Nowadays, it is hard to find a person who does not have an opinion about EVs. As is increasingly common with information in America, some consumers are arriving at opinions by deliberating facts, while others are misled by exposure to falsehoods. The fifth annual “Transportation Electrification in the Southeast” report, prepared by Atlas Public Policy in partnership with Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), analyzes the data underlying the EV market in our six-state region from July 2023 to June 2024. The data reveals continued growth trends in manufacturing investments, anticipated jobs, EV sales, charging infrastructure deployment, and public funding.

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The data and analysis in this report provide a holistic factual view of an EV market on the cusp of exponential growth, poised to transform how our nation moves people, goods, and services. Here in the Southeast, this market transformation is spurring record-setting economic development, building manufacturing capacity, and creating jobs and workforce training programs.
Jobs & Investments
The Southeast is leading the nation in EV and battery-related jobs and private sector investments. As of the end of Q2 2024, the fifth annual “Transportation Electrification in the Southeast” report finds that our region is home to 73,908 anticipated manufacturing jobs supported by $78.2 billion in industry investments. This means the Southeast is home to a whopping 31% of the 238,000 EV and battery-related manufacturing jobs announced nationwide.

Four of the nation’s top eight EV manufacturing investment states are in the Southeast: Georgia leads the pack, followed by North Carolina, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Investments and corresponding jobs in these states are tied to over 100 regional facilities and span minerals processing, battery production and recycling, EV charging, EV assembly, and other EV component manufacturing operations.
Percentage of Announced Manufacturing Investment by Sector in the Southeast

Inflation Reduction Act’s Positive Impact
Tax incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) support EV and battery manufacturing investments, encouraging domestic and foreign companies to establish EV supply chain operations in the US. In the Southeast, the companies that have disclosed tax incentive-supported manufacturing investments thus far range from battery and battery parts production to vehicle parts like electric motors and structural materials like steel.
The most significant investment in the region is Toyota’s battery manufacturing facility in Liberty, North Carolina, which has added multiple rounds of investments since it was announced in 2022. The total investment now stands at $13.9 billion and is expected to generate 5,100 jobs when the facility comes online in 2025. The facility will host six production lines supporting Toyota’s plug-in hybrid and pure battery EVs, and will run on 100% renewable energy.
Hyundai has made the second-largest regional investment at its battery manufacturing and EV assembly plant in Bryan County, Georgia. Hyundai’s initial investment has had a massive ripple effect across the state. Last year, Hyundai and LG announced an additional $2 billion and 400 jobs for their battery joint venture at the plant, and 17 Hyundai suppliers have announced more than $2.7 billion in investments and an anticipated 6,900 jobs across the state.
Additionally, EV tax credits for consumers and fleet operators, also part of the IRA, have supported EV sales growth over the last twelve months. These tax credits provide rebates for eligible consumers purchasing new and used EVs and offer rebates to commercial fleet operators, even those who do not pay taxes, such as state, local, and tribal governments, non-profits, and churches.
EV Sales & Charging Infrastructure
Southeast light-duty EV sales grew by 42% from Q2 2023 through Q2 2024, outpacing the national average growth rate of 37%. However, the region still trails the average national EV market share, which nearly reached 10% in Q2. States in the Southeast saw progress in their deployment of publicly accessible EV chargers, especially fast charging ports that enable long-distance travel; 1,820 new fast charging ports were added regionally, with Tennessee having the highest growth rate at 61%.
SalesThe fifth annual “Transportation Electrification in the Southeast” report tracks EV sales and market share, which is the percentage of EVs sold relative to all light-duty vehicle sales. In Q2 2024, the Southeast’s light-duty EV market share was 7.1%, up from 6.1% in Q2 2023. Florida continues to lead the region at 8.9% market share and is home to more than half of all the light-duty EV sales in the Southeast, while Alabama is in last place at 2.7%.
Tesla continues to dominate the light-duty EV market, but recent market growth is attributed to legacy automakers, which continue to ramp up EV research, design, and production. The auto industry is global, and legacy automakers must stay competitive in all markets, not just the US. In 2023, the total number of EVs globally reached 40 million. EVs currently make up nearly one in five new light-duty vehicle purchases worldwide, and they are led by Chinese automakers offering an increasing number of low-cost, high-quality EVs.
New Light-Duty EV Sales in the Southeast

EV Sales Market Share for Light-Duty Vehicles by State

This year’s report also includes a new section tracking the transition from commercial diesel-powered medium- and heavy-duty vehicles to EVs, such as electric school and transit buses, delivery vans, garbage trucks, and tractor-trailers. Although new medium- and heavy-duty EV sales continue to tick up in the Southeast, they amount to less than one percent of the region’s van, truck, and bus sales at this early market stage.
