s paid out about $66.3 billion to date. And is $16 billion really saving us a whole lot, especially when you consider that we’ve got increasing demand, a five year backlog on gas. Nuclear that can’t be built.

And we talked last week about, the situation with, trying to sell people liquified natural gas. where exactly are we gonna get our electricity from? Because you’re all about to face brownouts in [00:12:00] about, a year and a half here. So if it’s not coming from wind and solar, I, don’t know where it’s coming from.

Allen Hall: The offshore projects on the east coast will have to be finished. They’ll just go back to the states and renegotiate the contracts for the offtake pricing.

Phil Totaro: If they can.

Allen Hall: I, think there’s always opportunity in tax law for things to get a little funky if you haven’t noticed that. the IRS can do all kinds of crazy things on its own, and obviously, things get tagged onto additional bills.

There’s all kinds of bills going through Congress and nobody knows exactly what’s going on at midnight when they pass. So it wouldn’t shock me if some of these projects get a little bit of coverage by the states and the senators in particular that backdoor it to protect them. Because otherwise what’s gonna happen is Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, maybe all the way down towards Virginia, New Jersey, are going to have to raise the prices to get those projects in.[00:13:00]

They’re still gonna happen. I, just don’t see them not happening. Back to your point, Phil, what are they gonna do for power? If they don’t have any other opportunities. Can I shift gears a little

Joel Saxum: bit here? The I’m, what I wanna understand now is, okay, bill, big beautiful Bill has passed, executive order, signed, enforcing it, whatever.

Today is July 9th that we’re recording. What does July 10th look like for the next two years? For all of our friends in the wind industry that are ISPs. That are specialists that are, technical field advisors for construction and crane companies and bolting companies and all this stuff. What does the next two years look like for them?

Because in my mind it means hammer down pedal to the metal. People are gonna be scrambling to get support to build their projects out. So everybody that’s in ISP is gonna be busy as hell for the next few years. At the same time, if I’m an operator, I’m thinking I’ve got a, an odd fiscal cliff. Coming and I need to [00:14:00] make sure that my turbines are running tip top shape while I’m still harvesting PTCs.

Before that date, because when that date comes, I gotta be o and m efficient. I gotta be spend efficient, these things have to be running well. I need to get ’em up to snuff, tear that apart. Does that make sense?

Phil Totaro: Oh, it, makes perfect sense. So right now what everybody, particularly anybody that built a project that.

They wouldn’t be able to repower prior to the end of this PTC cliff in 2027. What they’re looking to do is exactly what you just mentioned, Joel. They have to get operational efficiency improved and they have to hunt for the best possible PPA that they can get. now the good news is that. the market average right now for PPAs is about 55, just under $56 a megawatt hour, but if that drops, it’s gonna throw folks like that.

And they’re 65, or, I’m sorry, 62.115 [00:15:00] gigawatts worth of projects in that time period I mentioned 2019 to 2023 that are not gonna be able to do a PTC driven repowering. So they’re gonna have to improve. Performance they’re gonna have to life extend, and they’re gonna have to go find, a better, whether it’s a corporate offtake or something, a high PPA, that’s gonna help them sustain their profitability.

Allen Hall: The data I’ve seen more recently about what electricity prices are going to be in a year or two shows them up almost 10%, or sometimes more than 10%. So they’re gonna have to climb the, money’s gonna come from somewhere because. Back to Phil’s original point, if you don’t develop it, you’re gonna have problems with power supply.

you’re gonna have brownouts and restrictions and all the things you’ve been trying to avoid for the last 20 years, it’s going to come about. So I think the offtake companies and all the corporations involved in this that are pulling massive amounts of power off the grid are going [00:16:00] to have to encourage these projects to go forward.

They’re going to have to renegotiate PPAs. the, sites are gonna get built. I think there may be more opportunity for a little bit more money for wind and particularly solar just because. Gas isn’t gonna fill it, no one else is gonna fill it. The prices are gonna go up, and I think you could ask for a higher PPA price and get it because there’s nobody else that can provide the power.

