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ORE Catapult Showcases UK Wind Innovation

Emily Rees and Magnus Willett from ORE Catapult discuss the upcoming UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain Spotlight in Edinburgh. The event brings together innovative companies that are establishing the UK as a global leader in offshore wind energy, from small startups to major manufacturers.

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Emily and Magnus, welcome to the show. Hi, it’s great to be here. Thanks so much. Thanks so much for having us. You, you’re both preparing for the UK offshore wind supply chain Spotlight 2025, in which Joel and I are looking forward to attending up in Edinburgh on December 11th. Uh, and it’s an event that showcases where the UK stands in Global Offshore Wind Development.

Uh, but Emily, I, I know there’s some challenges in the UK at the moment and, uh, the UK is working through those. Want to talk to some of the. Those challenges and how the spotlight is gonna help work through those. Yeah, uh, of course. So, um, I think that, you know, we as the uk like have identified quite a while ago that offshore wind was a really massive opportunity for us.

You know, we’ve got a really amazing offshore wind resource, [00:01:00] um, and. So we really wanted to take advantage of it and, you know, push forward with a, with that industry. Um, the things that we’ve come up against is that, um, ability to then provide homegrown, um, supply chain, you know, actually have, uh, businesses in the uk being that, that main supply, um.

In the first port of call, you know, there was the, uh, a lot of the, um, sort of components that we, we sort of have to, to build the fixed bottom offshore wind was all coming from abroad, so it’s like, right, well, how do we reap the benefits internally of this really amazing industry that we can build? And so, um, having, uh, supply chain spotlight events where we can really shine a light on the different companies internally in the UK that are actually providing services and providing, um, the supply chain for offshore wind, um, is, is super critical.

And the, the catapult, um, the offshore renewable energy catapult, uh, where Magnus and I both from, um, is, you know, [00:02:00] really key into making that happen. I know when you look online at the re catapult and you see like the people that you partner with, the organizations, the, I mean OEMs, um, all of the innovative technical technology companies that are coming out there, it it, it’s, it’s so great to see.

Right. And then this is me sitting in my, my American chair a and I talked about this. We talked a little bit about it off air, about the fact that wind energy in general, when you’re, when you’re talking offshore wind, onshore wind, it is a huge. Industrial and economic opportunity for all the countries that are involved in it.

And simply because things like this don’t come along that often, right? Like you have the, you know, the automo, I look at it like that, like the automobile was a thing, right? Like, oh, we went from horses to this. This is a huge opportunity. It made a lot of people, a lot of money, put a lot of people to work.

Wind is the same thing in my perspective, and maybe not at that grand of scale, the automobile, of course, but. You are seeing with your organization, the involvement with people like we have the, the Siemens facility in [00:03:00]Hull, and I know you guys do a little bit of work with them, uh, bringing that manufacturing onshore into the uk.

But not only is it bringing manufacturing what you’re doing here with the UK offshore wind supply chain spotlight is taking. The small companies, the, the, the, the two person companies, the 10 person companies, the 50 person companies, and saying, Hey, we also have really smart people here that are doing really cool things in operations and maintenance or like, you know, helping with some cool innovation for, uh, construction or development.

So there’s a lot of things happening in the uk. I mean, one of the reasons why we’re talking to you guys right now is we want to, we wanna show the rest of the world that you guys are taking advantage of this opportunity and hopefully spur more people on to do the same thing. Absolutely. Right. I’m, I’m, I think the, the key thing for us is in the UK we’re now at a point where we’re trying to maximize the supply chain opportunity and, and, um.

The supply chain is a, is a big pyramid, right? You have, you do have your OEMs and your tier ones at the top, but that stretches all the way down into the university spin outs. And, [00:04:00] um, and the kind of the one two person bands and the, and Orca pull we’re, we’re here to support them as much as we are to support those larger organizations.

Um, and we’ve, we have to, you know. Uh, supported likes of GE and, and, and Siemens through our, our big testing facilities and blade test facilities, drive train facilities. But we’re also testing kind of two, three person, um, organizations. New, um, dynamic cabling solutions for floating wind, right? So we span across an entire, um.

An entire supply chain. And I suppose part of the Supply Chain Spotlight event that we run, um, every year is, is to, is to give all organizations an equal playing field, to present themselves, to project developers, to OEMs, to government, as to why their technology, why their business can solve some of the biggest challenges that offshore wind has in the uk.

But also globally, right? Um, this is a global [00:05:00] market and the, and the uk, um, is, is is a leader in the deployment and the operations in the maintenance phase. And we have a huge amount of knowledge and we wanted to share that, uh, globally as as, as well as here in the uk. I know we have some questions and some topics we wanna get to, but I want to focus on that one point you said there, Magnus, of the the level playing field.

’cause when we were exploring this supply chain spotlight, one of the things that popped up to me was it doesn’t matter who you are, you get the same booth, whether you’re Siemens cesa, or you’re, you know, the two person band, same. Same, same style. Yeah. You, you get, everybody gets a level playing drill because everybody’s solution is needed.

I like that a lot. Yeah. It, it, it, it’s one of the core principles for us every year when we sit down with our, with our events team and our supply chain acceleration teams, it’s, you know, that’s a firing principle is to make sure that everyone gets a, a fair and equal opportunity to participate. And, and Magnus, the consequences of not having a supply chain in the UK are, are really severe when you look at it because of the.[00:06:00]

The amount of deployment the UK is talking about, the, the complexity of some of these projects, particularly floating offshore. There’s a lot of, uh, technology that needs to be developed and it needs to be developed very quickly, and especially on the servicing side, the o and m side. Uh, there’s a ton of knowledge sitting in the UK that can solve these problems, but it, it does feel a little odd.

I, I’d have to say, as a small business owner, I know how hard that is, is to take that first leap into. Showing a product, trying to get it introduced. If you come to the spotlight and in a couple of weeks in, in, it’s in December, so it’s not that far off. When you get to an event like this, this is the opportunity you need to get started or to expand, which makes I, I think, answers so many questions about how the UK is going to move forward in offshore wind.

We will work, um, through a number of different initiatives to understand, um, the challenges the industry is facing. [00:07:00] So we have a pretty good handle on, you know, what are, what are the challenges that they’re facing now, but also the challenges. What are the, what are the challenges they’re gonna face in five years time?

