Published

10 months ago

July 9, 2024

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

GE Vernova Lawsuits, BP Renewables, Maersk Supply Service Acquired

GE Vernova is suing SKF USA for $386 million over failing bearings, and American Electric Power (AEP) is suing GE Vernova for wind turbine failures. WUPROHYD is looking to combine wave, solar, and wind power generation into a single floating structure, potentially revolutionizing offshore renewable energy production. BP’s CEO is moving company focus away from renewables. DOF Group acquires Maersk Supply Service for $1.11 billion in a cash and stock deal. Jupiter Bach is facing challenges due to EU sanctions on Chinese fiberglass. Nordex plans to restart production at its facility in Iowa. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has issued key approvals for two major offshore wind projects: Atlantic Shores South and New England Wind.

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!

Pardalote Consulting – https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com
Weather Guard Lightning Tech – www.weatherguardwind.com
Intelstor – https://www.intelstor.com

Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your host, Allen Hall, and I’ll be bringing you this week’s top stories in the wind energy sector. BP is making significant changes to its strategy under new CEO Murray Auchincloss. The oil giant has implemented a company wide hiring freeze and paused new offshore wind projects.

This marks a stark departure from the previous leadership’s focus on rapidly transitioning to renewable energy. Auchincloss is redirecting the company’s focus back to oil and gas investments, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico and U. S. shale basins. Dozens of employees previously working on new renewable opportunities have been reassigned to existing projects, and the company is also expected to make job cuts in its renewable sector, though specific numbers haven’t been announced.

These changes come as BP faces investor discontent over its energy transition strategy, And underperforming shares. The company is now aiming to balance its decarbonization goals with the current high demand for oil and gas. Industry analysts see this as a significant shift in BP’s approach to the energy transition, potentially setting a new trend in the oil and gas sector.

Moving on to global shipping news, Norwegian supply shipping company, Dof Group, has agreed to acquire Maersk Supply Service for about 1. 1 billion. Dof will pay 577 million in cash and issue new shares worth 1. 1 billion. Merrick Supply Service Holding set to own 25 percent of Doff’s shares after the transaction.

The combined company will operate under Doff’s name and remain listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. DOP plans to finance the acquisition through a 500 million dollar debt facility and up to 125 million dollars in equity. In related news, a new company called Maersk Offshore Wind has been launched to accelerate offshore wind deployment.

The company will provide installation services. Using a new wind installation vessel concept, which is estimated to reduce installation time of offshore wind turbines by about 30 percent compared to conventional methods. This efficiency is expected to lower overall installation costs for developers.

The first vessel is scheduled for delivery in 2025. Maersk Offshore Wind, a spinoff of Maersk Supply Service, is owned by AP Moller Holding and will be headquartered in Denmark. The company aims to support the growing offshore wind market, particularly in Europe and the U. S., where ambitious targets for install capacity have been set for 2030 and 2050.

European wind industry supplier Jupiter Bach is facing challenges due to EU sanctions on Chinese fiberglass. The company’s CEO warns that high tariffs on raw materials But low tariffs on finished products are incentivizing production in China over Europe. JupiterBot is recommending that the EU require locally produced content in the wind industry to maintain European production capabilities and knowledge base.

In U. S. manufacturing news, Nordex Group has announced plans to restart production at its facility in West Branch, Iowa. The company will manufacture nacelles for its current N163 turbine model and a new product designed specifically for the U. S. market. Production is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2025 with an annual capacity expected to exceed 2.

5 gigawatts. This move is part of NORDEX’s growth strategy in North America and aims to meet domestic content requirements while creating new jobs in the U. S. Lastly, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has issued key approvals for two major offshore wind projects, Atlantic Shore South, which will generate up to 2.

8 gigawatts for New Jersey, Received a record of decision. New England wind is set to generate up to 2. 6 gigawatts for Massachusetts. Got approval for its construction and operations plan. These approvals mark significant progress in the U. S. offshore wind industry, with BOEM having now approved nine projects tolling more than 13 gigawatts of offshore wind energy in the development pipeline.

That’s this week’s top news stories. Now let’s welcome our co host, CEO and founder of InterStor, Phil Totaro, and the Chief Commercial Officer of WeatherGuard, Joel Saxo.

In some recent legal developments affecting the wind energy sector in the United States There are two significant lawsuits involving GE Vernovo. And the first one is with SKF bearing manufacturer for about 380 million. And then the second one is with AEP suing GE Vernovo over wind turbine failures, primarily focused on SKF bearings.

So this is a big deal. Where, wherever this, these lawsuits go, whether they settle or not, which they probably will there is a significant bearing issue out in service on a bunch of GE turbines. And I would assume this probably exists on other turbines, but maybe just not as well noticed. But it has to do with the coating on the bearings, Joel, there’s a diamond light coating, a very hard coating that’s applied to some of these bearings.

that from what I’m hearing from the field starts to flake off and then gets stuck into the lubrication system and then gets all caught up in the bearing. It is a huge problem. And I know when we traveled through Texas and Oklahoma operators brought this up to us.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, for sure. Imagine going to your car and opening up the oil reservoir and just pouring some metal chunks in there and then expecting your motor to last.

That’s just not how it works. So when this coating flakes off, it gets ground up a little bit smaller than the flakes, but not much because the coating is super, super hard. So it just creates. Basically debris within the lubrication system. So where they’re supposed to be. Solid bearing material, solid ball bearings or rollers rolling against a, or a guide you now and with grease in there, of course, you now have impregnated in all of that grease, all kinds of little particles that are chewing up your bearings.

We heard to the point where the bearing races got chewed through by this basically mixture of this coating and the grease so much that the roller bearings were falling out of the actual bearing race. And that, That’s extreme.

Allen Hall: And Phil, this has implications on a grander scale about service agreements, right?

That I think AEP is using GE. I think it’s maybe under warranty still, but there are also a lot of operators that are, have service agreements with GE. It puts a lot of pressure on GE Vernova at a time that they don’t really need it. And it opens a door, I think, to a lot of ISPs offering services that maybe GE doesn’t want to do anymore.

Does that make sense?

Philip Totaro: The reason why this is a big deal now is that A, it was leaked out. It’s not, it’s public information, but it’s not something that people would have necessarily known about had it not been for somebody tracking and finding the complaint that got filed in the state of New York where there’s also, an ongoing legal battle between GE and a bearing supplier SKF on, some of those main bearing issues that you mentioned, including the diamond light coating.

But AEP’s complaint against GE, they actually identified pitch bearing outer raceway issues gearbox torque pin migration they also identified cracks in TPI made blades Let’s see, blade edgewise vibration issues on TPI made blades, LM blade root delamination issues. There was also a blade liberation event that they specifically identified.

This has impacted three of AEP’s biggest project sites, which use GE 2. 0 I want to say 2. 5 116s and 2. 0. 8 1 27. And this is more than a gigawatt worth of capacity installed between these three project sites. The traverse Maverick and Sundance projects in Oklahoma. So these turbines are, probably not unique in the issues being experienced.

Although again, a lot of this does come back down to how are they being operated? What’s the turbulence intensity at the site, et cetera, et cetera. And that’s been GE’s kind of position is, an owner operator brings up these kind of maintenance issues and these breach of contract issues on.

The faults, failures, and the general state of operation and the availability of the plant. GE’s kind of, it feels according to AEP and the complaint that they filed, it feels like GE’s slow rolling them on a response. They’re basically saying, oh, we need time to investigate what’s really going on, and do all this root cause analysis, et cetera, et cetera.