Charging
It remains true that more than 80% of EV charging is done at home, where it is convenient, reliable, and affordable. When EV drivers take to the road, they rely on a network of public charging stations along highway corridors and at destinations.
There are two public light-duty EV charging types: slower Level 2 chargers and high-powered Direct Current Fast Chargers (DCFC). Fast chargers are getting the most attention thanks to the allocation of $5 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). BIL’s National EV Infrastructure (NEVI) program funds states to deploy DCFC along major highways to enable cross-country EV mobility.
Though Southeast states’ total number of public EV charging ports still lags behind national state averages, for the first time since this report has tracked charging deployment, three states—Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee—have a DCFC port per capita count higher than the national average. The total number of regional DCFC ports stood at 6,495 at the end of Q2 2024, a 39% year-over-year increase.
Cumulative DCFC Ports per 1,000 People

There was also meaningful growth in public Level 2 charger deployment in the region. Southeast states increased the number of publicly available Level 2 ports to 17,458, representing a 29% year-over-year growth, with North Carolina leading at 44%, followed by Florida at 31% and South Carolina at 29%.
Meanwhile, on the medium-heavy-duty vehicle front, federal agencies partnered to establish the first-ever National Zero-Emissions Freight Corridor Strategy to accelerate the deployment of EV charging and hydrogen fueling freight infrastructure along critical corridors and hubs in four phases. States in the Southeast have been selected as the location for 25 of the more than 200 hubs in the first two phases.
Utility & Public Funding
Nationally and in the Southeast, utilities and state governments continue to play central roles in the EV transition, but regional investments and funding need to catch up, given the correlation between the strength of state EV markets and the amount of utility and public sector engagement.

Utility Investment
The Southeast is home to some of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric utility companies (IOUs). The region’s IOUs are regulated monopolies overseen by state utility commissions, who approve all spending, including on EV programs. Nationwide, utilities play a critical role in accelerating EV adoption through direct investments in charging infrastructure, charger and vehicle rebates, EV-favorable electricity rates, and other programs that balance adoption with the need to manage the electricity grid effectively as more EVs plug in.
Through Q2 2024, IOUs nationwide have been approved for $6.6 billion in transportation electrification investments, an increase of 10% year-over-year. An additional $1.2 billion in investments are awaiting approval from state utility regulators. Meanwhile, the Southeast represents just 6% of all approved EV investments, which is striking when compared to the region capturing nearly one-third of EV manufacturing investments and jobs.
Two things have conspired to create an underinvested region: 1) utilities are not proposing supportive EV programs at the scale needed to support the transition, choosing instead to propose small pilot programs, and 2) when proposals are made, regulators have tended to require utilities to scale back the investment to get approval. The result is that on a per capita basis, all of the Southeast’s IOUs are below the national average of $38 per customer in approved EV investments, with Duke Energy South Carolina at the bottom of the list at $2 per customer, Tampa Electric Company at $3, and Duke Energy North Carolina at $6.
Public Funding
The region is far below national averages for state-allocated electric transportation funding; the national average is $29.85 per capita, while the Southeast average is $3.91 per capita. With such low state funding levels, the region relies on federal dollars that state agencies and local governments often administer.
Hence, the two significant public funding stories over the past twelve months resulted from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The first is the $5 billion NEVI program, which provides states with a funding windfall to deploy DCFC along major highways.
The graph below puts NEVI’s public funding impact in perspective. It shows the amount of funding allocated to each state based on population. It is up to the states to create a plan and deploy the resources. Though every state in the Southeast has submitted its NEVI Plan, only Tennessee and Georgia have awarded contracts. At the same time, North Carolina and Alabama have launched bidding processes, and South Carolina has wrapped up its stakeholder engagement process. Florida, the largest recipient of funds, is sitting on its money for political reasons.
Public Funding for EV Charging ($ millions)

The second is the EPA’s $5 billion Clean School Bus Program, which provides grants and rebates for school districts that purchase zero-emission buses. To date, the Southeast has been awarded nearly $405 million in grants and rebates, enabling the purchase of 1,195 electric school buses across the region.
Electric School Buses Purchased with EPA’s Clean School Bus Funding

An Eye on the Road Ahead
Policymakers and regulators are likely to take center stage in the coming years. The fifth annual “Transportation Electrification in the Southeast” report delves into Southeast policymakers’ history of stalling supportive EV policies and enabling EV adoption roadblocks.
