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Launching Veteran Careers: Tower Training Academy

Nick Martocci, founder of Tower Training Academy and former Marine, joins the podcast to discuss his program that provides comprehensive wind turbine technician training with career development support and job placement assistance. With an accredited apprenticeship program approved by the Department of Labor, Tower Training Academy is well-positioned to help meet the growing demand for skilled technicians in the wind energy industry. Visit https://towertrainingacademy.com/ for more info!

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 special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your host, Allen Hall, and I’m here with the Chief Commercial Officer at Weather Guard, Joel Saxum. We’re in San Diego at ACP OM&S. We have a special guest, Nick Martocci of Tower Training Academy. Nick is a former Marine and he has a training facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Which Joel and I didn’t know about, and we just met you on the floor. And this sounds tremendous, because we’ve been trying to do more outreach to potential technicians, and give them outlets of where to go to become a technician, because every operator in the United States needs people, and they need educated people that are ready to go to work, and we’re just trying to elevate.

All these training facilities yours being one of them. So Nick, welcome to the podcast.

Nick Martocci: Thanks for having me. Yep I know there’s probably some other Marines in there Just wanted to make sure to make the correction once a Marine always a Marine. So He’s a former or prior Marine. I started out in the Marine Corps and then I finished up my career in the Army National Guard as a CH 47 pilot and then as I was making that transition out of the military like a lot of veterans do, I Yeah.

Was playing, Hey, what do I want to be when I grow up? A situation. Yeah. And so I tried a lot of different things. One of the things we naturally gravitate to is obviously security and Sure. Things of that nature. And when I found out, that’s just not where I wanted to be I sprawled out and said, Hey, let me find something else.

And when I eventually found the wind industry, I absolutely just fell in love. Fell in love with the opportunities, the welcoming and familiarity, if you will, of the military as it is. And I just absolutely fell in love. And so that’s why, later on, after I did a lot of different things in the field blade repair, torque contention operations, things of that nature eventually became an instructor and built my own program for GWO, because I knew What individuals were really needing from the certification side, especially having been out in the field and then knowing what the technicians really need to be ready for.

Seeing those gaps. Absolutely. And that’s why for Tower Training Academy, our motto is not just ready for today, but we’re prepared for tomorrow. And so I want to make sure when I built my program, that technicians that are going to be coming out of the field and out of my, or into the field out of my program, Would be ready for today and prepared for everything tomorrow because there’s a lot of booming changes that are going to be going on in the wind industry.

One of the comparisons I make with the wind turbine industry is very similar to the computer industry. When you buy a laptop, a few days later, it’s out of date, because the technology is constantly changing. And that is exactly how things are going in the wind industry. Things are constantly changing.

There’s all types of things we need to, as we say in the Marine Corps, adapt and be prepared for and be able to improvise, adapt and overcome. And so I wanted to create a framework with a program that did just that for the future technicians.

Joel Saxum: One of the things I want to touch on here as well, and this is what really sparked my mind yesterday.

Like Allen said, you walked up, I’ve never seen Tower Training Academy, like that’s a logo you’d remember, that bright green. I’ve never heard of this before, tell us about it a little bit. And one of the things that you, not one of the things, a group of things that you mentioned.

You painted a holistic picture of what you guys do. There’s a couple other little companies there and things. However, you don’t just train people, you’re preparing them for a career. You went all the way down to helping people with their LinkedIn profiles, resumes, job placement, and if they were in the field and it didn’t work out with one ISB, maybe they want to work for an asset owner, re retraining and re providing for them to move to another sector of the industry.

Nick Martocci: Absolutely. I partnered two companies together that I own both Tower Trading Academy and then the acronym IFC, which stands for Infinite Fidelis Consulting. As any other Marine would know Semper Fidelis, but some other Marine got to Semper Fidelis Consulting before I did. And so with IFC, they do all of those soft skills resume writing, interview prep, making sure LinkedIn doesn’t look like Facebook.

Yeah. The two big pieces that they really do. Is not just with the teamwork building piece, but job placement pieces, like you said, and then the C PMP certification for project and program management certification, because I understand that this is a career and so many police other training centers, they leave that bar a lot lower than what it really needs to be and understand that, hey, when you’re getting into this industry, you need to be preparing people for a career.

Yeah. And that’s what I wanted to do with my program is I’m preparing people for a career and win. There are those individuals that, Hey, all they want to do is be a technician for life. Okay, cool. Great. Do that. Hey, I want to be able to take what I have in my wheelhouse and in my background and grow from there.

We’re happy to work with you on that side as well and make sure that, Hey, after a few years you move over into another position, start working on yourself, your career development, and then moving into a company and position that fits and works for you. This is a career that as I tell people, it will take care of somebody anywhere between the next 20 to 30 years.

Easy. Easy. And so if you’re looking for a career where literally the sky is the limit, you’ve said that before. No, the sky truly is the limit in this field. We want to make sure that people are prepared for that. So anyone that comes through Tower Training Academy that is an alumnus will for life have access to IFC.

All you got to do is make a phone call and there will be people there to help you with that resume piece, making sure that, hey, I want to go from here to there. Okay, let’s build that roadmap together and let’s get you there.

Joel Saxum: Okay, so let’s. That’s fantastic and that’s what really drew me to wanting to talk to you to be honest with you because a lot of people It’s generally thought that sometimes a field technician for wind is a four or five year thing because it’s tough, right?

