Published

2 years ago

May 8, 2024

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

Updates from ACP 2024, Thoughts on Vestas Q1 Financial Loss

Allen, Joel, and Phil record their thoughts on the show floor of American Clean Power 2024 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Which companies are in attendance? What seems to be the industry direction? And they also discuss Vestas’ Q1 financial results which show a loss.

Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes’ YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Pardalote Consulting – https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com
Weather Guard Lightning Tech – www.weatherguardwind.com
Intelstor – https://www.intelstor.com

Allen Hall: Welcome to the special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your host, Allen Hall, and I’m here with Phil Totaro, the CEO of IntelStor and Joel Saxum, the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard. And we are in Minneapolis today for the opening of American Clean Power 2024. And we wanted to get everybody’s thoughts on what we have seen today, what the feeling is, what the number of people we’ve seen bouncing around, what the business atmosphere has been like, and, give everybody an update who couldn’t be here.

Obviously there’s a number of people out in the field fixing wind turbines right now. the people actually keeping wind turbines operating. give us a sense of what’s happening with some of the new technology we’ve seen today and what to expect on the remainder of the week. And Joel, I know early on this morning, it seemed like it was going to be pretty busy.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, absolutely. So I walked in here, the agenda said 10 30, they opened. I walked in at 10 31 and it was already. Packed in here. I tried to get a cup of coffee. There’s 200 people in line. so I know Phil, you were saying that you, were the only one of us able to actually take a lap so far today around the show floor and saw a ton of people.

Alan and I have been basically in conversations back to back since we got here with whether it’s talking about podcast stuff or strike tape or fixing any other kinds of problems with everybody from the insurance industry, asset owners, ISPs all the above. So it has been swamped here at our booth.

Philip Totaro: Unfortunately, I got here late. I arrived because of some weather in Denver, at about 2. o’clock this afternoon. And so I’ve been here about, two hours now, three hours now as we record this, and I think I’ve already closed about three deals. So this is probably the, most productive I’ve seen an ACP event in, a long time.

which I guess is, good news. but just based on my walking around, I’d conservatively say there’s at least about 10, 000, if not maybe 12, 000 here, at this event. So it’s got a much better tenor to it, much better mood. people are, really quite engaged. so it’s, overall, I, think, better, better than everybody might have expected.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Convention Center, that’s where we’re at. The weather’s great right now. but the Minneapolis Convention Center is huge. I’ve been in this, when I was a kid, we were, we’d come down here for sports shows and they’d have this whole thing full of boats and all kinds of stuff.

I remember it as a kid, I don’t remember it being this big. but it is, from end to end, we talked with Armando from Earthwind, our friend, and he’s Dude, we walked up and down every aisle basically just to check everything out. And it took them almost four hours. Yeah. There’s

Allen Hall: a lot of vendors here.

It’s a lot. And I think some of the feeling I got just talking to people who walked up to the booth and running into people we’ve had on the podcast is there’s more activity. the operators are focused. On getting their assets up and running and to, get to the solutions and the ones that I had talked to specifically have been trying different solutions, evaluating them over the last couple of years and are ready to start moving.

It’s no longer trial phases. We want to get going and deploy useful ideas, useful solutions fleet wide.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And, Not only is it the asset owners that are looking at these things, the ISPs are asking, right? So what that means to me is that their clients, the asset owners, have been telling them, Find us a solution, or we’re looking for this solution.

I had an ISP come up and just say We’ve been tasked by our clients to find things to solve problems. When we came to this show, I said, you’re talking to the right people, lightning wise. that, I think is a, It’s real and it’s moving, right? People want to get their assets up and running and they want them to be running smoothly.

and they’re willing to spend money right now that people are allocating budgets to, to get things done and you can feel it.

Allen Hall: Yeah. Excited. I think the feeling on the OEM side and GE Vernova is here, but I haven’t seen Vestas. not to me, they haven’t been here, but I haven’t seen them and I haven’t seen, Siemens Gamesa.

Joel Saxum: No, I heard, of some people having meetings with people from Siemens Gamesa, but they don’t have a booth. Okay. Yeah. So I know there’s definitely representation here, but, not necessarily in a booth. I haven’t seen any Vestas. what do you call these things? Badges? I haven’t seen any Vestas badges walking around though.

Allen Hall: So that, that’s an interesting point because Vestas announced their first quarter results and they came to a loss of about 75 million, right? Which in the bigger scheme of things is, a small drop in the bucket. I think the bigger story there is the number of sales that they had is down.

And I attribute that, Phil, to the increase in prices. everybody’s talking about the OEMs increasing prices and looking to recover the money they lost over the last couple of years. that necessarily, I would assume, is going to drop the quantity of megawatts purchased, right?

Philip Totaro: to an extent, yes. there’s a couple of things at play here.

Number one, Vestas normally has a down first quarter anyway. but that’s something that a lot of equity analysts already price in and that sort of thing. so that’s been a part of it. Obviously, there’s year to year fluctuations. The other thing is, yes, to an extent, raising prices theoretically means less, demand.

But it’s, there’s been a consolidation in the U. S. market to an extent because Siemens Gamesa is not really offering turbans for sale, which is why any of the folks from Siemens Gamesa that are here are probably service, and the Nordex, while they’re, they’ve obviously got a presence in the U.

S. market with the N149, and now they’re trying to get the N163 product in here, and we have these, hints about, The fact that they’re going to be launching, probably a lower power rated version of the N163 to compete with the, Vestas V163, later this summer. that’s, reason to, be interested for them.

But I, I think it, it really has to do with interconnection cues. if I go, if I point the, indicator anywhere, it’s interconnection cues. Piling up are causing a slowdown in deal closures. That is then having a result of an impact on Vestas, not being able to, close deals and recognize as much revenue in, quarter by quarter as they, they otherwise would.

Allen Hall: So why is solar going so heavy right now? They’re in the same interconnection queues, right?

Philip Totaro: Yeah. And, that’s a great point because they’re actually taking up more space in the queue with a lot of projects that are never going to get built. than wind. However, the projects that are getting built, it’s still more capacity than what wind is doing.

and so for an IPP, for every dollar that they can spend on solar or storage, it’s one less dollar they have to spend on wind. grand scheme, I think this is not emblematic of a, industry wide issue. Or anything Vestas specific to be concerned about. Again, I think it’s one bad quarter that it’s not really that concerning.

If it starts showing, another quarter and by the third quarter, if it’s also down, then we worry that raising prices has resulted in lower sales. But for one quarter, I’m not that concerned about it.

Allen Hall: But Vestas, as seen by a lot of operators at the moment, is the number one choice. So if, Vestas is having a decrease in sales in Q1, I would assume GE and then Siemens Gamesa, who knows, but it’s going to be a pinch on GE, right?