And AEP’s hey, we’ve been telling you almost since day one that there’s been some issues. And you guys haven’t been fully addressing it.

Allen Hall: Joel, doesn’t this bring up a number of different operators and their affiliated OEMs? I can think of one in particular that’s having a similar issue, not with bearings but with some blade issues.

That seems to be pretty widespread, but in these cases where it is a difficult engineering problem to solve, and we’re pushing the boundaries very rapidly on what can be manufactured and what can be produced these kind of events, Joel, seem like they’re inevitable at some level, right? That you push a diamond like coating hard enough, eventually it’ll fail.

If you push a blade hard enough in particular aspects that eventually it’ll crack. We just don’t have enough history on some of these turbines to show a 20 year lifespan isn’t that part of the point, is that we’ve just designed ourselves into a corner, taking away some of the safety margins and those sort of things, just trying to lean them down to be more cost efficient.

Isn’t this the likely outcome?

Joel Saxum: It is. And the trouble here is that, okay, say take that same platform Phil was just talking about. The one about the AEP GE SKF lawsuits. That 2. 3 to 2. 8, so we call them the GE 2X machines, right? The 116, 127 meter rotors. There’s something like 9, 000 and change in those installed just in the U S.

So what happens with these people, whether this is a GE problem or you’re talking about other issues in the marketplace, Festus, Siemens, Kamesa, whoever it is they all have this. Some kind of serial defect type thing going on at some level. There’s, you can find a mistake like that in almost every manufacturer’s product line.

They don’t have the horsepower to go and fix these things, right? If GE all of a sudden goes, there’s this lawsuit goes through, everybody hops on board right behind AEP. And this thing turns into 10 operators suing GE and trying to get some kind of recourse from it. There’s not enough money, time or people right now in the wind industry to go and fix all these problems.

You’re not there. You’re not going to go and replace 9, 000 main bearings. Sorry. Like we don’t, there’s not enough cranes. There’s not enough people. There’s not enough money to go do that right now. So engineering, these opportunities. So this is the follow, but like getting back to your question, Allen We’ve, in my opinion, now I’m not a engineer in a factory building wind turbine parts.

I’m not Rosemary, right? I’ve never done that. But yeah, we’ve pushed ourselves so hard in this arms race to get the biggest, baddest, best turbines out there that we’ve cut safety margins down and changed things so fast and didn’t possibly, this bearing thing is a hard thing to test. To be honest with you, because they not, it’s not like it’s a high speed rotating piece of equipment where you can, figure some meantime before failure out by just cranking the thing up.

This is a slow rolling, doesn’t really move a whole lot kind of piece of equipment much like a pitch bearing is the kind of the same thing. They’re hard to test.

Allen Hall: If there’s going to be this defect problem, let’s go, let’s call it a defect just to simplify the situation. So say there’s some sort of defect.

In the bearings, GE still may not know what’s causing them. I agree with Joel here. They probably did a ton of testing on these bearings and have service experience with the coating. I think it wouldn’t fail. These wind turbines are getting, becoming more complex, right? As they have reduced safety factors, they’re getting modes of loads that are slightly different.

That’s why they have this blade cracking issue. Probably also, is it just The combination of all these variables that’s adding up, that something is happening to the bearings, and subsequently. Is there a fix that doesn’t involve replacing all the bearings? Do we know that yet?

Philip Totaro: This is more of a, if we’re gonna call it a serial defect issue, again, this is what’s in the AEP, legal complaint against GE they’re calling it a serial defect issue.

That’s a, first of all, a different scenario, but it’s not as much necessarily related to operation. This is, what we sometimes refer to, and slightly unfortunate phrase here, but infant mortality rate of components in the industry. So there’s that kind of a a scenario that has to be dealt with.

And those components just need to be swapped out. But if they’re seeing an actual operational related failure within, these projects were, installed in 2021 and operational in 2022, they shouldn’t be seeing where related faults and failures that fast, unless there was a manufacturing defect.

Allen Hall: But I think the other factor, which is unknown from the bearing manufacturer’s standpoint. Is things like generator currents and currents flowing around the nacelle up there that. You as a bearing manufacturer have no control over either, right? And I think that’s actually comes up in one of the complaints is talking about current flow in the nacelle running through the bearings.

Philip Totaro: We need more data sharing in the industry. Because that is the only thing that is going to solve this problem. Show us your data. Get that stuff out there so people can start looking at it. It doesn’t mean that it’s going to drive up your insurance premiums. There are ways we can shield that information from people that you don’t want to share it with.

But start putting mechanisms in place where people that are having similar problems, other owner operators that have similar problems to you, are able to take a look at the data you’ve got, what problems you’re having, start a conversation, and share information, and that is going to reduce these faults and failures.

Allen Hall: I do think that the operators, especially large operators like AEP, Participate in ESIG and a number of other types of operator conferences where they do discuss these things. I think the missing link right now is who at an operator’s site has someone super knowledgeable about the coding that is applied to a GE bearing.

I don’t know who that would be. I haven’t run across that person. I’d say they don’t exist, but it doesn’t seem like someone you necessarily carry on your staff. And that’s a problem, right? I think it’s also a limited number of people with the knowledge to go investigate it and to come up with some conclusions.

I know there’s, GE’s full of smart people, right? I’m sure they have applied smart people to a difficult problem. But from my read of the situation, it doesn’t look like they have identified a one possible cause. This seems like there’s three, four, five of them right now.

Philip Totaro: That’s correct. And to their point, they do need to do a full RCA and all this stuff.

Whether or not they are culpable under the contract for having allowed some of these potential serial defects into, because what, here’s what happens when GE signs a supply contract with SKF, or Timken, or anybody. They have certain guarantees provided by that subcomponent manufacturer. But at the end of the day, in the turbine supply contract to, in this case it was Invenergy that built these sites, and then sold them to AEP, there’s like a line drawn in the sand that says GE is liable here.

And that if there’s an issue with the performance of the bearing, even though it’s technically, GE has to go work it out with the bearing supplier, GE’s the one that’s contractually liable to the owner operator.

Joel Saxum: A trade off there. Phil, you say share the data. Allen, you say, yes, great, but there’s not always an expert.

Why not get the, do the share of the data, but get the subject matter experts involved? So where does this go?

Allen Hall: What’s the likely outcome of all this? Between AEP, GE, and SKF.

Joel Saxum: Phil’s right. I think Phil said, I think you said earlier Phil it won’t go to trial. They’ll settle. There’ll be some money changed hands.

And then GE will do a little bit of horse trading with AEP.

Philip Totaro: You’re right, Joel. This isn’t the first time that an OEM’s been sued for issues or had issues with an owner operator. But it, the fact that this has been, Made so public, it’s triggering a lot of conversations now amongst ISPs independent service providers, and owner operators.

And, OEMs to say, look, if we’re not getting what we need from you, we’re going to cancel your, full wrap service contract. And we’re going to go to this independent service provider, or we’re going to start domesticating that knowledge and capability in house. To repair our own stuff.

Joel Saxum: Let’s do some simple math here. Let’s just, this is just for interest sake. Okay, so let’s take Traverse. And we say there’s 356 turbines on that farm. And we’re gonna say half of them have an issue. 178 turbines have an issue. So say we gotta replace the main bearings on 178 turbines. That is, you have a crane on site.

Basically, it probably takes a, you can hook the thing in a morning, get it down to the ground. How long do you think it takes to swap that bearing out? Say it’s two days. So you’re looking at 300, we’re going right back up, 356 working days. Okay, we’re not working on Sundays, so we’re gonna take that out of there.