But you guys are prepping with people with the skills to get further in it and create a career not a job That’s important. One of the things let’s touch on this a little bit tower training Academy. Let’s walk through the process So say I am a Green, but I’m green to the industry I’ve never been in before and I call up Tower Training Academy and say, Hey, I want to come and learn how to be a wind tech.

What does that process look like? What does the training look like?

Nick Martocci: As far as the enrollment piece on that side of that part, first, what we do is we talk with that individual and see, Hey, where’s the right fit for them? Is this really truly the right fit? Is this something that you’re really motivated by?

Or is this just one of those really good ideas you had in your head? We want to make sure this is the right fit. And that is the most key first part. After that, then we make sure that they have a tour of the facility. Show them what they’re going to be dealing with. There’s a lot of folks that, hey, we’re working 300 feet in the air.

I want to know if somebody’s afraid of heights, and so we go ahead, we bring them in and just have them look at the training apparatus just from the ground. See if this is something that’s overwhelming and makes them go whoa. Because it’d be a really horrible situation where they spend all this money getting into this career and into the program.

And then all of a sudden it’s yeah, this was a waste of money, a waste of my time. I don’t want that part for them. I don’t want that for my instructors. We bring them in, they go through the tour, then we start going through the enrollment process, make sure they go through the proper procedures and pieces.

Cause if they, what I do is I really screen them for that job. I’ve done hundreds of thousands of interviews myself. Working for and employing new people in the field. So I take that same application to the enrollment form with enrolling into my school. Because if they can enroll into my school, they’ll be ready for any type of career in the wind field.

Because that way they’ll go through those interview prep pieces as well. They’re vetted basically, before they even start. Exactly. That way it makes them a lot more desirable to the workforce industry side where now it’s easy to employ this person and then deploy them out into the field. I like it.

Allen Hall: That’s, wow, that’s fantastic. Who is your prototypical applicant?

Nick Martocci: Right now we’re working with a lot of different veterans. I have a program called Reinvet Yourself. It’s a little play on words with veteran and reinvent yourself. Yeah, cool. And so what we do is we help to get veterans sponsored to be able to go through my program.

And with that part, it gets them through all the certification process. It’s 240 classroom hours with me. And then 11 months OJT in the field.

Joel Saxum: Huge. Wow. I was just thinking this out loud, we need to get him hooked up with Kevin and Will. No, I know. The Atlantic Council for the Veterans Energy Project Vanguard, it’s a bunch of veterans that are pushing to get more of the vets into the wind industry and putting programs for it.

You’d be Fantastic.

Nick Martocci: I’m happy to help however I can. That’s the most important part is just one building the awareness and spreading the word. I think that’s the biggest piece because there’s so many veterans that as they’re transitioning out of the military, they, like I said, the stereotypical thing that we go to is, security or something of that nature.

Every once in a while you have some folks become teachers or real estate and whatnot, and I’m not knocking those professions, but All of a sudden, veterans in their mindset, they just feel very limited and that they’re in a very specific box and they don’t even know about these types of opportunities because these are careers that when they’re hitting the field right out of school, that’s anywhere between 60 to 100, 000 a year that is life changing.

That will take care of a family. And like I said, sustain you for the next 20 to 30 years easy, especially if that’s the introductory phase 100, 000. Not anything to shake a stick at.

Joel Saxum: No, not today. We’ve got salary figured out. You guys do placement, you do training. Who are you connected with?

You don’t have to tell us specifically, but do you have connections from your school with asset owners, with ISPs, in the wind industry to place people?

Nick Martocci: Yes, I have that access to them and I’m able to make a really great announcement today. I haven’t said it to anybody just yet. But we just said January 27th inked out everything with the Department of Labor.

We now have our apprenticeship up and running and ready to go. Everything’s set up with rapids. We’re ready to deploy individuals into the field as an apprentice. And so what I’m looking to do is actually expand that exact thing. So that way I can give these graduates more opportunities and more options of specialties because there’s so many specialties.

Just saying that you’re a wind turbine technician. Just very scratching the surface. There’s so many specialties out there with, major component exchange doing just regular routine maintenance torque and tension, blade repair. There’s so many different options and opportunities for individuals to go through and go to.

That I want to make sure that if somebody wants a specific specialty, they have that opportunity to be able to access that.

Joel Saxum: So I want to touch on this again. If anybody doesn’t know that’s listening, part of the IRA bill, when we go forward and people want to use, get PTC funds and things out of it, one of the new bullet points in it is you’ve got to have people that are part of an apprenticeship program.

As far as I know right now, I don’t know anybody else in a training program that has it set up. And I could be wrong, but I, but, you’re the first one I’ve talked to that actually has accreditation.

Nick Martocci: I know that there are a lot of companies that are looking at setting up. I know that a lot of have already, gotten signed off from the DOL and it’s an internal apprenticeship.

But one that is broadcasted out yet. I don’t know of anybody else other than myself that has set it up where I can go from company A to company B to company C.

Joel Saxum: So if you’re an ISP and you’re looking for people or an asset owner or anybody in the wind industry. You got to give Tower Training Academy a call because they’re the ones that can get people in that apprentice, an approved apprenticeship program and moving them out the door.

Allen Hall: How does a GI bill play into the Tower Training Academy? So it can’t be used. Can those funds be used?

