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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!

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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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Is ir Possible that Republicans “Will Never Win Again?”

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Well, never is a long time, as they say.

Yet imagine this scenario, which is quite possible:

Trump is impeached and removed.  Almost immediately, there is an incredible outpouring of information on an additional set of crimes committed by Trump and his administration.  Simultaneously, the U.S. morphs into a social democracy, and its people enjoy quality education, access to healthcare, and prosperity, not unlike those in Northern Europe and elsewhere around the globe.

Yes, there will always be Republicans promising mass deportations and whatever else appeals to a dwindling MAGA base, but I would think they will have one hell of a hard time winning a national election.

Is ir Possible that Republicans “Will Never Win Again?”

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Renewable Energy

Republican Platform Fraught with Credibility Challenges

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The GOP can say the American economy is skyrocketing.  But then there’s that nasty little piece of reality that people can’t afford groceries and are suffering financially more generally.

Or they can day that people are suffering financially, but it’s Biden’s fault.  Oops.  Biden left office 588 days ago.

Or they can say that the war in Iran has driven up gas prices, but that will turn immediately because we’ve won the war.  Yikes.  What can we say about all these bombs?

Or they can say that all the racial hatred and divisiveness is Obama’s fault. No, that’s problematic, since he’s been gone for almost 10 years.

Trump supporters may not be too sharp, but even they are having trouble accepting all this crap.

Republican Platform Fraught with Credibility Challenges

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Renewable Energy

India Locks Down Turbine Data, Danish Wind Jobs Dip

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India Locks Down Turbine Data, Danish Wind Jobs Dip

India now requires turbine data, control centers, and R&D to sit inside its borders. Plus a study on reverse flow loads in parked blades, Envision’s spare parts push across Southeast Asia, and Danish wind employment falling to 32,700.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

The Uptime Wind Energy podcast, brought to you by StrikeTape. Protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide. Visit striketape.com. And now, your hosts

Rosemary Barnes: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. I’m your host, Rosemary Barnes, and I’m filling in for Allen today here with Jolanda Pedron. All right, onto our first story. India is drawing a line around its wind data. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has ordered every turbine maker on the approved list of models and manufacturers to report where its data actually lives.

Data centers inside India, servers inside India, research centers inside India, and no real-time data leaving the country. The order went out last week with status reports due by month-end. And while the government tightens the rules on data, the hardware keeps moving in. Flender has just opened another generator plant in Chennai [00:01:00] Yolanda, I think this is gonna have a large impact on the number of companies who are, you know, there’s a lot of companies around today developing, like, smarts for wind turbines.

There’s a lot of scope to operate turbines better, to improve power output, reduce maintenance costs, et cetera, and y- a lot of companies are taking advantage of that. Even Patlow has some projects going on in that sort of area. What do you think about the impact this will be? Is India planning to develop their entire own ecosystem for that aspect of the industry?

I

Yolanda Padron: mean, it looks like it, right? Which is really, I mean, kind of groundbreaking. I know that we talked a couple weeks ago about Europe sort of being a little bit scared of bringing in, um, different manufacturers from Asia, um, and just the, the idea of cybersecurity being something really prevalent and really important to all of these people.

So just if India starts siloing everything and that works, maybe that’ll translate to Europe.

Rosemary Barnes: Do you think that it, it can work? Has India [00:02:00] got the expertise in place already to, to make this work, or is this gonna be a real, like, handbrake on their, their wind industry continuing to develop as fast as it has been?

Yolanda Padron: I mean, I’m really curious to see it because I don’t know if they’ll bring in a lot more experts to be able to, to do that.

Rosemary Barnes: I know the Indian, um, operating environment is quite different to other locations. I mean, it’s, it’s similar in a way to Australia in its dissimilarity, if that makes sense. I, I think there’s a lot of really India-specific problems, so of course Indian companies are gonna be best placed to take advantage of that.

But what we’ve seen so far is a lot of, uh, companies from Europe or America coming in to y- you know, like tweak the way that they attack similar problems in other markets. They’re, you know, moving in to understand India better and take advantage of that. Now, of course, like not every smart operating method or aerodynamic improvement, they don’t all need [00:03:00] real-time data, and probably most of them don’t actually.