Philip Totaro: to be honest with our order tracking that we’re doing at Intel store, it’s, that’s not necessarily the case there. So keep in mind that Vestas only receives revenue when projects go COD. And it’s commissioned and it’s, they’re online and operating, or at least the bulk of what they get paid.

there’s usually an upfront and et cetera, et cetera. Based on orders right now, Vestas didn’t have such a great quarter, but GE actually did in the U. S. Nordex also got a few orders, that they’ve closed in, the U. S. as well in the first quarter. But, it’s, everybody’s having to accept a higher price because even the Project CapEx cost is going up, which means the cost of finance is up, interest rates are still high, so everybody’s paying more.

And, especially when an OEM’s gotta pass on the cost of raw materials and increased, labor and overhead rates and all these other things that they have to incur, that’s necessarily gonna push the prices up for everybody.

Allen Hall: So is that a marker now that we need to focus on in terms of what to expect the remainder of this year?

If GE is starting to see a little bit of a, if GE is starting to see a little bit of a turnaround, which they have to, they have to be profitable this year. And Investus is obviously going to be profitable. I think by the end of the year, the full four quarters, they’ll be going to be profitable.

But GE is making

Joel Saxum: moves outside of sales efforts to be profitable. Yes, they are. They’re making a lot of internal changes. process changes, they’re, dumbing down their order or their order capability book and some other things as well, let alone getting rid of people.

Allen Hall: So does that then foretell of profitable GE by third quarter?

Joel Saxum: I think so. I think if you, I think GE’s, GE, the GE Vernova split right now looks great. If you watch the stock trackers and you want to listen to the street, again, of course now that, Wall Street is not always, a direct indicator of how the health of a company, right? But they, see it as we want to put money in here.

We want to invest in here because they looking good for the future. So since they split, it looks great.

Philip Totaro: and to be blunt, even Siemens energy, which is the parent of Siemens Gamesa, they’re even had, a great quarter in, the first quarter, but Siemens Gamesa is obviously still suffering.

So overall the power generation industry is doing well. Wind. Has been a bit impacted, but again, I don’t think it’s a long term problem. I think, even, with Vernova and the aerospace split, aerospace is now doing very well. And Vernova is actually also doing very well outside of the wind business, which they still have some work to do.

The onshore business is okay. Not as healthy as they want it to be. The offshore business, we’ve talked about ad nauseum on the show and, that needs to improve, but should happen if we can get, more of these, projects through a consenting and interconnection queue, which really comes down to market efficiency, companies signing corporate PPAs, utilities signing PPAs and transmission availability.

If we can get those things resolved, that’s going to start opening up more of the queue. More companies like GE, Vestas, Siemens, and Nordex are going to start closing deals and we’re going to see a much more, robust and healthy market. I think it hinges on transmission availability.

Allen Hall: But the DOE just announced a week ago about making that process faster to get the turnaround and get rid of some regulatory pieces there to turn it on.

But I’m not sure That is a short term fix, right? In a

Philip Totaro: year and a half when that happens, I’ll be excited about it.

Allen Hall: Okay, so from, I haven’t heard anybody mention that today. Or this week even, that hey, they’re going to open up the transmission lines and boom, here we go. That’s not the, that’s not the feeling.

But the feeling I’m getting, I talk to a lot of operators today, is we’re trying to produce the power we were asked to produce. How do we do that? Efficiently, yeah. It has really changed from, I would say, two years ago, where it was, we don’t really need to get too deep into some of these solutions that are out there today.

I think they have a lot of blade issues and turbine issues. They have bearing issues. They have blade issues.

Joel Saxum: Let’s think about one of the, what could be a macro reason for this. IRA Bill went through, two years ago now? Two years, year and a half. Two years ago in August, right? So that extended PTC credit.

So a lot of these wind farms are being PTC repowered. There’s been a lot of repowers go on in the last few years. Now that we’ve done those repowers and they’re finished, those farms are quote unquote new, right? they’re at that one, two years since COD of, repower. So now is the time when you want to spend money on upgrades and things like that for the life of that turbine, because it doesn’t make sense.

If you’re going to repower that thing at the end, at year eight to go, Strike tape on or something like that. Like you’re just going to read, but now all of those IRA bill driven PTC or, PTC fund repowers are fresh and there’s more of them coming down the pipeline. So at this point in time, maybe when you want to put some money into that wind farm, some capex to make sure that it’s running smoothly,

Allen Hall: but they’re not going for little percentage gains.

They’re going for big wins. Have you noticed that? if you mentioned we can make an a one or 2 percent increase in AEP, everybody’s just sloughs it off like. Yeah, we’re looking for 20 percent today because of bearing issues, because of blade issues, because of the operational issues that

Joel Saxum: they don’t Less AEP percentage gain and more just uptime availability.

Availability.

Philip Totaro: and I’ll tell you what too, based on the data that we’ve got at Intel Store, where we analyzed the delta between the old site and the repowered site, on average for the 105 or so sites that have been repowered in the U. S. so far, It’s only about a 3. 6 percent increase in AEP. Whoa. and there are actually some sites that have gone down.

Because they’ve had issues with the new turbines that they repowered the site with.

Joel Saxum: Yeah,

Philip Totaro: And teething issues. So the reality is, you’re right Joel, they’re not getting the AEP that they need necessarily out of the repower. The PTC is driving the repower. And availability. With that PTC is what they want because they want to eke out as much revenue as they can.

That’s going to have this extra 26 or 26. 80 or whatever it’s indexed to now. I forget. but that’s what they want. They want the PTC revenue. So availability and PTC farming is, the, industry we’re in. I coined that term, I think about a year and a half ago that we’re not wind farmers anymore.

We’re PTC farmers.

Allen Hall: You can

Philip Totaro: hear

Allen Hall: it. Phil, now you say it, it was clearly identified today to me by multiple operators that it’s availability. And it used to be AEP. Two, three years ago it was AEP. If we get another percent or two out of the turbines we have, it’s certainly fine.

Joel Saxum: With these newer, some of these newer turbine models that they’re running, like we talked with one operator today, we know what their wind farms are and what they run.

And they’re, six of their seven wind farms in the United States are the exact same wind turbine model. And that wind turbine model has specific issues to it. So they’re looking, so if you are having issues with that model, it’s not affecting one of your wind farms for those guys. It’s affecting every single wind farm they have.

So they need the solutions because it’s a plaguing issue that’s fleet wide.

Allen Hall: That opens up a number of doors here. What are those top three items that they’re going to be looking for this week? I think one of the big items that’s going to happen this week is the 3S lift climb auto system. because The adoption rate, from what I can understand, is increasing rapidly.

It improves availability, right? Getting a technician up and down is an availability answer. the CLI model system, boom, easy one, right? Leading edge erosion, I think people today were asking about leading edge erosion, what’s out there, and there’s a lot of different applications. We talked to Bergelin, obviously, but there’s others that, they think leading edge protection is the way to keep my availability up.

Then it comes to lightning, right? It comes to the lightning issue. Hey, we have turbines down because we have holes in our blades. So we gotta fix the holes before we can turn the turbine on. Again, back to Phil’s point, availability. If we’re in that availability mode, then who are the winners this week?

