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We4Ce & CNC Onsite’s Re-FIT Blade Root Repair Goes Global

Edo Kuipers from We4Ce and Søren Kellenberger from CNC Onsite discuss their Re-FIT blade root repair solution, which has been successfully implemented at a wind farm in Southeast Asia. The solution allows operators to keep blades onsite while repairing critical blade root bushing failures.

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Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy’s brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering Tomorrow.

Allen Hall: Ed0o and Soren, welcome to the program.

Edo Kuipers: Thank you very much.

Thank you both.

Allen Hall: We have some really exciting news from you, from the field, but first I, I want to start with the problem, which. A lot of operators have right now, which is this blade root, bushing it in or insert issue, which is really critical to blades and you’re the creator of the device that’s gonna save a lot of blades.

You want to talk about what happens? When these blade root bushings fail?

Edo Kuipers: Uh, yeah. What we have seen is that it especially concerns, um, uh, polyester type of blades. And what we see is that, um, bushings and, and, and composites, they are not attached to each other anymore. And after a [00:01:00] while, blades are simply flying off.

That’s the, that’s the whole, that’s the whole problem. Of course. And now going back to the root cause, the root cause here is we are working with, with foes and. The fact is that if you’re working with polyesters, they already have, um, at the, uh, uh, during the process, the curing process, they have already curing shrinkages.

So we have already curing shrinkages, which means we have already initial micro flagging going on, on the interface between the bushing and, and, and, and the limited around it. And that reduces, that reduces the um, surface. Carrying area. And by doing so, because we have less area, surface area that can transfer the loads from the hub, um, from the blades to the hub, eh, we have limited amount of, of years on running.

So we are reducing, uh, the, the amount of years [00:02:00] that the blades are on the, on the, on the turbine safely.

Joel Saxum: This problem is compounding right now simply because there’s a lot of the global wind turbine fleet that’s starting to age. Right. Like we, we, we went through a big push in, you know, the early two thousands, 2000 tens, 2000 twenties to now where, you know, if you look at the country of Spain, we hear that regularly, Alan is, Hey, we’re getting to the end of life.

We’re close to the end of life. Then there’s people saying, what is the remaining useful life? Where are we at? Um, and this is one of those issues where. It can develop rapidly, right? So if there’s an issue, you can, if you catch it in time, great. You’re good. But it can develop rapidly and that can lead to catastrophic losses.

But I guess my, one of the questions I want to ask you, and you guys of course have done some commercial here. Uh, how many turbines do you think are affected by this globally affected by this root bushing issues?

Edo Kuipers: Oh, that’s a good one. If I, if I talk a number of blades at the moment, we are more or less at a ball point figure about 30, [00:03:00] 40,000.

Blades. Wow. Worldwide. So we see many us, we see many in South America and we see also in Southeast Asia, like India. And those blades are running, let’s say from 10 years, 12 years, and some of them also after six years,

Allen Hall: and a lot of manufacturing. Uh, blades happens in multiple sites, right? So if you have a particular OEM wind turbine, you may have a variety of different blades on your site.

You typically do. Some of them are polyesters, some of them may be epoxy, but it’s the polyester ones we need to pay attention to first, right?

Edo Kuipers: Correct. The one we are, uh, concentrating on with our solution are dealing with polyester blades because there we see the problem, especially in the, in the interface layer.

There are also root problems with epoxy types, but they are from a, from a different level.

Allen Hall: So the thing that we’re looking for when we start to see [00:04:00]the problem, so if I’m an operator and I have technicians out in the field and they’re looking at blades from the ground, typically very quickly, what are the first signs that you have problems with the bushings?

Edo Kuipers: What we generally see, the first signs is that there is a cracking going on in the ceiling, which is between the blade. The pitch bearing. So if you go up tower as a surface guy, then then look for those initial cracks, and if you see cracking, cracking in that sealant, then remove the sealant just by with a knife and, and, and go with a fill gauge to see if you’re caping going on between the root lum.

Uh, so between the bushing and the, and the, and the pitch bearing,

Allen Hall: so that sealant or gasket between the blade and the pitch bearing shouldn’t be moving or shouldn’t have flexed it. It shouldn’t have broken. It can flex. It’s made to flex a little bit, but if it breaks, it tells you there’s too much stress [00:05:00] on that sealant.

That’s really the first sign.

Edo Kuipers: That’s really the first sign. Then you still have time, but then you have to start monitoring

Allen Hall: and the, the monitoring is telling you what,

Edo Kuipers: once you. Notice this. What you have to do is, for example, you are positioning a leading edge, uh, under the tensile loading of the dead weight.

Then you measure a cap, then you pitch the blade, eh, that the, that, the, that the, that, that side is down. So it’s, it’s, it’s feeling a compressive loading, and then you can see if there is a difference. So what you’re doing is you’re measuring the variable cap. That’s a static gap, but the variation of the capping due to the, due to its own weight of the blade, and that is a sign that that movement is going on.

Allen Hall: So you’ll see compression versus tension, that gap get larger and smaller. There is always some movement in that gap, but it’s very limited if you, what typically is a threshold where you say. [00:06:00] If it’s beyond a couple of millimeters, that’s a problem. Where is that dimensional gap become an issue

Edo Kuipers: with our present customers?

We are saying, um, um, one millimeter and you have to hoist, uh, hoist the blade down.

Allen Hall: One millimeter is 40 thousandths of an inch. That’s not very much.

Edo Kuipers: If it’s, for example, five millimeters, I mean. It’s, it’s not, you’re in a, in a bad stage that within three months your, your blood, your blade could fly off.

And if you are in, in the range of one millimeter, the nice thing on that is that you have a limited amount of bushings, which needs to be replaced. So you are li limiting the effect of the repair.

Joel Saxum: So, but that’s the big thing here, right? So catching it early, it’s like anything in blades, we talk about this.

We’ve been, we’ve been beating this, this horse for a long time. Catch it early, fix it early, or you’re gonna be in a bad state. Because I mean, the, the, the worst thing that happens here, of course is the safety issue, loss of life or anything like that. But what? But the, [00:07:00] what We have seen blade breaks, blade comes down, hits the tower.

Then the tower comes down, then you’re replacing an entire turbine. And that’s, that’s horrible for the operator, the industry, everything in, in, in general. Um, but if you catch it early, now each blade has de, depending on the model, the make the design, um. 60 to 80 bushings. 60 to a hundred bushings. What’s that number?