Right? Um, commercialization of technology does take a while. Um, and so we need to understand those challenges. And so Spotlight is, is is also part of that, right? It’s that knowledge sharing that, that exchange of information between, between the, the various different elements of the supply chain and the project developers to say, this is our challenges.

This is the solution we have and try and do and try and bring them together under one roof, um, and, and showcase their technology. And it’s important we get it right. You know, we, we, we, we have a, uh, an an, an ongoing energy transition. There’s an economic opportunity there. We have to try and maximize that, um, and provide as much opportunity for job creation, for IP creation.

Economic development and, and, and, and, and everything and, and far and few in between. So it’s super important we get that right. And part of that is just, [00:08:00] just you shine a, shine a light on these companies. A lot of things are happening in the UK at the moment, particularly offshore wind. But there’s been several wins and, and particularly into the way that the, uh, systems, I’ll call an overall systems of offshore wind are established from, uh, geez OCS to CFD to re catapult to all the s subject matter experts that are, that are there.

I wanna talk to that a little bit about, because I think a, a lot of other countries don’t realize necessarily the strength that is already in the United Kingdom. I think that the, the key thing here is that the sort of mentioned earlier that the, the, the UK has, um, been very, um, on board or at least signed up very early to this opportunity that we had to take advantage of a resource that would give us energy security in a, um, in a renew.

Right. So offshore wind being that opportunity. [00:09:00] So what that meant though is that, um, a long time ago, I mean, it was 20 years ago that the, the, the rocks that you mentioned, the renewable obligation certificates were the first piece that was put in there to try and incentivize companies to. Um, purchase their electricity from renewable sources.

So it’s like, right, okay, we know that we want to be starting this opportunity. Let’s, let’s, uh, put in a mechanism that’s, um, and, and incentivize that happening. But that what then evolved from that was then, um, we realized that, okay, we need to do more to really incentivize this happening. We need to put in some, um, some proper incentives to, to get developers to be really sure that they’re gonna be able to make money.

Out of these quite at the time, you know, quite high, uh, high risk on big developments. Um, and that was when we had feed in tariffs or fits. Um, and then we moved into A-A-C-F-D, which is a contract for difference scheme, which essentially means that the government [00:10:00] guarantees that, that a company that’s created, that’s generating, um, renewables will get a price for their.

For their electricity. But the great thing about contract, the difference and why they’re better, well, or they’re a different mechanism, let’s say, to just standard, you know, guaranteed price, which is what a feed in tariff is, is that if a company actually makes more money, if they’re, they can sell that electricity for higher, then the strike price that was agreed with the government for the contract for difference, they actually have to pay that back.

So it’s almost like a, um, it’s a, it’s a. It’s much less of a, um, uh, a penalty, I suppose, just for the gov, you know, just for the, uh, an administration kind of trying to provide a, a, a revenue support. There also potentially is benefits if say there’s a, like, so for example, um, when we had incredibly high gas prices in the UK and all of the renewable energy, um, generators were actually making more money than they were anticipating, um, over 600 million.

Pounds was put into the u [00:11:00] was brought, put back into the UK like, uh, system. So, yeah. Anyway, the, the contracts for difference has been, has been really beneficial in that front. But actually what it’s been done is it’s meant that we’ve driven competition to, uh, to ’cause developers actually really want to get involved.

It also provides much better assurance for these big projects, which then incentivizes better margins for the developers. So make bigger turbines. Get your, you know, smarter financing, like put in place, um, operations that bring down your cost and then you can make more money and, you know, off you go. Um, and it’s really been a massive success story in bringing down the cost of offshore wind and therefore making it a actually realistic and viable.

Uh. Energy, uh, and electricity, uh, generator in comparison to our, our, you know, gas, um, generating, uh, plants and things. Why do you think that other Northern European countries haven’t followed suit in the same scheme? In, in those countries there’s quite a lot [00:12:00] more, uh, sort of government mandating of like, this is the way that we are going forward.

And there’s much more of a support on that front. I suppose Norway’s quite a good example of a, of a, a country where you’ve got a lot of. There’s a much higher, uh, support that’s provided from that, um, from that governmental sort of standpoint and let, it’s like, it’s like what the UK is also trying to do is it’s trying to generate competition, whereas it’s not necessarily, so I don’t get the impression that from those, the other European countries that maybe are not implementing CFDs is that they’re not necessarily so worried about the competition to drive down the cost.

Whereas the UK has been very much, that’s been a real. Um, motivator for implementing the revenue support systems that we have, but they absolutely have revenue support mechanisms to make offshore wind and wind energy, you know. Work for them. It makes absolute sense because it fits with the strategy that we’re talking about here, right?

[00:13:00] Like it’s, it’s, it’s, the idea is bring innovation, bring new strategy, bring competition, uh, embolden the, the country to come up with new solutions for manufacturing, for operations and maintenance, for all these different things. And that’s what you guys at the Ora Catapult are there to do. That’s your remit.

We’re here to bolster this supply chain, to make these things happen. I mean, we, we, we have gone through challenges, um, in terms of, um, the CFD, you know, particularly with the inflation re increases over the past few years. But the government has listened. Um, and then they, uh, and have made some changes. And, and that includes what’s called the clean in clean industry bonus, which is, is gonna help, um.

Uh, provide some funding into, um, uh, or encourage, uh, developers to support local, homegrown, um, supply chains, which are low carbon. Um, so really investing in sustainable su supply chains for the industry. Um, so I think, yeah, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve absolutely had our [00:14:00] challenges with the, with the CFD, but we’ve got a government who seem to, to be willing to listen to the industry and, and find that compromise between what’s right for the, the UK taxpayer.

Um, um, and then also what’s right for, for building industry. Um, and that’s, you know, we have a number of different mechanisms at re catapult to, to support the supply chain, but also to support the project developer and, and, and the OEM to help grow that sort of, uh, sustainable clean energy supply chains that can do things like, um, and she should do a lot of the manufacturing, um, uh, for floating wind.

Um. Foundations and, and, and the assembly of, of, of turbines and everything. So it’s, you know, it, we, we’ve had our challenges as well and we’re listening and we’re adapting with to, to an evolving market. I think. So what are those areas that are the focus for ORE Catapult to push forward offshore wind?