Nick Martocci: So right now it can be, there are pieces that I have to finish finalizing and that will be done towards the end of this month and more guys.

Allen Hall: Okay. And that’s fantastic.

Nick Martocci: My goal is to have that up and running by March, but don’t hold me to that.

I got but no I’m working on that because again, that’s why I also have the. Reinvet Yourself program where what we do is I’ve partnered with a 501c3 and made sure that we can get these veterans the Sponsorships that they need so that way they’re really not paying out of pocket because that’s the most important key I want them to be yeah, they’ve earned it more than earned it I mean the thing that really tugs at my heartstrings is these individuals go overseas They deal with horrible scenarios and situations.

They’re responsible for multiple million dollars worth of equipment And then they come home and the best they can do is Taco Bell or something like that. No, we can do so much better. And then again, like I said, they feel their options are limited. They go to many places and get told, Hey, you’re overqualified.

We can’t bring you on. And I heard that for years and it drove me nuts. And so I want to be able to give those individuals options and opportunities to be able to take care of their families and have a career that they’re actually happy with.

Joel Saxum: A company with a purpose usually succeeds. That’s what that’s just my, part of my background.

Allen Hall: So How many students are there at any one time? And what’s the next training, what’s the training cycle look like?

Nick Martocci: Right now my cap is 12. I’m looking to expand and be able to grow with more instructors as anyone in GWO understands there’s a Instructor to student ratio limit and so I have to stay within that window.

I write, you know exceed that so that’s what’s controlling my cap and my bandwidth so I Worked on that piece as well. And like I said, if there’s anybody else that wants to help out with that I’m happy to listen to all those people.

Allen Hall: Yeah, I think a lot of training facilities are in your same situation, right?

Because everybody’s looking for the top candidates. And it’s a handful. A lot of them come out of the military. That’s the way it should be, right? It’s a good career. It’s a way to move forward and to feed your family. So I think that all makes sense. So how do people get a hold of Tower Training Academy?

And I did see your YouTube page this morning. That’s fantastic. So if you’re just interested in just checking it out on YouTube, you can do that. Absolutely. But how do people contact you, get enrolled, go check out the facility?

Nick Martocci: Yep. All you really truthfully have to do is Google Tower Training Academy.

Okay. It’ll pop up right there to the top. The other thing that most people do with our SEO is make sure that, hey, we have all those hot links where, you know, wind turbine technician training or how do I become a wind turbine technician. We pop up on the first page. We’re right there. Okay. And things of that nature.

One of the other major advantages we have with that cap, if I can go back just for a second. Sure. Is my partnership with ENSA and the ability to access those additional instructors. If all of a sudden I have a class that’s way too large, I can lean on some of my partners and say, Hey, do you have an extra instructor I could borrow and be able to take those on and not have to be stuck, if you will, on that situation.

But that’s usually a case by case basis. Because again, it’s also based off of their availability. Once I’m able to really expand and grow this out the way that I want, yeah I probably will be able to cap out somewhere around 30 students a month.

Allen Hall: Nice. Whoa. Okay. Hey, the wind industry in the United States needs it desperately.

Yep. We need to get the, our training academy filled up and let’s go because this year, next year just even in your neck of the woods, in Sunzea.

Nick Martocci: Actually I’m in I’m

just right around the corner.

Allen Hall: Yeah, just right around the corner. Exactly. There’s going to be a lot of opportunities just down the road from Vegas.

Oh, yeah. In New Mexico, thousands of turbines are going to go in there, starting in 25. Yep. There’s opportunities galore. They got to be looking for hundreds of technicians.

Nick Martocci: Not just that, but also the access to my pipeline of veterans. Yes. These are individuals that are accustomed to going to the other side of the planet, if you will.

Yeah. When I was deploying as a Wintec, as a travel technician, the wife, for me I’d come home six, seven weeks later and she’d be like, didn’t you just leave? We’re used to being gone, 12 to 15 months at a time. Six to seven weeks to individuals like myself, that’s nothing, that’s no problem.

And a lot of the veterans that are coming through my program are looking for that travel technician piece. And being able to just be Six, seven, eight hours away, like you’re saying in New Mexico, is not a huge deal. And then also again, you’re on this side of the planet, so internet works.

Joel Saxum: You can make phone calls on time zones, that makes sense.

Exactly. You don’t have to be at 2 a. m. talking to your kids.

Nick Martocci: Yeah.

Allen Hall: Yeah. No, it makes total sense. It sounds like a great facility. And if you’re interested, you just go online, Google Tower Training Academy. Get a hold of Nick here. Talk about it. Get hooked up. Because if you’re interested in being a Winn.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now’s the time to get started.

Nick Martocci: Absolutely.

Allen Hall: Nick, thanks so much for coming by the booth and saying hello. It’s been really fascinating to talk to you today. You’re welcome back any time. Let us know how it’s going.

Nick Martocci: Yeah, I appreciate you having me on. And if there’s anything I can do to help anyone, anyone, let me know. And I’m happy to help however I can.

Launching Veteran Careers: Tower Training Academy

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Renewable Energy

MotorDoc Finds Bearing and Gearbox Faults in Minutes

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Weather Guard Lightning Tech

MotorDoc Finds Bearing and Gearbox Faults in Minutes

Howard Penrose of MotorDoc joins to discuss current signature analysis, uptower circulating currents wrecking main bearings, and full drivetrain scans in minutes. Reach out at info@motordoc.com or on LinkedIn.