Edo Kuipers: Yeah. 92 for example. Or 74 or, yeah. In that area.

Joel Saxum: Right. So, so, and when you, and when your solution is engaged, when the, you have to bring the, bring the blade down tower and then fix it if you catch it early. Are you talking, we’re fixing six of these, we’re fixing 40 of these. What does it usually look like?

Edo Kuipers: It’s, uh, in the, in the area of 24 to 30.

Joel Saxum: Okay.

Edo Kuipers: The nice thing on that, the nice thing is on that if we working with a drilling machine, we can do that in 24 hours drilling. So limited time. Limited time of, of [00:08:00] taking out the bushings. And if we would wait longer and we need to repair 60 bushings, it takes, let’s say 60 hours to, to drill out, so to lower the cost of the repair.

Because it’s like a chain reaction. Once it starts, it, it grows to lower the amount of the repair and the cost of repair, let’s, let’s not wait too long.

Allen Hall: Okay. So that’s a really good input into this discussion because I think a lot of operators assume if I have to do this repair, replace the bushings, I’m replacing a number of bushings regardless of the level of damage, because they’re gonna fail eventually.

But you know, what you’re saying is that. It starts in a highly loaded couple of bushings and spreads from there, if you can, if you can fix or upgrade those particular bushings, then the remaining bushings may be okay.

Edo Kuipers: Correct. Because there is always a highly loaded, like you said, and there’s always a a side which is more tensile loaded, and the other side is more compressive loaded, and especially the tensile loaded part is, is [00:09:00]more severely for the fatigue.

Joel Saxum: The other side of this is a blade replacement. So you’re either gonna, you’re going to have to, you’re gonna do something like this, or you’re gonna replace the blade. And, but now again, we’re talking about this aging fleets remaining useful life, what spares look like out in the field. A lot of these turbines.

Spares are not readily available for them. Right. If we’re talking about, and we’re talking about different markets like you, you ju you guys just executed. We’re gonna talk about this a little bit, but you just executed this amazing project, uh, over in the APAC region. It’s not easy to get blades shipped over there, or like in Australia or South America, like in the States.

We’re kind of lucky people don’t realize this, but we’re kind of lucky that we have a fleet of 75,000 turbines because there are spares around for some things. However, as these blades get older, like nobody’s gonna do you a run of a 12-year-old, 15-year-old blade, it’s what, whatever’s on the ground around the world is what we have.

And that is it Ev And then in composites, again, everything can be repaired, but it’s just how much, what is the [00:10:00] economic case for? So you guys are building that economic case to make this make sense.

Edo Kuipers: A new blade, let’s, let’s. Have the old fashioned prices of 10 euros per kilo or whatever, and you have a blade of 15 tons that will cost you like 150,000 euros.

As a new blade, you already paid for that price. Then you have to do it a second time. It’s not only that, it’s also the waiting time. If you have to wait for one year, your loss, your loss in, in, in, in, in, in revenue. Also, let’s say like 100, 150, maybe 200,000 depending on your feed into reef tariffs that you get.

It’s also, that’s also a loss. So the total thing will cost you already like easily like 200, 300,000 euros for for one turbine, right? Or one for one rot blade. If you do a repair, then there’s a repair. It’ll cost you like a fraction of that. It’ll cost you maybe like 30, 40,000 euros.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. And the reality is, is when you [00:11:00] replace one blade, you normally are replacing all three.

I mean, unless you, unless you can find a, a matching, you know, a good, well you, you get lucky and you find one blade that has the weight certificate and a bending moment certificate that matches your other. Two that are up tower. Mm, pretty rare. More than likely you’re getting all three new blades. So then all of a sudden your 150 turns into 450 before you even start it.

Soren Kellenberger: Absolutely. And that’s, that’s if you can get a replacement blade because if you need to go back to a, a manufacturer Right, they, they will not sell you that blade for the original 150,000 Euros. Uh, so. If they at all have a mold before they get it started up and all the initial cost in, in getting that up and running, you are looking at 2, 3, 4 times the price of the, of the new blade.

So it, it really adds up if you have to replace. And there’s of course also the whole discussion right now with, um, the old blades and all the waste it’s, uh, creating. So from an environmental perspective, it’s [00:12:00] also a huge benefit to, uh, repairs instead have replaced. Uh, but, but the financial is, it’s just, uh, yeah.

Basically a no brainer, right?

Allen Hall: Oh yeah. The financials make total sense. And this is where we’re gonna get to the solution from WE four C, which is called Refit, which is a, a bushing upgrade and the workings together of two separate companies. So we have WE four C, which is, uh, based in the Netherlands of course, and then we.

We have Sorin and CNC onsite, which is based in Denmark, so they’re really relatively close to one another, and both companies are powerhouses in wind and, and fixing wind and making it more efficient and getting our turbines optimized for long-term duration, which. What we in the states have not been doing, but we’re, that’s gonna rapidly change in the next couple of months.

Uh, so this refit solution does make a lot of sense to me just because the demand is [00:13:00] gonna be there and we need to have some way of doing this. And, uh, this is what I want to talk to both of you about, because understanding how to replace these bushings, it, it seems at first, like it’s an impossible task.

You brought two powerhouses together to solve this problem. You wanna discuss how the two companies work together, we foresee and CNC onsite, and how this, uh, repair rework is accomplished.

Soren Kellenberger: I think if we, if we take it back a step, um, we at CNC or uh, onsite was originally involved in a plate repair project.

Uh. Before, actually before the, the Corona uh, uh, situation. Uh, so we had worked on a machine and made some, uh, tests in, in our workshop on this repair, drilling out bushings. Um, then Corona came and the project was stopped and never restarted again. So about four years, pretty much to the, [00:14:00] to the date because it was at the Huon wind, which is now coming up again in, in one and a half week.

Um, we were in, we met, uh, we foresee, uh, so we had this drilling technology sitting there, and I walked around and I saw these, uh, nice, uh, bushings and, and, uh, a couple of nice gentlemen standing there. So I approached, uh, IDO and, and Arnold and said, uh, Hey guys, this, uh, this, this looks nice. What is it? And, uh, we started talking about that.