So I think it’s not gonna like s- snip off this entire kind of improvement. But it is really interesting. It’s quite, like it is quite severe, the restrictions, and I haven’t heard of any other market, um, that is doing that. I, I don’t know, do you think it’s warranted or is it maybe like overly paranoid? I know when I heard that in, um, in Europe they’re not allowing Chinese manufacturers of inverters, for example, and I just felt like, “Ugh, is that a bit over the top?”

I’m not sure. Um, yeah, what’s your opinion, Yolanda?

Yolanda Padron: I think it, it might be a little bit over the top. We live in such a globalized world that the idea of one country just siloing completely is, is a little bit strange to me. But- I guess if, if that’s, they have a, a reason for concern, then I guess it might make sense.

But to your earlier point, like, I don’t know if the cost of doing this [00:04:00]would also come into play

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I think that there’s always a, a, a trade-off. It’s like when you have any kind of l- local content rule, which is similar in a way because it forces, um, yeah, it, it forces your own ecosystem to develop, and that’s, that’s great.

Like, it is a missed opportunity if you just have, you know, like a huge new industry and you just import it all, then that i- is a lost opportunity for your own economy. But I mean, in the past, India has had pretty strong local content rules, and they do have a bunch of wind energy manufacturing, um, within the country.

They are a country known for really great engineering, so it’s for sure not beyond them to, you know, step up. So yeah, I guess time will tell if this is a smart move from that point of view. I don’t think it’s actually the motivation behind this rule. I think it’s more of a, like, a cybersecurity, um, kind of perspective where you don’t want, you know, overseas companies having the ability to shut down your energy system, for example.

Um, [00:05:00] so yeah, but it, it has the potential to have that other effect of, you know, like boosting the local industry or alternatively just slowing down the whole industry because they can’t get anything done. I guess that’s always that balance that you need to, need to look at when you’re looking at local content.

So India is deciding who gets to control the data inside a turbine. Our next story is about something inside that same turbine nobody controls yet, the air moving across a blade that isn’t turning. A parked turbine might look like the safest thing on the site. Blades are locked, the rotor’s still, nothing turning, nothing generating.

But a new study says that stillness is not safety. When the rotor is locked and the wind shifts, air can strike the trailing edge first and travel backwards across the blade. That is reverse flow, and in reverse flow, the models this industry uses to predict blade loads start to fall apart. Field data cited in the study suggests blades on turbines above 15 megawatts can go aerodynamically [00:06:00]unstable at winds as low as eight meters per second.

That is nowhere near a storm. So this is actually already definitely a known issue, and I know that modern wind turbines don’t usually park with locked rotors, right, Yolanda?

Yolanda Padron: Yeah.

Rosemary Barnes: We, we saw that a locked rotor during installation was one of the causes of the Vineyard Wind fiasco, right? Where broken blade pieces washed up on the beach.

So definitely something that’s known about.

Yolanda Padron: And it’s something that even onshore you have a, you have your system so that it tracks sort of where the wind is coming from. So even if it’s stopped, it won’t just be stopped at a specific angle, particularly in case the, the winds shift.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, and I’ve seen examples of blades failing when, um, there was a storm and there was power lost, so they weren’t able to yaw or pitch a turbine, and that also can cause…

Like, any time that- Wind is going in a different direction than what the turbine desi- was designed for, you’ll get unpredictable stuff happening and often, [00:07:00] like, really bad loads. Like the harshest, um, conditions, loading conditions that a wind turbine blade has to withstand is not in operation. It’s if you’ve got just wind hitting like a bluff body, they call it, where a gust of wind just hits flat on the blade and tries to bend it.

Like that is way, way stronger loading than, um, than anything it would see operationally. If you’re looking at, you know, like a really severe storm, like a one in 50 year kind of, um, wind speeds, and then if you have flow going on weird angles where it’s creating lift, then you can ratchet up those loads even more.

So for sure a known issue. This study, it, it singled out turbines above 15 megawatts, which are huge. That’s a, you know, like a big offshore wind turbine. But I don’t think it’s limited to that. Like what would you think, Yolanda? Is this, is this like purely a big blades thing, or is this something that actually all wind turbines need to take into account?

Yolanda Padron: Oh, this is definitely something that all wind turbines need to take into account. It’s something that we’ve seen a lot in the [00:08:00] US as well, um, onshore and s- wind f- uh, smaller wind farms and wind farms that have, you know, 200 plus, um, wind turbines on them, uh, the, the 1X or 2X turbines. Uh, this is also ver- a, a reason that it’s really important, right, to check your systems constantly, and I know that a lot of the, the owner/operators do that, um, in their regular maintenance checks.