Joel Saxum: I think we should benchmark this, right? Like a couple a month ago or so, the three of us, or more than that, we talked about what our, local power prices were and we’re in completely different markets. Alan, you’re on the east coast. Phil, you’re on the West coast. I’m down in Austin. In the Ercot market, I think the Ercot market will adjust quicker.

Simply because it’s, unregulated, right? It can, it’ll move. It’ll move. It’ll move now. So I think we should do that. let’s once a month collect that data again, just to see what it looks like over the next few years and check the trend. Because I think, like you said, [00:17:00] it’s gotta come from somewhere at the end of the day, who’s paying the bills, the consumer, And that’s the frustrating thing about, to me, just the frustrating thing about what’s going on with this bill is. Is the consumer’s gonna end up paying and a lot of times the consumers in these deep red states, that’s where wind is. It doesn’t make sense to me, but I don’t make all the decisions.

Allen Hall: just play it out in your head.

If GE is making the, gas turbines that are gonna provide electricity, just say GE is a focal point, probably is. Are they gonna increase production 50% over the next year, two years, five years, 10 years? They can’t do it. It’s impossible. It’s impossible. Exactly right. So although the current administration is going to downplay wind and solar.

It’s a physics problem. You can’t do it. This is not a Pol politics problem. This is a physics

Joel Saxum: problem.

Phil Totaro: But he, so here’s the good news though. Going, back to Joel’s point, if you work [00:18:00] at an ISP, if you own a company that owns cranes, you are gonna be in demand. full employment for everybody.

And here’s the other thing, a lot of these companies that have been overlooked as far as, kind of asset management, platforms and digital services, our friends over at Sky Specs, as, being one example. they are gonna be also very in demand because the companies, the asset owners that said, oh, I can get by without, digital solutions.

You’re not gonna be able to, when you need to be able to optimize your performance to hold out until 2029. Because if, your project starts dropping off precipitously, you don’t have a PTC that you can leverage to repower your project anymore. And who knows what actually happens in 2029. Hopefully we get something back in place that, like Alan mentioned, and Joel mentioned, a week or two [00:19:00] ago where oil and gas already have permanent subsidies.

we can argue about whether or not. subsidies for renewables are a good or a bad thing and all that, but wind energy alone in the United States is a $500 billion plus industry, and we’re talking about, again, $66 billion paid out over 30 plus years, and $16 billion in the immediate term to help support an industry that creates, more than half a trillion dollars worth of value.

In the United States jobs, tax, revenue, et cetera. let’s hope everybody gets the message and, starts playing it smart from here on out.

Allen Hall: As Wind energy professionals staying informed is crucial, and let’s face it difficult. That’s why the Uptime podcast recommends PES Wind Magazine. PES Wind offers a diverse range of in-depth articles and expert insights that dive into the most pressing issues facing our energy future.[00:20:00]

Whether you’re an industry veteran or new to wind, PES Wind has the high quality content you need. Don’t miss out. Visit PES wind.com today. In this quarter’s, PES Wind Magazine, which you can Google PES Wind and it’ll take you right there. You can download your own copy. There’s a really good article from Safe Lifting Europe, bv and some of their sustainable practices.

And if you’ve seen some of the work that they do, they provide. All the green colored equipment, the lifting equipment, and they’ve shifted from, a traditional ownership model where you buy the harness or the lifting piece to a rental service, which is a totally different model because most of the time that I’ve been around heavy lift, we ended up buying all the pieces, but renting this makes a lot more sense.

But there’s a lot to that when that happens. And it is, a. Truly a different approach to what has been a very, [00:21:00] wanna call a, very state industry where it hasn’t moved around too much. you lift things, you check, make sure the everything is the, same. But the, problem has been, is that.