Who are gonna be the losers?

Philip Totaro: We’re actually, happen to be sitting next to one of the winners, potentially, which is, NextAir is actually here exhibiting at an ACP event. which for those of you who’ve been in the industry a long time, that’s pretty rare. They sponsor and, are usually a, title sponsor, but they almost never exhibit.

And what they’re doing is they’re actually offering their asset management platform now, for sale to other asset owners. they took their data analytics platform where they’re doing a lot of, analysis on, as least for O& M, on that side of the business, the work order prioritization, they also have, energy trading, tools built into this capability.

it’s actually quite impressive and, quite robust. And given, the, pedigree that they have as a company, that’s, definitely one. to, maybe answer a broader question, there’s, the, asset owners that are here that are in need of solution providers, it’s really matchmaking those, those companies together.

It’s, there are plenty of people that would be capable of providing, an asset owner better availability, depending on what they have. there are some asset owners that are dependent on. an OEM service contract and they’re not getting the OEM to fulfill their obligations under the contract.

is there a way that they can potentially supplement that OEM arrangement with, something else? and whether that’s an independent service provider, whether that’s a data analytics company, anybody that’s got information, data answers on, and Joel, you’ve brought this up before on the show, just tell me what to do.

Like, how do I run my asset? Those are the people that have answers to those questions. They’re the ones that are going to be winners. Alan. So the next era

Joel Saxum: three 60 platform that we’re, right next to them. I’m staring at their booth right now. The real winner here, to be honest with you is all of the other IPPs

Philip Totaro: who benefit, who

Joel Saxum: can benefit from that solution.

Because we’ve talked to Alan, you and I personally talked to people that are trying to develop some stuff like that. Like we’ve got to figure out a more efficient way to manage our assets better. Here you go. It’s in a box now next year. We’ll give it to you after the learnings from there. What are they?

12, 000 turbines or something like that?

Philip Totaro: Oh yeah. It’s, 20 gigawatts of wind. I forget precisely how much solar and the amount of energy storage that they’re deploying is insane because even if they’re going to just operate it on behalf of a financial focused asset owner, those asset owners that want energy storage, particularly in either Southwest Power Pool or air cot.

To take advantage of the arbitrage play with energy trading, it’s insane. California, Texas, they’re, they are seeing a significant amount of interest in deployment. And, again, it’s, next there is one company, and as I said, with the pedigree they’ve got, that’s gonna, attract a lot of interest and attention, I’m sure.

But really anybody that, we’ve talked on the show about, Onyx Insight, we’ve talked about Windesco, we’ve talked about, any number of companies that actually have that type of, asset management platform capability. Power Factors is still out there, Spark Cognition, et cetera, et cetera, just to name, a few.

Allen Hall: Okay, so that, that’s really interesting, because we have not really seen that until now. So even a next era, the next era thing is fascinating in multiple levels, right? Next era doesn’t need to sell any product. They have a pretty good system set up internally. They’re profitable. They have a lot of projects.

They know how to run their business. But now they’re offering to help others run their business. So like we saw this week with Elite, right? Elite is possibly being sold or maybe in the process of being sold. There’s a lot of regulatory hurdles there. We’ll Is that indicative of, hey, outside money coming in saying, Elite runs a pretty tight ship from what I’ve seen, operationally.

It’s looking at CPP as an investor,

Joel Saxum: right?

They’re just, cash. Yeah, but then why would they go

Allen Hall: after an asset like Elite?

Joel Saxum: Because it’s run well.

Allen Hall: Exactly. And,

Philip Totaro: and, GIP too, keep in mind, because they, both of them, okay, let’s talk about the, CPP investment board. They are invested in assets globally now, not just in, Canada where they’re, headquartered, but, this is potentially if this, deal for elite gets approved, this expands their, footprint in the U.

S. They’ve got assets in Brazil. They’ve got assets over in Europe. They set up a whole platform, to go invest in projects just for Scandinavia. so they’ve got a huge interest in. asset ownership while they may not have the requisite expertise in operations. That’s the play is they do want something that they can get hold of.

And, we even did some, on the spot analysis when this deal was announced Monday afternoon or morning, where, they’ve spent elite spent just on their wind portfolio, about three, a little over 3 billion, in CapEx. And the deal that was announced was, I think, for about 2. 2, 2.

3 billion, to acquire it. taking into account the, the depreciation of those assets and the, operating revenue. but they’ve got a fleet that, I, I wanna say something like 52%, operates at or above, a P50 energy yield. Based on, again, the Intel store analysis of the, IPP provided data to, FERC and the Energy Information Administration.

Thank you. they’ve got a pretty robust and healthy portfolio. Even their net profit per megawatt installed is 877, 000 per megawatt. So that’s right there at about the industry average. So if you were controlling the purse strings at CPP, that’s a good investment? Yeah, it’s a solid, it’s not Above average, but it is at least average.

And it’s also giving them access to a fleet that has an average, asset age of, something just below 10 years, which means that for the projects that are already 10 years, they gotta be looking at repowering. And for the ones that are six, seven, eight years, they’re in the queue to, to be repowered.

Joel Saxum: know they do

Philip Totaro: have

Joel Saxum: some, ripe for the repower opportunities where they will take the towers down because they’ve got some Zond Z 50s and stuff down in like Bentonville. So they’ll there’s definitely room for growth within that as well

Philip Totaro: yeah, and it’s well just one one thing on this is Companies like I mean look CPP investment board and GIP as Examples of infrastructure companies we and we’ve talked ad nauseum about that on the show as well that they’re plowing money into renewables at this point But the It’s funny because they’re not even necessarily looking at, this is so PTC driven, they’re not even necessarily looking at the financial performance and health and operational performance of the elite portfolio.

yeah, obviously they did their due diligence and that was a factor, but the fact that they can just get their hands on an asset portfolio that they can repower and capture PTC revenue from, that is the most lucrative thing right now. And so if you’re looking to sell a project, you’re going to have a pretty easy time of it.

Or if you’re a company that’s going to sell your company or sell a portfolio of projects, there are buyers out there. There are people that want that because the we’re finally Joel, to your point earlier, we’re finally seeing the impact of the IRA bill in this PTC extension that again, we’ve got 10 years worth of certainty on the PTC at this point.

the industry is starting to open the spigot.

Allen Hall: So what does GE Vernova do and Vestas do to fill that void?

Philip Totaro: They gotta get their game together with their factories and make sure that they don’t have more than, an 18 to 24 month order backlog. Which means factories, which means jobs, which is good.

But it also means partnerships and contract manufacturing opportunities. Which frankly might be good for LM Wind Power. and it’s definitely going to be good for TPI. and certainly other companies that are, supply chain companies to both GE Vernova and, and Vestas. The other thing it potentially does is, and again, this is why it’s so concerning for Siemens Gamesa not to be, offering a product for sale at this point.