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!

Howard Penrose: [00:00:00] Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining light on wind energy’s brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow.

Allen Hall: Howard, welcome back to the program.

Howard Penrose: Hey, thanks for having me.

Allen Hall: It’s about time everybody realizes what motorDoc can do. There’s so much technology, and I’ve been watching- Yeah … your Chaos and Caffeine podcast on Saturday morning, which are full of really, really good information about the motorDoc as a company, all the things you’re doing out in the field, and how you’re solving real-world problems, not imaginary ones- Yeah

real-world problems. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and

Howard Penrose: whatever annoys me that week. Exactly. And, and whatever great coffee I’m trying out. Yes. Except for a few. We’ve had the ReliaSquatch down our- Yes … um, a couple of times. Uh, yeah, no, I, I enjoy it, and we gotta get you on there sometime. I don’t do- I, it- … a lot of interviews other than an AI character we put in.

Allen Hall: It’s a very interesting show because you’re [00:01:00] getting a little bit of comedy and humor and s- Yeah … and a, and a coffee review, which is very helpful because I’ve tried some of the coffees that you have reviewed, that you’ve given the thumbs up to. But if you’re operating wind turbines and you’re trying to understand what’s happening on the drivetrain side, on the generator, everything out to the blades even, main bearings, gearboxes- Yeah

all those rotating heavy, expensive parts, there’s a lot of ways to diagnose them-

Howard Penrose: Yes …

Allen Hall: that are sort of like we can look at a gear, we can look at a joint, we can look at roller bearings, whatever, but motorDoc has a way to quickly diagnose all of that chain in about- Yeah … 15 seconds.

Howard Penrose: Well, a little longer than 15 sec- more like a minute.

A minute, okay. It feels like paint drying. But- Uh, in any case, yeah. Uh, uh, and, and what’s kind of funny is, um, back in the ’90s, uh, EPRI actually accidentally steered the technology away from its [00:02:00] core purpose, which was in 1985, um, NAVSEA, the US Navy, had done research on using current signature analysis for looking at pumps, fans, and compressors, the bearings, the belts, the components, all the rotating components using the motor as the sensor.

Not too much different than we are now. I mean, mind you, we got better resolution now, we’ve got, uh, more powerful– I mean, I look at my data from the ’90s, and now it’s completely different. Um, and then Oak Ridge National Lab, same thing, bearings and gears in motor-operated valves. So in 2003, we were the first ones to apply electrical and current signature analysis to some wind turbines in the Mojave Desert.

Wow. Yeah. So, um, nobody had tried it before. Everybody said it couldn’t be done. And, uh, that was a bad thing to say to me because- … it meant I was gonna get it [00:03:00] done. Right. At that time, um, we were looking at bearing issues and some blatant conditions with the, um, with the, uh, generator using a technology called Altest, ’cause I was with Altest at the time.

And, uh, I had taken an EMPath software and blended it with a, a power analyzer, and they still have that tool to this day. I was using that technology all the way through 2015. 2016, I should say. And then- And then switched over to the pure EMPath, which was more of an engineering tool. And then more recently, in 2022, uh, made the decision to ha- to take all the work we’d done on over 6,000 turbines, uh, looking at how we were looking at the data and what we were doing on the industrial side, and took a, uh, created a current signature analyzer that would do one phase of current to analyze the entire powertrain.

Allen Hall: So when you tell [00:04:00] operators you can do this magic, I think a lotta times they gotta go, “

Howard Penrose: What?” Oh, yeah, yeah. They don’t understand it because they’re used to vibration- Right … which is a point analysis system. Right.

Allen Hall: Vibration at this- Yeah … particular location. Yeah. One spot- Even if it’s- … or a couple

Howard Penrose: spots

triax, they’re reading through material, up through a transducer. Hopefully, they put it above the bearing and not in the middle of the machine like everybody is now, because everybody’s trying to sell a sensor. Right. True. They’re not selling a- they’re not selling accuracy. They’re just selling sensors.

Right. So, um- Yeah … you know, uh, I, I’ll, I’ll even talk about one of the companies here. We’ve got Onyx here, and they do it right. I mean, they’ve been doing it right pretty well because we’ve been doing some of the same towers they’re on, and we can match the data they’re getting. Oh, good. Right? Yeah. Uh, so but they get it in multiple spots, and there’s areas they can’t quite reach, so we’ll detect those areas as well.

So it’s a good melding of two technologies.

Allen Hall: Oh, sure. Sure,

Howard Penrose: sure. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when you have electrical signature and you have vibration, but in [00:05:00] cases if you don’t have vibration, we’re a direct replacement.

Allen Hall: Because the generator- I

Howard Penrose: dare say that.

Allen Hall: Yeah. Whichever–

Howard Penrose: I dare say that, um, with- Well, the

Allen Hall: generator is acting as the sensor.

Howard Penrose: The air gap. The air gap in the generator s- specifically, yes. Yeah. Generator, motor, transformer. Right.

Allen Hall: Yeah. So any of those- Mm-hmm … you can clamp onto, look at the current that’s on there. Everything that’s happening on the drivetrain, in the gearbox, out on the rotor- Yep … main bearings, all of that creates vibration.