You’re looking at 60 weeks of working time with one crane, and that’s without encountering any weather, which you’re going to have. If you had one crane, it would take you probably two years To do those of it nonstop and a crane is sometimes depending on what the crane is, those things are 20, 30, 000 a day.

Philip Totaro: Well, which by the way is what makes was it Treehouse that just invested in Liftworks? That’s what makes that investment so important, I think, at this point.

Allen Hall: From a GE looking forward perspective and a little bit looking back, I think. Is this something that they knew was in the background for the last year or so, and this explains why they’ve made some of the decisions they made to essentially reduce staff, cut down on the number of models, probably focus on what they have, and less on development, obviously they said they were doing that.

Does this problem, and maybe just because of how maybe widespread it is, force that kind of action upon G. E. even though they weren’t really talking about it, they had to have known in the background this was going on.

Philip Totaro: Oh yeah, they would have had to have known that this was gonna be coming. Again, considering how we operate projects in the U.

S. now, this isn’t just this PTC farming that I keep talking about, that’s not new. This has been going on since we started doing the repowering, the PTC driven repowerings, in 2017. We’re getting experienced enough.

Allen Hall: Where’s the certification body in all this?

Philip Totaro: Counting their money.

Allen Hall: Did anybody mention that? Who’s,

Joel Saxum: who is going after the type certification body? Contractually, they’ve got something that, that makes them non liable, I almost guarantee that.

Allen Hall: Sure, right? And the airplane world is very similar. An airplane crashes, the FAA comes back and looks at it, and says everything was within process, the standard process, everything, all the boxes were checked properly.

Things just broke. Okay. We’ll go back and future airplanes won’t have that problem. Here, the certification body, which is a private organization is putting their stamp of approval on these turbines. And then two years in they’re having massive Serial defect issues, something’s wrong, right? Cause GE is going to point to the certification body.

AEP probably is also, right? I got the certificate. It says everything’s cool. And SKF as a bearing manufacturer says, I passed the CERT test, the type certification test for this application. Everybody’s just gonna be pointing at one another, right? And when it gets into court, somebody’s gonna say that.

They’re gonna ask what was the consequences of having a certification if we’re just ignoring it. When things get tough. How do they step out of this? I don’t know. But it does seem like that is part of the missing link. 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. 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. So in this issue of PES Wind Magazine, a good article, and we don’t talk about this a lot, but I’m interested in Wave Energy and you don’t see a lot of deep articles about how to use wave energy. I know there’s some really good designs that have been out there. Putting them in the field and getting something tested.

That’s a different story. And I think there’s been a lot of worry about wave energy, how durable it’s going to be and those kinds of things. But as we move offshore, particularly for floating wind, I think wave energy is a possibility, and I think there’s some unique opportunities at the moment to do something.

And there’s a Polish design firm called WuProHyde, W P R O H Y D. that is working on innovative wave turbine technology to take power out of the ocean waves. And they’re, what they’re. Describing in the magazine is a three part system, an energy island, so to speak of wind, floating wind with solar on these platforms and on the top of the platform is solar, on the bottom of the platform is a wave energy system such that they can maximize the output of these Energy islands.

And if they give some numbers here, but basically what they’re saying is somewhere between 21 and 34 megawatts could be generated by the system in the North Sea per module. That’s a lot. That’s a lot of power generation without a lot of more complexity. Obviously there’s some here you’re building this little platform for these solar panels and wave generators to sit in, it looks fairly straightforward.

And my question to everybody here is, why haven’t we seen more combos of solar, wind, and gas? Wave, wind, wave solar being thought of or trialed right now.

Joel Saxum: So last year, Allen, exactly what this article is about. I sat in a panel at OTC, the offshore technology conference, mainly focused on oil and gas, but they had some renewable energy technologies in, which was great.

But one of the panelists actually the lead was talking about designs for this exact same thing, like we hate. We’re gonna, if you have offshore floating wind or offshore fixed bottom wind, you already have the infrastructure in place, the cables are ran the expert, like everything’s there. Why not add more generation to it?

The other side of that, too, is if you put in the wave generators for power. Now you’re creating power at night. During the day, during different weather patterns, all kinds of different stuff, right? So you’re optimizing the time, the, the uptime of that generating asset. So it just makes sense.

And all of us have been to the beach, all of us have been to the ocean. Like the waves are always rolling, even when there’s a light breeze, there’s always waves moving. This, and there’s actually quite a couple, there’s a couple of other concepts out there that are taking advantage of tidal.

Currents, because again, like that’s something you could set your clock by when title currents move so that resource is always going to be there. So I think that this is something that should be explored a little bit more. The tough thing I think that you’re going to hear from people in the industry is the operations and maintenance on it.

That’s something we’ve got to make sure that we can sort out.

Philip Totaro: That is part of it. The other reason why, going back to Allen’s original question, why we don’t see more of these being commercially deployed is the insurance companies are, unfortunately, as they tend to be, pretty risk averse, particularly when you start combining these different power generation systems on a single platform.

And the fact that, one thing happens, it takes down, three power generation sources now, instead of them being three independent ones. You’re also talking about more electrical infrastructure out there in the water. Bigger substations, bigger converters, etc. So there’s kind of trade offs, both commercially and technologically, to that.

The other thing is that the wave energy converters haven’t been as reliable or efficient. When you can go out and get 50, 60, whatever percent capacity factor from an offshore wind farm, with particularly low turbulence intensity, these wave energy converters are maybe doing 8 to 10 percent conversion efficiency.

It hasn’t been the best performing technology, but it’s early, and there’s obviously some economies of scale that can happen. I don’t, however, ever see the wave Energy technology being deployed as a commercial power generation source by its own. I do the concept of combining it with different power generation technologies to do what Joel was just describing and take advantage of, continuous power generation, regardless of, whether or other operational circumstance.

So that seems like a reasonable thing to be able to do.

Allen Hall: So if you haven’t, Okay. Received your copy of PES Wind, the latest issue. You can download it at peswind.com. A lot of great articles in this issue a lot to catch up on. So check it out at peswind.com.

Joel Saxum: This week’s Wind Farm of the Week is the Richland Wind Farm is in Iowa, owned by Aligned Energy, so SAT county, Iowa, and it’s started, it’s, producing of energy in September of 2020. There, the wind farm has 53 GE 2. 5 megawatt machines with 127 meter rotors for a 131 megawatts total hub height as about 295 feet on these things. So they’re pretty high. They were designed for a medium wind with a design speed of 17 miles per hour. So this wind farm was part of a line energies strategy of putting over 1.

8 billion into wind energy back in the, this was in the 2020. So the last one, this was the last wind farm of a larger plan to add five new wind farms to Iowa, which they did right before COVID. So some interesting things about this wind farm. I found a little bit of information online October and November, and then jumping to March and April are the, actually the best producing months year by year for the Richland wind farm.

And by that, that’s when they make the most amount of power. So the most recent data shows that about a little over 560 gigawatt hours of annual generation came from the Richland wind farm in the last 12 months. And that is good to be number 40 out of 123 wind power plants in Iowa. And I bet you didn’t know there was 123 wind farms in Iowa. So number 40 out of 123 in Iowa and 335 out of 1, 329 in the United States nationwide and that’s for wind power plants. The interesting one, you expand that to all the power plants in the country and if you rank the Richland Wind Farm by how much power it produced in the last 12 months, it ranks number 1, 239 out of 11, 249 total power plants.

So Richland Wind Farm in Iowa? You are our windfarm of the week.