Given the region’s EV-related economic development and job creation stakes, it is in our best interest to get more electric cars, trucks, and buses on the roads to support the product sales of the manufacturers and supply chain businesses investing and setting up shops in our states. Companies like Toyota, Hyundai, Ford, Volkswagen, BMW, Volvo, and others are making historic investments; and it will be interesting to see how these companies use their new political clout to inform and influence state policies.
Regulators overseeing our region’s IOUs also need to consider the next level of utility planning and investment required to support light-, medium- and heavy-duty EV adoption to ensure a rapid increase in transportation electrification is managed to enhance the electrical grid’s performance and benefit ratepayers.
On the light-duty front, recent surveys by Cox Automotive, Consumer Reports, and J.D. Power show that, depending on how you slice the data, between 45% and 70% of consumers are considering buying a new EV, with upwards of a third seriously considering an EV for their next car.
Couple that with commercial fleet operators and investors like Amazon adopting electric delivery vans, PepsiCo, Maersk, Microsoft, and others teaming up to electrify Interstate 10 for tractor-trailers, and Nextera Energy, Daimler Trucks North America, and BlackRock partnering to build a national network of heavy-duty charging stations, and a possible scenario emerges whereby near-term EV demand takes off, catching Southeast IOUs flat-footed—a scenario that could lead to charging infrastructure bottlenecks, grid reliability issues, and increased costs to ratepayers.
EV technology and consumer adoption have reached the point where the question is not if the market will transition away from gas and diesel, but when. States in the Southeast are positioning themselves to reap the economic development and job benefits of the global transition. By taking full advantage of federal funding and leveraging market-supporting policy and regulatory opportunities, states can bring those benefits home to local businesses, consumers, and fleet operators, keeping investments and jobs growing, lowering transportation costs, reducing air pollution that makes people sick, and addressing the transportation sector’s outsized contribution to climate change.
SACE’s Electrify the South program leverages research, advocacy, and outreach to accelerate the equitable transition to electric transportation across the Southeast. Visit ElectrifytheSouth.org to learn more and connect with us.
The post Think Electric Vehicles are Slowing Down in the Southeast? New Report Shows Otherwise appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Think Electric Vehicles are Slowing Down in the Southeast? New Report Shows Otherwise
Renewable Energy
Do Social Democracies Commit Genocide on Their People?
Re: the meme here that a reader sent me, I’m not sure this is fair.
What social democrats are proposing exactly what most of the governments of Western Europe, and many other countries around the globe offer their citizens.
I don’t read too much about genocide in Denmark. Are they killing each other with pastries?
Renewable Energy
German Wind Turbine? Let’s Do Some Math
The turbine presented here has blades that are 0.5 meters in length, and that the average home requires 1.2 KW.
When we plug this into this wind power calculator, we learn that we’ll need an average wind speed of 37 mph.
Since the average wind speed in Germany is 11 mph and power is proportionate to the cube of the wind speed, the average German will need 38 of these to power his house.
Renewable Energy
What Operators Want to Hear at WOMA 2027
Weather Guard Lightning Tech

What Operators Want to Hear at WOMA 2027
Two days of operator meetings in Melbourne shape the WOMA 2027 agenda, from performance upgrades and cable faults to foundations and bolts.
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!
Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. I’m your host, Allen Hall. I’m here with Matthew Stead and Rosemary Barnes. And Rosemary, where are we?
Rosemary Barnes: We’re in Melbourne, and we have been visiting future attendees and sponsors and people interested in, in the event to see what topics that we should be talking about.
What are the hot topics of the moment?
Allen Hall: Which is a very interesting two days, Matthew, in that, uh, we h- did meet with a number of operators based in Australia, but, uh, they’re also very worldly. They have talked to companies all over about operations and, and maintenance, and there are some really eye-opening topics- Mm
that will be- Mm … at WOMA 2027 this year.
Matthew Stead: Yeah. The thing that was interesting for me was [00:01:00]that actually the topics have changed each year. So, um, they’re evolving and the industry’s continuing to, to do better, and so that, that was really interesting. Performance upgrades was probably one of the big areas of, of new interest, I think.
I think we heard with the pressure on pricing, uh, the market and so forth, you know, that, that 1% or 2% now is becoming more important. Um, so I think, uh, upgrades will definitely feature quite a lot. Um, balance of plant was also a big topic. Um, you just can’t ig- ignore the, um, transmission, you can’t ignore the transformers, you can’t ignore, uh, condensers and all these sorts of things, so yeah.
Rosemary Barnes: Cables.
Matthew Stead: Cables.
Rosemary Barnes: Terminations. Terminations of cables. Specifically raised several times.