Creates a torque. T- a, a torque. Yeah. Yes, more exactly a torque. Yeah. And that’s seen in the generator, in the current coming out of the generator. Yes. So those signals, although minute, are still there. Yes. So if you clamp onto that current coming out of the generator, you’ll see the typical AC sine wave sitting there.

But on top of that- Is all the information about how that drivetrain is doing

Howard Penrose: Absolutely, and everything else. Anything electrical comes through [00:06:00] that. So what you do is just like vibration, you do a spectral analysis. So every component has a frequency associated with it, just like vibration. It’s, as a matter of fact, I, I keep having to try to explain to people electrical and current signature analysis is no different than vibration analysis.

It’s the same concept. We use the same tools. The signature looks just a little different. It’s a little noisier, um, but you need that noise in order to see everything. But we have a time waveform, and instead of, um, inches per second or millimeters per second, whatever, you know, uh, velocity, acceleration, and displacement, uh, what we end up with is decibels is the optimal method.

You can look at straight voltage signatures at those points or, or current signatures, but the values are so small that you have to look at it from a logarithmic standpoint. Right. There are some benefits to it versus vibration, and there’s some things that aren’t as good as vibration. [00:07:00] So, you know, we, we do…

You have to… Any technology is gonna have their strengths and weaknesses. Sure. So we will see everything all at once. Load doesn’t matter. Right. Speed doesn’t matter. It’s… Only reason speed matters is the location of the frequencies. Uh, so the higher the resolution, meaning the longer you take data, the less chance you have on a lightly lo- loaded machine of blending the peaks together.

Right. Um, on the flip side, if I have two bearings turning at the exact same speed, I couldn’t tell you which one it is. Because they’re the same. Right.

Allen Hall: And the mechanical features of that bearing is w- what creates the signal that you’re measuring. Exactly. So if a bearing has five rollers versus 10, just imaginary thing.

Yeah, yeah. Five rollers versus 10 has a different electrical signature, so you can determine, like, that bearing, that 10 roller bearing- Yes … has the problem, the five is fine. Yes. Yeah. That’s the magic, and I think people don’t translate the mechanical world into the electrical world. That that’s what’s [00:08:00]happening.

They,

Howard Penrose: they don’t because, because what’s happening is they named it wrong.

Allen Hall: Yes.

Howard Penrose: A majority of our users are mechanical folks. Sure. Our vibration analysts and stuff like, ’cause they know how to look at the signatures. Right. Everybody tries to force it on their electrical people, and electrical people go, “We don’t know what this is.”

Yeah. And it’s, it’s, it’s a matter of that training and, and, you know, in the electrical world, you’re not taught to look at that. Right. Yeah. It doesn’t matter. Mechanical world, you’re taught to look at that. So our intern, we were trying to bring in electrical engineering interns and found out that just wasn’t working.

So last year, I brought in my first, uh, intern that’s, you know, he’s been with us now since I brought him in. Okay. Uh, and, uh, Amar, and, uh, you know, he’s helped us develop our vi- uh, vibration software to go along with it. Guess what? It’s the same thing. It’s the exact same sy- system Um, but we just take in a vibration signal instead.

But he picked up on it immediately as a [00:09:00] third-year college student. I can take somebody with a decade as an electrical engineer with a PhD and they can’t figure it out.

Allen Hall: Well, because you’re, you’re taking real- Because it’s different. Yeah. It’s r- well, it’s real-world components-

Howard Penrose: Yeah …

Allen Hall: creating electrical signals.

That’s hard- Well, you have- … to process for a lot of people. Yeah,

Howard Penrose: yeah. It’s

Allen Hall: just not

Howard Penrose: something that we do every day. But that’s… If they, i- if we sa- i- i- if you’re looking at vibration and you start looking at the sensor, it gets complicated too, ’cause guess what? It’s an electrical signal. Right. It’s, it is technically electrical signature now.

It’s converting a

Allen Hall: mechanical signal- Right … into an electrical signal, which is what’s happening in the generator anyway. Yeah.

Howard Penrose: Whether it’s a piezoelectric cell that’s generating a small signal- Yeah … on top of a small waveform that you then take out, you demodulate, uh, or it’s, uh… So you take that carrier frequency out, or it’s a MEMS sensor, which is the same thing.

You know, the, it just sees some slower s- It, it does more of a digital output. So you, you, you know, you have those, or you [00:10:00] have this, which just basically uses a component of the machine to, to, as its own sensor. There is one other difference between them, too, and, uh, I find this very useful when I’m going out troubleshooting something that other people can’t figure out, uh, ’cause we use all the technologies.

So in this case, it would be, uh, the structural movement. Okay? So, so say I have a generator and there’s something wrong with the structure, and the whole machine is vibrating. So y- well, if I put a transducer on it, they might think that’s vibration or something else. We don’t see it. Right. We only see directly exactly what’s happening with the machine.

Sure. So a lot of times when we go in to troubleshoot something that people have done vibration on and everything else, it’s been pro- a, a problem for them for years. We walk in, and all of a sudden we’re identifying whether it’s the machine or it’s something else right off the bat. Then we can take a look at the vibration data and [00:11:00] say, “Okay, it wasn’t the bearing or the bearing, um, structure.

It was, you know, the mounting.” Right. It wasn’t

Allen Hall: fastened

Howard Penrose: down properly. Yeah,

Allen Hall: yeah. Right.

