Weather Guard Lightning Tech
UK Unlocks 10 GW Offshore Wind, Revolution Wind Powers Up
Allen covers Britain’s radar fix unlocking 10 GW of offshore wind, Revolution Wind delivering first power off Rhode Island, typhoon-proof turbines rising in the Philippines, and an Iowa bill to dim turbine lights at night.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter 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 YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
This is Uptime News Flash. I’m Allen Hall. Here’s the wind energy stories you need to know.
For years, offshore wind developers in the United Kingdom ran into an invisible wall. Not weather. Not financing. Radar. Military air defence radars could not distinguish a wind turbine from an aircraft. So certain stretches of British waters were simply off-limits to offshore development. Not anymore. The UK government has purchased specially designed air defence radars built to coexist with offshore wind farms. Installation begins in early 2029. Ten gigawatts of previously blocked offshore wind capacity, now unlocked. That follows the largest single offshore wind procurement in British and European history — 8.4 gigawatts, at a price forty percent lower than new gas. Enough to power twelve million homes.
And the UK is not stopping at the water’s edge. The government has also proposed removing planning permission requirements for small onshore turbines up to thirty meters tall, no bigger than an oak tree. Farmers. Schools. Factories. All of them able to generate their own clean power on site. No planning application required.
Now, let us cross the Atlantic. Off the coast of Rhode Island, the Revolution Wind project is delivering on a promise that once seemed very much in doubt. On March thirteenth of this year, Revolution Wind delivered its first power to the New England grid. The project is led by Ørsted, the Danish offshore wind leader, alongside Skyborn Renewables. As of March sixteenth, the project stood ninety-three percent complete. Sixty-five turbines, each one eleven megawatts, manufactured by Siemens Gamesa. When fully operational, Revolution Wind will power more than three hundred and fifty thousand homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Let us go somewhere you might not expect to find wind energy news today. The Philippines. Spanish firm Acciona Energia has installed the first turbine for its Kalayaan 2 wind farm in Laguna province, in the Philippines. One hundred and one megawatts. Seventeen turbines, Goldwind GW 165 units, each one six megawatts, with blades spanning one hundred and sixty-five meters. Every one of them designed specifically to survive typhoons. Structural reinforcement. Smart control algorithms. Advanced sensors to protect infrastructure during storms. Commercial operations are scheduled for December of this year. When that happens, roughly two hundred and fifty thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide will not enter the atmosphere, every single year.
And finally, back home in Iowa, a bill is moving through the statehouse that has nothing to do with megawatts. It is about sleep. Iowa House File 2081 would require wind turbines across the state to use aircraft detection lighting systems. Instead of blinking red lights all night long, the lights would only activate when radar detects an approaching aircraft. The bill’s sponsor, Representative Dean Fisher of Montour, put it simply. His constituents used to enjoy a quiet sunset view. Now they stare at rows of flashing red lights through the night. About twenty-seven percent of Iowa’s turbines already have the sensor-based lights. The rest are being upgraded, year by year. The American Clean Power Association registered undecided. New projects, they said, are already planning to use the sensor lights. But retrofitting existing turbines? That cost goes straight to the customer. No groups registered in opposition. Even the environmental advocates said yes.
And now you know the rest of the story. From British radar systems finally making room in the sky for offshore wind, to a court-rescued project delivering first power off Rhode Island, to typhoon-proof turbines rising in the Philippines, to an Iowa lawmaker who just wants his neighbors to sleep — wind energy in 2026 keeps moving forward.
And that’s the state of the wind industry for the 23rd of March 2026. Join us for the Uptime Wind Energy podcast for more.
Weather Guard Lightning Tech
Australia’s $17B Grid Expansion, Recycling Blades to Steel
Allen covers Suzlon hitting 2 GW in a single Indian state, Nabrawind’s crane-free turbine install in Namibia, Antora’s South Dakota thermal battery, Australia’s $17 billion grid expansion, and Shimizu recycling old turbine blades into steel.
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!
GOOD MORNING.
The wind industry is not just getting bigger.
It is getting smarter.
And today … we have the proof.
Let us start in India.
SUZLON GROUP just crossed a milestone.
Two gigawatts of wind orders … in a single Indian state.
The latest deal … sixty-five turbines at three megawatts each
for a company called SUNSURE ENERGY.
SUNSURE is not a utility.
It is an independent power producer
building round-the-clock clean energy
for data centers … electric vehicles … and heavy industry.
Wind paired with solar and battery storage.
Power that does not stop when the sun goes down.