Allen Hall: Yep. Yeah. It’s all about being more efficient, uh, getting more production, and then with the PPA prices, uh, that are changing-
Matthew Stead: Mm …
Allen Hall: rapidly, uh, everybody is paying more attention to the bottom line.
Matthew Stead: Mm, mm.
Allen Hall: Absolutely. There, there’s less cash running around, uh, chasing new development.
It’s [00:02:00] more of a focus on making sure your, at least your existing assets are performing as, as well as they can be- Mm … which then opens up the, uh, Pandora’s box of opportunity. Mm. Because there are 1%’s all around a wind turbine. More specifically, uh, all the drive train issues, the blade issues, the generator issues, and even going into the substation.
Mm. I, I was really shocked on BOP e- the, the one topic that came up, uh, yesterday and today was buried cables. Mm. Like-
Matthew Stead: Faults …
Allen Hall: faults.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Junctions. Finding- Yeah … finding faults and what to do about them. Yeah. Yeah. But I think in addition to just wanting more revenue, I think people have, are getting more sophisticated about what actually matters and then the finances.
You know, everyone’s focused so much on availability, and now people- Mm … are like, okay, yeah, like once you’re at a certain level of availability, gets harder and harder to get more. And actually, you know, not all availability is equal. Is good. It, it [00:03:00] depends. Yeah. Yeah, like you wanna, um, you wanna focus on how much you’re generating at the times when electricity prices are high specifically, which usually means during lower wind speed periods.
Yeah. Which is actually good because that matches really well with what is actually possible. It’s, it’s hard to get more power out of the turbine if it’s at, you know, its rated power, then you’re not g- More efficiency is not gonna get you any more, um, power output, whereas lower in the power curve- Mm … um, when wind speeds are lower, there’s less electricity in the grid and so prices are higher.
And so- Mm … yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s why people are really asking to know more about what efficiency upgrades are possible, better ways to operate, scheduled maintenance, um, all those sorts of things. Mm. So that will be really interesting.
Matthew Stead: Raising the bar on sophistication. Um, but also life extension
Allen Hall: Yes, a lot of discussion about life extension
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, end of life and life extension End of life Yeah, um-
Matthew Stead: Foundations, structures Which is
Allen Hall: tied to PPA.
Mm. A lot of that [00:04:00] discussion I, at least I looked at it as, uh, if I had a PPA and I can continue with that PPA with an existing turbine, I want to do that. Mm,
Matthew Stead: mm,
Allen Hall: mm. But how do I do that and how do I know that that existing turbine can last another five years? It seemed to go in five-year blocks, like can we get to another five years and then another and then, then another.
Wow.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Once you get to 20, 20, 25 years, I think people like, uh, they, you know- It’s getting a little- Their original agreement might have been for 20, then they kind of just assume that there will be another five, and then after that they’re- Yeah … kind of reassessing cyclically and yeah, I know that people make plans for, you know, what components are replaceable, what would they have to get in, and I think that sometimes, uh, people doing those plans aren’t as familiar with the, you know, actual technical issues that are being faced.
Like, is a blade a replaceable component? It may be early on in the life it sort of is, not easily, but you know, like a 25-year-old wind turbine, you know, good luck trying to order 10 new blades because you’ve got a, you know, an issue that’s-
Allen Hall: Oh, well you, you need to read the news. Did you [00:05:00] see the news today about, uh, the, the wooden wind turbine blades as a replacement for aged blades?
That, that’s happening- … in real time, Rosa.
Rosemary Barnes: Okay. I know they- Yeah. Yep, yep. Okay. Okay. So that, that’s, that’s good. Making carbon new blade. E- even so, I don’t think that they’re- Okay. … gonna be, like, super-duper cheap, so you’re still gonna wanna be, um, doing a trade-off between y- you know, like, what kind of repairs.
You might be able to change the way you’re operating to reduce loads. Um, you might be able to monitor to make sure that your blades are safe. You know, if you know that there’s an issue, um, you just wanna get some advanced warning before blades start falling off your, your tower. Mm. You know, and then you can push it further.
Yeah. Whereas if you’ve got no information, then you have to be conservative and shut it down. Yeah. So yeah, I think there’s a whole lot that can be g- can be done there in that area.
Matthew Stead: There was a point that came up today, which I think was close to your heart, on, you know, if you’re going to be going for 1% or 2% or 0.5% AEP improvement, how do you actually measure that and how do you set up a proper experiment?
So-
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah …
Matthew Stead: I, I, I love that topic. [00:06:00]
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. No, it’s one that I, um, yeah, I deal with m- my clients I, I’m often… It’s one of the things that Pablo really loves to do, is to organize trials of that nature of new technologies and see if they work. But, um, yeah, asset managers are usually very, uh, focused on fast results.