Howard Penrose: Go tighten that bolt. Right, exactly.

Allen Hall: Well, I mean, that’s the cheap answer. Yeah. I’d rather tighten a bolt than rip apart a motor or a generator- And, and- … every day …

Howard Penrose: and that’s the whole point. Now, there are other strengths that go with it.

So for instance, on the powertrain of a wind turbine, I can tell you if you’ve lubricated the bearings correctly. Wow. Because part of what we do is we do take those electrical signatures, and we convert those over to watts. Watts is an energy conversion. Sure. So you see that as heat or some type of loss.

So whatever, whatever’s being lost there is not being sent to the customer. To the outside. Right. Making money. So, um, if I’m taking a look at, say, a main bearing, I might see watts or kilowatts of losses. So you’re gonna have some ’cause you have friction, right? But when we see it increase on, say, a roller, [00:12:00] or the rollers, or, or the cage, that’s usually an indicator that I have a lubrication issue.

Or if we only see it on the outer race, that means that they didn’t clear out all the old grease when they were lubricating it, ’cause the rollers then have to ride across it- Right … ’cause it dries up.

Allen Hall: Sure.

Howard Penrose: Uh, and will carry contaminants. So if you see that, you go up, clean it up, you’ll extend the life of the bearing.

Absolutely you will. Without having to do a lot of work. So, uh, we, we look at our technology as more so early in the, in the stage of a condition. I don’t wanna call it failure, ’cause it’s not a failure. It’s something that’s mitigable. And I made that word up. You can mitigate it. Meaning you can go up and correct it and extend the life of that component.

Sure. Uh, in gearboxes we’ll see problems with, um… Well, the, the one we’re talking about here a fair amount is all the circulating currents going on uptower. We did that research. The current signature analyzer we have is a direct result of doing wind turbine [00:13:00] research just on circulating currents uptower, ’cause we conferred everything over to, to sound at 48 kilohertz.

And so that gives me a 24-kilohertz signal. That high-frequency stuff, which we’re researching in CGRE, and IEEE, and IEC, is called supra harmonics, which I– we talked about that before. Yes, we have. Yeah. And, uh, so when you start seeing that in the, in, in the current that’s circulating uptower because the ground that goes from the top of the tower down is for- DC

lightning protection. And lightning protection, yeah. It’s not meant for, um- Not for

Allen Hall: high frequency- Yeah …

Howard Penrose: currents. Yeah. Uh, we, when we measured it, when we mapped out dozens of towers of all different manufacturers, we found that the impedance about halfway down the tower is where it ends. Sure. The, the resistance.

And then the increased, uh, the high-frequency noise turns any of your shaft brushes into resistors. And at about 15 kilohertz, no current is [00:14:00]passing through them. It’s all passing the bearing, which becomes more conductive the higher the frequency. So with 60% of main bearings failing due to electrical currents, it’s actually currents that are circulating uptower.

It’s not static. There is some static up there, but it’s not static. It’s coming from the controls, the, the generator, and everything else. Inverters,

Allen Hall: converters.

Howard Penrose: And we’ve seen up to 150 amps passing through a, through a bearing.

Allen Hall: So I– We run across a lot of operators who have been replacing main bearings, and they don’t know the reason why.

Yeah. And I always say, “Well, call Howard at MotorDoc because I would almost bet you you have the f- high frequency running around uptower in the nacelle- And the next main bearing you put in there is gonna go the same way as the- Yeah … first one you put in there. Until you cut off that circulating current and then the cell, you’re just gonna continue with the problem.

Then you haven’t eliminated the problem, you’re just fixing the result of that problem. Yes. But it takes- Yeah, you’re, you’re- How, [00:15:00] how, well, how long- You’re replacing

Howard Penrose: a fuse.

Allen Hall: Right, you’re replacing a fuse. Yeah. How long does it take you to s- to determine- An expensive fuse. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, ’cause you’re taking the rotor down.

Yeah. Well, how, how fast can you determine if you have harmonics uptower that are gonna be causing you problems? 120 seconds.

Howard Penrose: Okay.

Allen Hall: So that’s the thing. I think a lot of- I mean,

Howard Penrose: that’s of the actual data collection time. So you clamp on uptower, uh, and then you can… Well, the way we have it set up now, you just tell it you wanna collect data every five s- uh, five minutes, and then you go downtower, let it collect its data, go back up, grab it.

Um, it’s like…

It’s huge. It’s this size. So, um, and then you connect- It plugs into a laptop. Yeah. Plug it into a laptop or any type of tablet. Um, it, it’s Windows now. I’m trying to get away from Windows. We’re gonna have Linux systems, uh, as well. Uh, and then you use that to, um, just collect that data, and then you press another button.

Now it pops up, and it tells you if you’re in danger or not, [00:16:00] the amount of current passing through the bearing, and the frequencies all the way out.

Allen Hall: So the ideal is you’re gonna have this kit with you in the truck. Yeah. And as you see these problems pop up, you’re gonna clamp on uptower. Yep. You’re gonna measure these circulating currents, and you’re gonna know immediately if you have another mechanical issue, a, a lubrication issue- Oh, yeah.