It’s pay to play and it’s hard to get into that industry if you wanna buy the equipment. And so safe lifting Europe is, has a different model and it’s about time. Joel, I, know you’ve been around some heavy lift equipment yourself. This is, this, doesn’t happen very much. I have not seen hardly any of this in the United States ’cause these guys are based in the Netherlands.

Joel Saxum: So again, I, and I dial back to this offshore oil and gas. Offshore oil and gas is such a specialized industry with, when you’re lifting something, you may be using a piece that looks like you’re lifting something in a yard, but you’re actually using that in 3000 feet of water. so there’s all this specialized equipment all the time, and if you’re an operator or an IIRM consultant or whoever else that’s doing this work, it’s so cost prohibitive, capital [00:22:00]intensive to get into these things and it reduces the amount of players in the market.

That’s the trouble it, concentrates ’em, right? You get to these certain projects and Only Cype can take it on because they’re the only ones that can afford to buy the kit. What this does is it opens up the market to money. More people, right? Because then that offshore oil and gas world, this is a model they use all the time.

There’s companies dedicated to this expensive kit, like there’s a company called Unique Group that we used to use all the time, and they have water weights for testing and this, and the good thing about them, and it was electric, it was electronics and all kinds of stuff. When you got the kit, it was tested, calibrated, certified, ready to roll, beautiful in a crate.

You know what I mean? So it showed us like, Hey, we need this piece. And it showed up on site and it was ready to run, and it was all done by a third party. You pay the day rate on it. Once you’re done, you ship it back. Now, from a contract standpoint, that’s awesome because you just charge cost plus whatever percentage you put on it to your client.

It’s a pass through cost, you’ve dealt with it. Project gets done. That’s awesome. I think that’s, it opens up again, it [00:23:00] opens up the market. You can use mult, more vessels, more companies, good on them. And they’ve done a, this is a, this is something you and I really Alan, is this clever marketing.

Clever marketing, clever branding. There’s companies that do this well, and this is good, right? Because it’s rental kit that all looks the same. So no matter what vessel it’s on, you’re gonna see this, specific color of green right down here in Texas. Whenever I see a red, f two 50 go by, I go, oh, that’s Weatherford.

You know them, you know those guys right away, right? The Weatherford guys with the red jumpsuits and the red bumpers on the truck and stuff. you always see that. Or, like, in the offshore world, deme, blind green, Deme, you can see a deme vessel from miles away and you go, that’s that.

That’s them. That’s them. This will catch on. I like their, what they’ve done. Kudos to whoever thought of that as a branding initiative. I think this is only good things for the entire market, having a player like this that’s, specializing in that lifting kit.

Allen Hall: Yeah, great [00:24:00] article and you need to go check it out.

You can download this article at PS Wind. Just visit, your Google engine type in PS Wind. It’ll take you right there. Download it. There’s a ton of great articles in this quarter’s edition. and good on to safe Lifting Europe, bv. A lot of discussion about companies being, sold at the minute, and Joel and I have heard.

Quite a number of stories over the last probably month or so, but a ES corporation is, stock has gone up and down quite recently because the impression is, that they are for sale and they’re a Virginia based, renewable power company. And it sounds like they’ve had takeover interest from, investors, including Brookfield Asset Management, BlackRock of course, and Global Infrastructure Partners.

Now, a ES has a unique client base. They are really tied into the [00:25:00] data centers and ai centers, which from which are the big names, and Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, if you named the three. Those are the three. but it has more recently, as has seen their stock fall since about 2022. So it’s down quite a bit.

However, the future will look bright. This would be the perfect time to pick up a ES at probably a, what would be considered a reasonable price. But the dollar numbers, the market cap on a ES is pretty big at the moment. Joel? Yeah, I think what, what did, we see today? Like 40

Joel Saxum: billion. 40 billion. So there’s been a couple of big.

Acquisitions in the last year, right? There was the, GIP bought that company, New Mexico, can’t remember the name of it, that one. And then the Constellation bought Calpine for 16 billion. So that was another big one that just happened. of course we know BP is for sale. We should see an announcement on that at any [00:26:00] time.