You know, they’ve got a, a big problem and they want a solution now, so they wanna just roll out the new technology over an entire wind farm. But if you do that, then it’s almost impossible. Unless you get, like, a huge benefit, like, uh, 10% gains or, you know, like reduce your failures by 50% or more, it’s really hard to actually- Mm
pick that out if you just replace everything. Mm. Whereas if you do a really, really good, um, trial plan- Systematic. Yeah … and you match pairs very well so that you have, you know, a control for each turbine and there’s- so many variables in a wind farm. It’s not, it’s not as easy as just, like, randomly choosing 50% to do and not do.
Mm. Mm. Mm. Like, you have to, you know, put some work into the trial design, and then, you know, like, do your statistical calculations ahead of time to know how long it’s gonna take you to get s- statistical [00:07:00]significance. So then you don’t just have a gut feeling about- Yep … how something went. You’ve actually got numbers, and then you can take those numbers to, you know, other wind farms that you’ve got- Yeah
and, and know what’s going on much better.
Matthew Stead: Worst study is an inconclusive study.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Yeah, that’s true. Definitely.
Allen Hall: Well, that comes back to the data analysis- Mm … which a lot of operators mentioned, and how much data there is and what to do with it, and it did seem like a couple of operators have chosen some AI tools, varying degrees, all the way down from Microsoft Copilot to something much more complicated.
Uh, but I think there’s, uh, getting that d- to the last 1, 2, 3%, you’re going to need those tools- Absolutely … because what do you choose? Do you choose a blade? Do you choose a gearbox? Do you choose a generator? Do you go to the substation to get that percentage point or two Without having some really powerful tools- Mm.
you may be wasting your time [00:08:00] and money.
Matthew Stead: Mm.
Allen Hall: Which is a, a, a very interesting, uh, aspect to wind energy because it’s such an industrial business that, uh, we haven’t used heavy computational tools, uh, un- until really now.
Matthew Stead: Mm.
Allen Hall: And maybe Australia’s at the forefront because of the PPA and negative pricing is that that will, uh, actually lead an industry.
Because I haven’t seen a lot of that being used globally. Mm. So this is the first time an operator- Mm … that I’ve talked to has said, “We’re using it.”
Matthew Stead: Yeah. It’s quite a different discussion, um, I think, you know, this year compared to previous years in that I think in the past it was getting to know what’s possible, but now it’s like real case studies are coming through.
And a few of the people had some really good examples that we can talk about at the conference as to how they’ve actually been helped and how they did this and what the outcome was. I think, yeah, that would be really great content on that.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. I think it’s gonna be a good mix of people who have used third party tools and have experience with it, people that are doing it in-house and can share- Mm
some of the kinds of results- Mm … that, that you can get just from analyzing your own- Mm … [00:09:00] SCADA data. Um, people talking about how they get the data that they want. Mm. ‘Cause it’s not always so easy. You would think that, you know, you own a wind turbine, you have a right to have all of the data that comes through it, but it’s not.
Um, even if you do technically have a right, it’s, uh, it, it’s harder to actually get it than you might think. Mm. So yeah, sharing all, all those kinds of things. But I think also, like just as important as talking about the successes is talking about the, the gaps that– people still feel lots of gaps. Like, okay, we’ve got all the data, we’re collecting it.
We know that there’s so much potential here- Mm … but we don’t really- Mm … know what we can do, or it’s hard for us to, you know- Mm … make headway in this particular pain point. And that is really useful for companies that are developing tools to know what are the, the problems. Mm. Because then they can e- you know, they’re well placed to fix them.
Allen Hall: Mm. Which leads to the discussion we had with the operators and, uh, some of the suppliers for WOMA 2027. There’s a lot of interest. And as we’re sitting in the conference rooms, I’m thinking, we may not have enough room to [00:10:00] seat everybody. Uh, the WOMA 2027 website is up and running, and you can register now.
So just go to woma2027.com and get started there. At the same point, we’ve had a lot of contact with, uh, pretty much everybody that wants to sponsor the event, and there’s only a limited number of ways to sponsor. So if you’re interested in doing that, you, you need to go to woma2027.com and look at those, uh, part- particular packages and see what- Mm
fits your, your business. Uh- Going back to some of the, the comments we were just discussing downstairs about what we heard at 2026, like, which is only a couple of months ago, right? It’s back in February this year. Uh, there’s, they’re still discussing what happened at WOMA 2026- Mm. Which was very fascinating- Mm
because I think Rosemary, you and I have been to conferences that I have not thought an iota … about what happened at those conferences. Just nothing interesting does occur. There’s no new, new information, there’s [00:11:00] no new science, there’s no new operator approaches.