It’ll look at- … some kind of alignment issue, or- You’ll get all

Howard Penrose: of this information at once. So you- Right … if you go on the power side. So certain turbines, like anything that has the transformer downtower, you don’t have to climb. Right. GE. I mean, I don’t climb. So, uh, uh, you know, th- and that was part of the, the concept behind when we started down this path because I’ve been in the wind industry since 1997.

So one of the things I always saw was, and, and we talked about even, you know, here when it was called AWEA, and we were talking always on the health and safety side about wearing out the technicians. Um, so we discovered that, you know, what was it? Almost 60% of the [00:17:00] turbines you didn’t have to climb. Right.

Oh, yeah. And even the ones you do, you go up, you set it up, and it’ll tell you where you need to focus. The other thing in the powertrain, let alone the generator, when we do a sweep of a site– Now, if we do a straight electrical signature analysis, I’d term that one as a technician’s tool. Sure. That’s more of an engineer’s tool.

Uh, a lot more data, a lot harder to set up. But even though I’m saying harder to set up, it’s still pretty easy. It’s still minutes. Right. Yeah. Most technicians will collect data with, like, a couple hours worth of training. Yeah. You g- You basically gather that data, and if you’re getting a site, so we’ll go out– I love going out in the field.

So we’ll go out in the field, especially if it’s a tower we don’t have to climb I’ll knock out, uh, well, let’s just say I’ll, I’ll, I’ll name one. Say a GE 1.6. I’ll knock out one of those every eight to 11 minutes, depending on how you get to the tower.

Allen Hall: So that’s a full diagnosis of drivetrain- Yeah … plus anything odd happening- Yep

with circulating currents and all that [00:18:00] can- Oh, no, no. Circulating- Or just- … current, that’s a- That’s a separate thing at tower … separate study that- Okay … you have to do that uptower. But anything, anything drivetrain-wise, you can be in and out- Yeah … in a couple of minutes. Yep. Okay. So there’s a lot of operators that have end-of-warranties coming up, right?

Yes. There’s been a lot of developments, so they’re kind of running into the end-of-warranty, and they don’t know the health status of their drivetrain. Same thing for a lot of operators that are in- Yep … full service agreements, and they’re questioning whether they’re getting their money’s worth or not.

Yes. I always say, “Call Howard at Motordoc. You guys can have a whole site survey done maybe in a couple of days, and you will know all the problems that are on site for the lowest price ever”. Yeah. It’s crazy how fast you can do it and how accurate it is. I talk to operators that use your system, so I hear you.

Yeah. Your podcast, listen to your podcast, I’m calling your customers to find out what they say, and they love it. Oh, yeah. They can’t believe how accurate it is. Yeah. Well, the thing about that is we as an industry need to make sure that our turbines are operating at [00:19:00] maximum efficiency. Yep. And if a simple tool like the Motordoc EMPath system exists, we need to get customers, operators in line to start doing it worldwide.

Australia- Oh … Europe-

Howard Penrose: Yeah. We- … Canada. Australia, we’re trying to get into, but right now we even have OEMs using it through North- That’s good … and South America, Asia. Good. Uh, Middle East, um, and, uh, and some of Europe. Good. So it’s, it’s, it’s really taking off. Uh, I’d say probably our biggest market right now is Brazil.

Sure. They’re going crazy. Well, the, the turbines are- They’re having a lot of problems. Yeah.

Allen Hall: Right. And the, well, those turbines have a h- high usage, right? So because- Oh, yeah … the winds are so good, they’re operating at, like, capacity factor is above 50%. Yes. It’s insane. Yeah. So there’s a lot of wear and tear.

There’s no downtime for those turbines.

Howard Penrose: Yeah. Well, and, and people think it’s all the starting and stopping. It’s not. No. It’s a grid-related issue. So we have- Sure … we have a low frequency. And you know some of the stuff I volun- I, I’m, I’ve been volunteered for- [00:20:00] Yeah … uh, including the CIGRE thing. Um, so I get to sit in the grid code committees for IEEE and put my, and our input into that, uh, and kind of watch the back of the IBR industry, right?

Mm-hmm. ‘Cause there’s a definitely bias against our industry. Um, and I also, uh, get to hear what’s going on in the grid side of things from CIGRE worldwide, and it’s all very similar, and it has to do with low-frequency oscillating currents- Yes … called subsynchronous currents- Yes … which are low enough not to damage large synchronous machines.

And they thought, and there’s books written on this, by the way, multiple books written on wind turbine impact- Uh, and they’re seeing now, um… Well, we detected it first, along with Timken. Hank, uh, and, and I went out to a site, and we detected for the first time, because of how they wanna do the testing and where the site was located, we saw the oscillating torque [00:21:00] in the air gap, ’cause that’s one of the things the technology does.

It actually measures the torque, air gap torque. Sure. So we were watching the oscillating torque as a tower started up. And so we did, we went through the rest of that site looking at the same stuff in the same way. It increased our time and data collection, and time on site. But then we started looking for it at other sites, and going to pass data because I don’t have to go back and retake data.

Right. And we’re like, “Oh my God. It’s everywhere.” 16 hertz, 21 hertz, and 50 hertz. And we found a paper that specifically identified that as the sub synchronous frequencies for 60 hertz. So we know what they are also for 50 hertz. Once we identified that and we saw how much the torsi- torque was oscillating, we worked with Shermco, who got us some information on Y-rings that were failing.