We don’t know who or what that price is. but that’s gonna happen for bps, US onshore assets. So there is some big things moving and grooving. I could see, like I, I think off air I was talking BlackRock. GIP is a big one. Brookfield, I know Phil, you had some opinions on Brookfield, but, if a ES.

They’ve got some stuff in, in the states. They’ve got a lot of stuff in the Latin American countries, south America as well, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, they got some cool wind farms. If they’re doing some due diligence and you need someone to go, the uptime crew can go to Hawaii for the one you got out there, we’ll definitely take a peek at that for you or whoever the prospective buyer is.

but yeah, we, have friends over there. We know some of the engineers at a ES. of course, when these acquisitions happen, for the most part, it doesn’t change much. they just have a different t-shirt to wear and a different email signature. there’s some good people over there.

but yeah. Phil, what are your thoughts on who a prospective buyer for this a [00:27:00] ES thing could be?

Phil Totaro: Yeah, besides the two companies that have been named, you could have Masar also potentially kicking the tires if they wanted to expand their footprint. but I think Brookfield is probably the best fit.

besides some of the operational synergies that they already have with projects they’ve got, it fits Brookfield’s, as you mentioned, Joel, they’ve got assets in, Peru, Chile, and, I wanna say some transmission related assets as well in, in Brazil. that probably fit Brookfield’s portfolio a little bit better than anybody else, but I wouldn’t put it out of the realm of possibility that.

somebody dives in and, tries to gobble them up because they’ve built a pretty good portfolio, and a healthy one as well. This

Joel Saxum: week’s Wind Farm of the week is the Wheat Ridge Hybrid Energy Project. Why this one popped up on the Wind Farm of the Week is looking [00:28:00] forward to what’s going on in politically in the states right now, thinking about operational efficiencies and how do we squeeze as much more out of a project as we can.

And the interesting thing about this is the first project in the United States that combines the three most common renewable energy kind assets. You have wind on site, you have solar on site, and you have battery storage on site. Now, the advantage to that, of course, is it’s pretty simple. it’s combines the BOP costs.

So you have the same transmission, lines. the same o and m crews and that kind of stuff all in one spot. So it makes more sense. You’re double dipping on these, capital costs from the beginning. so a little bit about the wind farm. It’s up in Oregon, marrow County, near Lexington.

It’s about 300 megawatts of wind. There’s a, there’s 120 GE turbines up there. Have 2.3 and 2.5 megawatt units. There’s also a 50 megawatt, solar [00:29:00]array. And there’s a 30 megawatt, 120 megawatt hour lithium ion battery storage system. So together there’s 350 megawatts of production plus that nice smoothing, side of the batteries with a little bit of, there’s about four hours with the storage there.

so you can power efficiently a hundred thousand homes off of this one project from one spot. it was jointly built by Portland General Electric and NextEra. So NextEra’s got their hands in a lot of stuff. They got their hands in this one. and it was the first of its kind. It’s a util utility scale facility with wind, solar, and storage all on one site.

and because of that, you’re, balancing, the storage or the storage balances that grid variability and delivers power even when, you know the sun, wind aren’t optimal. I personally would love to see a ton more projects like this. it, and it has a lot of those same numbers we see on a lot of the Wind Farm of the week, or, anything.

It, 300 jobs created, 10 [00:30:00] full-time staff, millions of dollars in tax benefits. so really cool project. And as we go into the next phase of the energy transition, would love to see more projects done like this, or even retrofitted like this would be pretty cool. so the Wheatridge Hybrid Energy Project up in Oregon,

Allen Hall: you’re the Wind Farm of the week.