I really wish they would Announce what they’re going to do and when they’re going to do it. Nordex will benefit. And here’s the real question. Is there another player who feels that now is the right time to plow some money into re establishing or reinvigorating or creating a presence in the U. S.

market? As An alternative to GE Investus.

Allen Hall: It can’t be a Chinese manufacturer. That just is not happening. The political atmosphere right now is going to be the worst time to do it. Okay, so there’s more to hear about during ACP 2024. We’re going to continue to check out all the vendors and all the new technology here this week and when we get back to our regular studio offices, we’re going to inform everybody about what’s happening and keep you up to date.

Thanks for joining the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. We appreciate all the listeners. Our numbers have been extraordinarily high the last couple of weeks and we appreciate all the new listeners to the program. So we’ll see everybody next week.

https://weatherguardwind.com/updates-from-acp-2024-thoughts-on-vestas-q1-financial-loss/

Renewable Energy

How the VEU Program Works: Step by Step for Homeowners

Published

17 hours ago

November 18, 2025

Alice Rush

Are you a homeowner in Victoria?

Working on how to make your home more energy-efficient while saving on bills, reducing your carbon footprint, and even getting discounts via government-supported programs?

If so, this blog is for you!

We’re going to take you on a walkthrough on how the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) Program works, explain the key players involved, and break down essential terms like VEECs (Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificates) and accredited providers.

You’ll also find a step-by-step guide for homeowners from the application process, getting quotes and installation, to certification and savings.

At Cyanergy Australia, we specialise in residential installations under the VEU scheme, so we’ll draw on our experience and share practical insights to help you make the most of this program.

Let’s get into the details!

In this blog post:

What is the VEU Program?

The VEU (Victorian Energy Upgrades) program is a flagship energy-efficiency initiative run in the state of Victoria.
Supported by the state government, this scheme enables households to replace outdated, inefficient appliances
and systems with energy-efficient alternatives.

This is often offered at little or no cost. From LED lighting and efficient hot water systems to smart thermostats
and insulation, each upgrade slashes your energy use and reduces your carbon footprint.

And the best part? The process is simple, transparent, and designed to make energy efficiency effortless.

In just a few easy steps, you can enjoy lower bills, a more comfortable home, and the satisfaction of contributing to
a cleaner, greener Victoria.

Some Key Outlines of the VEU Program

The scheme was developed under the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target Act 2007, which sets a commitment for
large energy retailers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency programs.
However, the VEU
airconditioning Rebate Program, which was previously set to end much sooner, has now been
officially extended until 2045

This ensures long-term support for Victorian homeowners seeking to enhance energy efficiency during heating
and
cooling.

The program is regulated by the Essential Services Commission (ESC) in Victoria. To become eligible, the
program requires installations only from accredited providers with approved products or services listed
in the Public Product Registry.
The legal mechanics essentially require energy retailers to meet annual targets for greenhouse gas
reduction.

They do this by acquiring certificates called VEECs, which
we’ll discuss in the next section.

Why the VEU Rebate Matters for Victorian Homeowners?

Upgrading to more efficient appliances or insulation often has high upfront costs and several other complexities. This can be burdensome for low-income households, so the government introduced the VEU program in order to remove financial barriers.

For example, by enabling discounts and rebates through a market-based certificate system, the program helps make it more financially appealing for homeowners.

What Does it Mean for Homeowners?

In Australia, many people often ask: Is the VEU Rebate Worth It? Well, here’s why the answer is ‘Yes’ for homeowners:

In practical terms, if you live in Victoria and upgrade your home via an accredited provider, you can get access to discounted or even no-cost energy-efficient products and services. Also,

The VEU Rebate directly reduces the cost of energy-efficient upgrades,
This makes improvements such as better insulation, solar hot water systems, and efficient heating and cooling widely accessible.
It not only lowers upfront expenses but also helps households save on ongoing energy bills.
The rebate helps to increase the comfort and value of their home and contributes to long-term environmental benefits.
It’s a practical way to invest in your home while easing financial pressure.

From our experience at Cyanergy Australia, many homeowners are pleasantly surprised by how accessible the program is when you choose a provider who understands it.

The Role of VEECs in Victoria’s Energy Future

So, what is a VEEC?

VEEC stands for Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificate. Each certificate represents one tonne of greenhouse gas emissions prevented or reduced through an eligible upgrade, such as installing LED lighting, upgrading heating and cooling systems, or improving insulation.

How do VEECs work?

A homeowner does an eligible upgrade via an accredited provider.
That upgrade yields a certain number of VEECs, based on the greenhouse‐gas savings of that item.
The accredited provider then sells those VEECs to large energy retailers who are required to surrender them to meet their legal obligations.
The income from selling VEECs enables the provider to offer you the discounted price for the upgrade. That’s how you get the benefit.

Now you might be wondering what an Accredited Providers (AP) mean.

An accredited provider is a business that’s authorised under the VEU scheme to conduct eligible upgrade activities, create VEECs, liaise with homeowners, and ensure agreement with the program’s rules.

Behind Every Upgrade: VEECs and Accredited Providers in Action!

Understanding VEECs and accredited providers helps you recognise how the discount or rebate works. Keep in mind you’re not getting a random free upgrade; you’re getting access to a government-backed scheme run through certified channels.

So, you should be clear about all these questions before upgrading

Is this provider accredited under VEU?
Which VEEC activity does this upgrade qualify for?
Which model or product is being installed, and is it on the approved list?

Step-by-Step: Claiming Your Energy Upgrade Benefits with VEU

The process of how the VEU Program works is straightforward and simple. It includes a few stepwise processes, from application to installation, certification, and monitoring.

Let’s explore each step together in the following section:

Step 1: Background Research & Eligibility Check

Initially, you have to contact an accredited provider in your area. However, before contacting, conduct some background research on their previous experiences and running projects.
The provider checks whether your home is eligible under the VEU program, taking into account your location, type of dwelling, desired upgrade, and the eligible products.
They will offer you a quote outlining: the product to be installed, the discount amount under VEU, and the amount you have to contribute.

Step 2: Quote Approval & Scheduling

After reviewing the quote, ensure you understand the product brand or model, the installation cost, and what items are included (such as labour and the decommissioning of the old unit).
Also, check the warranty and any additional or extra-cost items.
Once you sign off, the installation is scheduled to proceed. Accredited providers will provide you with a specific timeframe and keep you updated.

Step 3: Installation of the System

The system provider arranges qualified, licensed installers to carry out the work. The installed products must meet eligibility criteria and installation standards under the VEU scheme.
On installation day, it’s best if you are present so the installer can access the areas, remove old units if relevant, test the new product, take photos if needed, and ensure everything is working correctly.
After installation, ensure you receive the necessary documentation, including the invoice, product model details, and, if applicable, a decommissioning certificate for the old equipment, as well as proof of installation.

Step 4: Certification and VEEC Creation

Once the upgrade is complete, the accredited provider submits the activity under the VEU program, creating the corresponding number of VEECs based on the product, activity type, and the greenhouse gas savings achieved.
These VEECs are then sold to energy retailers who deliver them to the ESC (via the VEU Registry).
After this is all finalised, you begin to enjoy lower energy bills and improved energy performance.