Yeah. And they were all failing… When the metallurgy was done, they were all failing from fatigue. And you’re like, fatigue how? What’s fatiguing these connections? [00:22:00] Well, the fatigue is that air gap torque- Exactly … because you’re basically causing the, the, everything to oscillate a little bit, and that causes the windings to move slightly.

It’s a living,

Allen Hall: breathing machine-

Howard Penrose: Exactly … this generator

Allen Hall: is.

Howard Penrose: Yeah.

Allen Hall: It’s not

Howard Penrose: static. It’s definitely not sta- no electric machine is static. No. Even a transformer’s not static. Right.

Allen Hall: So- There’s a little

Howard Penrose: bit of wiggle going on there all the time All the time. And it’s minute, so it takes a long time. Right. And what, uh, uh, everybody…

Well, first people thought it was a particular manufacturer, which it wasn’t. Turned out every defig’s failing the same way. Sure. You’re fatiguing it. Yeah. Every bearing is failing the same way, even in the gearbox, main bearings, and everything else. Right. All of these conditions are happening across all the OEMs, but they’re not allowed to talk.

Well, this is, this is the thing that

Allen Hall: I like watching your podcast.

Howard Penrose: Yeah.

Allen Hall: The Chaos and Caffeine. It comes out Saturday mornings. It’s on YouTube. If you haven’t- Yeah … clicked into it, you should click into it

Howard Penrose: because a lot of these issues are discussed there. It’s definitely, um… [00:23:00] Let’s just say I’ll speak Navy quite a bit.

Allen Hall: It’s a great podcast, and I think what you’re doing with the EMPath system- Yes … at motor dock is really a game changer. Yeah. I’m talking to everybody, all the operators I know. I keep telling them to call you and to try the system out because it’s so inexpensive and it does the work quickly and efficiently, and it’s been proven.

There’s no messing- Oh, yeah … around when you’re talking to MotorDoc. I…

Howard Penrose: Somebody dared tell me that there’s no standard for it. There’s ISO standards for it. Yes. There’s IEEE 1415- Yes … which I chair. Uh, and there’s other standards coming out- This is- … associated with it. And there’s a document that I also chair for Sea Gray- Called A178, which is the practical application of the technology.

So it’s well-documented. There are traceable standards for it. I need more

Allen Hall: operators to call you- Yeah … and to talk to you and get systems in the back of the trucks that they can use to check out the health of their gear boxes and their drive trains and their generators. How [00:24:00] do they do that? Where do they go?

Where, where’s, what’s- Well- … the first place they should look for?

Howard Penrose: Uh, info@motordoc.com. Okay. I get all, I get all of those as well, so do my people. Um, or, uh, LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s really good.

Allen Hall: Look up anything. Yeah.

Howard Penrose: Yeah, yeah. So, so either the company at Motordoc, or, uh, I’m, I sh- I’ll show up either searching for my name or, uh, linkedin.com/in/motordoc.

Come straight to me ’cause I’ve been in, on LinkedIn forever, so- Right, just- … I got to do that … look up

Allen Hall: Howard Penrose, P-E-N-R-O-S-E. Yep. Or go to motordoc.com is- Yep, motordoc.com … the website address.

Howard Penrose: Yep. There’s a lot of great information there. And we have partners, and we have people. We’re growing the company.

You know, talk to me. I, I’ll- Yes … I like answering the phone and talking. It’s, it’s a thing. My people go, “Can we answer the phone one?” No. Um, but, but yeah, we, we, y- when you call us, you’re not just dealing with a single person. Right. The Motordoc is far more expansive. Right now, we [00:25:00] just got our partnership with, uh, Hitachi and, and Juliet- Yeah, that’s great

and stuff like that. Uh, we’re helping them with certain things. Uh, we’re partnered with some of the big OEMs, almost all of them, um, you know, helping identify the issues, you know. And, and when users contact us, often they’ll tell us what’s going on, and we’ll, we can, uh, sometimes say, “Yeah, it’s this, and here’s how we prove it.”

Allen Hall: Yeah. That’s the, that’s the beauty- Yeah … of calling Motordoc. So I need my operators that, that watch the show- Yeah … worldwide, go online, go on LinkedIn, get ahold of Howard, get ahold of Motordoc, and get started. Yep. Howard, thank you- And- … so much for being on the podcast. Yeah. This is fantastic. I love talking to you because-

it’s, it’s like talking to, you know… Uh, no, really, it’s talking like someone who’s a real good industry expert, who’s been there a long time, and understands- Yeah … how this

[00:26:00] works.

MotorDoc Finds Bearing and Gearbox Faults in Minutes

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Renewable Energy

The Fine Art of Appealing to Idiots

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The fascism of the early 20th Century taught us all the key elements of the playbook (see below).

In particular, when a leader identifies an enemy like Islam as a grievous threat and pledges eliminate it, one might think that such a position would generate suspicion, rather than adoration.

No so here in the United States, where tens of millions of uneducated Americans would happily elect Trump an absolute leader for life, in the way of Putin and Xi.

The Fine Art of Appealing to Idiots

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Renewable Energy

Raising Children

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In addition to all the sane, honest, and compassionate people in the U.S., I’m sure there are many Trump supporters who would agree.

Rich people may love the tax breaks, but very few of them want their kids to become criminal sociopaths.

https://www.2greenenergy.com/2026/05/20/raising-children/

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