Um, but it’s, it’s, it’s an issue that, uh, if you don’t have the correct systems in place or if you just remotely reset things, uh, because you see an error that maybe you thought, “Oh, that, that must be just a glitch,” uh, then you start having issues like this that can cause catastrophic failures, not just on the blade but on the turbine itself if, if the blade ends up hitting the turbine, um, it, it ends up hitting the, the tower itself.

Uh, and then [00:09:00] a similar issue, um, that can happen too is when you don’t have the correct systems in place for, for an emergency, and so the turbine can just overspin, and that also causes a lot of blade failures, uh, both onshore and, and offshore as well. But I think onshore it’s, it’s just the, the wind farms are so big that it’s It’s easy or, or easier to miss, like, one or two turbines, um, when you’re doing those checks.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. And I think another issue with keeping the rotors locked out, and one of the big reasons why they moved to pinwheeling as the, you know, um, turbine off kind of configuration, was with the, the bearings, right? Like, it’s not good for the bearings to be totally stationary. Um, so I think that it’s better to, yeah, pinwheel.

It’s lower loads on the bearings.

Yolanda Padron: Something, um, similar to this as well, right, and, and I think Wind Power posted about it the [00:10:00] other day, um, about just, oh, it’s really common for, for sites to, to think of, of a financial solution to, to negative pricing being just fully stopping turbines that might not be producing at positive pricing.

Um, and then, uh, that can also cause a lot of loading issues because you’re, you’re having a, a turbine at, at full capacity, and then it just stops.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, that’s true. The braking loads are, are one of the more extreme loads that turbines have to withstand also. I mean, hopefully if they’re curtailing, um, voluntarily, uh, they’re not doing an emergency brake kind of level.

I hope that they’re being a bit more gentle on their turbines, but yeah, for sure, like, the easiest thing for a turbine to do is just operate normally its whole lifetime. That’s exactly what it was designed to do, and anything that deviates from that can reduce the t- life of the turbine, complicate things.

So machines keep getting bigger, and the physics keep [00:11:00] getting harder. Meanwhile, the map keeps getting wider. Next, a Chinese manufacturer planting both turbines and spare parts across Southeast Asia. Stay with us

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Rosemary Barnes: China’s turbine makers are no longer just shipping machines. They are building the network that keeps those machines running. Envision Energy has secured its largest wind project in Vietnam, 200 megawatts with REE Energy, 25 [00:12:00] turbines, grid connection targeted for October 2027. It is also the company’s largest overseas nearshore project to date.

And Batangas, Philippines, Envision has opened a distribution center holding major components and spare parts close to the projects that need them. Turbines first, then the parts network. Yelena, I’m just wondering if spare parts was a big headache for you when you worked in asset management, and do you think that this plan of, that Envision has is gonna be a successful one for Vietnam?

Yolanda Padron: I think spare parts, having spare parts on site or near a site is always a good strategy. I know that sometimes it can get the, the accounting itself can get a little bit difficult because for at least, you know, in the US for tax purposes, you can’t really sell something from one project to another, so you, you have to be a little bit careful, um, as far as when you hold a part or you’re sending one part that might fit in multiple sites and where you’re technically buying that [00:13:00] from.

Uh, but I think the spare parts that they’re having here I, I think it’s a, it’s a really good idea, right? Because oftentimes you might have a, a big, um, there might be a big queue for a particular component that fails years after, uh, it was produced, and then you– I mean, if you need it now and there’s a big queue now, then you need to wait until it can get to site, until it can be produced, until it’s your turn in line.

Uh, and so just having those components on site or really close to the site I think is a really good idea.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, it’s really challenging. Like it’s, it, it’s easy to imagine how you could organize a spare parts network or, you know, just l- literally a bunch of warehouses holding spare parts for the kind of, you know, like one-off failures that happen routinely throughout a wind turbine’s life.

But when you start to see a serial issue or if there’s just, you know, like statistically every now and then [00:14:00] you’ll get clusters of failures even if it’s not a serial issue, that’s when it starts to get really hard. So I know in Australia, and I’m sure it’s the case elsewhere, you kind of got to pair your spare parts inventory with the capability to repair and refurbish as well.

Because sometimes it’s like, you know, you might do, like speaking of blades, which is my specialty, you might have a bill of, you know, maybe even a million dollars to do a really big repair on a blade, but that’s better than spending probably, honestly, the similar amount of money on a brand-new blade, but then that comes with a six-month or a 12-month, um, wait time.