Uh, they actually had the. Pushing technology ready. They needed someone who could drill out the old ones. And yeah, we had the technology to drill out the old ones and needed someone who could insert those replacement pushing. So it was actually, um, a very, a very good fit. And then the whole corporation just started off basically on trust.

I mean, we signed the NDA and stuff like that, but we just trusted each other and, and moved, uh, forward. And it took some time before getting to the first customer also. What you mentioned in the [00:15:00] beginning, right, Alan, that there’s, yeah, it looks nice, but has it been done before? It’s been, we’ve heard that question, uh, a lot of times.

Um, so it took some time before we got through all the testing and stuff like that, but, uh, now it’s up and running and, uh, works really well.

Edo Kuipers: At the third point, the customer said to us, if you can show a test with this number of cycles and fatigue, it was something like a certain level and a 1 million cycles test.

If you can show that to me, then we will sign the contract. So we sent two coupons, you one to a, to a Dutch Institute, independent, one to a German Institute who was doing um, um, coupon testings. And we said, okay, run it. Run them off both for 1 million cycles. And they had, they had the same result. So, and both, both have reached the 1 million cycles.

So we said to the customers, we did not provide one component with 1 million cycles, but two for you to, to make sure. And also at different test institute. [00:16:00] And then they signed the contract and at all went. Very fast after that.

Allen Hall: Well, yeah, if as soon as you can show the technology works in the laboratory, the next step is to get it deployed.

So the, the, the process works sort of like this. And, and stop me if I’m too far off because I’ve had to explain to me very slowly. Ada has done this very carefully. So let’s see if I can, uh, explain it to the teacher. I’m gonna take, I’m gonna remove the blade off. I’m gonna bring the blade down, and they’re gonna call Soren’s people at CNC onsite.

And they’re going to actually. Have tooling this amazing tooling to drill out this old bushing and make it such that this ados wonderful refit solution can slide into this new drilled spot that’s been perfectly honed. And this new bushing goes in and there’s a bunch of epoxies added behind it to hold that new bushing in place.

And then once that’s done, I move to the next one. And because the system is set up with CNC onsite to have [00:17:00] to go ahead and, and drill out multiple bushings, uh, very quickly, this process, once the blade is down, is actually very quick. So you’re talking about maybe a couple of days total to repair a blade that otherwise would be

Edo Kuipers: discarded.

This is, I’m very happy with this at the moment. And this is also with thanks to the um, uh, to the criteria, to the cap measurements of up tower we are doing. So this is the first step we have to do, of course. But thanks to that we only need a limited amount of bushing. So we are doing, let’s say like 24 to 30 bushings are being drilled out.

This takes us. 24 hours, more or less, we are doing it. We could do it in three shifts, so then it’s one day, but we are not doing it in one sh one shift. They, they are working neatly, they are working accurate and with the same team. And so they are doing three days. After these three days, they are, they are done with the drilling.

Um, then we need to start the [00:18:00] preparations, so the new bushings needs to be implemented. That will take us, let’s say like eight hours of preparations, because everything needs to be far tight and that that is essential for our solution. It needs to be low, far level, so all the air out. And then after this, that takes about eight hours, and after that we have the infusion day.

That’s a really exciting day always, because once. The resin is running. We can’t stop it anymore. Right? So this, this day is also, let’s say eight hours. So, and then we have some finishing because it would be nice if we are hoisting up the blade again. A tower that the, that the root is, is flat. Yeah. All the resin pieces are off.

And we may have to make sure that, uh, that all the, all the bushings are aligned well for the proper load distributions. Um, another, let’s say another few hours, maybe eight hours. So then we are 48 hours, 50 hours of the whole process working with three or four people. That’s it.

Allen Hall: [00:19:00] Wow. And does it take anybody special to be on site from like the CNC onsite?

You know, c NNC onsite makes these great machines that are highly accurate. Uh, Soren, do you need to have specialized people on site or are you training people that are local to do this work?

Soren Kellenberger: We are training local people. So that is, that is part of, of the whole solution that, that we do a technology transfer.

So it’s, people are trained with this specific project. We started by having the, the team in Europe, uh, so they had some, some training days with, uh, IDO and the guys in the Netherlands on the, uh, whole mounting and infusion technology. And then they came to our workshop and trained in operating the drilling machine.

Afterwards. Then for the startup, we send the technicians, uh, to, to the customer, um, who supported for a couple of weeks, and then we went back. Uh, and then we are basically, uh, always ready to support. But on teams or whatever, we can set up a link and, and [00:20:00] a system if needed. They are running with it, uh, very well.

So it’s, it’s been very limited what we’ve had to do. Uh, we get some feedback on the drilling process so we can optimize some parameters and, and step by step, uh, improve the process time. We’ve done some optimizations to the drills, uh, to make them last longer and, and do. Those, uh, things more efficiently, but they are basically running on their own

Joel Saxum: guys.

I think that’s something to make sure that we don’t breeze over here as well. Is the local content part of your solution. So you’ve done all the expert engineering, uh, figuring out the processes, of course, all the, the precision machining equipment from Soren’s team as well, but you can export it to different locales and train up the local staff and get them moving.

So places like it’s, it’s expensive. It’s difficult to get people into South Asia. It’s expensive, it’s difficult to get people into South America, to Australia, to, to anywhere really. You’re gonna export this. However, what you’re also doing is bringing local jobs, local [00:21:00] work, local revenue to the local teams.

And I know that that makes a lot of, a lot of people happy. Um, including, I know, like we’re, we’re sitting in the States, right? There’s a lot of ISPs over here, hopefully listening to this. They’re saying like, Ooh, we’d like to be the people that implement this solution over in the States. Let’s get ahold of these guys.

Uh, so kudos to you on that as well.

Edo Kuipers: Yes. The idea is indeed to have, um, on different regions in the world, uh, different, uh, repair hubs so that we can always work with the same teams, with the, with the, with the same people. So we train them, educate them, and then of course, from the Netherlands and of course from Denmark, we still, we will always support them, but it can also be done by a teams or a conference calling.

Allen Hall: And let’s talk about the Southeast Asia. Project you just completed successfully and uh, it looked fantastic. That was the first major project that you’ve tried this technology on. Besides everything in a laboratory, kind of one off things, but now you’re going to scale. This is a big step. [00:22:00] How did it go?