What technology areas are you focused on right now? We look across the whole, uh, life cycle of, um, [00:15:00] of, of the, of the project development, uh, of our offshore wind farm. Um, a big challenge in the UK at the moment is that it, it typically takes about 14 years for. For a project to go from sort of initial leasing all the way through to kind of FID construction and, and actually, um, generating power.

So, so that’s a, that’s a, a huge amount of time. So we, one of our kind of focus areas is around project pipeline or we, we call PO Project Pipeline, which is, um, environmental, uh, so data collection and trying to fast track that consenting. Process not to, to, to, uh, remove away from environmental protections which are in place, but to try and use new technologies, which can better inform our decision making in the consenting process.

Um, so that’s one, um, that, that, that we focus in on. We focus in on supporting the next generation of turbines. Um, so. Uh, when I first started in the industry, uh, six, six years ago, uh, uh, or, [00:16:00] or castle, sorry, six years ago, you know, it was, it was a novel to have a sort of a, a 10 megawatt, uh, uh, turbine, right?

Or, uh, and, and, and I think 12 megawatt was sort of the standard. And now you, you’re hearing 22 megawatt kind of, uh, uh, commonly referred to 20 megawatt, uh, turbines. Um, and even, and even bigger, right? So. That’s a huge challenge and that’s a huge area of supply chain development that can, that can come with that.

Not just the big fancy blades and, and, and, and, and towers and the cells, but the, the ancillary technologies which go around that, um, floating wind absolutely has to be, is, is, is a key, key area for us as, as well. And that’s sort of how do you integrate new, new turbine solutions with new. New platforms and what are the challenges there?

Um, but a big, big focus, um, in the UK and, and a big sort of strength that the UK is in that operations and maintenance space utilizing the data that we’re generating. And, and, and that’s something that, you [00:17:00] know, in the uk if you look at our supply chain, that’s a huge part of our USP. That’s the part that we can export.

That’s the part that we have a knowledge to share with, with the rest of, um, rest of the world. Going back to the UK offshore wind supply chain Spotlight 25. So that’s gonna be in the beginning of December this year in Edinburgh. How many companies are gonna be there from the uk? Off the top of my head, I don’t quite know.

And it’s usually, uh, somewhere between about, um, 80 company, 80 to a hundred companies exhibiting. Um, so those are companies who we have supported through one of our support mechanisms. Oh, man. I mean, Alan, think about that. Here in the United States, if we were to put this event on tomorrow. How many companies would you have show up that are innovative, that are doing some technology, that are doing something to support the supply chain?

I mean, of course, besides, like, we have a lot of ISPs and people out here doing the, the boots on the ground work. But I mean, I, I think you can count ’em on your hands, your fingers and toes. I think we’ve got 80 or a hundred that we can even put in an event. Yeah. Well, I’ll tell you honestly, one of the things that I [00:18:00] have, I found quite, um.

Inspiring. Right. When I, when I came into the, the Wind industries, I was like, I’m, I’m a relative newbie, right. You know, Magnus has been with the Catapult for six years. I’ve only been with the Catapult for a year. Um, and so it, my, I’m, I’m quite fresh faced, you know, I, I get quite excited about various, you know, opportunities in the wind space, but I was super inspired to see how many companies are pivoting from using expertise from that they’ve used in other offshore industries.

Right. And they are bringing it to. To offshore wind and the applicability of it, because it feels like one of the big issues I had coming away from oil and gas and coming into offshore wind is I felt like when I was in my oil and gas services company, we didn’t talk about the things that we could provide at the offshore wind industry from a services point of view.

And I honestly was absolutely like when I arrived and was like, hang on a second, there’s so many places that you can apply that expertise and that knowledge. [00:19:00] So many, and that is why the UK is doing really well, right? And it’s one of the really inspiring things that we are doing is we are going, Hey, you’ve got all of this experience and knowledge for operating for offshore in the North Sea.

How about, how about just, you know, you can use it for, for offshore wind and we can benefit that industry from it. That’s not, that’s not just the uk. The US has that too. It’s not just oil and gas, right? It’s automotive. It’s aerospace. Like it, there is, there’s a lot of expertise across the UK and the number of companies that we see, so.

Their, the light bulb moment that their technology could apply to offshore wind. And they ha you have a conversation with them and they go, oh, that’s great. We could provide that. And it’s, and it opens up a new door to them. Um, and that, that’s really, um, I suppose if I could put a core, core part of what we do, it’s, it’s, it’s providing that expertise.

It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s providing the, the knowledge and the knowhow about the [00:20:00] industry to these companies. And, um, yeah, spotlight is part of giving them that. That and that opportunity to scream about what they can do. There are so many great companies in the UK and I think they miss the opportunity to be in renewables that the expertise like Megan’s, like you were talking about, they have expertise.

They’re extremely bright engineers and scientists and technology people, and even on the accounting side and the project management, there are so many experts in that field that are sitting in the UK that never thought about. If I can get an offshore wind that expands my business, I grow into this new marketplace, it gives me a little more of economic security.

That’s huge. And now is the time to get into a, a spotlight or to just even to wander the floor to see what it’s about. And I think this is an easy opportunity because to go to the spotlight 2025, it’s relatively inexpensive. You’re gonna Edinburgh, it’s not hard to get to. It is a massive opportunity to [00:21:00] look around and just kind of feel out what is there for you.

Absolutely right. So it’s, it’s a very, very, uh, relatively low cost, um, uh, e event to attend. Um, the companies who are there, we, we support to be there. So, um, we provide them with the ex exhibition space. Um, and, and they, they, they get to showcase their technologies as, as, as well. And, um, learn. Learn from one another, right?

So they’re not just trying to speak to project developers and, and to, to government or, or, or even to us. They’re there to speak to one another and figure out how can we collaborate more together? We have complimentary technologies. Um, you know, how do we fit, how do we, how do we, how do we put that jigsaws together?

And that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s a real key, um, thing there as well. And, and that’s the thing is that when we talk to, uh, UK companies, we’ve had a number on the podcast that have tremendous products. Absolutely tremendous products. They don’t realize. Maybe next door, [00:22:00] just up the road as another company is doing a complimentary piece and connecting those together I think is key.

Even though the UK relatively is a small country, some, some in some ways is very kind of hard to get around and it’s hard to figure out where all these places are because a lot of these small, innovative companies are not necessarily, don’t have flashy names or great. Big websites or don’t spend a hundred thousand pounds on a booth somewhere, so it’s hard to find them.