Rosemary Barnes: Mm.
Allen Hall: But we’re gonna see a number of those- Yeah.
Mm … come next March.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Well, I think it’s partly because I don’t know what other conference organizers do, but, you know, we’ve had a exhausting few days here. You’ve come all the way from America, obviously, and, and Claire as well, also come over, our producer. Um, so, y- you know, like, we’re working really hard to make sure that the topics…
Like, it’s not an accident that the topics are ones that people are talking about later, because we come here to make sure that we get the right topics. And it’s not just these meetings as well. People get in touch, and- Mm … anybody watching, listening, who has, you know, something that they wanna talk about, then definitely, you know, send us a message, and yeah, we’re working on the agenda.
We’ll, we’ll have a draft agenda in the next couple of weeks based on what we’ve learned here, but then we’ve got the hard job of it’s not just that you have a really interesting topic, you need to have a really great speaker- Yeah … or several really great speakers, usually covering several different aspects of the problem.
You know, maybe it’s, uh, yeah, an asset [00:12:00] owner, an OEM, and some, some technology provider, you know, all together giving different, um, yeah, perspectives. That’s, I think, what makes a really great session. Mm. So yeah, we need the ideas for the sessions, and we also need the ideas for great speakers.
Matthew Stead: Yeah.
Rosemary Barnes: Right.
Matthew Stead: Yeah. I think we’ve, we’ve already matched a few of those dots, so- Yeah … I, we’ve heard people asking for certain topics they wanna hear about, and then we’ve heard other operators saying, “Well, this is what we could talk about.” So I think we’ve already-
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, yeah … got some great
Matthew Stead: progress.
Rosemary Barnes: It was, it was interesting ’cause we, we built up a list of, you know-
Matthew Stead: Yeah
Rosemary Barnes: frequently raised topics, and then you’d say it to the next person that you went to- Mm … and they’re like, “Oh, that’s not a problem for us because we’ve done X, Y, Z.” And you’re like, “Okay. Well, excellent. You can, you can present the solutions that we know that other people- Yeah. Yes … are, are looking for.” Yeah.
So it has been… Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s definitely worthwhile coming, as, as tiring as it is. Yeah. Um, definitely worthwhile, and we’ll get a much better agenda for the- Yeah … for the effort.
Matthew Stead: And I think, I mean, it has been tiring. Um, but what, what made it for me was one of the operators said that [00:13:00] this is the only conference they will go to So I think, I think we’re doing the right thing.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Yeah. I, I think so. I understand too, like, you know, all of us, we kind of are forced to go to events because that’s where our, our clients and customers are, and so you need to see them. And yeah, like I’ve even gone to the extent of some events where I don’t particularly like the event, but I know everyone’s going.
Mm. I just go and sit near the event for a couple of days and meet people at a cafe. So yeah, like we can’t get away from it. But if you’re an asset manager or, um, yeah, somebody in that kind of type of work, like you’ve got better things to do than listen to sales pitches aggressively thrown at you that aren’t relevant- Yeah
to what you’re doing. So, um, yeah. Like I, I definitely love to hear that kind of feedback- Yeah … and wanna make sure that we get it every, every year. Like that’s- It’s, it’s
Matthew Stead: encouraging.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah … yeah, that’s, that’s the point of the conference, so.
Matthew Stead: Yeah.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah.
Matthew Stead: The other big topic was we would really love more OEM involvement.
Um-
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Everybody wants more- … a lot of the operators- … OEM involvement- Yeah … all of the asset owners.
Matthew Stead: Yeah.
Rosemary Barnes: Like we want to [00:14:00] hear from OEMs more, have them there. Um, so yeah, we’re, we’ll be trying to To get those sorted
Allen Hall: Well, WOMA is a global conference, although it’s Australia-based and there’s a, a number of Australian operators.
There are Danish, Americans, uh, plenty of Europeans. Uh, we’re gonna see some from Southeast Asia, I think, this year. Mm-hmm. And, and Japan hopefully will come. Uh, because it’s a, it’s a global conference, there’s global knowledge- Mm … and wind is such a big industry. You may not have the solution in the United States, it may be sitting in Australia, and we need to exchange those ideas.
Mm. And that, that’s the point. So w- we are continuing to look for those world experts as we have received all the inputs of these are all the topics we wanna go hear about. Great. Now it’s on us three to go find some of those world experts and, and try to get them to Melbourne. Yeah. And I, I think that’s a great opportunity.