Allen Hall: That’s going to do it for this week’s Uptime Wind Energy podcast. Thanks for listening. 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.

https://weatherguardwind.com/ge-vernova-lawsuit-bp-maersk-nordex/

Renewable Energy

What Makes the U.S. SO Different than Mexico and Canada?

Published

1 day ago

April 29, 2025

Alice Rush

The answer to the question above seems to reside in the things that do and do not impress us.

We’re not impressed with intelligence, intellectual accomplishment, science, or truth.

We are impressed with riches (regardless of how immorally the wealth was acquired), the strength of bullies and cruelty to people who are too weak to defend themselves, lavish promises that are impossible to keep and easily debunked, and bald-faced lies.

What Makes the U.S. SO Different than Mexico and Canada?

Renewable Energy

Upgrade to LED With Zero Out-of-Pocket Cost in Australia

Published

2 days ago

April 29, 2025

Alice Rush

Are you still using old, power-hungry lights at home or your business? Switching to energy-efficient LED lighting has never been easier — and in many cases, it won’t cost you anything upfront!

With Australian government initiatives, you can now upgrade to LED with zero out-of-pocket cost in Australia and start saving on your energy bills right away. Let’s dive into how you can benefit from this opportunity.

In this blog post:

What is the Free LED Lights Replacement NSW Program?

In New South Wales (NSW), the government offers a Free LED Lights Replacement NSW program under the Energy Savings Scheme (ESS).

This scheme helps households and businesses replace old halogen, incandescent, and fluorescent lights with new energy-saving LED lights.

Through approved providers like Cyanergy: Energy Efficiency Experts, you can upgrade your entire home or business lighting system — often with no upfront cost or for a small service fee.

How the Free LED Light Replacement, Government of NSW Program Works

The Free LED Light Replacement, Government of NSW program is very simple:

1. You apply through an approved supplier.

2. A licensed electrician assesses your current lighting.

3. They replace eligible lights with brand-new LED lights.

4. You immediately start saving on your electricity bill!

Most homes and businesses are eligible, and in many cases, installation can happen within days of applying.

Household Energy-Saving Upgrades: Why LEDs Are the Best Choice

Household energy-saving upgrades are essential today, particularly as energy costs continue to rise. LEDs are the smart choice because:

They use up to 80% less energy than traditional lighting.

They last up to 10 times longer.

They produce less heat, making your home cooler.

They help reduce your carbon footprint.

Switching to LEDs is one of the fastest and easiest ways to make your home greener and more energy-efficient.

Full Home LED Light Upgrade NSW from $33

In some cases, a Full Home LED Light Upgrade NSW from $33 is available if you want premium options or have a large number of lights to replace.

This small investment can lead to massive long-term savings, often paying for itself within a few months through lower electricity bills.

NSW GOV LED UPGRADE: Who Can Apply?

The NSW GOV LED UPGRADE program is open to:

Homeowners

Renters (with landlord permission)

Small businesses

Large commercial properties

There are various options available to suit your specific needs. Some programs even offer discounts on commercial and industrial lighting to help businesses reduce their operating costs.

Residential LED Lighting Upgrade: Free LED Light Upgrade

Under the Residential LED Lighting Upgrade: Free LED Light Upgrade program, approved installers provide:

Free installation

High-quality LED globes

Professional service

You get a free upgrade, and your home becomes more energy-efficient immediately.

How Can LEDs Save Money?

Many Australians are making the switch to LED lighting, and one of the biggest reasons is simple: they save you money, and a lot of it. But how exactly do LEDs help reduce your expenses?

Let’s break it down in more detail.

Lower Electricity Bills

Traditional lighting sources, such as incandescent and halogen bulbs, are extremely inefficient. A significant portion of the electricity they consume is wasted as heat, rather than being converted into light.

In contrast, LEDs are designed to be highly energy-efficient, using up to 80% less electricity while providing the same or even better brightness.

For example, a 60-watt incandescent bulb can be replaced with a 10-watt LED that delivers the same amount of light. That means for every hour your light is on, you’re using just a fraction of the power.

Multiply that by the number of lights in your home or office, and by the hours they’re used each day, and the savings quickly add up.

For an average Australian household, this could mean saving $200 to $500 per year on electricity costs simply by upgrading their lights.

Fewer Replacements

LEDs have an incredibly long lifespan compared to traditional bulbs. While a typical halogen bulb lasts around 1,000 to 2,000 hours, an LED bulb can last up to 25,000 hours or more. That’s up to 15 years of use, depending on your usage habits.

This longevity means you’ll spend far less on replacement bulbs over time. Whether you’re maintaining a home, a rental property, or a business space, fewer replacements mean less hassle and fewer trips to the hardware store.

Reduced Maintenance Costs

Changing a light bulb might seem like a minor chore, but in businesses or large households with dozens of lights, the task adds up quickly.

For commercial buildings, hotels, warehouses, or schools, maintaining traditional lighting systems can become costly and time-consuming.

You need to factor in labour costs, equipment (such as ladders or lifts), and safety considerations every time a bulb needs to be replaced.

Because LEDs last significantly longer, you dramatically reduce these maintenance demands. You can go years without needing to touch your lights, freeing up time and resources for other essential tasks.

Real-World Impact: A Simple Change, Big Savings

Here’s a quick scenario: Let’s say you replace 20 halogen bulbs in your home with LED bulbs. Each halogen bulb uses around 50 watts, and each LED replacement uses just 8 watts.

If you use those lights for about 4 hours a day, you’ll save over 1,200 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy each year, which could translate to $300 or more off your energy bill annually, depending on your electricity rates.

So, how can LEDs save you money? In every way that matters:

Lower bills

Fewer replacements

Minimal maintenance

Long-term savings year after year

It’s a smart investment that pays for itself quickly, especially when combined with government rebate programs that let you upgrade at little to no cost.

How Can You Save By Upgrading to LEDs?

When you think about upgrading to LED lighting, it’s easy to wonder if the savings are really that significant. The answer is a resounding yes — and the numbers speak for themselves.

Upgrading to LEDs is one of the most cost-effective improvements you can make, whether for your home or business. Let’s take a closer look at how much you can actually save:

Savings at Home

If you replace around 20 halogen bulbs with LED alternatives, you could save between $300 and $500 annually on your electricity bill.

Here’s why:

Halogen bulbs are energy-hungry. They typically use 35 to 50 watts per bulb.

An LED equivalent typically uses only 6 to 10 watts for the same level of brightness.

That’s around an 80% reduction in energy consumption for lighting alone.

If you consider all the lights you use in your home — in living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms, and hallways — switching to LEDs can significantly reduce your energy use every single day.

Over the course of a year, the savings really add up. And remember: that’s just for the lighting portion of your bill!

Even better, LEDs reduce the heat output inside your home. Less heat means your air conditioning system doesn’t have to work as hard, leading to additional savings during Australia’s hot summer months.

Savings for Businesses

The savings potential for businesses is even greater. Lighting is often one of the most significant energy expenses for commercial properties, especially for retail stores, warehouses, offices, and hospitality venues that require lights to be on for extended hours.

Businesses that switch to commercial LED lighting can cut lighting energy costs by up to 70%.

This can translate into:

Thousands of dollars are saved each year, depending on the size of the premises.

Reduced cooling costs because LEDs emit far less heat than traditional lighting.

Lower maintenance costs, as LEDs last for many years without needing frequent replacements.

Whether it’s a small café upgrading its interior lighting or a massive warehouse replacing thousands of fluorescent tubes, the bottom line is the same: LED upgrades boost profitability by slashing energy and maintenance costs.

Every dollar you save on electricity is a dollar you can use elsewhere — to reinvest in your home, your business, or your lifestyle.