Step 5: Monitor your System Regularly

It’s now just a matter of using your upgraded system, enjoying the improved efficiency, and monitoring your energy bills. Many upgrades (especially lighting, insulation, and efficient hot water) will deliver noticeable savings.
If anything goes wrong, such as product failure or installation fault, please contact your provider under warranty.
It’s wise to keep all documentation in a safe place, as you will need it during any official audits or future upgrades.

Here’s What You Can Upgrade Under VEU!

Hot Water Systems

Upgrade to an energy-efficient heat
pump
or solar hot water system for reliable hot water and lower energy use.

Heating & Cooling Units

Switch to high-efficiency reverse-cycle
air
conditioners or split systems to stay comfortable while cutting your power bills.

LED Lighting

Replace old halogen or incandescent bulbs with
energy-saving
LEDs and reduce lighting costs by up to 80%!

In-Home Displays (IHDs)

Track your energy usage in real-time and take control of your electricity bills with smart in-home displays.

Weather Sealing

Improve insulation to keep your home cool in summer and warm in winter, saving energy year-round.

Refrigerators & Freezers

Replace old, power-hungry appliances with modern, energy-efficient models to lower your electricity costs.

What are the Common Pitfalls of VEU & How to Avoid Them?

Did you know that even a minor mistake could result in your VEU
rebate being disqualified?

Yes, it happens more often than you’d think in VIC! But don’t worry! We’ve got your back.

Here’s a quick and easy checklist that helps you avoid any common mistakes and make sure your rebate works
smoothly

Don’t fall for fake, flashy rebate offers. If a provider arrives unannounced, offers a “free upgrade”
without a proper quote, or adds huge extra costs after you’ve agreed, this is a red flag.
Some businesses may claim to be part of VEU but aren’t properly accredited. Always check and avoid
non-accredited providers.
Even when the subsidy is real, if you want a product that’s reliable and suitable for your home, then don’t
install low-quality products.
Lack of transparency about upgrade scope: Understand exactly what you are paying, what’s included, and if
old equipment removal is included.
Find whether additional wiring or structural work is required in any place.
Never think the upgrade is “totally free” cause there may still be a homeowner or tenant’s
contribution.

Many upgrades are heavily subsidised, but some of them require your contribution, for example, when you
choose a
higher-end product than the subsidy covers.

Why Cyanergy Is the Smart Choice for Your VEU Upgrades?

At Cyanergy Australia, when we work with homeowners under the VEU program, we take care of all the paperwork and ensure you use eligible, high-quality products every step of the way.

Not only that, we clearly explain any additional costs upfront, so there are no surprises later. Once everything’s confirmed, we schedule your installation with our licensed professionals, ensuring everything meets VEU standards.

With years of experience in residential installations, we know what works and what homeowners truly value.

So, if you’re looking for expertise, transparency, and genuine savings, Cyanergy ticks all the boxes.

For more information, reach out to our experts and win a free solar quote today!

Glossary of Terms

Terms	Abbreviation
Accredited Provider (AP)	A business authorised under the VEU program to conduct eligible upgrades, create VEECs, and manage the process with homeowners.
Decommissioning	The removal or disposal of the old, inefficient appliance or system. It’s often required as part of eligibility to generate VEECs.
Public Product Registry	An official database maintained by the ESC, listing all approved and eligible products that can be installed under the VEU program.
VEU	Victorian Energy Upgrades program, the state government scheme in Victoria that supports energy-efficient upgrades for homes & businesses.
VEEC	Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificate: one certificate equals one tonne of greenhouse gas emissions prevented. This is created via upgrade activities and traded by accredited providers to energy retailers.
Victorian Energy Efficiency Target Act 2007	The legislation that established the VEU program. It mandates energy retailers to achieve specific greenhouse gas reduction targets by supporting energy-efficient upgrades across Victoria.

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The post How the VEU Program Works: Step by Step for Homeowners appeared first on Cyanergy.

How the VEU Program Works: Step by Step for Homeowners

Renewable Energy

LM Wind Power Cuts 60% of Denmark Staff

Published

17 hours ago

November 18, 2025

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

LM Wind Power Cuts 60% of Denmark Staff

The crew discusses LM Wind Power’s dramatic layoff of 60% of remaining Danish staff, dropping from 90 to just 31 workers. What does this mean for thousands of wind farms with LM blades? Is government intervention possible? Who might acquire the struggling blade manufacturer? Plus, a preview of the Wind Energy O&M Australia 2026 conference in Melbourne this February.

Learn more about CICNDT!
Register for ORE Catapult’s UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain Spotlight!

If you haven’t downloaded your latest edition of PES Wind Magazine, now’s the time issue four for 2025. It’s the last issue for 2025 is out and I just received mine in the Royal Mail. I had a brief time to review some of the articles inside of this issue. Tremendous content, uh, for the end of the year.

Uh, you wanna sit down and take a good long read. There’s plenty of articles that affect what you’re doing in your wind business, so it’s been a few moments. Go to peswind.com Download your free copy and read it today. You’re listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by build turbines.com.

Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now here’s your hosts, Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes. Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy [00:01:00]Podcast. I’m your host, Alan Hall in the Queen city of Charlotte, North Carolina. I’ve got Yolanda Padron in Texas.

Joel Saxon up in Wisconsin and Rosemary Barnes down under in Australia, and it has been a, a really odd Newsweek. There is a slow down happening in wind. Latest news from Ella Wind Power is they’re gonna lay off about 60% of their staff in Denmark. They’ve only have about 90 employees there at the moment.

Which is a dramatic reduction of what that company once was. Uh, so they’re planning to lay off about 59 of the 90 workers that are still there. Uh, the Danish media is reporting. There’s a lot of Danish media reporting on this at the moment. Uh, there’s a letter that was put out by Ellen Windpower and it discusses that customers have canceled orders and are moving, uh, their blade production to internal factories.

And I, I assume. That’s a [00:02:00] GE slash Siemens effort that is happening, uh, that’s affecting lm and customers are willing to pay prices that make it possible to run the LM business profitably. Uh, the company has also abandoned all efforts on large blades because I, I assume just because they don’t see a future in it for the time being now, everybody is wondering.

How GE Renova is involved in this because they still do own LM wind power. It does seem like there’s two pieces to LM at the minute. One that serves GE Renova and then the another portion of the company that’s just serving outside customers. Uh, so far, if, if you look at what GE Renova paid for the company and what revenue has been brought in, GE Renova has lost about 8.3 billion croner, which is a little over a billion dollars since buying the company in 2017.

So it’s never really been. Hugely profitable over that time. And remember a few months ago, maybe a month ago now, or two months ago, the CEO of LM [00:03:00] Windpower left the company. Uh, and I now everyone, I’m not sure what the future is for LM Windpower, uh, because it’s, it has really dramatically shrunk. It’s down to what, like 3000 total employees?