So if we do call you and ask you to participate in WOMA [00:15:00] 2027, please take it seriously because- Mm … you will be bombarded with great questions- Mm … and contacts and information. Uh, it’s an event you won’t wanna miss. Yeah. And- But I would- … there’s opportunity there.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. I’d say we’re, we’re prioritizing OEMs, um, to, to get more participation, ideally to speak, but at least to be there.
And we have heard from multiple asset owners in Australia that they want, they, they want to know what are some of the upgrades that they can do- Yeah … that you’re offering. They wanna know what’s coming next in terms of technology. They wanna know what are some of the non-Western options. So, you know, like it would be great to get some Chinese wind turbine, um, manufacturers as well.
Like, they want all this information. They don’t want a slick sales brochure pitch that doesn’t give them any technical information. So we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to get, you know, some technical people to speak on, yeah, what are the upgrades you offer and how does it work- Mm-hmm … and show us a case study that demonstrates the improvements.
Um, ’cause that [00:16:00] sometimes is really hard to get out of- Mm … out of OEMs. You know, that, “We’ve got this thing, it’s so amazing, you should get it.” Okay, well, what’s the business case for it? “Oh, well, we don’t have any numbers. Just trust us.”
Matthew Stead: Yeah.
Rosemary Barnes: Um, it’s so common to get a pitch like that. So yeah, any, any OEM that has any- anything like that, either for the next generation of wind turbines or for upgrading the current fleet, yeah, if you’re willing to bring the data, then people, they are desperate to hear this information.
Allen Hall: Mm.
Matthew Stead: Yeah. That came up so many times.
Rosemary Barnes: Mm.
Allen Hall: So what were the other, uh, topics that we’re… I’m just not thinking off the top of my head. I know foundations came up quite a bit- Foundations, yeah … which was an odd one, I think, because we haven’t seen that a lot in Australia. Yeah. But this year, foundations, foundations, foundations.
Basically, the health of foundations. Yeah.
Matthew Stead: Yeah. I think really there was a lifting of the maturity. Um, I think the topics were sort of showing that, you know, Maslow’s hierarchy and moving into the more of optimization rather than making do, and I think life extension around the foundations was a, a really good example of that.
Allen Hall: And bolts.
Matthew Stead: Bolts? Yeah, bolts.
Allen Hall: [00:17:00] Everybody said bolts. Bolts.
Matthew Stead: Bolts.
Allen Hall: You think the world’s simplest device, we’ve been making bolts for nearly 1,000 years or at least a couple hundred. But it does- And, you know- … come up quite often … cable, cable
Matthew Stead: terminations, again, some really
Rosemary Barnes: basic- Yeah, that, really specific ones that were raised multiple times.
Yeah. Um, yeah, which, which is great- Yeah … ’cause it gives us a good direction to go. But I do love how it changes so much every year- Yeah … ’cause it makes me feel like, okay, yeah, like we’re actually, you know, it’s worthwhile, um, putting on another event. Mm. Um, not just recording one event and then just, you know, like replaying that every year or something.
Re-educating.
Allen Hall: Yeah. Well, I, I think there’s a learning exercise that has happened over the past two years where people now are knowledgeable about those things we talked about- Mm … two years ago. Uh, was it, was it even two years ago? It was a year and a half ago when we first started this, so we’re, we’re not that deep into it.
Although our third conference will be next March, uh, you just see more energy, more industry knowledge in some of the references that I heard, uh, in terms of other companies and the approaches they’re taking clearly came from WOMA.
Matthew Stead: Yeah.
Rosemary Barnes: Mm.
Matthew Stead: Yeah,
Allen Hall: yeah. Which is, which is [00:18:00] fascinating. Yeah. That’s
Rosemary Barnes: good. I mean, we want- It, it is
Allen Hall: sticking
Rosemary Barnes: we want tech conferences to get better, right? That was the- No … the reason why we, uh, we started this conference was ’cause we didn’t think that it was sufficient, what we had available. So, you know, it’s not a bad thing if other conferences, um, get better. Yeah. Yeah. We should also mention that blades were, were raised a fair bit.
We talked so much about blades in the previous years, and we will be talking about blades a lot again, including we’ve got a master class on the Friday. Uh, it’s… Yeah, we’ll go back to some of the basics about how the composite materials work and how a blade is designed and certified and manufactured, and, um- Lightning.
Y- yeah, yeah, a little, a little bit about lightning. Um, I don’t wanna cover it too much because we did the master class on lightning- Right … last year. Mm. Um, yeah. And yeah, some of the common damage methods anyway. And of course- Mm … yeah, lightning is probably the most- … common, or I guess leading edge erosion is the most, and then lightning would be the most expensive.