How did that process start? What did it look like afterwards?

Edo Kuipers: Um, how did it start? Uh, by doing it, I mean, sir and his team went on site, of course, and we encountered difficulties, of course, first time with drilling. And, um, that had multiple reasons. So the guys, uh, even the, the, the, the colleague of Sir went, went back to Denmark.

He changed, he fixed something on a drill, had sent a new type of drill and it ran perfectly. So from there, from that point, the drilling was no problem anymore. Then after we created the holes together, um, of course we have to do the infusion. And going from going from infusing like five bushings in a row, we had to go to 30 in a row.

And that was in the beginning, quite challenging. Um, to have, so it was a little bit like keep your fingers crossed if everything is going fine, but it works somehow. Um, it works [00:23:00] and, and all the resin came out. So we are quite happy with that. Uh, of course there are some fine tuning in the processing in the quality.

Uh, but that’s, that’s important for us is, is, is to keep, you need to keep following the. The quality processes. If you, if you strictly follow the quality processes, make sure it’s vacuum tight, make sure that you work in sections, so don’t open your resin folds all at the same time, one by one correctly.

And then just monitor and make sure that, of course, refresh your resin from time to time. Because that’s a pot life thing, and it takes, let’s say like maybe two hours before the whole resident is going through the bushing and also in the depth direction that is being impregnated well. Um, so you have to make sure that your pot life is under control.

And also we work with a tent, which is like 100 square meters, which is air conditioned, and, and that all contributes to a, [00:24:00] a controlled process. And yeah, that was very scary for the first time. I must admit that if you do second time. You get more relaxed. And the third time, it’s like driving a car the first time.

Oh, this, I need to pay attention to the gear. In the, in, in Europe, we have gears and, um, on the car and um, we, we need to, we need to drive and look around us and the navigation system. Um, so, and at a certain point it’s all going automatically. Right. How many blade did you repair in Southeast Asia? 18. Now we are working the, the, the sixth set.

Set number six has just completed, and I know this every week, I have contact, uh, with, with, with, with. With. With one guy there. It’s, it’s, we know each other good. So he, he gives us the feedback and it costs me every week. It costs me half an hour, not more.

Joel Saxum: It’s usually not one blade. It’s usually the whole step has an issue, correct?

Edo Kuipers: Yes and no. Um, what they do now at the moment, um, they, they, [00:25:00] they, they, they see that one, one blade has, um, uh, a problem. So they, they, they already. Start thinking ahead by taking all three blades down. So even if, if one or two blades within the set does not have the variable capping, they know in half a year it will happen.

That’s the experience they already have. And the the, there is the certain. They have a certain agreement here with the crane. The crane is coming, let’s say they use a crane every month for a fixed period. So they say, let’s hoist the complete set down. Then we have three weeks to repair, and in the fourth week we will hoist it out again.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. And the, and the technicians on site, once they’re trained up, uh, they’re loving it because whether it’s in the hot in South, south Asia, or if you’re doing this in the cold, you’re working in a tank. So if they got an extra couple blades to work on as a blade technician. I’m all for it. I’m all for it.

A little bit more time in the AC or in the heat and nice kind, controlled facility. It’s,

Soren Kellenberger: uh, I think the, the guys will like that a lot in the [00:26:00] field. One of the benefits you, you get also is, as Ido mentioned in, in the beginning, if you catch it early, you have fewer, uh. Bushings to repair. So, uh, you, if you catch it or, or repair it while you have your blades down already, you can repair fewer bushings.

And in terms of process time, it’s also a little bit faster. That’s also what we learned to, uh, to drill out the bushings when they are not. Too loose. Um, the more loose they get, the more risk you have of vibrations when you start drilling and that can potentially damage your drills. Uh, um, and it, it just adds to the process time.

So. There are a lot of benefits by catching these, uh, things early and getting the process, uh, completed at an earlier damage stage.

Allen Hall: Now you’ve completed your first big project. What’s next? It sounds like there’s a lot of opportunity worldwide to do this refit process.

Edo Kuipers: Yeah, we, the, the, the first, the first [00:27:00] team is the, is our number one team.

You can see it also here on the, on the breast. And, um, we are now looking basically a number two team, which is, is as excellent as the number one team. Um, so yeah, it’s not only that, um, we have to do, I mean. If you would like to have this, this technology implemented, um, it’s, it’s going Pfizer versa. So, um, very, very important is that we are working together with teams, service teams, which 100% trust each other.

That’s where it starts already. Um, and they are fixed. So if, if you have fixed teams, you teach them and they, they, they, they, they, they learn by experience and that that’s how it should be. Um, so yeah. The next step is, is we are talking with. Next step is we are talking with different, uh, potential, um, service companies, um, worldwide.

So we are talking within America with, with one or two, um, potential, um, good guys, good [00:28:00] groups. Um, the same in, in India, for example, and the same in, in, in South America. That’s, that’s our aim to have, let’s say in, in South America. Two service companies, uh, in, in, in India, two or three, uh, um, in India, in America, one, two, or three or whatever.

So that’s, we are now discussing with these parties, and it’s not only one direction, okay? We want to sell it to you. Now, it’s also the other direction. Are you capable? How do we want to work with 24 hour cycle? Do you have a place where we can install everything? So that’s our next step to explore.

Allen Hall: Yeah.

And Sorin, you have to start making more machines. I hope so.

Soren Kellenberger: No, it’s, it’s definitely, we’ve, we’ve seen a lot of interest and, and we’ve also had numerous contacts over the years. But again, it’s been back to this, have this been done before and. It sort of, no one wanted maybe to be the first, but now the first commercial project is, is out there.

It’s, it’s still [00:29:00] ongoing. And, and once this is completed, we will have installed more than a thousand bushings. Uh, so, so I think it’s, it’s a decent. Proof of concept. It’s a, it’s a real case. It’s not just one blade or one set. It’s, it’s actually a, a, a larger farm that, where, that we have, will have repaired once, uh, this project is, is, uh, 100% completed.

So it’s, it’s going really well. Uh, and I think that of course they will, once the potential customers see that, that this project is now open and running, it will move forward with, uh, contracts for, for other projects. But who is gonna be the first is still, uh, difficult to say, but, uh, I’m pretty sure that, that there will be more.