Because LED bulbs have a long lifespan (often 10 to 15 years or more), the savings aren’t just one-time — they continue year after year.

Additionally, with government rebate programs like the Free LED Lights Replacement NSW or Government Subsidies for Commercial LED Upgrade, your initial investment can be minimal or even zero.

In short, upgrading to LEDs is not just an energy-saving move — it’s a smart financial decision.

Australian Energy Saving Upgrades for Businesses and Homes

Numerous energy-saving upgrades are available in Australia for both residential and commercial properties.

Programs like the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) and NSW Energy Savings Scheme make it easy and affordable to transition to a more sustainable lifestyle.

Victorian Energy Upgrades for Homes: Offering rebates and discounts for residential properties.

Govt Subsidies for Commercial LED Upgrade: Helping businesses cut costs and reduce emissions.

These initiatives ensure that Australians can enjoy the benefits of green energy without incurring a financial burden.

Reducing My CO2 Emissions Through LED Lighting

If you’re thinking about reducing your CO2 emissions, upgrading to LED lighting is one of the most straightforward steps you can take.

Every LED light you install reduces your electricity usage and, therefore, your environmental impact.

You can even calculate your footprint to see how much of a difference you’re making by replacing your lights with LEDS.

LED Lighting for Businesses: A Smart Investment

LED lighting for businesses isn’t just about saving money — it’s about creating better work environments. LEDs provide:

Better quality lighting

Improved mood and productivity

Reduced cooling costs because LEDs produce less heat

Combined with commercial and industrial lighting discounts, the return on investment is huge. Contact Cyanergy to begin the smart investment.

Start Your Free LED Upgrade Today

Switching to LEDs with zero out-of-pocket cost is a no-brainer. Government incentives, such as the Free LED Lights Replacement NSW program, make it easier and more affordable than ever to make the change.

Whether you’re a homeowner looking for household energy-saving upgrades or a business owner needing commercial and industrial lighting discounts, upgrading to LED lighting will save you money, reduce your carbon footprint, and improve your quality of life.

Ready to start saving? Contact Cyanergy and get a free quote for your LED lighting upgrade!

Your Solution Is Just a Click Away

The post Upgrade to LED With Zero Out-of-Pocket Cost in Australia appeared first on Cyanergy.

https://cyanergy.com.au/blog/upgrade-to-led-with-zero-out-of-pocket-cost-in-australia/

Renewable Energy

Offshore Vessel Collision, 1.2 GW Farm in South Australia

Published

2 days ago

April 29, 2025

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

Offshore Vessel Collision, 1.2 GW Farm in South Australia

In this episode, we discuss an offshore vessel collision in the North Sea, highlight Louisiana’s offshore wind ambitions, the latest developments in South Australia’s renewable energy expansion. Plus we highlight an article from Buoyant Works in PES Wind Magazine. Register for the upcoming SkySpecs’ webinar on turbine repair challenges!

Allen Hall: On Wednesday, April 30th at 11:00 AM Eastern, get that on your calendar. SkySpecs, Uptime and PES Wind are hosting our next session of a 10 part series of wind related items on their webinar. So this time it’s gonna be about the the biggest challenges facing turbine repair teams today. And we’re gonna have four experts besides Joel and me.

I guess we don’t count as experts, Joel. So we’re gonna be talking to real experts. Sheryl Weinstein from Sky Specs, Alice Lyon from Lyon Technical Access. Craig Guthrie, who I’ve known forever from Takkion, and Jose Mejia Rodriguez from RNWBL. We’ll be there to, uh, explain how you should be planning for this repair season.

What are some of the approaches that the operators use and what works and what doesn’t work? Things that if you’re in the repair business or if you work. For a large, uh, operator or even a small operator you want to hear and participate in, there’ll be a q and a session. So get all your questions ready, but [00:01:00] you first have to register and you can register in the link and the show notes below.

Do not miss this event. April 30th, 11:00 AM Eastern. You won’t wanna miss it.

Speaker 2: You’re listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here’s your hosts, Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.

Allen Hall: Up in the Netherlands, three crew members were injured when an offshore support vessel struck a windman foundation. In the North Sea and the Royal Dutch Sea Rescue Society had to evacuate two of the injured crew members from the privately owned vessel. And a third uh, crew member went to get medical attention once they got back to port.

Now, this occurred about 15 miles from the Netherlands shores, and the Dutch have opened an [00:02:00] investigation, and my first responses to reading this news was. How are we driving ships into foundations still? And Joel, can you explain all the technology that is there to prevent you from doing this?

Joel Saxum: Well, every one of these vessels that operates in that environment is going to have a, a helm display, right?

That’s gonna have all of the things called stent and aids to navigation. So it’s gonna have all the buoys, everything in the water that you could possibly run into. Some of ’em even have detailed stuff like pipeline data and stuff so you don’t drop your anchors in certain places. But either way, they’re gonna ha they’re gonna have knowledge of this besides the fact that you can look out the window and see the tur, see a turbine that’s 500 feet tall in front of you.

That’s a different story maybe. Um, but a lot of these vessels too, of this size. So this is a, um, a support vessel offshore. So there’s all kinds of different classes of boats, things they do. But this thing may work in a wind farm. It may work for oil, uh, platforms, it may work for the fishing industries.

Like it can do a lot of different stuff. But as a, as a [00:03:00] emergency response. Uh, vehicle. They also should be DP one. And when I say DP one, that’s dynamic positioning. So that means that you should be able to have a button in the, in the vessel that says, boom, hold me here. And, uh, DP one means you just have one methodology of, of positioning.

So that’s like GPS. I’m at this GPS point. Hold me at this GPS point. Um, so there’s a lot of safety mechanisms built into these things, and there’s a chain of command and all these vessels. I think it said it was crude by eight people. Correct? Correct me if I’m wrong, Alan. That sounds about right. For a hundred, 150, 150 foot operating vessel, eight people’s.

About right now, everybody has their own job, right? There’s a captain, but there’s usually this, you know, a second mate and there’s other people on the vessel that someone at all times is looking forward or is supposed to be at least. Uh, but like Phil said earlier today, when we were kind of doing some podcast planning, if you saw the pictures of this thing in port, it looked like it ran square on into the turbine headfirst.

Allen Hall: think it was the, uh, [00:04:00] mechanical error or where an operator error just from the damaged photos. I think it’s

Joel Saxum: operator error. I think that’s someone not chain of command, not paying attention

Phil Totaro: somehow. Well, it’s just one of those, the, you know, unfortunate and frankly frustrating things that, and this is, I believe in the last five or six years, the.

Sixth vessel that’s run into something like a foundation under construction or an operating wind turbine or something out there. Um, I mean it’s happened in Germany and, and now. Here in, in Holland with the, with the Holland Coast, uh, three and four project is my understanding Vattenfall project out there, um, with the Siemens 11 megawatt turbines.

So it’s unfortunate that this keeps going down, but I don’t know what I mean. To Joel’s point, I don’t know what more. You could do with technology to warn you that something’s out there. ’cause in addition to everything that Joel mentioned, we [00:05:00] also know where the wind turbines are located. There’s, there’s geo coordinates for all the turbines in the wind farms and there’s theoretically some kind of geofencing around the wind farm that tells you, Hey, by the way, you’re entering this zone.

Which I mean, as an SOV, presumably you’re supposed to be kind of nearby, but. I just don’t like, I don’t know. I mean, this isn’t a technological problem to, to me this is, this keeps sounding like human error. What’s the next step?

Joel Saxum: Phil is the next step. We put like a, we put radar on the transition piece with like an audible alarm.