SUZLON is already building six hundred and sixty-four megawatts
of additional commercial and industrial projects in the same region.
And SUNSURE … backed by PARTNERS GROUP of Switzerland …
has seven gigawatts in development across India
with a target of ten gigawatts by two thousand thirty.
That is not government-led.
That is private capital chasing wind.
Now … across the ocean to Africa.
A Spanish company called NABRAWIND [NAH-brah-wind]
just solved a problem that has plagued remote wind farms for years.
How do you install a turbine
when you cannot get a crane to the site?
Their answer is a system called SKYLIFT.
No heavy-lift cranes. None.
A self-erecting tower combined with a blade installation tool
they call the BLADERUNNER.
They just put up a GOLDWIND six-megawatt turbine
at a wind farm in NAMIBIA.
And here is the part that changes the math.
Traditional crane installation needs calm air.
Six to eight meters per second. Maximum.
NABRAWIND’s system works in fifteen meters per second sustained …
with gusts up to twenty.
That site blows hard. All the time.
Which is exactly why they chose it.
When complete … seven turbines …
two hundred and thirty gigawatt-hours a year.
About six percent of NAMIBIA’s entire electricity demand.
NABRAWIND was acquired by Australia’s FORTESCUE last year
as part of its industrial decarbonization push.
So India is stacking private-sector wind orders.
Africa is installing turbines without cranes.
And in SOUTH DAKOTA …
they are storing the wind itself.
A California startup called ANTORA ENERGY
just built a five-gigawatt-hour thermal battery
at an ethanol plant in BIG STONE CITY.
More than two hundred solid carbon blocks.
When the wind blows at night and nobody needs the power …
the blocks absorb cheap electricity and heat up.
When the plant needs energy …
the blocks release heat or generate electricity
through special cells that capture light
from superheated material.
Think of it as a giant toaster oven battery.
Full power expected by October.
The plant’s president put it simply.
Nobody has got a switch for the wind.
It blows when it wants to blow.
Now … down under.
The AUSTRALIAN government just announced
the biggest single expansion of its electricity grid.
Nineteen renewable energy projects.
Seven-point-eight gigawatts of generation.
Seven-point-nine gigawatt-hours of battery storage.
Seventeen billion dollars in private investment.
Nineteen thousand construction jobs.
Power for four million homes.
Among the largest … RWE’s [arr-vay’s] THEODORE wind farm in QUEENSLAND.
One-point-one gigawatts. Up to one hundred and seventy turbines.
Three billion Australian dollars.
RWE … the same company building offshore wind
in England and Denmark …
is now building onshore in AUSTRALIA.
And the AUSTRALIAN government is not stopping.
They just opened the next round of tenders.
Another five gigawatts.
Finally … JAPAN.
Major contractor SHIMIZU [shee-MEE-zoo] CORPORATION
has developed a way to recycle old wind turbine blades.
Not into park benches. Not into landfill.
Into steel.
The blades are cut and crushed into a material
that goes into electric furnaces
to adjust the carbon content of steel …
making it harder and stronger.
JAPAN expects to replace one hundred to two hundred turbines a year
by the two thousand thirties.
That is two to three thousand tonnes of blade waste. Annually.
SHIMIZU has built about twenty percent
of the wind power facilities in JAPAN.
They see this technology as a way to grow
their entire wind energy business.
So … let us step back.
India stacks two gigawatts of private-sector wind orders.
Africa installs turbines in gale-force winds … without a crane.
South Dakota stores surplus wind in superheated carbon blocks.
Australia backs nineteen projects with seventeen billion dollars.
And Japan turns old blades into stronger steel.
From the factory floor to the scrap yard …
from the wind farm to the furnace …
the industry is solving problems
at every stage of a turbine’s life.
And that’s the state of the wind industry for the 25th of May 2026.
Join us for the UPTIME WIND ENERGY PODCAST tomorrow.
We’ve all heard ideas like the one being expressed here, though this one sounds extreme. Jail sentence? Education is exclusively an exercise in pounding in bad habits?
What’s the outcome for students in the very worst of our schools that make no attempt whatsoever to help its pupils learn to think critically? Well, their kids learn to:
- Read and write
- Do math, at least through algebra
- Understand some level of history and geography
- Make friends and get along with others
- Establish independence from the parents
- Gain the qualifications for employment
What’s the alternative? Illiteracy? Social isolation? Child labor? Poverty? Neurotic sloth? Being a burden on society?
Is it a coincidence that the countries with the best educated children are the happiest, sanest and most productive nations on the planet?
If you’re a competent woman working at the highest echelon in the U.S. government, better start packing your bags.
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