Um, yeah, so we’ll be, we’ll be covering all that and just try and raise the knowledge level a little bit, um, for [00:19:00] everybody to… It’s a very complicated kind of, uh, yeah, component.
Matthew Stead: Yeah.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah.
Matthew Stead: And workshops. So each year we’ve run sort of workshops or roundtables or whatever, so we’re still thinking about the format for them, but, um, thinking about how we’ll reintroduce them again this year.
You know, specific topics, specific questions, specific answers.
Rosemary Barnes: Mm.
Allen Hall: And the three of us will be in Hamburg in a couple of weeks at Wind Energy Hamburg, so if you see us and you’re interested in coming to Australia, that’s the place to grab us and- Yep … and shake us and say, “I wanna go to Australia. How do I do it?”
Rosemary Barnes: Mm.
Allen Hall: Uh, yeah. Yeah.
Rosemary Barnes: Especially if you’ve got a, a t- technology that addresses some of those specific issues that we’ve mentioned- Mm … then, um, yeah, just know ahead of time that Australia needs, needs more information and more, um, solutions available to them. So, yeah. And
Matthew Stead: that reminds me, we had a really discussion a- around safety and, you know, reasonable and [00:20:00] practicable, and discussion around all the lessons learned about how…
or what is best practice on a site, what is best practice about how to manage risks and-
Rosemary Barnes: Mm.
Matthew Stead: Yeah. Yeah. I know you, you, you enjoyed that one.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, yeah, definitely. And we’re not talking about, like, safety the- Ear muffs or hats. The, um, rou- Yeah, the routine safety that if you- The goggles, yeah … yeah, trip over and graze your knee, then you need to let the site supervisor know.
You, you know, it’s not that stuff, ’cause sites have that under control. That’s a given, yeah. Or at least the ability to get that under control. We’re talking about the bigger- Yeah … bigger things, you know. Like, uh, is there a issue that is causing blades to fall off turbines every now and then? Is there an issue that, uh, can lead to, you know, a fire?
I, I think everyone, like- Yeah … a big fear of everybody’s. There’s never been, um, in Australia at least, there’s never been a wind turbine fire that has caused a bush fire, but it is a possibility, and it would be so bad for the industry. So, you know, it’s those things- Mm … that could be just terrible, preventing those before they happen.
Mm. So that’s the kind of safety that we’re gonna mainly focus on. Mm. Although, you know, we’re not gonna [00:21:00] turn down questions on, um, some of the smaller stuff as well.
Matthew Stead: Yeah.
Rosemary Barnes: Mm.
Matthew Stead: And we even thought about getting some lawyers-
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah …
Matthew Stead: you missed out on this discussion, Rosie. Okay.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah.
Matthew Stead: So
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Lawyers, this is news to me.
Well, I mean, are we talking contracts or, um-
Matthew Stead: No, no … no … it’s really operations. I mean- Right … the environmental, um, issues- Oh yeah … the operational issues. Mm. You know, there’s, there’s a few things in there that the lawyers can add.
Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. I mean- … I’ve, I constantly find myself having to interpret, you know, legal, um, legal text and also anticipate, you know, it’s one thing about what’s the right engineering, but then there is also the legal interpretation of it- Yeah
uh, as well, you know, in terms of contract law, but then also in, in terms of safety. Yeah. Um, yeah. Was this certification done correctly? You know- Yeah … that’s got some legal aspect to it. So yeah, that- Yeah … makes sense to me. Insurance is another one where I would say- Yeah, actually that came up … you know, like some, some people might think that that doesn’t sound interesting, but yeah, in- insurance is the other-
Matthew Stead: Mm
Rosemary Barnes: aspect that you [00:22:00] just can’t, um, you can’t get away from it. Like, you can’t just think that you’re, you’re doing your engineering without bothering about Mm … yeah, like finance and law and, um, and insurance. Those are things that- Mm … you spend a lot of time thinking about.
Matthew Stead: Yeah. Mm. And I guess we would also love to hear, you know, about potential speakers, but we’d also love to hear any other topics that people are attending and want to know about as well.
Rosemary Barnes: Mm-hmm.
Allen Hall: Absolutely. And if you haven’t registered for WOMA 2027, which will be March 3rd through 5th at the Pullman in East Melbourne, right? East Melbourne, yeah. They just redefined it. It’s Pullman in East Melbourne. Uh, go ahead and go to woma2027.com and register now. Uh, Matthew and Rosemary, it’s great to see you in person again, and we’ll see you in a couple of weeks, uh, hopefully in, in Germany.
Rosemary Barnes: Mm.
Allen Hall: Very [00:23:00] exciting.
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