Like when something gets within 500 meters, it just goes. I don’t know what else you can do. I mean, they can’t see

Phil Totaro: him apparently, so they gotta hear him. Maybe. I don’t know. Well, to be clear too, I don’t think this was like, uh, you know, a situation where they had fog and or some other kind of obstructed vision.

It was a, to my understanding, it was a reasonably clear day. So I just don’t understand how that’s gotta be some level of human failure, how you [00:06:00] just smash into a thing that’s that big, uh, you know, right in front of you. It’s

Joel Saxum: like fog being one thing or like pours visibility. But I’m looking at the picture of this vessel and this vessel has.

A radar on it. It has its own radar, so it’s gonna pick it up on the screen next. So no matter what, you should have either been able to look out the window or look at the screen and see the thing in front of you, or look at the GPS coordinates of the, the, you know, problems

Phil Totaro: out there. So, I, I don’t know to, to answer Joel’s question, I don’t think we need more technology, uh, because even though you could, you know, avail yourself of, of radar on every vessel, I mean.

Those that gets expensive and somebody’s gotta pay for it. And guess who ends up paying for it? Is, you know, the vessel operator ups their contract. The, you know, project developer has to increase the overall cost of the project and then it takes them longer to, to. Get paid back with the the PPA and or CFDs or whatever other mechanism they have, [00:07:00] and we as electricity rate payers are the ones that end up paying for that at the end of the day.

So I don’t, you know, if this is something that can be solved without. Additional technology upgrades. I’m kind of all for that, but something needs to be done as far as like, Hey, there’s a big thing like, you know, a few hundred yards right in front of you. Try not to hit it. You know,

Allen Hall: speaking of not running into wind turbine foundations, there’s actually an article in PES win, and if you haven’t downloaded the latest addition of PES Wind, you can do that on your own@pswin.com.

You just type it into the old Google and. Push the button and there it is. Now, there’s a lot of great articles in this quarter’s edition and a good bit of offshore in it. The article I wanna highlight today is from Buoyant Works, and if you’ve been to the Buoyant Works website, you can see all this sort of the polyurethane bumpers that they have created for not only the.

The towers, but also the CTVs, which is really important because they [00:08:00] do run into one another once in a while and it has become more of an issue is that, uh, there’s damage on some of these vessels. And just trying to minimize the, the complexity of trying to get close to a turbine without damaging it is, is a huge problem.

And if you have read the article here, and I encourage you to do that on your own. There’s a lot going on, uh, as these CTVs approach these turbines and just trying to avoid damage and trying to keep from having bump incidences where the, the crew gets rocked is important here. And Joel, as you have pointed out many times, safety is of the utmost here, uh, on these crew transfer vehicles.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. If you haven’t been offshore, there’s something to understand, uh, in operations that maybe most people don’t. So if you’re seeing, like if you’re at a boat ramp at, at the, your local lake or river and you see a boat go back off a trailer, they usually kinda like throttle down and sit there and they’re waiting for people or whatever.

When you’re [00:09:00] in a marine environment, when you’re dealing with big vessels and you’re doing any kind of operations, whether it’s pile driving, rock lay, or whatever it may be. That vessel is almost always throttled up. You’re a, you’re at a certain amount of throttle all the time because that’s how you’re able to hold position.

So it’s the same thing when A CTV approaches a, a, a transition piece or a wind turbine, they nudge up against where the ladder is and there’s mechanisms designed there, engineering mechanisms, and that’s what. Uh, they do here at Buoyant. Uh, there’s their Buoyant works all of their different systems to make sure they slip, but they put that boat right against the transition piece and they throttle it up to hold it there.

So it’s nice and steady. But when you’re in the North Sea or somewhere offshore and you got two three meter heaves going on, you’ve gotta be able to. Efficiently slide up and down that transition piece while you’re throttled up. And that’s what their, uh, their systems allow people to do safely. ’cause if you’re not doing that safely, the boat starts to pinch and move and squeak and it get, get hung up or held.

You can’t have that, otherwise you can’t transfer. Um, [00:10:00] so these, uh, what, what you looking at here is, oh, this is cool offenders. No, they actually are the things that allow us to safely transfer people offshore.

Allen Hall: So check out the website, buoyant works.com. And take a look at their polyurethane products and accept no invitations.

Buoyant works.com.

Speaker 5: As busy wind energy professionals staying informed is crucial, and let’s face it difficult. That’s why the Uptime podcast recommends PES WIN 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.

Whether you’re an industry veteran or new to wind, PES Wind has the high quality content you need. Don’t miss out. Visit ps wind.com today.

Allen Hall: As part of our oil and gas, uh, oversight because I am really tired of reading about, oh, a wind turbine had a problem. Yeah. So does oil and gas, and you may not have read in your local newspaper about the spill they had in the [00:11:00] Keystone, Keystone Oil pipeline up in North Dakota, but it dumped about 140,000 gallons of crude oil on the ground.

They had a mechanical problem where one of the employees heard a. Boom, and then realize maybe we’re leaking a little bit of oil. Uh, this goes back to, uh, a couple of other incidences that have happened with pipelines, particularly this pipeline and that pipeline. Joel runs from, uh, essentially Alberta. Uh, kind of down across to Manitoba, I think it is, right up, which is right above North Dakota.

Then takes a right and goes, goes straight down through North Dakota, South Dakota into Nebraska, then heads over towards, uh, Illinois. So, you know, yikes. Transporting oil is not easy, not as easy as it’s claimed in the media at the moment.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, this time of the year is, uh, difficult for the northern latitudes as well.

So that area of North Dakota, a lot of organic [00:12:00] soil. This is a weird geo geotechnic conversation, but the reason that you have pipeline breaks this time of year is because the frost is coming outta the ground. So when, when those pipelines, when they get pressurized and they move things, they get a lot of, they get heat built up in ’em.

So you have a warm pipeline and then you have it running through soil that is half frozen, half not, and the ice is coming out so that soil starts to move and, and bend. So when they say, Hey, I had an employee that heard something, pop break, that’s because the soil itself is actually moving. Um, and you’ll know that if you’ve ever been up there driving on highways in the springtime, uh, we call it, we call it breakup season when everything starts moving.

But that’s what happened. Right? And it, and it is a, it’s a, it’s a really, I mean, it’s a black eye for, for the oil industry. Uh, but it happens more often than you think. Uh, pipeline breaks, whether it’s, whether it’s crude or whether it’s natural gas or, or whatever’s being pumped. Um, these are, these are rigid pipelines that are run across ground that moves.

So I think the, you know, your, your, your alternatives to [00:13:00] moving crude like that are either on a train or on a truck. And pipelines are safer than those. So this is the, the least of the, uh, the evils.

Allen Hall: Yeah. It’s still a problem. I, I, I am just really tired of hearing oil and gas representatives talk about how wonderful it is.

Like they don’t have any problems. They have problems and there’s a lot of problems, but we’ve, it’s become normalized. It’s, it’s back to Rosemary’s point from several months ago now, like when you have disasters all the time, it becomes normal. It’s okay. No one reports on it. It’s not, it’s not news anymore.

Joel Saxum: At a certain level, there’s like the nimbyism thing, right, where people get really bent outta shape about renewables because they can see it. You can see turbines everywhere, right? When they’re, when they’re up on the horizon, you can see ’em miles away. You don’t see pipelines. But I, I bet you, I don’t care which one of us I’m talking to, even here on the panel or whoever’s listening, within a mile of your house, there’s a pipeline somewhere.