You know, like obviously you’re gonna save overall if you can get that turbine up faster. And we also see a lot of, um, in-country capabilities to refurbish, you know, all of the drivetrain components and, and everything like that, and I think that that is such an important complement. Like your spare parts strategy should never just be about having them physically sitting there, ’cause if you were [00:15:00] to have enough to cover any situation, then, you know, most of your components would go unused over the, the lifetime of the wind farm.

And it’s not like they’re just swap in, swap out for any different wind turbine, right? Like they are usually quite turbine specific.

Yolanda Padron: I completely agree with the idea, especially with blades and how trif- tricky some of the new blades and their, their repair processes can be. It’s really important to have a plan and not necessarily just, “Okay, now I’m gonna throw this one out and bring in a new one, and always hold a new one,” because that’s really expensive.

Um, and it’s also really, really important to, uh, that doesn’t matter what particular part it is, that whatever storage facility you’re using, that you’re, you make sure that the environmental factors impacting the spare parts are taken care of, right? So, um, I know I’ve seen spare parts for a battery site or spare parts for a solar site, uh, that just kind of end up degrading even more than the parts that were in [00:16:00] operations because no one was really looking at them.

They were just outside in the elements, and then you just wasted millions and millions of dollars for really nothing. Um, something that you need to take to the landfill eventually or report.

Rosemary Barnes: Hopefully recycle it if it’s electronic waste.

Yolanda Padron: I completely agree that to, to be able to, to have any sort of replacement strategy, you, or any sort of spare parts strategy, you need to make sure that, that the replacement strategy is there and that the refurbishment strategy is there.

If there’s anything that you can recycle in-house and use in-house, that’s a lot better than just landfilling anything or sending anything to be recycled elsewhere where it just piles and piles and piles up.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. I think also it’s reassuring if you’re buying wind turbines from maybe a, a less well-known manufacturer or less well-known in your country, I think it is reassuring to have a, like just a stack of spare parts on site, because that will give you the confidence that if [00:17:00] and when things start to go wrong, you know, a few years into the wind farm’s operation, you are gonna have that capability.

‘Cause I think it is, like it’s a big leap to move away from the really, really well-known, uh, manufacturers into some of the less well-known ones and have the confidence that y- you know, you wouldn’t have any- anyone to ask what they’re like for service, uh, for example, and you might also not have confidence that they’re even gonna exist in, you know, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years’ time.

So having the parts on site can give you that confidence. Although, as you say, if those parts aren’t actually functional when you go to use them, that can be worse than not having them in the first place because you thought that you were okay and then you find yourself scrambling. That’s not ideal at all.

Yolanda Padron: Yeah, I completely agree. I did hear about someone who, um, had a, a blade that they They thought they, they didn’t really have the capabilities in-house to, to restore it, and so they sent it to be recycled, [00:18:00] and then later it was sold to them by their OEM, um, on site. And so I think that also speaks to the…

And, and it was just because someone noticed the serial number was exactly the same and kind of noticed. It was, it was really honestly kind of a funny, funny thing in retrospect. But, uh, and it, it just speaks to the idea of you really need to understand if you’re holding spare parts and, and just in general, even if you don’t wanna hold spare parts.

Um, the idea of being able to refurbish or have a plan to be able to refurbish the, the materials that you have on site is really, really, really important because it can save you so much money. I mean, the, I mean, the, for that case, just the, the transportation costs of hauling the blade off, of paying someone to recycle it, of paying for a new blade, um, and everything just to kind of be bamboozled in that way where you could’ve just repaired it on site is, is It’s almost a no-brainer, yeah.

Rosemary Barnes: I gotta say, that’s like a real recycling win, right? Like, you can’t get [00:19:00] better than, than that. Uh, you know, you had a blade, you recycle it into a blade. It’s, you know, performing exactly the same function, better than shredding it and hiding it in a, you know, a footpath, a sidewalk, or something like that.

Stay with China a moment longer, because the product strategy tells you as much as the project map. Mingyang Smart Energy has unveiled the Tianchi MCD 5 MW turbine at its factory in Guizhou. It’s the first machine in the company’s new medium-speed compact drive platform, a semi-direct drive that Mingyang says cuts component count by 60%.