But in, in these kind of events, these, these more dedicated, focused events on technology and growth, particularly in the uk and these spotlights are fantastic of connecting companies together. This is the, this is your opportunity because a lot of other conferences are so much more expensive. They’re further away.

They’re probably in Germany or in Denmark or in Spain. This is the one, this is the one to see what is really happening at the Ground Street level in the uk. And we need to get people to sign up because one of the things it’s gonna happen is [00:23:00] that you’re gonna run outta tickets for this, even though it’s in December.

It’s gonna get busy as soon as everybody realizes, like, yeah, I, I need to get over there. So this event is in Edinburg, it’s UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain Spotlight 2025. It’s in Edinburgh on December 11th at the Royal Highland Center. Which, from what I can tell, looks like a beautiful facility. Is there anything else I should know before I get ready to come to that event?

I mean, it’s right, be right beside the, the, the Edinburgh airport. So it’s super, super, super easy. Um, I think for me the, the, the kind of, the big plea would be from a, an international audience, from the audience, um, uh, is, uh, across, across the US is that there is innovative companie. In the uk who could maybe compliment your technology, right?

So we’ve talked about the, the uk, UK to UK company collaboration and, and action. There’s, this is a global challenge, right? There’s, this is a global market. Um, we need more collaboration between, between countries, more opportunities for [00:24:00] collaboration. So if, if you have, um. Uh, audience members who want to learn more about the UK and, and are developing a technology or they have a solution or a service and they’re thinking, you know, we could be doing this, but there’s a uk, there might be a UK company there, there, there probably, there probably isn’t.

There’ll probably be a spotlight as well. And Emily, you’re promising good weather in December in Edinburgh, right? Obviously there won’t be any rain. Nice and warm, sunny, balmy, almost. Yes. I think balmy is exactly the words that I would describe Edinburgh in December. It’s charming and wonderful, and you’ll get the proper Scottish, uh, gravitas that comes with the, the, the grayness and the rain.

I mean, it wouldn’t be right without that experience, so you, you need to google this event to sign up. That’s the easiest way I found it. It’d just go UK offshore wind supply chain spotlight 2025 and you’ll see it. You can click in and register. It’s inexpensive. It’s in December. You know you want to go, you wanna be in [00:25:00] Edburg in December.

It’s beautiful. So Emily and Magnus, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Love having you, and looking forward to the event. Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you very much.

https://weatherguardwind.com/ore-catapult-uk/

Imagine waking up early in the morning in a home nestled within nature, far from the traffic and endless buzzing of
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most out of it.

Here is an off-grid solar power simplified guide for your convenience. Keep reading for a detailed understanding!

In this blog post:

• 
  
  Off‑Grid vs. On‑Grid: What’s the Difference?
  

• 
  
  Why Choose Off-Grid Solar? | The Promise of Self‑Reliance for Australians!
  

• 
  
  Breaking Down the Basics: What Makes Up an Off-Grid System?
  

• 
  
  Power Anywhere with an Off-Grid Solar System
  

• 
  
  Off-Grid Solar Maintenance: Tips for Long-Term Performance
  

• 
  
  Final Notes: Take Control, Go Off-Grid with Cyanergy Today!
  

Off‑Grid vs. On‑Grid: What’s the Difference?

Let’s get directly to the point:

In Australia, going on‑grid means you’re tied into the utility’s electricity network. When your solar panel produces excess power during sunny afternoons, it might even send some back to the grid.

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Benefits of off-grid solar power systems

• Total freedom from utility companies and price fluctuations in the Australian Energy Market.
• Off-grid solar generates clean, renewable power with zero emissions from fossil fuels, such as diesel or coal.
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Challenges of off-grid living

• Upfront investments can be high for installing solar panels, batteries, inverters, and wiring.
• Careful planning, with professional assistance, is necessary to match your storage capacity with your household’s energy needs.
• Maintenance awareness is tamper‑proof, but not maintenance‑free.

Why Choose Off-Grid Solar? | The Promise of Self‑Reliance for Australians!

It’s true that off-grid solar is not for everyone. However, after analyzing recent electricity price hikes, it
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Besides the negative impact on the environment and increased energy prices, choosing grid connection is not a
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Breaking Down the Basics: What Makes Up an Off-Grid System?

People often have questions in their minds: What is an Off-Grid System comprised of?

In general, five components work together to create an efficient off-grid solar
system.

So, here we’ve listed everything you need for an off-grid setup in Australia:

1. Solar Panels

Solar panels, also known as PV modules, are one of the main components for capturing sunlight and generating
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The amount of sunlight the panels can capture and effectively convert into electricity depends on several
factors,
including module quality, quantity, exposure
to
sunlight, roof angle, and geographical location.

2. Solar Inverters

The primary task of a solar inverter is to convert the electricity generated by the solar panels into usable
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The solar
panels generated electricity in the DC format, and that remains unusable until it’s run
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solar inverter. Inverters convert DC into AC (alternating current) for the appliances to use and
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There are many types of solar inverters, some of which are even capable of storing energy for later use.

Inverter types can be:

• Pure sine wave, which offers clean and stable power that is safer for sensitive electronics.
• Modified sine wave inverters are cheaper but less compatible with some devices.
3. Solar Battery Storage

Solar panels are designed to operate using the power of the sun. Still, for a majority of the households in
Australia, electricity is most needed in the evening hours or at night.

So, how can we store solar power for nighttime use? Can solar batteries make off-grid living more viable?

To store the surplus of energy generated during peak hours, you will need solar
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It’s an essential component for an off-grid solar system.

Modern houses and businesses typically use deep-cycle batteries, such as Lead-acid (flooded or sealed
AGM/Gel) and Lithium-Ion.
They are
more efficient and long-lasting, but can cost more than the traditional ones.

4. Solar Charge Controller

 

It’s not a feasible arrangement if you always have to manage the energy flow in the correct direction. To
address
this, a charge controller is necessary.

It controls the direction of energy flow to the proper path according to the situation and prevents the solar batteries from overcharging, essentially
extending their life.

5. Backup Generator (Optional)

If all things go south, a diesel-powered backup generator will come to your rescue.

It is not an everyday event with a quality system, but on the off chance you do experience a power outage through
solar. There could also be extreme weather events, so it’s best to have an off-grid solar panel system with a
backup generator.

