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AC883 Joins Muehlhan Wind Service

Lars Bendsen, founder and CEO at AC883, joins to discuss the Muehlhan Wind Service acquisition and Canada’s aging turbine fleet.

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Allen Hall: Lars, welcome back to the podcast.

Lars Bendsen: Thank you so much, Allen.

Allen Hall: A lot has happened since I talked to you last. I saw some of the announcements on LinkedIn. I was really excited for you. So AC883 has news.

Lars Bendsen: We have news. It was about a month ago now, but yes, things have been going very well.

Allen Hall: Muehlhan has acquired AC883, which is a company you started how many years ago?

Lars Bendsen: I started AC883 12 years ago. From my dining room table, basically.

Allen Hall: Wow. And it’s grown to quite the business over time.

Lars Bendsen: Yes, we have been expanding, especially the last five years after my son came in. He has been the main driver, so we’ve been expanding like crazy the last five years. And, well, getting older. Now we are at a point where we should extend, spend more. And then when Muehlhan, one of the biggest companies in the wind industry, looked our way, it was an easy decision to make. Very easy.

Allen Hall: Muehlhan is well known for being a leader in the ISP world in Europe, and a little bit in America. They’re still making a presence here. That’s why they wanted to talk to you, I’m sure, because AC883 has a nice Canadian market. People trust you and rely upon you, because you bring the quality people over, plus you have all the resources to get to parts that you can’t acquire in Canada and the United States. You know who to call. It’s part of that Danish connection. And that makes a lot of sense, because I do think as we see the industry mature, those quality companies like AC883 are very valuable. They see them as being a huge resource to the industry.

Lars Bendsen: As I said, it makes us really proud that a big company is looking our way, and it’s been a very smooth transition. As you were talking about earlier, the industry is maturing, meaning also big is getting bigger, and you need more horsepower, you need more muscle. And we also needed that, because we’re expanding and there’s only so much we can do. And we’re all getting older, so at a certain time you have to do something.

Allen Hall: Sure, but it comes at a point where you’ve proven yourself time and time again. How many times have you grown an industry in your lifetime? You’ve done it many, many times. That’s why AC883 has always been the relied-upon source for so many things. Now Muehlhan brings a lot of advantages and a lot of horsepower to the organization. Because as you have gotten larger, you realize there’s a lot of back office things that need to happen. Safety, gear, equipment. It’s not just putting technicians on ropes out on site. There’s all the management of that. That’s where size matters.

Lars Bendsen: Size matters, and also the whole health and safety perspective. You’re putting more staff behind the scenes than actually in front of the scenes. So it’s also extremely expensive. And now we’re expanding our offering, because under the Muehlhan umbrella we can do everything, including main component changes, which we didn’t do before. We decided before that anything we need a crane for, we do not do.

Allen Hall: Right, I remember that.

Lars Bendsen: Because it’s a completely different animal from a health and safety perspective, equipment, et cetera. And now in Canada, the company we’re going to be merging with, that’s what they do. They’re really strong in lifting and really strong in installation of turbines, complete wind farms. Where we are strong on the O&M side. And our primary customer is the asset owners.

Allen Hall: Asset owners love you.

Lars Bendsen: We hope so. We think so.

Allen Hall: I know they do.

Lars Bendsen: Where the other company is more focused on the OEM side. So there’s actually a really good mix in that. And we don’t step on each other’s toes, because we are focused on the O&M part and they’re focused on installation of turbines. So it’s a perfect match in so many ways.

Allen Hall: And particularly in Canada, because the Canadian market is poised to put a lot of turbines up in the next couple of years. But at the same time, there’s an older fleet there, and spare parts is an issue. Some of the blades and the repairs are a little more complicated just because of the age of the turbine. And there are a lot of spares and components that you have access to and can bring into the Canadian market. You keep those turbines that are 15, 20 years old running.

Lars Bendsen: Yes, we’re in a sweet spot in that respect, where the turbines are getting older but they’re not too old. So we need to keep them alive. And also, many owners still have the high PPA, which also means they want to do it. So there is a growing market for the O&M component, no doubt about it. But also, whatever happens in the US, leave that aside, they have a lot of good stuff happening in Canada on the offshore side, on the East Coast.

Allen Hall: Oh, yes.

Lars Bendsen: Nova Scotia. There are four big projects going out to bid, I think, within a year or so, and a lot of new projects coming up. So no doubt about it, Canada is a growing market. Where my impression is, and I have to be careful not to say too much, maybe the US is more a stagnating market. It’s maybe not growing as fast as it used to be. Of course, I don’t know enough to be smart about saying it. I’m just saying my impression is it’s more a flat market.

Allen Hall: Today.

Lars Bendsen: Today, today.

Allen Hall: But tomorrow it’s something else.

Lars Bendsen: That’s the charm of the unpredictability.

Allen Hall: Exactly. Welcome to wind, right? It’s unpredictable. Well, I think that’s good, because the Canadian market is one of those pieces that a lot of Americans don’t pay attention to, because it’s not the same scale.

Lars Bendsen: Not yet. But also from the European side, every time we have talked to European vendors or customers, it’s “yeah, be in America.” Yes, but I’m talking Canada. Canada has not even been on the radar. They’re talking about it as of late, but they had not talked about anything else before. So now it’s coming on the radar. And I know the Muehlhan people are smart people. They might be seeing that too.

Allen Hall: Oh, I would imagine, yes.