Uh, yes. You just don’t see ’em. You don’t know. You don’t see ’em. So you don’t, it’s not, it’s not an issue until it’s an issue. Wind [00:14:00] turbines, solar panels, battery storage, all these different things. They’re very visible, so it’s easy to see. I encourage anybody who thinks that, that it wind is an eyesore to drive up to Midland, Texas.

And take a vacation out there and then, and then give me a call afterwards and tell me what you saw.

Allen Hall: And let’s go to a country where things are going in the right direction. In South Australia’s renewable energy sector, they are expanding, uh, with plans to what become the state’s largest wind farm and Tilt renewables has proposed.

The, and Rosemary, you’re gonna have to correct me on, on. The Australian pronunciation of this Nwi wind farm, which at the 1.2 gigawatts in 148 turbines, and included with this wind farm are two batteries. Storage systems that can offer up to 300 megawatts of capacity for eight hours of storage duration.

That is massive, Rosemary.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, it’s huge. And I think it also comes, um, like, uh, I believe that the intention is construction would begin in [00:15:00] 2029. Um, and so yeah, it would come online after 2030 when the state, I think already plans to be a hundred percent renewable, um, in its electricity, uh, generations. So that’s a really interesting point, like what are, yeah, what are tilts plans for this, uh, huge amount of clean energy once the state’s already at a hundred percent, um, clean.

So, uh, a clue might be in the location. It’s right next to Whyalla, which, um, Australians can’t help but be aware of because for some reason this small town is raised at every single election. There is some sort of publicity stunt involving Whyalla. Um, it’s a big steelworks community and yeah, it’s been used as a example, uh, from, from both sides of um.

The climate change debate about, yeah. Originally it was cited as an example of, this town will be wiped out if we, you know, choose to act on climate change. Um, yeah. ’cause they’re manufacturing steel and currently steel produces a lot of emissions. But then on the [00:16:00] flip side, I. Well, you know, there’s the potential for this to become green steel, given that there is such a huge renewable energy, um, potential in that region.

So that’s my, that’s my guess. Probably a pretty safe guess that there’s some, some sort of plans for industrial uses for this huge amount of green energy that would come online.

Joel Saxum: I think an interesting thing here too, in the article they’re mentioning 90 meter blades and, and I don’t know if they have a turbine model planned or they’re just expecting that’s what it’ll be, but because the port, the port of Al’s right there, they only have to transport those big old blades.

50 kilometers out to the site. Like that’s, that’s amazing. That’s great.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. I think they also cited that might come from port, port of Adelaide might be used for transport as well, so it’s a little, little bit further, but still not, not that far in, it’s not like a really lush, vegetated region with a whole lot of huge dense forest right up to the road.

It’s um, you know, it’s a fairly, um, arid, uh, [00:17:00] climate in that region, so I don’t think that transport is gonna be a huge, huge issue for them. Um, yeah, but I do think that also that’s, that’s all I hear for, um, for new big wind farms in Australia, all I hear is huge wind turbines like much bigger than what you typically see for, for onshore.

Like, I don’t, like six megawatts is kind of like. The smallest for things that are coming on very soon. And then after that, people are talking like 10, 12 megawatts. Like I, obviously these turbines barely exist now beyond, you know, like computer models and, um, maybe some prototypes, but obviously. They’re making really big offshore wind turbines.

It’s a lot easier to probably go in the direction from offshore to onshore than the other way around. So it’s not like anyone doubts that it’s possible to make wind turbines like that. Um, onshore wind turbines that big, but. The, um, logistics of installed them seems hard.

Joel Saxum: You know, Alan, correct me if I’m wrong, [00:18:00] but, but, uh, one of our friends down in Australia told us that GE was gonna be installing only one model, the 6 1 1 58, 6 0.1 megawatt machine from here going forward.

And I think, Rosemary, to your point, he also told us that this is the, one of the first turbines that they’ve extensively tested. For a longer duration. So this was the first one that’s been like the, the, you know, serial, serial number, number one has been installed and will have been running for a year before they even install serial number number two in the field.

So that’s a, so tackling both things here, bigger turbine. Yes. Uh, and that’s the only one they’re gonna go with. So they can focus on, it is a workhorse machine and they can make sure they’re maintaining it correctly, but they’ve also got some, uh, they’re gonna have more operational history on it before they actually go and start.

Building tons of’em. ’cause we know we’ve heard of those wind farms where they, the turbines don’t even have a tech certificate yet and they’re sending a two, 300 of ’em out there.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, well, I mean it’s really [00:19:00] normal that you know, like your, um, and you know, obviously I know, I know blades primarily, but you know, your serial number one is your test blade.

Maybe there’s a two as well. That’s also a test played sometimes. Not usually. Um, and then, yeah, like, so serial one is a test blade. Serial number two is in the field, and so is 3, 4, 5, 6, you, you know what I mean? Like you start the test. You’ve probably passed like some, some of your tests, maybe the, um, static test is completed already, but then the fatigue test is only partway done by the time that you’re installing, um, blades in the field usually.

So, I mean, it’s, it’s because people have become very good, um, the design codes, the, you know, the materials factors that they. They know it all really well. It’s really proven out over decades of experience, and so they felt very safe and it was incredibly rare that you would see a problem until recently.

Now it’s not such a big problem. So I think that’s a, a fantastic, um, step to make, to be a bit more certain. But I mean, [00:20:00] even that is not I adding. All that much safety, if you think about it, one turbine in one location in the world. I thought what you were gonna say is that GE are only doing one turbine type in Australia and that they have taken the effort to understand that Australia’s specific conditions and, uh, you know, know that the.

Leading edge protection is UV resistant and so will last more than one year. That Yeah. The, you know, lightning protection system performs well under the types of storms that we see in, uh, the places in Australia where they install a lot of, um, big wind farms. Um, that, yeah, like there’s some, uh, higher temperature resistance because you know, a lot of, um.

A lot of wind farms are in deserts where the temperatures are frequently above 40 degrees during the day. And everyone knows, everyone that’s been in a wind turbine knows that inside the wind turbine, inside the blade is at least 10 degrees hotter than that, right? Pushing up, butting up or past, um, material safety limits.

So, um, that is what I would, I [00:21:00] would really like to see.

Allen Hall: Don’t let blade damage catch you off guard the logics. Ping sensors detect issues before they become expensive, time consuming problems. From ice buildup and lightning strikes to pitch misalignment in internal blade cracks. OGs Ping has you covered The cutting edge sensors are easy to install, giving you the power to stop damage before it’s too late.

Visit OGs ping.com and take control of your turbine’s health today. Yeah, the classic cultures, a delegation from Louisiana traveled to Denmark to learn about, uh, wind energy from the experts in Denmark, which is a smart thing to do, and I wish more states would do this actually. Uh, the tour, which is organized by the center for.

Planning excellence included state and local officials from Louisiana, academic researchers, industry experts, and of course port authorities, which are so critical to the success of offshore wind farms. And they went over to, uh, learn all they could from [00:22:00] everybody in Denmark. Now, the, the ports in Denmark are really unique in the sense that they have been redeveloped over time and they are.

Are extremely powerful in supporting denmark’s wind energy, uh, organizations. And they support a lot of ’em, uh, right from the ports in Denmark. Now, one of the things I thought was a little interesting is that Louisiana, which really doesn’t have any offshore wind, is actively pursuing it. And even though the, the, the, the federal government in the United States is not looking to announce any more win sites, Louisiana, I think it’s going to push for some.

Because it does provide a number of jobs, and Louisiana is really set up and our friends at Gulf Wind Technology have created a low wind speed wind turbine blade that will make it possible to have offshore wind near Louisiana. Joel, does this make sense to you? Does it seem like Louisiana has taken a very forward first step?