Power Anywhere with an Off-Grid Solar System

Here are some of the facts that you need to know before you go off the grid, along with some tips from our off-grid
solar experts.

• It’s almost always better to upsize the solar system. As you will be living off the grid, a sense of
  uncertainty can increase your anxiety.

• Experts suggest upscaling your solar system to the point where you can operate without charging your
  batteries for at least 2 days, if necessary. You might not need it, but it doesn’t hurt to
  have it.

• MPPTs (Maximum Power Point Tracker) are important. Your solar panels might struggle to operate at their
  maximum efficiency without MPPTs.

For an off-grid solar system, it’s essential to maximize its performance, so it’s recommended that your system
include MPPTs.

• Some might say that cleaning your solar panels does not do much, but experts may tell you otherwise.
  Numerous studies have proven that failing to maintain
  and clean your solar panels can decrease their efficiency by up to 30%.

• Be very aware of the local government rules and regulations. Different councils may have different
  legislation; you must be aware of them, along with any changes, while in the process of shifting to your
  off-grid property.

Your chances of claiming the government
rebate depend on it.

Off-Grid Solar Maintenance: Tips for Long-Term Performance

Here are some maintenance tips listed for Australia’s diverse climate conditions. Following them helps you to keep
your system running for years.

• Solar panels: Clean them 2–4 times a year, as dust, bird droppings, and pollen reduce solar panel
  efficiency.

• Batteries: If you use flooded lead-acid batteries, remember that they require periodic
  watering to maintain optimal performance. In contrast, AGM and lithium batteries require much less
  maintenance but should be kept at moderate temperatures.

• Inverter & Controller: For inverter maintenance, you simply need to perform occasional
  firmware updates and checks to keep it running smoothly.

• Visual checks: Inspect for corrosion, loose connections, or cable wear at least once a
  year.

With proper care, solar panels typically last 25 to 30 years, lithium battery banks last 10 to 20 years, and
inverters/controllers last around 5 to 15 years.

Here is Your Quick Start Checklist for Off-Grid Solar

Ready to take control of your power needs?

Before diving into your off-grid solar project, make sure you’ve checked off these key steps.

This checklist is designed to guide you through the process from planning to power-up:

1. Track your daily energy use, create a list, and determine your consumption.
2. Estimate solar production rate by identifying the average sun hours per day where you live.
3. Select system components after conducting thorough research on solar panels, batteries, charge controllers,
   and inverters.

4. Consider keeping backup or hybrid options, such as generators, wind power, or load shedding.
5. Design for safety, proper wiring, fuses, and grounding.
6. Install and test your system, and don’t forget to get professional help if needed.
7. Monitor and tune track performance, tweak as needed.

Final Notes: Take Control, Go Off-Grid with Cyanergy Today!

Going off the grid is not only an attractive option for those who live in remote areas but also for
urban people who are experiencing an unexpected surge in power bills.

But is going off the grid the right call for you?

You will need to consult an energy expert, such as Cyanergy,
to answer this question tailored to your specific circumstances.

We can arrange a free consultation session for you with one of our solar experts; all you need to do
is click the ‘Get Started’ button below.

Your Solution Is Just a Click Away

Get Started

The post SunPower Solar Panels Review | #1 Residential Solar Panel? appeared first on Cyanergy.

SunPower Solar Panels Review | #1 Residential Solar Panel?

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

New ONYX CEO, Smarter Farmland Contracts

The hosts cover some recent turbine failures, Onyx Insight’s new CEO and strategic acquisitions, research about wind turbine farmland contracts, and an article about hybrid brakes by Dellner.

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!

You are 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, Allen Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.

Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your host, Alan Hall in the Queen city of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Rosemary Barnes in Australia and Joel Saxon in the great state of Texas. Just before we hopped online to record this podcast, Rosemary was telling us about a number of turbine problems on LinkedIn and. Rosemary wanted to comment on them. These are some of the larger turbines. Rosemary are newer turbines.

Uh, some of them onshore, some of ’em offshore

Rosemary Barnes: for the, yeah, for the most part. Um, yeah, both onshore and offshore. Some a little bit older, but the common thread is, um, [00:01:00] just like spectacular fail failures of multiple blades of one across multiple turbines of one, the one I saw most recently. Had blades smashed to pieces.

It had towers that had just like fallen apart. Like it was, um, like they weren’t bolted together. Like it was just blocks stacked on top of each other and they had, you know, just an angry baby had just topped them over. That’s what it looked like. And um, I think what’s really interesting is reading the comments in those and it just, without fail every single time, the first few comments are gonna be.

Um, justifying how that is just cool and normal, like either by the company itself or the turbine manufacturer itself saying, oh, you know, oh, this was just a prototype. So, you know, it doesn’t matter that it fell apart, like. Forgetting about the fact that, okay, it’s just a prototype, but it’s still an operational turbine that people would’ve been inside it to install it.

They’re inside it to maintain it. You know, people are inside those things. They’re not supposed to be able to just fall apart by the time that it gets to that point.

Joel Saxum: I, I, I think I’ve seen some of these same posts, Rosemary, and one of the ones that I saw recently [00:02:00] was not even, it wasn’t new, it wasn’t prototypes.

It was, it was like, there’s a picture, there’s three turbines with, or four turbines and there of the, of the dozen blades in the picture, nine of them are gone. It’s just a nelle hub with like little stubs on three turbines, and those are only like 850 kilowatt, one megawatt, 1.5 megawatt machines. They’re, they’re old.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Yeah. And so I think a typhoon went through in that particular case and I made a comment, you know, like it’s either poor turbine design or it’s really poor site assessment. In either case, it’s a failure, right? Like you don’t put wind turbines that can’t withstand a typhoon in a place that gets typhoons.

Um, but you always, you always say people saying how this is actually great engineering. And I just thought this is just the classic example of that, um, that was written under this latest post, and I’ll just read it out. The pictures point to the designers of these turbines. Having done that, designing to a certain wind speed, having done that to a high degree of consistency, I note three failure types [00:03:00] in the pictures, blade snap, tower, buckling and bolt failure, pointing to all parts, having been designed to the same survival.

Wind speed looks like they did their job well. And it’s just like, oh, what, you look at this, at this path of like it’s Godzilla has run through this wind farm, and you’re like, oh yeah, that looks like a job done. Well, well done guys. It’s just like, if we can’t learn anything as an industry from these kinds of things, then, you know, how can we expect to have a, a bright future for the industry?