Lars Bendsen: So I have no doubt that it makes sense. The other thing that’s critical, of course, the US is big as well, but Canada is area-wise extremely big.

Allen Hall: Same width as America, roughly. That’s a big territory.

Lars Bendsen: But that also means it’s further between the turbines. That means you can travel like crazy to meet very few clients. And that’s why the one company is in western Canada and we are in eastern Canada. That makes sense. There are many reasons why you have to be local in your area.

Allen Hall: Part of that is what’s happening in the United States at the moment, but it’s also on the part of Canada to react to it in a positive way. Like, if America’s not going to do it, well, we’re here. We have great wind resources in Canada. And that’s what the Canadian government is saying to itself, I think. They’re realizing the opportunity to go after that wind resource is now. And not only that, because of the way America has situated itself, they can sell a lot of that power that’s going to be generated in Canada right down to the East Coast of the United States.

Lars Bendsen: Yes. Well, the whole AI, the whole data center stuff. It takes seven to eight years to build a power plant. Normally they put a wind farm up in two years. You can’t avoid it, whether you want to or not. I think the Canadians are a little bit optimistic right now, to say, “If you don’t want to do it, we will do it.” And I think we are very happy, and we will see by the end of 2028 who’s happy where. But it’s all good.

Allen Hall: Right.

Lars Bendsen: It’s all good. But again, by that time, well, only now I’m retired officially, so…

Allen Hall: What does that mean? What does retired officially mean?

Lars Bendsen: I don’t know. But I’m retired in the respect that Muehlhan bought the company, and Jannik, my son, who’s been running my company—

Allen Hall: Jannik is awesome.

Lars Bendsen: —he’s been running my company anyhow the last three years. So there’s no change in personnel, same person, people know the same him. Same place, same locations. Nothing has changed at all. Same reasons as before. We just have more horsepower and more offerings to do, and we’re very happy, because we needed that too. Just the whole thing about main component routines. Now we can do it. We couldn’t do that before.

Allen Hall: There’s a lot of need for that.

Lars Bendsen: As you said, the aging fleet, they need to do main components. We need to lift a whole rotor down, different stuff. So that’s good.

Allen Hall: Isn’t that exciting, though?

Lars Bendsen: It’s very exciting. Especially for our team. And I’m so proud and happy sitting on the sideline and following it. It’s amazing.

Allen Hall: Well, you’re not going to sit there and let them do main component exchanges without going and watching that, right? You’re going to have to go at least take a look at that.

Lars Bendsen: I can’t go on site, so I can sit from the highway and look at it.

Allen Hall: They’ll give you a hard hat, don’t worry.

Lars Bendsen: Oh, I won’t do it.

Allen Hall: Safety glasses and steel-toe shoes.

Lars Bendsen: Maybe, maybe, maybe. But I’m happy. And Muehlhan is truly good people, a good company. And they have bought out, I don’t know the number of companies they have bought the last couple of years, not only in wind but also in the industrial division. They have a huge industrial company. So I think it’s something like, don’t hold me to it, 40 to 50 companies over the last couple of years. So they’re growing like crazy. And you only do that if you’re good people.

Allen Hall: That’s true. The only way to survive is with good people.

Lars Bendsen: Or people just say, “No, thank you.” Because people are not desperate to sell. And we were not desperate. We saw it as a great opportunity, and we are honored that they did it. And I think we can take the market share if we want to.

Allen Hall: I think Muehlhan, in terms of its reputation, is well known. I’ve talked to large European operators, and who do they use? Muehlhan. That’s who they use. So you hear that name pop up quite a bit, and rightly so. We’ve worked with them. Weather Guard has worked with Muehlhan in the past, and the results have been good, so we’re really grateful.

Lars Bendsen: It also looks like there will be more presence of Muehlhan, so to speak, because before it was more the individual companies that had been a part of the Muehlhan group. They’ll be branded as Muehlhan. So it’s the same companies, but there might be bigger visibility, is my guess. I don’t know, again, I’m out, I don’t know the strategy plans. But that’s my two cents, that there’s going to be a bigger visual presence as well.

Allen Hall: But in terms of contact points at AC883, Muehlhan now, you’re still able to call Jannik, you’re still able to call Jacob, Bent, and Sydney, and the whole crew is still there.

Lars Bendsen: The whole crew. No changes. Same numbers, same emails. The email signature has changed, but the same email address, same telephone number. Even I have my same phone number and my same email address. So if you’re desperate, I’m happy to pick up the phone and forward it to someone else. So it’s all in good order. I’m very happy and proud that we can do that and hand it over.

Allen Hall: Well, it’s amazing. And congratulations. But I wanted to have you back on the podcast because we’ve had you on so many times before, and because you’re such an industry insider, so to speak. You know where things happen, and why they’re happening, and the history of some of these wind events. So I use you as that resource, but you’re also a great friend, and I appreciate that. We met just randomly several years ago. Like, who is this Lars guy? And you realized immediately, super knowledgeable, smart on his feet, good salesperson, all those things you need to have in the wind industry to be successful. That’s the package.

Lars Bendsen: Well, people dealing with people.

Allen Hall: Yes. People dealing with people. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. We’re going to have to have you back on. We have to pull you out of retirement to comment on the state of the wind industry.

Lars Bendsen: Would love to do that.

Allen Hall: All right, I would love to have you back on.

AC883 Joins Muehlhan Wind Service

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