Edo Kuipers: Yeah. We would also quite be keen on getting on the table with the big OEMs because there are many parks which have still some kind of, uh, service contract, eh, uh, full service agreement or whatever. So even if park owners, many time [00:30:00] park owners say to us, Hey, we would like to have your technology implemented because that sounds to be the most robust one.

Um, but you need to convince the, the, the, the, the Big O oms. Um, and sometimes that is, that is, that is a difficult part because you need to go through, through these different steps with a lot of decision makers, uh, in these organizations. And that takes time. So request is, are on these big, OMS is to define clear criteria for us.

How, what should be, what should we fulfill? And if we fulfill this. Basically, do we then have a deal with each other? Because in the end, for us, we need to help those park owners because they are in the end, eh, um, they have the, they are feeling the pain on, on, on, on this kind of, um, yeah, sometimes hidden problems.

Allen Hall: Well, if you’re an OEM or an operator, where do you start this process? Who do you call first? Do you call we foresee or do you call CNC onsite or does it matter?

Soren Kellenberger: Call either of us and, uh, we [00:31:00] will be, make sure to, uh, involve the other parts. So that’s where the trust and cooperation comes into play. Uh, yeah, just reach out and, uh, we will, we will.

Set up joint meetings.

Allen Hall: The website for CNC onsite is CNC onsite.dk because they’re in Denmark. And the website for WE four C is we the number four, letter C, letter e.eu. And either one of those addresses will get you to the information you need about the refit and. Uh, get you started because as we’ve seen the United States, a lot of things are changing and worldwide.

We need to keep these turbines up and running longer. The way to do that is to put a little bit of money into them now instead of spending a whole bunch of money later. This is why we love we four C and C and C onsite because they’re saving operators, literally millions of dollars. So. You know, and Soren, thank you so much for being on the podcast.

We, we love having you. And as you finish up the Southeast Asia project, you gotta come back on after you [00:32:00] finish those thousand bushings and give us an update. Absolutely. We’ll be happy to.

Edo Kuipers: Yes, thanks a lot. We are fully happy to.

https://weatherguardwind.com/refit-blade-root-repair/

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Profound Nihilism?

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Normally, “nihilism” means the belief that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.  Trump was elected by mean-spirited idiots, but they could hardly be called “nihilists.” For example, they believe very strongly in white supremacy, the dismantling of the federal government, saving people from the lethality of vaccinations, etc.

Now, there is a secondary meaning to the word, i.e., those who reject established social systems.  In this sense, I suppose they are indeed nihilists, in that they reject lawfulness, honesty, human rights, truth, science, tolerance, and compassion.

Profound Nihilism?

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Vestas Shares Jump 20%, UK Blocks Ming Yang Factory

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Weather Guard Lightning Tech

Vestas Shares Jump 20%, UK Blocks Ming Yang Factory

Vestas doubles second quarter profit and adds €4.7 billion in market value overnight. Plus EnBW finishes He Dreiht after a V236 blade break, the UK blocks Ming Yang’s Scottish factory, and India rules turbines are movable goods.

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

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

Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. I’m your host, Allen Hall, and I’m here with Rosemary Barnes, Matthew Stead, and Yolanda Padron. And three out of the four of us will be in Melbourne Australia talking to a number of operators and interested parties about WOMA 2027. Matthew, where will we be the couple of days we’re in Melbourne?

Matthew Stead: So, um, first of all, we’ve got the Pullman, uh, East Melbourne, which is, uh, where the venue will be for, for 2027. Um, so that’ll be our home base. Um, we’ve got around about eight meetings planned already. So what we’re doing is we’re talking to the operators and a few other industry, um, players about [00:01:00] what we need to talk about, how we’re gonna move the industry forward in Australia.

Uh, so it’s gonna be jam-packed, but there’s a little bit of time left on the Friday afternoon if there’s any late-minute, um, people that wanna get in contact and catch up with us, um, for next Thursday, Friday, or actually Friday. Uh, so yeah, it’s gonna be a, a jam-packed time. I think we’re gonna be tired, too many coffees, and talking to all the key, all the key operators, uh, about what they wanna hear about and how we can move the, the industry forward.

Allen Hall: And if someone wants to put an input into the WOMA panel about what will be discussed at WOMA 2027, Matthew, how would they do that? How do they get ahold of you?

Matthew Stead: Well, we have a wonderful website, and that’s got all the details you could ever want. Um, you can also register on the website, so please register.

Otherwise, um, I’m sure we’re gonna be a sellout this year for sure. So woma2027.com.

Rosemary Barnes: I just wanna add that when people talk to [00:02:00] me about the event, they always say how they love that the topics are so relevant, and the reason why that they’re so relevant is because we make sure to go around to operators and find out what are the issues that they’re really dealing with.

So anybody that’s thinking of attending, even if you can’t, you know, meet us up, meet up with us in Melbourne, get in touch and tell us what are the, yeah, what are the topics that you’re struggling with that you’re not, um, you’re having trouble finding enough information, having trouble finding the people that can help you.

And y- yeah, like we take all of that information, and that’s how we come up with our agenda each year. And yeah, I mean, for us, that’s the, the main thing is that this has to be really relevant, up-to-date information for the industry, and we need your help to make sure it stays that way. I

Matthew Stead: mean, that’s what we’ve done the last two years, so this is– we’re just repeating the formula, um, listening to the operators and getting the good topics and the good speakers.

Allen Hall: Well, Vestas has had a good quarter. Uh, the, for the last couple of years, honestly, s- [00:03:00] Vestas has been really thin on margins. There was questions about it continuing on. Rising costs mostly, uh, supply chains, especially during COVID, were bad. Uh, and, uh, but for the most part, the shareholders stayed attached.

Well, that story is changing rapidly. The world’s largest turbine maker posted second quarter operating profits of $400- €46 million, more than double what the analysts had expected, and it’s raised its full-year margin guidance alongside half-year results for the first time in a decade. The shares climbed about 20% in Copenhagen, adding roughly €4.7 billion of market value in a single session.

Now, the chief executive, uh, Henrik Andersen, ha- put it plainly to, uh, uh, in a couple of news sources that something much bigger is happening and Vestas is gonna be the, the leader in wind. That’s how I read it, that everybody [00:04:00]at Vestas was super happy with the, the change in direction and things were moving up steadily.