I think they were up at one point to a little over when Rosie was there, about 14,000 employees. What has happened? Maybe Rosemary, you should start since you were working there at one point.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I dunno. It always makes me really sad and there’s still a few people that I used to work with that were there when I went to Denmark in May and caught up with a bunch of, um, my old colleagues and most of them had moved on because a lot of firing had already happened by that point.

But there were still a few there, but the mood was pretty despondent and I think that they guessed that this was coming. But I just find it really hard to see how with the number, just the pure number of people that are left there. I, I find it really hard to see how they can even support what they’ve still [00:04:00] got in the field.

Um. Let alone like obviously they cut way back on manufacturing. Okay. Cut Way back on developing new products. Okay. But you still do need some capabilities to work through warranty claims and um, you know, and any kind of serial issues. Yeah, I would be worried about things like, um, you know, from time to time you need a new, a new blade or a new set of blades produced.

Maybe a lot of them, you know, if you discover an issue, there’s a serial defect that doesn’t, um, become obvious until 10 years into the turbine’s lifetime. You might need to replace a whole bunch of blades and are you gonna be able to, like, what’s, what is gonna happen to this huge number of assets that are out there with LM blades on there?

Uh, I, yeah, I, I would really like to see some announcements about what they’re keeping, you know, what functionality they’re planning to keep and what they’re planning to excise.

Joel Saxum: But I mean, at the end of the day, if it’s, if [00:05:00] the business is not profitable to run that they have no. Legal standing to have to stay open?

Rosemary Barnes: No, no, of course not. We all know that there, there’s, you know, especially like you go through California, there’s all sorts of coast turbines there that nobody knows how to maintain them anymore. Right. And, um, yeah, and, and around there was one in, um, in Texas as well with some weird kind of gearbox. I can’t remember what exactly, but yeah, like the company went bankrupt, no one knew what to do with them, so they just, you know, like fell into disrepair and couldn’t be used anymore.

’cause if you can’t. Operate them safely, then you can’t let no one, the government is not gonna let you just, you know, just. Try your luck, operate them until rotors start flying off. You know, like that’s not really how it works. So yeah, I do think that like you, you can’t just stay silent about, um, what you expect to happen because you know, like maybe I have just done some, a bit of catastrophizing and, you know, finding worst case scenarios, but that is where your mind naturally goes.

And the absence of information about what you can expect, [00:06:00] then that’s what. People are naturally gonna do what I’ve just done and just think through, oh, you know, what, what could this mean for me? It might be really bad. So, um, yeah, it is a little bit, a little bit interesting.

Allen Hall: Delamination and bottom line, failures and blades are difficult problems to detect early.

These hidden issues can cost you millions in repairs and lost energy production. C-I-C-N-D-T are specialists to detect these critical flaws before they become expensive burdens. Their non-destructive test technology penetrates deep to blade materials to find voids and cracks. Traditional inspections, completely.

Miss C-I-C-N-D-T Maps. Every critical defect delivers actionable reports and provides support to get your blades. Back in service, so visit cic ndt.com because catching blade problems early will save you millions. Yolanda, what are asset managers [00:07:00] thinking about the LM changes as they proceed with orders and think about managing their LM Blade fleet over the next couple of years, knowing that LM is getting much smaller Quicker?

Yolanda Padron: Yeah, and this all comes at a time when. A lot of projects are reaching the end of the full service agreements that they had with some of these OEMs, right? So you already know that your risk profile is increasing. You already know. I mean, like Rosie, you said worst case scenario, you have a few years left before you don’t know what to do with some of the issues that are being presented.

Uh, because you don’t count with that first line of support that you typically would in this industry. It’s really important to be able to get a good mix of the technical and the commercial. Right? We’ve all seen it, and of course, we’re all a little bit biased because we’re all engineers, right? So we, to us it makes a lot of sense to go over the engineering route.

But the pendulum swung, swung so [00:08:00] far towards the commercial for Ella, the ge, that it just, it. They were always thinking about, or it seemed from an outsider’s point of view, right, that they were always thinking about, how can I get the easiest dollar today without really thinking about, okay, five 10 steps in the future, what’s going to happen to my business model?

Like, will this be sustainable? It did Just, I don’t know, it seems to me like just letting go of so many engineers and just going, I know Rosie, you mentioned a couple of podcasts ago about how they just kept on going from like Gen A to Gen B, to Gen C, D, and then it just, without really solving any problems initially.

Like, it, it, it was just. It’s difficult for me to think that nobody in those leadership positions thought about what was gonna happen in the [00:09:00]future.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. I think it was about day-to-day survival. ’cause I was definitely there like saying, you know, there’s too many, um, technical problems that Yeah. When I was saying that a hundred, a hundred of versions of me were all saying that, a lot of us were saying it.

Just in the cafeteria amongst ourselves. And a lot of us, uh, you know, a bit more outspoken Danish people don’t really believe a lot in a strict hierarchy. So certainly people were saying it to directors and VPs and CEOs, but, um, yeah, it was, uh, I think it was more about like the commercial reality of today is that there won’t be a commercial.

Tomorrow to experience these engineering problems if we don’t make these, um, decisions. Now, if, if that makes sense. As a really complicated way of saying we need to be able to sell this product, otherwise we’re not gonna sell anything. And then no one will be, no one will have a job in 10 years regardless.

So. We’ll solve, you know, whatever quality problems that arise from doing too many new technologies at once, at [00:10:00] least we’ll be, the company will still exist to be able to have a go at solving them if we, you know, make these sales. Um, which it won’t if we don’t. So I think that that would be the, like the other point of view, like it’s really easy to say now, oh yeah, we should have, um, we shouldn’t have done that, but yeah, I, I’m pretty sure management’s gonna tell you why they did it is for the sales.

Joel Saxum: This is an odd case being lm an ex Danish company now owned by GE Renova, which is a US based company.

Allen Hall: Global.

Joel Saxum: Global really. But yeah, but when we get into this, too big to fail type thing, right? So like Siemens cesa, having the German government back them up with a note, um, when they were having troubles a year and a half ago.

Uh. Is there a award like the too big to fail in the United States where the government bailed out the auto worker or the auto manufacturers and stuff like that. I don’t see that happening here because the company’s too small. But at what level do governments [00:11:00] intervene? Right? So it’s, I know every government’s gonna be different and every, but there’s have their own criteria and there’s not a hard set, probably line or metric of like, oh, you have this much impact on society, so we must support you to make sure you survive.

Well, when Rosemary, when you say like in, when you were there, you were there five years ago, 2020, right before COVID. Right. At that point in time, 20% of the world’s blades were LM blades of the global fleet. Well, if that’s was true still, that would be a hundred thousand plus turbines in the global fleet.