Joel Saxum: I think there’s a couple of ab, absolutely, completely agree. Alan, I’ll just [00:23:00] start with that, but there’s a couple of things here Louisiana Wise that people may not know. First one. When they started developing offshore oil and gas in the North Sea and Norway and all this stuff, and back in the seventies, they called people from Louisiana to come and teach ’em how to do it.

’cause the, ’cause the, the Cajun Navy had been doing it in, in the Gulf for a couple years already. So they knew how to do it. They took their expertise and they went and gave it to. The North Sea, right? So now the tides have turned, the louisianans are heading back up to there, to, to the North Sea to get some knowledge to bring it back.

And uh, so that’s one little kind of equipped story. But the other one that’s interesting here too, and Phil, you and I have talked about this. I know Alan, we’ve talked about this as well. Louisiana’s the only state that has tried to do offshore wind within their state boundary waters. And they’ve put in.

They put in legislation to share in the profitability of these wind farms, which is a great move in, in, [00:24:00] in my opinion, the same thing that like Alaska has done and Texas has done with their oil reserves. If the, is the reserves there, someone’s gonna make money on it, the whole state should benefit. So they’ve done that.

Um. They’ve got the infrastructure, like you said, Gulf Wind Technology. They got a key side facility. There’s all kinds of ship manufacturers. The ship, the Eco Edison, that’s up in or on Ted’s sites up in New York that came, that was built in Louisiana. So like the, I think that was, was Thatwe who built that one?

Maybe Phil, you know that, was that Edison SCH West? Yes. Yes. So I think they’re based in Houma, which is, you know, right there. So. They have the key side facilities. They have the vessels. They know how to operate offshore. They’ve already put legislation in place. I think that the, the government of Louisiana is, is charging forward.

I did read something the other day too that said, um, quietly there has been some onshore development in Louisiana. They’re like fi five different wind farms that have been then property rights and those kind of negotiations are going on in the background that. The general, you [00:25:00] know, the general wind industry.

You wouldn’t think of Louisiana as a place for wind, but it’s happening.

Allen Hall: Well, let’s talk about, the one item I wanted to talk about, about this is the food culture and the clash between the two food cultures. So having been to Denmark and Rosemary took, uh, Valerie, my wife and me to a, uh, really nice, uh, restaurant with where they have SMI board gr, which is this open face sandwich on rye bread.

That is about the consistency of a two by four Delicious, but it is very thick and dense. So, uh, you have to, you have to, it isn’t the same what you’re gonna pick up and eat. You’re gonna have to cut it with a knife and a fork. It’s really thick. Delicious, though. Quite delicious. And Louisiana is known for the Cajun cooking, right?

Everything New Orleans is fantastic. I did a quick look to see how many Michelin stars are in the state of Louisiana and Louisiana’s about. Three times the size of Denmark. There are no Michelin restaurants in the state of Louisiana, which is hard to believe. ’cause if you’ve been to New Orleans, [00:26:00] they have a lot of great restaurants.

Rosemary Barnes: It has a reputation for good food too. It’s not like the rest of the world is, is knows that there’s good food there

Allen Hall: everywhere and where you stop. But Denmark has over 30 Michelin star restaurants.

Joel Saxum: Copenhagen has the most. The most of any city in the world. Copenhagen is the, the head.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, Denmark’s really good for, um, like it’s expensive to eat out, even like bad food is really expensive.

If you wanted to, I dunno, I never ate McDonald’s in Denmark, but, you know, something like that or around that level, like pizza, very expensive, not very good, but one step above that is not. Very much more expensive, but is like amazing quality. So if you go to like the local inns, they’re called Crow. Um, they, uh, usually like bordering with fine dining.

They’re just, the food is amazing. Like it’s a little bit more relaxed atmosphere, but just absolutely fantastic food. And in fact, one time we went to a place that was because we were living in Colding. It’s a town of like 60,000 people, like in. Fairly [00:27:00] rural jet land. We went to a place in a, a nearby, even smaller town, um, and went to this restaurant.

Fantastic. Like I’ve never had such good bread and butter was like the thing that stands out. Most of that meal for me was how good the. The bread and yeah, the bread and butter is, um, and then like a month later, it got a Michelin star, but it wasn’t, it wasn’t like it was known as a good restaurant, but it wasn’t like no one is being fine dining or anything.

But that’s like, that’s what I’m saying is that there’s a lot, like the bulk of the nice ish restaurants in Denmark are right on that cusp of being fine dining. Um, so it’s, yeah, it’s a little, it, it, it’s, it’s quite cool once you get the hang of it. And once you realize that. The lower tier, just no point doing that.

You know, you either stay at home and eat, or you spend a tiny bit more and get amazing food, but don’t do that like, you know, don’t go out for pizza. It’s, um, it’s hard to find, find something good like that.

Joel Saxum: I think, Rosemary, you nailed it. When we were talking earlier about premium ingredients, and that’s one of the big [00:28:00] differences between Denmark Food and Copenhagen Restaurants and Louisiana, because in Louisiana you may eat something and it tastes delicious, but you’ll have no idea what is in that food.

You, you, you’re gonna know that the base is probably a ro or they use the holy trinity at some point in this dish. Bell pepper, onion, celery, that’s the holy trinity in Louisiana. And most all dishes are gonna have some form of that in it. So you might be eating like a soup or like, sometimes it looks like a paste.

I don’t know, but like a good tufe. Is it lump crab? Is it crawfish? Is it what’s in here? I don’t know. Here you go. But it’s delicious. It’s gonna be good.

Allen Hall: Roseberry, you have a very important announcement.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Uh, coming up we have uh, Australian Wind Industry Forum, which is on Tuesday, May 6th. And I’m very excited ’cause I’m speaking this year.

I have, um, I have tried to speak at this conference for a few years and it’s gonna be in a session. There’s a session on turbine design. [00:29:00] Um. Related issues, uh, turbine design and technology. And so I’m gonna be giving a presentation. It’s called. Innovation in wind energy lessons from the front lines. So I’m gonna be talking about how the design certification process works for wind turbines and then also what happens when something goes wrong.

You know, when you, uh, are in the field and you have, uh, I don’t know, serial defects or you suspect serial defects, you’ve got a lot of blades breaking. You’ve got a lot of. Lightning damage. You’ve got, I dunno, problems with, uh, excessive downtime for whatever reason. Um, yeah, gonna talk about that. And then also, like I mentioned earlier in the show, Australians really love to be the first ones to get a new type of turbine.

Um, how could you make sure that you can be a leader without being a Guinea pig? So gonna talk about some of the things you can do because actually, um, you, a customer, an an early customer, if they’re a large customer, does have the opportunity to be part of that design process. And in particular. You can request [00:30:00] certain tests are, are, are done.

Um, I’m not saying that it’s guaranteed that the OEM will perform them for you, but you certainly, you and your bank and your insurance all have the ability to, you know, be part of that, um, design process if you are an, an early adopter with a large order. So we’re gonna be talking about yeah. How to, how to manage all of those issues in the Australian context.

So come along

Allen Hall: and where can I go to register for this event,

Rosemary Barnes: you can go to wind industry forum.com au.

Allen Hall: That’s gonna do it for this week’s Uptime Wind Energy podcast. Give thanks for listening. Please give us a five star rating and tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. Tell your neighbors friends to start listening to the show.

We’ve had a lot more people join us lately. And we want that trend to continue. So thank you for listening, and we’ll see you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy [00:31:00] Podcast.

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