But a 20% jump in a day is remarkable. You don’t see that in large industrial businesses like wind energy. Matthew, this has real implications on what happens next for Vestas because success like this usually means more orders.

Matthew Stead: Yeah, I wonder what’s going on under the hood there. Um, I mean, Vestas is a quality company, although, although can I just do a quick segue?

How many turbines were installed in Denmark in the last, uh, two years? Like last year and the year before?

Allen Hall: I don’t know. How many?

Matthew Stead: I believe it was eight turbines installed onshore in Denmark last year, and the year before it was 12. So, you know, maybe, maybe Vestas needs to focus on their own backyard a little bit as well.

Allen Hall: I’m not sure there’s a lot of opportunity there. Yeah, onshore.

Matthew Stead: How can you ever be full? I mean, there’s always, um, [00:05:00] uh, you know, um, you know, resiting or, um, you know, upgrades and-

Rosemary Barnes: You know what? Allen and I are probably gonna get some time in Jutland, uh, later this year, um, and that area and the old wind turbines there was actually the inspiration for my whole YouTube channel.

It just, ’cause there’s, you know, there’s turbines there from, the earliest one is, um, from the ’70s and still going. I think it’s one and a half megawatts, actually huge for, for that time. Um, and it was like community made, um, at Tvind. But anyway, I’m interested to revisit the site and have a look and see are these, you know, all these old turbines still there.

It’s only, like six years since I went through and did the experience but for the most part, they don’t seem to be yet pulling down the, the small old ones and putting up big ones. There’s a lot of, a lot of them are community owned. Um, and yeah, I mean, Danish people love wind turbines, but there’s only so many that you can have onshore.

Like, people are happy to live near them by, you know, the standards of people in other countries, but you don’t want [00:06:00] one in your literal backyard. I think that there is, there, there is a, a limit to how many more onshore wind turbines that you can get in that area and offshore expansion is the more likely way to go.

Um, and also I think it’s, it’s, it’s good to recognize that if you have a domestic only or a domestic first strategy, that will only get you so far and then you have to expand, and I think Denmark did that really well. I think Germany a little bit less. I think that Enercon were a bit surprised, um, by their strategy.

It, uh, they had a real hard time anyway when they had to transition away from mostly Germany to getting overseas. And obviously, like if you look at China, they have most of their installations are in China. They are trying so hard to get outside of China because it’s not, like even a market as big as China, it’s got decades to go before it will be full.

Um, you can still recognize that that’s not your, like long-term strategy for growth has to involve expansion, I think.

Allen Hall: I think Vestas, regardless of what happens in Denmark, is making a play for the United States. That seems to be [00:07:00] where a significant effort is happening at the moment and on offshore. Their– Vestas seems very excited about the offshore opportunities.

Of course, there’s a ton of wind turbines gonna be installed in the UK and, and all around Northern Europe. Offshore, the opportunities to buy turbines, there’s only a couple that you could get today. Uh, uh, the GE Vernova offerings I, I don’t think are gonna fit the mold, and I don’t know if GE’s even actively selling.

So their competitor realistically is Siemens Gamesa, which does seem like the smaller player at the minute versus Vestas, which is heavily pushing the V236 and will fill order books like crazy, I think, uh, just based upon the, the history they’ve had and everybody knowing who they are. So Also on the move in Australia, right?

Vestas is huge in Australia right now.

Rosemary Barnes: I think it’s really good that their, um, yeah, finances, uh, are [00:08:00] looking a bit better ’cause it’s been funny. Like, I tried early on in my wind career to invest in, you know, wind turbine manufacturers knowing that there would be immense growth, and I was right. There, there was immense growth.

Not that that was so hard to figure out that there would be, but it did not lead to any kind of, um, return on, on anything, you know. Like, that did not keep pace with the just general market. Um, so I, I stopped trying to, stopped trying to invest to that. But it has been really, really hard for the companies to, you know, raise money or y- you know, do any of the things that they need to do because they’ve always, like, they’re growing, growing, growing, but finances has been so tight that it has been a real constraint on the amount of engineering that they could do, and I really hope that Vestas are gonna take this opportunity that they’ve got compared to, you know, a lot of the other manufacturers.

Vestas do have really strong, um, innovation and, yeah, engineering capabilities for doing– you know, developing new technologies and improving them, and I really hope that they’re taking this opportunity to build that up. There are a lot [00:09:00] of very good engineers with a lot of experience in the industry in that area that are working in other fields at the moment because, you know, there’s been a lot of contraction in Denmark.

So I don’t know, it seems like a really good time to hire back some of that really in-depth knowledge and, yeah, get a- get ahead of, you know, some of the future quality problems. We’re going through such a hard time at the moment from the fast development that happened in the 20-teens when there wasn’t a whole lot of money around.

We’re dealing with quality problems now, so, you know, maybe we can get ahead and not have the next round of them if we can invest in just a lot more, uh, engineering capacity.

Allen Hall: When you have success like Vestas has, usually the upper level management and some of the executive team starts getting pilfered, that they’ll get offers to repeat that success at another company, and it sounds like that process has started already.

There’s a couple of executives that have recently departing or are in the midst of departing from Vestas. [00:10:00] I would see that continuing f- at least for the next six months, uh, because everybody wants to repeat that, right? If you can get a 20% increase in your valuation overnight, uh, I can, I can list a number of companies, regardless of industry, that would love to participate.

Even in a 5% increase, that would be remarkable. So, um, Vestas is gonna have a hard time holding onto this. That’s just the nature of the business where things are successful, people will wander. And Rosemary, I, I think they’re– And Yolanda In, in my book, Vestas should sort of s-stand down and just make quality products.

I’m not sure you sh-should tinker too much at the time being and just make the good stuff better. That seems like a way to really increase profits.

Yolanda Padron: Yeah, I mean, solving a lot of the issues that– And, and that’s not just a Vestas exclusive thing, right? All of these OEMs have some sort of issue that maybe– I know Rosie’s touched a lot on, on it, where [00:11:00] you build this version A and then version B solves one of the small little issues, but now it creates another little problem, and then you have version C, and then everything just kinda has its own niche little issue, um, that really expands over time.

So if they could solidify what they already have in, in a, in a model that, that would help them just even keep a lot of their customers, I think that’d be great, and it would help, certainly help them, um, not continuously, like, rotate around the customers, ’cause it almost feels like, at least in the States, right, you, you get GE to be really, really strong and have a huge market share, and then GE starts focusing more on gas turbines, so then they all go onto Vestas, and then they all go onto Ontara now.