Like it? It’s one thing to fail, but if you look at a failure and say, that’s actually a success that is. Just the worst possible outcome we have. We have to be able to say what went wrong, what do we do to make sure this doesn’t happen again? You have to. You have to learn, otherwise you’re going backwards.

Allen Hall: Are you worried about unexpected blade root failures and the high cost of repairs? Meet eco Pitch by Onyx Insight. The standard in blade root monitoring. Onyx state-of-the-art sensor tracks blade root movement in real [00:04:00] time, delivering continuous data to keep your wind farm running smoothly and efficiently.

With Eco Pitch, you can catch problems early, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. Field tested on over 3000 blades. It’s proven reliability at your fingertips. Choose eco Pitch for peace of mind. Contact Onyx Insight today. To schedule your demo of Eco Pitch and Experience the future of Blade Monitoring, there’s been a series of leadership transitions that is really changing the face of the wind industry.

Onyx Insight. The Macquarie Capital Back Condition monitoring specialist who’ve had in the podcast, um, has appointed Alexis Grennan as this new chief executive officer Alexis Bringss dearly 20 years of experience from Joel. Schneider Electric where he most recently served as CEO of the digital grid division, and his expertise in smart grid software solutions and energy management systems positioned him to lead [00:05:00] Onyx Insights expansion beyond its current 28,000 wind turbines under monitoring across 35 countries.

So obviously Onyx is a big provider of CMS systems. They are the sole provider of CMS systems on GE turbines at the minute. Onyx is making a lot of moves. They just acquired 11 I recently also. So they’re, uh, what it looks like right now. They wanna be the, the leader in CMS.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, I think it’s, if you go deeper into their history a bit.

You know, the couple of CMS solutions around gearbox was really where they started then. Then they got to the eco pitch thing, and then now the blevin. And I think if you’re sitting in that boardroom, you’re thinking they want to be the center hub for IO ot, IOT being sensors out in the field. Anything that comes in, they want to be able to amalgamate it and help people out in that direction.

Um, you know, a new, a new CEO that has, uh, 20 years at Schneider [00:06:00]with digital grid. That’s awesome. Right? Good hire there. I would think. Um, I, I do see this as a trend in wind. You’re seeing some more CEOs and senior leadership coming into organizations from outside of wind directly. Some of the bigger capital holders, you know, the Goldmans of the world and the Macquarie’s and that kind of things, if they have portfolio companies, you’re seeing people be placed in leadership roles that are coming from outside of wind and bringing expertise from, of course, usually energy, software, supply chain, these kind of things that we need, but some fresh blood at the leadership level.

I like to see that.

Allen Hall: Well, the addition of the grid coming into Onyx, is that an expansion plan? Because there is a lot of work going on expanding the grid and monitoring the grid and making the grid carry more energy than what it was originally designed for. And I’ve listened to a number of podcasts over the last month that talks specifically to it.

It, it is a definite growth area. [00:07:00] You think this could indicate a move into other areas besides just the basic wind? CMS. Solutions.

Joel Saxum: Well, let’s think about it this way. So in wind, when you have wind specific companies, you’re starting to see intenders or you have been seen intenders for the last few years, even just the most basics inspections.

Okay? We’re inspecting blades. Use your RFP. Now those blades say, and blades plus BOP. So we want you to do the transmission lines. And then you’re seeing some of ’em that are BOP plus substations. So all the sub, all the way back to the edge of the wind farm where connects to the grid. Um, so companies are adjusting, like you’ve seen Skys specs adjust to that.

You, you know, whether it’s partnerships or expanding things internally and other companies as well, even down to the ISPs starting to do more and more and more because they’re being asked to. This makes sense because, uh, at the end of the day, if you’re working for a subset of customers, there’s only so much budget in.

Of turbine work and if you wanna expand your company and grow, you need to expand in other [00:08:00] areas. So why not just keep it going down the line of connection to the grid, inter, inter wind farm issues, those kind of things out of the wind farm. So I, I don’t know if that’s ON’S plan, but I can see that. I think that from a strategic standpoint, it makes sense.

Allen Hall: Well, as Schneider is involved in all kinds of aspects of the grid worldwide, so I would assume bringing in a new CEO would open up maybe some horizons to Onyx and maybe there’s adjacent businesses that they should be in because they have a lot of technology and they’re pretty smart group. They may want to expand outwin just a tiny bit just to, to test the waters, see what they could do there.

Well, going to solar seems like an obvious choice, but there could be other areas that they may want to look at, at least in the short term to see if they can add value.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. Grid infrastructure. Right. I think that that’s a, we talk about it regularly that our, our entire global grid is aging quickly. It’s aging fast, and with the changes coming [00:09:00] on board with.

You know, different generation types, all the batter, different types of battery storage, and you know, like our, our conversations with Joe Chicon over at Podge about, uh, frequencies on the grid and all these different changes and load changing and AI data centers coming up and on and off and on. Um, it’s really highlighting the need for a future digital grid, uh, and upgrades to it.

So Onyx is probably, you know, in the wind world that we see, they’re probably sitting pretty. In a pretty good spot as compared to most companies to be able to engage in that and bringing on someone from the digital grid side of Schneider. Smart move in my my opinion, I dunno. Rosie, what are your, what are your thoughts on that

Rosemary Barnes: in general?

I think it’s really good to move people around to similar industries or a little bit different, different roles. Uh, I think that that’s a, um, a real way to drive innovation forward by bringing in different perspectives. I know that I. I found myself appearing more innovative when I lived in Denmark. You know, just purely [00:10:00] because I had seen and experienced and done things in a different, a different way, solved similar problems in a different way.

Um, just, just through what I, you know, the kinds of engineers I worked with earlier in my career. It was different to the way that a lot of Danish people had been taught to approach problems. And it just, you know, when you bring in a few slightly different people, it really expands the um. Amount of options that you have on the table for solving new problems as they come up.

And all of these kinds of industries are doing stuff that hasn’t been done before, right? So I think you do want to have as many different options that you, as you can come up with to, um, end up with the good solutions and you’ll get more options if you don’t choose people that are all from the exact same background.

So I think in general, that, um, it’s always good to, to shake things up

Allen Hall: in this quarter’s PES Win magazine, there’s a lot of great articles that you. Need to read. And the way to do that is go to PS wind.com and download your free edition. [00:11:00] And we wanna talk about an article in the magazine this quarter, Joel, which is Hybrid Breaks Ya Breaks.