And it is built for sites nobody used to bother with: mountains, plateaus, places where the wind averages four and a half meters per second. Now, Yolanda, 5 MW is pretty big for an onshore turbine in locations. It sounds like, you know, these locations, aside from the, like, less than ideal wind resource, also sounds like places where it’s actually, you know, transport might be a bit of a constraint.

I wonder what their strategy [00:20:00] is gonna be to get those large components and installation equipment in.

Yolanda Padron: Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s not gonna be the first site, I think, that we’ve seen that where they have to develop some sort of game-changing vessel or crane or something to be able to, to get things, uh, to the site.

Uh, my, my first thought honestly was just kind of like, “Oh goodness, that might be a lightning nightmare depending on, on where they’re located.”

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, that’s true. Like we’ve seen in Japan, they have all their turbines on the ridges where the wind speeds are great, at least. Um, but they have been just absolutely destroyed by lightning, like really, really dealing with extreme situations.

I think also, like these are low wind speed sites. Like what, what did they say? Four and a half meters per second average wind speeds? I mean, that’s like half what you would consider a good, a good site, right? And we know that the power in wind, it goes, like it increases with the cube of wind [00:21:00] speed. So, um, you know, like if you double the wind speed, you get eight times as much power.

So it’s like all of the challenges associated with a high wind speed site in the mountains or, you know, somewhere tricky to get to you know, at least you’ve got eight times the power to make up for the effort of maintaining it. Uh, just it seems like, like a lot of effort to get to a low wind speed site, right?

I think these turbines, the cut-in wind speed is gonna be two and a half meters per second, so you know, again, like you can reduce your, yeah, like the, the wind speed a- again by another factor of eight. It’s almost nothing at that wind speed. It really, yeah, I don’t know that you can make up for a low wind speed site by having a really low cut-in wind speed, right?

Like, you’re still gonna end up with low power across the board.

Yolanda Padron: Yeah, and it’s, it’s strange too, I mean, we said it’s, it’s a mountainous region, right? And so, and the transportation [00:22:00] in itself, I mean, we talked about the idea of bringing them in is gonna be difficult. But I know that a lot of times we see a lot of blades that have issues down the line because of the transportation issues and because of the way that maybe they, they didn’t use the lifting points right, and there might be a lot more transportation issues or damages from transportation on the site if they come in and it’s a completely different terrain that they’re used to.

Uh, and teams have to build in a completely different terrain to- that- than they’re used to, then that might also cause problems down the line. Not to mention the idea that I know sometimes in sites where there’s already roads, uh, it, it, because of the position of the turbines, because of the, the way that things are, are mapped out in development and construction, sometimes it’s a, a hassle for operations to, to get the correct cranes or trucks or everything in there to do any sort of maintenance.

Uh, so [00:23:00] I can’t imagine in a place where it’s just really, really difficult to get to in general.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, and especially over the lifetime, you know, maintenance i- is gonna be such a challenge. So I think that it sounds like they’re aware of that because their emphasis with this new platform, dropping the component count by 60%, that’s a claim from Ming Yang that I haven’t seen the details of.

It seems highly implausible but, um, yeah, I would wanna look into that a bit more to believe it. But they also say that their new bearings and gearbox features lift reliability by 10%, so yeah, I think that that is going to make their job a little bit easier, but yeah, I don’t know if it’s enough that would make me wanna invest in a wind farm with a, what was the number?

Four and a half meters per second average wind speed. Seems marginal at best. So new machines for marginal sites built in China and priced to compete. Now let’s move [00:24:00] to Denmark, where the employment numbers show what that competition feels like from the other side. Back in a moment.

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Rosemary Barnes: Numbers out of Denmark tell two stories at once. Green Power Denmark counted [00:25:00] just under 110,000 full-time jobs across the Danish energy sector in 2025. That is up 1,526 positions or 1.4%, slightly ahead of Danish employment overall. That is the good news. Inside the wind sector, employment fell to 32,700, a drop of roughly 500.

Green Power Denmark blames international competition and unfavorable market conditions. Its chief economist calls the dip normal You know what, Yolanda? I think that if Denmark’s labor market is weak in the wind industry, there are many countries outside of Denmark that would wanna snap up that talent.

I know that my own company, Pardalote, is included in those numbers of people that would really like to have Danish talent. I’m trying to s- hire someone currently that’s got wind turbine blade expertise, and I tell you what, that is not easy to do in Australia. So I would say if there are any Danes listening or watching who fancy a move to Australia, then please do get in touch [00:26:00]if you have some excellent wind turbine blade experience.