Um, and then just, you know, just kind of everybody starts cycling through them because they just kind of want something that’s better quality than what they’re getting in the long haul.

Matthew Stead: Allen, you, you talked about you think there’s something big under the hood. I think you, you [00:12:00] thought that maybe Vestas was angling towards something or being quite bullish.

Do you think that they might take over GE Vernova?

Allen Hall: I don’t think they’re gonna grab Vernova, and I don’t think Vernova is for sale at the minute, but I wonder if Siemens Gamesa is, or Nordex. I mean, Nordex has done terrific the last couple of quarters and is making inroads in places that I didn’t think possible three, four years ago.

Uh, the European marketplace is be- becoming really unique in that sense that there’s a lot of money being put out. But is there a sole perfect solution for Europe? Not at the minute, ’cause you got two competitors there, and then China trying to, to work its way in. Will the Europeans come together and form something more united, even if it’s just a partnership, a loose partnership, versus letting China on the shores?

We’ll see. 64 of the largest machines that Vestas has builds are standing off the German coast, but one blade is missing a [00:13:00] piece. We’ll talk about that when we come back.

Speaker: Are you overspending on lightning repairs? Most operators are because solving lightning damage is complicated. Weather Guard Lightning Tech helps operators reduce lightning damage. Our innovative StrikeTape lightning diverter protects over twenty thousand blades worldwide. Now, StrikeTape Ultra installs faster than ever.

StrikeTape Ultra cures uptower in just fifteen minutes, even in cold weather. Visit weatherguardwind.com to schedule a call.

Allen Hall: Well, Germany’s largest offshore wind farm is now fully installed, and EnBW confirmed this, uh, past week that all 64 of the Vestas V236 15-megawatt turbines are s- standing at the He Dreiht wind farm about 85 kilometers northwest of Borkum. Uh, 960 megawatts, [00:14:00] 2.4 billion euros invested. Man, these offshore projects are expensive to get installed.

Uh, so it’s power for roughly 1.1 million households, and there’s no state subsidy behind any of it. And so this is a little bit of a u- unique situation. Uh, th- well, the one footnote about the wind farm is they had a V236 blade break and fall into the North Sea, and they had fished it out and I think I passed along s- pictures that I saw online of, uh, one of the police boats pulling the shear web out of the water I don’t know what to think anymore about some of these offshore blade issues.

Obviously, Vestas is very conscientious about it and will be doing RCAs and engineering reviews and all the above to go identify what the problem is. But it does just lead to a little bit of a pause of do– what is going on for some of these offshore [00:15:00] wind blade installations or, or whatever’s causing these blades to break?

Do we have a good handle on it? Yolanda, is– are we following up on all the design details so that we can prevent these things in the future?

Yolanda Padron: I mean, I’d, I’d hope you’d be following up on the design, right? Like, and, um, but I think there is still a little bit of a disconnect from, from what we’ve seen, and again, not just Vestas exclusive, um, between the people who are designing and the people who are manufacturing, the people who are in operations, right?

So, uh- The, from what we’ve heard, uh, this could have potentially been a, um, partially because of a transportation issue, which is what happens a lot in onshore. It’s a lot more common than we would like it to be. Um, and so that even goes beyond what would go on in the design studio and what would go on in the manufacturing and what would [00:16:00] go on even just for the people that are running the site, right?

So, so some sort of, um, in between, uh, EPC error. Um, but yeah, I just think that, like in a lot of industries, there should be a lot more communication between all of these teams on the lower level, so that way a lot of these problems can, can be avoided.

Allen Hall: I’m wondering if it’s actually an issue on the, the testing side.

And, uh, the one question that just popped up, and we saw from the ORE Catapult, uh, survey that’s being conducted at the moment, and if you haven’t participated in that, you just visit ORE Catapult and answer some of the survey questions. But torsion on a blade, which is very difficult to test for, and it really isn’t tested for today, but does happen during the move and the transportation of these big offshore blades.

Is it one area that we need to do a little more work in or maybe spend some more time focusing on it to see what is happening as blades are [00:17:00]moved?

Rosemary Barnes: The thing about te- torsion is that it is much more significant as blades get longer. I can’t, I can’t remember the equation off the top of my head, which is, um, bothering me.

But I think it scales with, like, the fourth power or something of, of length. And so whilst it was always a bit of a problem, it’s much more of a problem as it gets, as blades get bigger. I mean, they’ve never, like, fully tested a blade, and there was always a lot of reliance on, hey, y- you know, like we’ve tested certain things that is possible to test in a test facility on the ground.

But they also rely on their decades of experience of how blades actually behave in the field. But, you know, remember, that’s a real lagging, lagging indicator because y- you know, their decades of experience is mostly with lots smaller blades. Now, blades are really different because they’re longer and different effects are, are taking over.

It’s not just, uh, torsion, but it’s also the laminates get much thicker, and then y- you know, you, you have issues with the way that they’re curing, [00:18:00] and there’s a lot more just space for, um, defects to be present in a really thick laminate All of those things add up. Oh, yeah, then add in addition, like new materials, carbon fiber is new, and then new ways of producing it, you know, pultrusions, um, all kinds of different materials like balsa’s being replaced with foams and, um, like, you know, 10 times that number of what sounds like a small innovation, but all of these things have the potential for damage and don’t have a really long track record in the field to be able to kind of calibrate.

We do need to remember that, like, when you do something new, things are gonna break, uh, sometimes, they’re gonna fail sometimes. If they don’t, then you’re definitely being too conservative, and your product is costing more than it should, and nobody wants more expensive wind energy, right?

Matthew Stead: Rosie, Rosie, I, I know you’re doing some, some excellent work on, um, industry studies around erosion and temperature and so forth.

Um, I just wanted to let a little secret out of the bag that, um, in the future there will also be some [00:19:00] other studies on torsion and blade twist and blade dynamics. So, um, just a few things are in, in train at the moment, which I can’t share, share, but, uh, watch this space around better understanding blade twist.

Allen Hall: The Hydride wind farm runs on European turbines, but the next one might not. Two governments with two very different answers on who gets to build Europe’s wind fleet.