Why you would use ’em, why they’re, this is a little bit different than what we typically see on like a GE machine. Uh, Siemens GAA uses these quite a bit, which are sort of a passive and an active, so they’re a break. So there’s a hydraulic cylinders and there’s some active pads that close, but there’s also some static pads and they’re using slip rings instead of a, a bearing surface to rotate the jaw.

So if, if that makes sense. You to do an active system, uh, you can really put stress on your, on your ball bearings and probably flatten them over time if you keep squeezing enough. With this system, it’s a little more control, a little more precise. So you’re, I, I think the, the argument they’re making is that it, uh, simplifies the system, so there’s some complexities to it, but overall.

It costs less, [00:12:00] and that’s what we should be doing in engineering, right? Trying to figure out ways that maybe just cost a bit more for a component, but less overall.

Joel Saxum: Is it a direct retrofit? Like is this a, Hey, we’ve, we’ve had, we’ve had a component fail, so we want to put a new system in. Or is it like aix, swap it out now as a CapEx cost?

Or is it like during Repower, when are they putting this on?

Allen Hall: It’s from Donor Wind Solutions, uh, and they’re doing, doing it as part of OEM work, right? It, it does take a little bit of finite element analysis because of the way it loads up the, the yaw system. So you want to make sure that it doesn’t overload it if you’re gonna use it, but it’s one of those things in wind like, uh.

Try to choose a simpler system on a smaller turbine. As you get larger and larger, your approach probably changes. And this is what Ner is pointing out.

Joel Saxum: I’ve noticed that actually, if you’re, if you’ve frequented any wind conferences, technology shows, exhibitions, you will know where NER is because everything on their booth is lime green.[00:13:00]

Um, I love that. I think it’s a great approach, uh, which everybody knows. It’s, it’s like seeing the Dema, the Dema ships or the SVA ships in a port. You’re like, you know what? That one is right away. Uh, but del nor, but that’s what Nert does, right? They, they are. They have parts that are direct replacements.

Great. This is the part we’ve made it a little bit better, but it’s a direct replacement. But they also are re-engineering things, making them better, uh, for the long haul, uh, from a operations standpoint. ’cause I’ve seen some of their pitch, they have different kind of pitch systems and stuff as well that they are, are retrofits for, for, uh, specific machines that have trouble with them.

Um, but yeah, uh, this one to me, I’m not an expert on jaw brakes. Of course, that’s not my thing. Uh, but I do know that whenever you have to deal with that YA system, whether it be the gearing, the brakes, or the, you know, like the, the pucks and the GE go bad all the time. Like it’s an undertaking, uh, down to the point where people have developed UPT tower machining processes to fix, uh, issues with the YA system and whatnot.

So, um, if they’re, if, if someone is putting this [00:14:00] much engineering effort into fixing a problem, it’s definitely a problem.

Allen Hall: Yeah. Even think about the problem though, you have so much weight. Up into the cell and you’re trying to pivot all the time, and the wind is trying to move into the cell whether you want it to or not.

The YA system kind of takes all the abuse. So designing a system to last is really the key here. Without breaking things, I mean how many turbines have we seen where the YA gear teeth have been damaged or broken off? Because the brake system is not really de-stressing those teeth. It matters a lot. So as we get more and more efficient with wind turbines, we gonna be thinking about all the different components that go into a wind turbine and making them more efficient, making ’em last longer, making them cost less.

So if you haven’t downloaded the latest PES wind. Magazine do it. You can read this article from Donor. Just visit PS wind.com. As Wind Energy Professionals, staying informed is crucial, and let’s face it difficult. That’s why the Uptime [00:15:00] 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. Wind, PES Wind has the high quality content you need. Don’t miss out. Visit PES wind.com today. Well in the US when a wind company wants to put some turbines on your farm, uh, the operator just talks to the, each farmer individually and negotiates a deal. Now a lot of those deals are very similar, but you may find from neighbor to neighbors, slight differences and farmers are getting.

Smarter over time. Clearly. Uh, a professor or assistant professor up at Purdue University in Purdue is in Indiana, kind of central part of the United States, explains that landowners can be paid up to $10,000 per acre annually [00:16:00]to lease to wind energy companies. And that’s a great amount of money. We’ll take that, but, and the turbines only occupy maybe one to three acres, and so you can continue to farm your several hundred acre parcel.

Uh, but. This professor notes that the farmers are starting to consider other factors than just the money, including the visual impact community relationships, which is the big one I think lately. And political beliefs about renewable energy, which jolt talks about all the time in Wisconsin. Uh. The advice from the professor is have an attorney to review the lease and to make sure that the wind operator is going to restore the land to its original condition once they stop using the turbines.

And I think that makes a ton of sense. So you’re seeing a slight shift in the way that landowners are coming to agreement with some of the operators. It is about the money, a large part of it, but they’re also trying to navigate the neighborhood situation where they don’t make their neighbors upset. You can imagine a lot of them have been there for generations and they don’t [00:17:00] want to really make the neighbors mad at ’em.

Uh, so you’re seeing a lot different types of leases coming about now than maybe you saw five years ago even. And that has evolved, uh, quite a bit. But the money is still good. I think most people, at least in the United States, most farmers will. Like to have that additional revenue. It just makes the farm much more profitable over time.

But that same situation doesn’t exist worldwide. And Rosie, are you seeing something different in Australia? It does seem like there’s a little more spreading of the wealth in, in terms of revenue.

Rosemary Barnes: I actually listened to a good podcast episode on this recently. Uh, it was the switched on, not the Bloomberg switched on, but the renew economy switched on.

Um, and they interviewed a now retired farmer who had, had one of the very early wind farms, um, in Australia, put on his farm. And I mean, his story was o overall very positive. It it, the [00:18:00] time when they started talking about it was during a very severe and prolonged drought in Australia and he had actually been trying to sell off land, um, just to keep the.

You know, keep the lights on, um, and was unable to sell. Like just there’s no buyers at any price at that time. And then, so the wind farm came and he, he also mentioned how important it’s to get, um, lawyers, good lawyers advising on the contract because he mentioned that he was getting paid every year before construction as well.