That would be LM blades. And if we have. Issues with them and we can’t solve them. I think one, one of the, one of the things that we’re, that we’re probably thankful for is there is that many, so there has been a lot of independent engineering expertise that’s been able to fix some of them. A lot of independent ISPs, you know, out there, service companies, blade repair companies that have been able to figure out how to make these things even, you know, regardless of getting the layup pattern or layup designs or any kind of engineering information from, from Malam [00:12:00] or from the OEMs.

Um, we have been able to maintain them, so that’s good. But is there a level where, I know Alan, you were shaking your head, but is there a level where anybody steps in from a government standpoint to save lm?

Allen Hall: I would almost bet that Renova has talked to the Danish government. Somebody at LM has, I would have to think that they have already.

And has been, at least in the press, no response. And with this latest announcement, it doesn’t seem like the Danish government wants to be involved. So my, my take on it is they have an American stamp on ’em right now, and Denmark and the United States are not playing nice to one another. So why would I help ge?

Why would I do that? And that’s not a bad response.

Rosemary Barnes: Potentially it wouldn’t even have to be necessarily the US or the Danish government that might have to get involved, because I know in Australia, and I’m, I can’t believe it’s different anywhere else. You have to be able to safely operate, uh, an asset like a, a wind turbine.

And that’s, um, some, [00:13:00] a responsibility of both the asset owner and the operator, but also the manufacturer and so they can compel to provide the information that you need to operate safely. I’ve always wondered how, um, ’cause you know, all the OEMs not talking, uh, LM or GE specifically here, they, they don’t really give away enough information to, um, operate assets safely, in my opinion.

So that is the key thing that you just, you can’t lose otherwise. You’re going to end up with blades that have to be scrapped or that you have to, you know, guess that it’s probably okay and then see how it goes. And, you know, that’s. Good a lot of the time, but it’s, it’s gonna make things less safe into the future.

You would expect to see more blade failures if you saw that happening a lot. So, you know, I would at least wanna make sure that you’re keeping, keeping people, keeping those models and keeping the people that know how to run them. Enough of them around. [00:14:00] Or making them publicly available.

Allen Hall: Don’t miss the UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain Spotlight 2025 in Edinburg on December 11th.

Over 550 delegates and 100 exhibitors will be at this game changing event. Connect with decision makers, explore market ready innovations and secure the partnerships to accelerate your growth. Register now and take your place at the center of the UK’s offshore Wind future. Just visit supply chain spotlight.co.uk and register today.

How soon before ING Yang puts in an offer to buy LM and or TPI? That’s gonna happen in the next six months. It has to.

Joel Saxum: What about instead of buying the factory, what if someone rises from the ashes and just buys the molds?

Allen Hall: I think you have to eat the workers. I think that’s gonna be the trouble,

Joel Saxum: but I don’t think you want them.

Allen Hall: Wow. That’s a hot take.

Joel Saxum: But honestly, like the quality coming out now, and I’ll, and I will caveat this as well, the [00:15:00] quality is not their, the quality is not all their fault. The quality of some respects is the way it was designed for manufacturing. But there is issues that we have seen and has been, have been uncovered that have been in the news, in the, in the free press that show that stuff happening in factories that shouldn’t be happening.

So do you actually want that or do you, this is why I say someone rises from the ashes and, and or, and creates something with a bunch of inco, you know, like knowing the pitfalls and the, the, the things that have happened that are bad, the things that can go well that are good. You know, when we talk to some of the people in the industry that have been around blade manufacturing, and they, and they have told us, man, we’ve seen.

Quality, uh, control mechanisms thrown on the shelves, even though we know they work just because people, defactor didn’t wanna use them for whatever reason. I don’t, you know, you don’t know, um, whether it’s inspection, whether it’s, you know, robotics this, or whether it’s [00:16:00] this solution here. Like there’s a possibility that we could do this way better.

Maybe there’s this case right now where someone is like, you know what, robotics, let’s do this. Let’s try to make it happen. Let’s get rid of this incumbent knowledge of automated blades and start fresh from a. Scratch

Allen Hall: my other hot take was GE sells their wind business,

Joel Saxum: the entire wind business.

Allen Hall: Yeah.

Joel Saxum: To who

Allen Hall: Ing Yang or somebody?

Anybody,

Rosemary Barnes: if they wanna do that, I’d recommend doing it in the, um, current administration would probably be the most likely to allow that to happen because I would imagine that, uh, another time that people might not be so happy that, uh, the US has therefore no wind turbine manufacturer.

Allen Hall: Does anybody else not think so that that’s a possibility.

They’re not listening to offers right now.

Joel Saxum: I would say Mitsubishi maybe. I don’t think Ming Yang. I don’t think some, I don’t think a Chinese, no, but I do think a Korea and a Japanese, a German

Allen Hall: could do it.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. Well, that would entertain the offer. [00:17:00]

Rosemary Barnes: What about one of the large ISPs buying, you know, the ability to, you know.

Properly, properly service blades for, you know, many, many, many manufacturers. There’s a lot of knowledge that you’d get there. Um, the ability to replace blades, maybe it splits into two and there’s, you know, one company takes it for manufacturing into the future, and which case they’re probably just buying factories and not really worried about much else.

And then somebody else buys molds and, um, knowledge. Models, those sorts of things

Joel Saxum: as a pitch for what exactly what you’re saying. So now let’s go back to, um, was it Larry Fink who said that they’re in investing in infrastructure, big time in the future, energy infrastructure is the future, da, da, da. And they, or like BlackRock’s been throwing money at everything, right?

They’ve been just buying, buying, buying, buying, buying. If some, someone came to them with the right [00:18:00] plan, there’s where your capital could come from. Who is it? Right? You know, that there’s players out there that may not be in the ISP world, I think is, p is interesting, Rosemary, but like a, a next era that’s like this with GEs,

Allen Hall: Adani,

Joel Saxum: a Donny’s in too much hot water to to, to make a deal with that, to let the SEC allow that.

Rosemary Barnes: Here’s my hot take. So LM started at the lm, it stands for lco Mills Fabric, which means, um, furniture manufacturer, right? So they started out making furniture, then they were making, um, caravans, I believe, and then there were, so that was all wood. Then they started making caravans outta fiberglass. Then they started making boats because those are also fiberglass and wood kind of things.

Then they moved into wind turbine blades and became LM glass fiber. So now they’re only doing fiberglass things. And then it was LM wind power. They only were doing wind power. Maybe, you know, [00:19:00] are they gonna go into, I don’t know, making airplanes next, or, or rockets, or are they gonna take a step backwards and, you know, go back into furniture?

Allen Hall: How do you put a value on a company that’s losing money?

Joel Saxum: That’s where I was going, Mr. Hall, October of 2016 when GE bought them, they paid one point. Six, 5 billion US dollars. I don’t think that that’s was probably a too wild of a price back then, but there’s no way that they’re worth that much now with what has has happened.

That being said, say they’re worth, I don’t know, I’m just gonna throw a number out there. Say they’re worth 800 million, half of that. I don’t see that as like a crazy amount for someone else, like Rosemary said, that may be crossing industry silos to pick up. Some factories, some, some composites knowledge, some other things as well, as long as they get, get into it.