And that’s gonna do it for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Thanks for joining us. Stay tuned. There’s a lot happening in wind. Don’t get discouraged. It’s all gonna be okay, and we’ll see you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

https://weatherguardwind.com/ptc-legislation-aes/

Renewable Energy

Best Place To Put Your Solar Panels In Australia

Published

2 days ago

July 15, 2025

Alice Rush

Australia has over 2.3 million rooftop solar power systems, with nearly 20,000 new installations each month. Using the sun’s energy is a wise and environmentally friendly way to meet our energy needs.

But, optimising their performance requires thoroughly understanding Australia’s best solar panel orientation. So you’ll need to know the best place to put your solar panels. And today, we’ll try to understand the best place, direction, and orientation to put your panels.

Understanding the best orientation and place for solar panels is essential to get maximum output from solar panels.

In this blog post:

Why is The Orientation of Solar Panels Important?

The positioning of solar panels plays a crucial role in their efficiency, as they rely on exposure to sunlight to function effectively. To optimise the performance of your solar panels, careful consideration of their placement and angle is necessary.

The chosen angle directly impacts the energy produced from sunlight and the potential savings on your energy bill.

However, the structural capacity of your roof, like trees blocking the sun, may limit the ideal positioning. Ultimately, your specific circumstances will influence the direction you place your solar panels.

Solar installers can work closely with you to design a system that best suits your needs and energy consumption. If you’re interested in installing solar panels on your rooftop, check out ratings and reviews on solar panel installers to find the most reputable options.

The Optimal Direction for Solar Panels in Australia

Solar panel orientation refers to the direction that your solar panels face. It is a critical factor in determining the amount of sunlight your panels can capture and convert into electricity.

The best direction for solar panels in Australia is typically north-facing. North-facing solar panels in the Southern Hemisphere, including Australia, receive the most direct sunlight throughout the day, and it maximises solar energy production.

North-facing panels capture sunlight from the Northern Hemisphere, where the sun is positioned at its highest point.

By orienting your solar panels towards the north, you can take advantage of the sun’s path and optimise the amount of solar energy your panels generate. This north-facing orientation ensures that the panels receive sunlight from sunrise to sunset for most of the day.

While a north-facing direction is a general recommendation, solar panels can still generate energy facing east or west. East-facing panels capture the morning sunlight while west-facing panels receive the afternoon sunlight.

If your roof has limited space or shading issues, consider installing panels on east or west-facing roofs to maximise sunlight’s benefits.

However, it’s important to note that while east and west orientations may provide some energy production, they typically generate less energy than a north-facing orientation.

By facing your solar panels north, you can ensure they receive the maximum sunlight throughout the day, increasing their energy production.

Moreover, tilting the panels at a perfect angle plays a significant role. Ideally, this angle should equal your location’s latitude to capture the most sunlight over the year.

North-facing panels tilted at 30 degrees achieve the highest solar energy production throughout the year. This configuration is particularly beneficial for those with a fixed feed-in tariff, as it maximises savings.

West-facing panels in Australia

West-facing panels generate the most solar energy between 1:30 pm and sunset. This orientation is ideal for individuals away from home in the morning and present during the afternoon.

By utilising appliances during these hours, one can lower their electricity bill. Otherwise, they would have to purchase power from electricity retailers at a higher rate during peak demand periods.

East-facing panels in Australia

Conversely, east-facing panels produce the most solar energy in the morning hours. They are well-suited for households with higher electricity consumption during the mornings, providing savings on peak morning electricity rates.

South-facing panels in Australia

South-facing panels generate the least solar energy compared to other directions. However, they become viable when shading or roof direction makes different orientations impractical.

North-facing panels in Australia

In most regions of Australia, north-facing panels achieve at least 99% of their maximum output. But if installing panels in a north-facing direction is physically challenging, the following plausible locations are east or west.

While this may reduce solar output, it is still a better recommendation for maximum energy production.

The Ideal Placement

North-facing roof: North-facing roofs in the Southern Hemisphere, including Australia, receive the most direct sunlight throughout the day. Install your solar panels on a north-facing roof to maximise solar energy production.