Yolanda Padron: You guys would have a lovely, lovely boss. I’ve- I just gotta say that. The learnings that you have in Denmark and just the, the, the school- not just from the schooling, the, the onsite, I mean, it- it’s just historically Denmark’s been really, really great in, in wind. And there’s just so many bright minds, um, that d- I mean, if, if they can’t find a j- a job in Denmark, then I, I agree that there’s a lot of places in wind that if they’re, they’re okay with moving, they’ll, they’ll find a, a good spot that’ll receive them really happily.

Rosemary Barnes: I know it is a bit of a, like, a cultural blocker. Danes more than other nationalities that I know are, are really, um, I don’t wanna say attached, it makes it sound like not quite the word I’m looking for, but they, they do really appreciate the region that they’re from and, you know, family is so important to Danes, so not the easiest thing [00:27:00] to just say, “Just move to the other side of the world.”

But you know, I did it. It, it can be done and, uh, yeah, Australia is, has got very nice weather, especially at the moment. It’s, um, it’s gonna be… It’s been, like, in the high teens Celsius all this week, and this is, I’m in Canberra in still winter and, uh, yeah, like, on the weekend it’s gonna be 20 degrees. It’s, you know, normally 15 degrees is a really great one-off day in winter.

It was my birthday this week and in Denmark there is a, a saying or a, you know, a belief that if you have good weather on your birthday, then that means that you must have been really good all year. And the weather was just, like, unprecedentedly good for my birthday, um, yeah, for a winter day. So obviously I was very, very good this year.

Yolanda Padron: You’re a great person, and happy belated birthday.

Rosemary Barnes: Thank you. But it is something that I say every time we get another story about another Danish wind energy company that’s, you know, doing layoffs and, you know, I’m honestly surprised that it’s [00:28:00] only 500 fallen in wind energy. If you look at, like, even just the job losses at LM Wind Power alone, um, I think that it would be about that many, right?

And so there are obviously some other companies um, growing to absorb some of the job losses, ’cause for sure we’ve covered more than 500 job losses just on the show. But I know I always feel really sad, um, not just for the people involved who y- you know, probably love wind energy and wanted to work in that field, but I feel sad that, you know, this was such a strength for Denmark, their, their wind industry, that they had been, you know, developing this expertise since the ’70s, honestly.

Uh, really, really world leading and, uh, of course, like, globalization means that you can’t, like, stay siloed forever, and Denmark obviously also took advantage of that globalization to, you know, export. Wind industry was a huge export market for Denmark, and still is. Um, but I do, I, I just feel really bad at the companies that are losing, um, all of that, you know, institutional [00:29:00]knowledge and the really, really deep specialist knowledge.

It’s, um, yeah. Uh, and they’ll go on to, you know, bring new skills to other industries, but it just makes me sad. As a wind energy lover and, um, you know, somebody who has a lot of friends that work in wind industry in Denmark, I do feel, feel sad. And there are some of my old colleagues who are amazing, like, literally the best engineer that I ever worked with, an electrical engineer, it, it was not easy for him to find a new job in wind.

I’m actually not sure if he’s working in that industry now. And plenty of other, like, really, really talented engineers that have gone on to other, um, yeah, other different kinds of industries, and it just makes me a little bit sad.

Yolanda Padron: Yeah. I mean, there are a lot of people too that are com- And I agree, it’s sad.

It’s really sad. But I, there are a lot of people too, some friends that, uh, just, you know, started doing consulting on their own, and it’s, it’s good to see that they’re still in wind, you know? Because they’re, they, they’re so smart and they have so much knowledge of so many years in the industry that they bring to the table, um, [00:30:00] that, I mean, it, it might even work out better for them, right?

Because maybe now they’re not just wor- focusing on Denmark itself, and now they get to, to expand and do what they evidently love to do, uh, the, for clients around the world, which is really exciting.

Rosemary Barnes: Well, that wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast, and my first as the primary host of the show, so let me know if you think I did a terrible job in the comments.

Comments boost engagement, make me look better. So if today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us on LinkedIn, and if you found value in today’s conversation, please leave us a review. It really helps other wind energy professionals discover the show. And don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

For Yolanda, and Matthew and Allen Hall in their absence, I’m Rosemary Barnes, and we’ll see you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy [00:31:00] podcast.

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