With the understanding that this is a fire sale and [00:20:00] things need to be fixed,

Rosemary Barnes: isn’t, um, ozempic Danish? So there must be some, build, some Danish billionaires. Maybe there’s gonna be some national pride that that kicks in and makes somebody want to, you know, like Denmark is quite known for wind power. Um, if you combine, you know, the demise of LM with vest also.

Announcing a whole lot of job cuts. I, it’s not such a fast stretch to think that some Danish billionaire is gonna be like, you know what, Denmark should still have wind industry and I’m gonna make sure it happens.

Allen Hall: No shot. I don’t see it. I, it would be awesome if they did

Joel Saxum: Maersk, lm,

Allen Hall: but Meers doesn’t wanna lose money.

Why you, why would you invest in something that’s going to lose money for the next five years? Who’s doing that today?

Joel Saxum: Let’s just do a little comparison. So TPI claiming bankruptcy the other day when we looked at the Val, the market cap of them, they’re publicly traded. They were a hundred million, weren’t they?

Like a couple, six months ago,

Allen Hall: [00:21:00] $1.5 million.

Joel Saxum: Oh my God. It’s 1.5 million. Do you mean you could buy TPI over 1.5 million?

Allen Hall: I can get a second mortgage and have a pretty good take of that business. It has no value because it’s not making money. You, you’ve, it’s EBITDA times X.

Yolanda Padron: It’d be really interesting to see like an is like them turning into an ISB.

Like I will fix everything that I manufactured, gear, the molds, or like I will replace the parts.

Rosemary Barnes: It’s hard as well. I just make a few blades here or there. Um, because they only get cheap when you make thousands of them. But that said like sometimes people have to pay, at least in Australia, like it’s not uncommon that you need a new blade.

You have to pay a million dollars for it. So in that case, you know, like that’s apparently, you know, TPI, you buy TPI for one and a half and you make two blades in your first year. Then you know,

Yolanda Padron: you make a blade set, you’re done.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. So they were worth a hundred million in market cap a year ago today. [00:22:00] So it’s like a 99.6% decrease since last year.

Allen Hall: When you file bankruptcy, stuff like that happens. Here’s gonna be the rub. Whoever decides to do whatever with it, they’re gonna have to have a lot of cash because I guarantee you vendors have not been paid or. Or vendors are asking for money upfront before they make a delivery, and that’s not the way that GE likes to operate.

GE likes to operate. I buy this thing and then six months later I pay you half and another six months later, I may pay the remaining half. They don’t like to pay things upfront and. It’s gonna be a problem.

Joel Saxum: Net 180, and then on day 179, they’re gonna find a magic error in your invoice and it resets the clock.

Allen Hall: Australia’s wind farms are growing fast, but are your operations keeping up? Join us February 17th and 18th at Melbourne’s Poolman on the park for Wind Energy o and m Australia 2026, where you’ll connect with the [00:23:00] experts solving real problems in maintenance asset management and OEM relations. Walk away with practical strategies to cut costs and boost uptime that you can use the moment you’re back on site.

Register now at WM a 2020 six.com. Wind Energy o and m Australia is created by Wind professionals for wind professionals because this industry needs solutions, not speeches. So looking for something to do in February while America is in the middle of a winter snowstorm. You wanna go to Australia for?

Wind O and M Australia 2026 and it is going to be February, what, Joel?

Joel Saxum: 17th and 18th at the Pullman on the park in sunny. Melbourne

Allen Hall: and Rosemary, what’s on the schedule for the event in Sunny Australia?

Rosemary Barnes: Well, it’s, uh, agenda just full of the topics that Australian operators are talking about at the moment.

Um, there’s, you are gonna be [00:24:00] topics on compliance. Um, also training is a, a big thing. Training and resources to get workforce up to speed. Um, also some on big data and ai, they’re catchy. Uh, yeah, hyped up terms. But can you actually do something useful with it? I mean, you definitely can, but how do you, um, and then just heaps of stuff about just specific asset management problems that people are having be a lot of talking about problems.

And there’s also gonna be a lot of talking about solutions. So that’s kind of the point. It’s the, it’s the place where you can get. Both sides. ’cause I think, yeah, both sides are very important.

Joel Saxum: I think one, one of the things that is was good about the event last year and we’re excited about this year as well, is we tried to fit in as many networking opportunities as we could.

We’ve got a lot of coffee breaks. We’ve got breakfast, we’ve got a cocktail hour, we’ve got lunches, we’ve got all these things, and it’s kind of designed around keeping the whole crew together in one spot. So we’re able to share information, have those conversations. Oh, you have this asset. Oh, I [00:25:00] know this one.

Um, operators, speaking to operators, speaking to ISPs about specialties fixes. What are you doing? Could we implement that in our fleet? Those kind of things, right? And that’s about the, we, we talk on the podcast and in our daily lives regularly. Everybody here in the podcast is about collaboration and sharing information and sharing knowledge, and that’s the way that we’re gonna forward the, uh, industry.

So we’re really excited. Again, again, this is round two. We’re bringing this event down to Australia. Last year was great. I think we had basically every major operator represented, uh, at the event. And we’re gonna repeat that again this year.

Rosemary Barnes: I really like the size of it. Last year, I think we were about 170 or 180, which was our limit for that, that event, we did sell out this year.

We, uh, increased that a little bit to 250. Um, but it’s a good size. It’s not like, I don’t know if there’s any other, um, introverts out there, but usually when I go to an event, I get so exhausted from just. Uh, I don’t know the, the pressure of if there’s [00:26:00] an exhibition hole that you’re supposed to wander around and, you know, like the last conference I went to had like probably 20 parallel streams and it’s just like, what am I supposed to see?

Oh, these sessions all sound similar, which is gonna be the good one. Um, and then you’re trying to meet up with people as well. This event, it’s targeted enough. It’s one session. You’re gonna find probably at least 95% of the sessions interesting if you are working in wind energy, o and m in Australia. So you just go there, you sit down, you watch the interesting information, and every single person that you run into when you at lunch or coffee or whatever, every every single person is gonna be someone you can have an interesting conversation with.

So it’s just. It’s a lot, uh, it’s a lot easier for someone who, I mean, you, Americans, you’re all, uh, it’s like national law, right? That you have to be extroverted. It’s not allowed to be any kind of other personality type in America. But in Australia, there’s a lot of, uh, a lot of introverts. And, uh, I would say that this is a much, much more introvert friendly event than [00:27:00] your typical big, big, broad conference.

Allen Hall: Well, you won’t want to miss Wilma 2026. In order to get, what are those 250 seats, you need to register and you need to register now. So visit wma w om a 2020 six.com and. Get signed in, get registered, and we’ll see you in Australia in February. That wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

Thanks for joining us as we explore the latest in wind energy technology and industry insights. If today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Just reach out to us on LinkedIn and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. 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 we’ll catch you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy [00:28:00] Podcast.

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