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CIC NDT maps every critical defect, delivers actionable [00:20:00] reports, and provides support to get your blades back in service. So visit cicndt.com because catching blade problems early will save you millions

Well, two countries and two decisions, one question. In Scotland, the UK government blocked plans for the Chinese manufacturer Mingyang to build a turbine factory, uh, near Inverness on national security grounds. 1.5 billion pounds of investment, up to about 1,500 jobs. And First Minister John Swinney has asked the new prime minister to reconsider.

And the UK energy secretary minister called that request irresponsible. Meanwhile, up in Denmark, Vattenfall has just won two offshore wind farms and will not say whether it will buy European turbines. Danish suppliers are not taking that quietly. So [00:21:00] the Scotland question about the Mingyang factory is at least being discussed again with the new prime minister in the UK.

It does seem like there’s a lot to do and get the government formed and make all this stuff happen. But I don’t see a Burnham administration changing the outcome for Mingyang, but I could be wrong. At the, the same time, Vestas is pushing for a more Eurocentric focus and to really keep out the Chinese.

Uh, something has to give here pretty soon.

Matthew Stead: I actually think Mingyang should, um, set up a factory in Scotland. I, I mean, what’s wrong with that? I mean, uh, why is that a security issue?

Rosemary Barnes: Set up the factory and put the, like, whatever you’re worried about, put protections in place for it, require it to be a local joint venture or whatever.

You know, we’ve seen the blueprint in many of what used to be, you know, less rich countries. That’s how they, you know, got a head start on some of these technologies. It’s not like, I don’t think that China [00:22:00] has a head start on wind, wind turbine technology, but they certainly have different ways of doing things that, um, yeah, we could, we could learn from.

But I think across the board, wind turbines, batteries, solar panels, whatever, let them set up factories, put the rules in place that mean that your country benefits from it and you’re getting the, you know, the information transfer.

Yolanda Padron: Do you think that’ll, like, impulse a lot of these more established European companies to maybe start fixing some of the issues that they’ve known about for, for a while, um, particularly regarding the blades and everything that we’ve talked about earlier?

Like, there’s enough competition there, so maybe they need to start looking a little bit more deeply into their problems.

Allen Hall: Do we think that Chinese operations have been out front, forward, honest, I’ll even use, about their blade issues?

Rosemary Barnes: No, but this is a good way to find out, isn’t it?

Allen Hall: Governments decide who is allowed to build a turbine after a discussion on Scotland.

Uh, but, but [00:23:00] occasionally, a court decides what a turbine legally is. India has just settled that question, and the reasoning should be of interest to anybody who ships machines across a border right after this. As wind energy professionals, staying informed is crucial and let’s face it, difficult. That’s why the Uptime Podcast recommends PES Wind Magazine.

PES Wind offers a diverse range of in-depth articles and expert insights that dive into the most pressing issues facing our energy future. Whether you’re an industry veteran or new to wind, PES Wind has the high-quality content you need. Don’t miss out. Visit peswind.com today. A tax fight in India has produced a definition every turbine supplier should read.

Is a wind turbine bolted to a concrete foundation movable goods, or is it immovable property? State tax authorities argued immovable, which would have [00:24:00] taxed erection and commissioning contracts at 18% instead of 5%. The Andhra Pradesh, uh, High Court disagreed, and on the 12th of August, the Supreme Court declined to interfere.

The reasoning rests on something this whole industry takes for granted. A turbine can be taken down, moved, and put back up. So a turbine is a movable object, and it has less taxation. Bonus. So this is a really interesting discussion that’s happening in India because it’s probably symptomatic of things we’re seeing elsewhere across the world about taxation for wind turbines, right?

That, um, if there’s a way to tax a wind turbine, we’re gonna try to do it. This is a unique way, uh, that happens in India where depending on if it’s permanent or movable, the tax rates are different. I, I guess that would apply to a lot of components inside a wind turbine too, Matthew, don’t you? Like the, the generator, the, the big heavy things, [00:25:00] gearbox, generator, blades, rotors, tower sections, would be taxed at a, a lesser rate.

Matthew Stead: I agree with the court case that it’s all movable and, uh, you can actually buy turbines on the secondhand market, can’t you? I mean, if I wanted to buy, yeah, whatever, whatever, I could buy one and, and put it up in my backyard if I had a bigger backyard. Um, so yeah, I vote for movable. I vote for lower taxes.

Yolanda Padron: The way that it would work a lot of times in the US is, I mean, it’s, you pay, the company itself pays a lot less than they would’ve over time, right? Just by pure, the, the regular kind of tax laws. Um, but the community, there’d be just direct donations to the community, so then they’d get, uh, like money would actually come into the community where the turbines were being built instead of just distributed around the state, which I mean, in a state as big as Texas, it gets, um, but easier for that c- um, that county to get a lot more, uh, funding than they would typically get if it was [00:26:00] through a big enough area.

Um, but yeah, no, I agr- I completely agree with you guys that, that this should be a movable good. I mean, how many times have we seen, uh, even just a blade, um, that it looks like it’s, uh, just a, a failed blade that they have to go in and replace, and then they take it out, fix it, and then just bring it back to the same site or take it to another site across the country.

And, and to that point, like if you were to h- judge it as something that’s immovable, would then any blade replacement just not be taxed? Because then it’s, you’re moving that one component and two, but it’s essentially the same turbine. Like, I don’t know how that all would make sense.

Allen Hall: I think the Uptime Supreme Court agrees with the Indian Supreme Court that wind turbines are movable, and that’s good.

Well, that wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. If today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas, we’d love to hear from you. [00:27:00] Reach out to us on LinkedIn. And if you found value in today’s conversation, please leave us a review. It really helps other wind energy professionals discover the show.

And don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. For Rosa, Yolanda, and Matthew, I’m Allen Hall. We’ll see you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy podcast.

Vestas Shares Jump 20%, UK Blocks Ming Yang Factory

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Vermont and Florida: A Key Difference

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Can’t swear that the story here is authentic, but it sure rings true.

Vermont is a somewhat quirky state, but it protects its citizens very well. FWIW, this is where I want MY tax dollars going too.

Florida is a deeply red state that, true to form, wants as much ignorance as it can possibly produce. Educated people aren’t voting for people like Ron Desantis.

Vermont and Florida: A Key Difference

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