Tilt and angle: The optimal tilt angle for solar panels in Australia is generally around 30 to 35 degrees to capture the maximum amount of sunlight. However, this can vary depending on your location. You can consult with a solar installer or use online tools that calculate the ideal tilt and angle based on the site.

Shading: Avoid shading as much as possible. Even a small amount of shading can significantly reduce the efficiency of solar panels. Trim or remove any trees or objects that cast shadows on your panels during peak sunlight hours.

Climate considerations: Australia has diverse climates, ranging from tropical in the north to more temperate in the south. Consider your specific environment when determining the placement of solar panels. In hotter regions, leaving a small gap between the panels and the roof may be beneficial to allow for airflow and prevent overheating.

Mounting options: Solar panels can be installed on various surfaces, including rooftops, ground mounts, or solar carports. Evaluate the available space on your property and choose the mounting option that best suits your needs.

Local regulations and guidelines: Familiarise yourself with local laws, permits, and policies related to solar panel installations in your area. Some neighbourhoods or homeowners’ associations may have specific rules regarding panel placement.

We recommend consulting with Cyanergy, a professional solar installer. Our energy experts can assess your property’s specific nature and provide personalised advice for optimal solar panel placement for your home.

How Technology Has Helped Solar Panel Placement

The location of solar panels is of utmost importance for their efficiency and overall functionality. It is much like the significance of location in the real estate world. Solar technology has seen significant improvements over the years.

It provides homeowners with more flexibility in selecting where to position their panels. In the past, solar panels were most effective when facing true south and installed in regions with consistent, year-round sunlight.

This made it less advisable for homes not oriented towards the south or located in rainy, cloudy areas to invest in solar panels, as the potential savings might not have justified the costs.

However, current solar technology has made the direction and region more open. Nowadays, panels can be placed on roofs or the ground, facing east or west, while still capturing substantial energy. This increased adaptability allows for significant cost savings on monthly electricity bills and an overall reduction in energy consumption.

Why Can’t Everyone Angle Their Panels Toward the North?

Some property owners have their panels facing west due to the direction of their rooftops. Typically, panels align with the roof and largely avoid shade when installed.

If trees or structures shadow one side of a roof, the logical choice would be the unshaded side. These could be east, north, west, or any direction. With the decreasing cost of solar batteries, the optimal solution is to cover the entire roof, regardless of orientation. The idea is to store the necessary energy with reduced energy costs.

How to Decide on A suitable Plan for Your Home?

For owners of solar energy systems, the most precise way to monitor solar performance is through a proactive tracking system. These systems can quickly pay for themselves, depending on the size and dependability of a solar energy system.

An active monitoring system is essential to ensure accurate solar performance tracking. It enables users to monitor energy usage and net electricity transactions. It provides solar panels to function with optimal energy efficiency.

With a smart monitor, you can also compare your system’s projected energy generation with the energy produced on a specific day. Additionally, you can assess whether your solar panels function at peak energy efficiency.

Select Solar Emporium to Get Your Desired Solar Package

Every home and business is unique, so it’s always a good idea to consult a solar installation professional to determine the best setup for your needs. Several cost-effective packages are available at Cyanergy.

Get a free solar quote today! We have created these packages considering your energy needs, location, and budget.

These packages combine tier-1 solar panels, Australian-designed battery systems, and inverters. These will allow you to store excess solar energy and power your home day and night.

Various financing options are now accessible for installing solar panels and solar batteries. You can pay them off gradually over time.

Optimising is a crucial aspect of designing a solar power system. It enables you to maximise your solar system’s potential. The ideal configuration of a solar power system depends on your electricity usage and solar production.

A reputable solar installer like Cyanergy can design a solar system based on property details and electricity consumption habits. It will help you achieve the best return on investment for your solar power system.

Use the sun and enjoy the benefits of sustainable, renewable energy in Australia. Get a free solar quote or talk to an expert today!