And that it ended up taking 10 or 14 years, I can’t remember the exact amount of time, but a long time. Between starting to talk about it and actually having the wind farm built. And if he hadn’t have had that, he said he wouldn’t have been able to make it. So, um, that was one thing. But yeah, so and so overall it was very positive for him.

He was eventually able to sell his farm and, and retire, um, nicely with a profitable farm. He also mentioned that he was able to do a lot of upgrades on the farm with the money, the revenue that was coming from the wind turbines. So when we went to sell, it had all new fences and, you know, stuff like that [00:19:00] that made it very attractive and easy to sell.

Um, but he also mentioned a few things that were just really bad, and he sounded really angry in that episode, um, where, uh, he, he said at that time it was like the wind developer knew everything and the farmers knew nothing, and they tried to keep it that way. Like he had a brother on a neighboring property was also in discussions about wind turbines, and they were forbidden from talking to each other.

I think that that’s a lesson that’s been learned over the last 10, 20 years in Australia, is that. It’s really worth it to put a bit of effort upfront in, um, listening to what people’s concerns are and then doing something about it. Uh, I think there’s been so much emphasis on like listening and talking and listening.

That’s not the important part. The important part is then understanding what the issues are and then, um, you know, removing those, those barriers. And, you know, money is a big part of that.

Joel Saxum: I spent. A eight plus years dealing with these issues in the field with landowners on, on oil and gas [00:20:00] projects, right?

So there’s stages of oil and gas projects from exploration to production and all these different things, and they, and everybody gets different lease payments and, and access payments along the way. And, and if you, you know, if someone has locked up your land in the seventies, you may only be getting five bucks.

And if someone has this, they’re getting more. It’s, and it, what ended up happening is, is. You need to, you need to, and we’re in the, we’re in the same space of wind because those same people, those same professionals, landmen and permit agents and stuff that worked in oil and gas work in wind and solar as well.

It’s the same companies. It’s the same ideas.

Allen Hall: Yeah. Same groups.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, same groups. Um, they, they need to distinguish and make sure they’re taking care of participating landowners and non-participating landowners. And the non-participating landowners, just like we’re talking about here, they’re just as important as the participating ones because they’re the ones you’re gonna piss off.

Uh, so, so you’re starting to see some payments going directly to them as well. Like if you’re within X amount of feet of a turbine, even if you’re not on your land, you are starting to get a little bit of a payment [00:21:00] in some areas, in some spots. Um, but one thing I wanna flag is, at the beginning of this, we talked about a lawyer, bringing a lawyer in and having them look at certain things.

I would say this and maybe the wind industry developers are gonna hate me for this. But there’s a legal, legal concentration called, um, a, a favored Nations clause or a most favored Nations clause. If you are a part of anything of this sort, make sure any, any signing, any contract for wind, uh, non-participating.

Participating. Make sure you have a clause like this in your contract because it will basically State wind Farm goes in a hundred turbines. If they’re offering you five bucks an acre and they’re offering your neighbor a thousand, you get a thousand too. It makes, it makes everybody equal in the playing field.

It doesn’t give anybody, uh, you know, better terms and conditions. Once one person gets a term and condition, that’s good, everybody gets it. That has that most favored nations clause in their contract. So have a lawyer institute that if you’re gonna be a part of one of these.

Allen Hall: Yeah. The other thing that was pointed out in the [00:22:00] article was, uh, a lack of increasing payments adjusted to inflation.

So some of the farmers are pushing back because inflation is relatively high. So if you got $10,000. Per acre per year in 2035, he may want to see something more like $15,000 per acre per year because of inflation. That to me makes a lot of sense, but I know a lot of leases don’t work like that. They’re just.

Fixed price. It’s today’s price and it stays that way until the end of the lease. It’s just simpler to do. There’s a lot less math to do. But Joel, as you see more, uh, farmers getting advice, taking advice, do you see this evolving into a more of a standard contract where they. Do have the favored nation.

They do have inflationary increases based on cost of living or some federal standard so that you’re, instead of having to negotiate every contract completely separate, you’re getting [00:23:00] something a little more universal, including helping the neighbors.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. The tough thing there is that a lot of wind.

Okay, so we’re like, I’m just gonna pick the United States example. You’re in different states, you’re in different counties, you’re in different areas, right? So if you go to Minnesota and you talk to someone in Minnesota about their mineral rights, they more than likely don’t know what you’re talking about.

Yeah, because that’s not a thing up there for most of Minnesota. Some of Minnesota is right, the Iron Range and whatnot, but if you talk to someone in Texas about mineral rights, that’s just as important or of more important than their actual real property surface rights. So they know and, and they have to build contracts around certain things the same way oil and gas contracts were like at oil and gas contracts at, you know, early days were easy.

It was X amount per acre. That’s it. Uh, now you have people buying strata and leasing strata out of, uh, subsurface things, and you have. Payments tied to payments tied to production, right? And I haven’t seen a whole lot of wind payments tied to production. I don’t know if that exists or solar, um, [00:24:00]that that can be a, you know, a shared upside or shared downside type thing.

Um, if someone’s gonna pay me $15,000 an acre, I’m just taking the cash. I don’t care what your production is ’cause that’s a great rate. So, so, um, you, you know, I think that. Using these organizations that have been doing this for a long time, that is a smart way to go if you’re an operator, uh, that know how to navigate the town halls and that know how to do these things professionally because there is actually just like you have to have a real estate license.

There is a professional landman license, uh, of, to do this kind of stuff. Uh, so there’s schooling, there’s certifications, all this. Again, I’m just talking in the United States here. Um, but, uh, I don’t know if I see a across the board. Federal type contract. ’cause it’s just too many municipalities, too much, too much going on.

Allen Hall: Well, we’ve been looking at a lot of wind farms the last couple of months on the lightning side and realizing, you know, how [00:25:00] dedicated the wind farm installations are to putting ’em on ridge lines, even if it’s a, a. A hundred feet higher. So that tends to spread out the wind farms. Unlike in some parts of Kansas where there isn’t a lot of variation in the, uh, in the surface in other places.

We’re just looking at Oklahoma, uh, where the turbines are specifically falling ridge lines. So you’re gonna end up crossing a lot of property lines when you do that, I assume. And you and I have been on a number of sites where. We’re going from one turbine to another and we’re crossing three or four different property owners and not that far of a distance.

Fences and gates. Right? The fences and gates. Bet. So even if you don’t have a turbine on your property, you may have a road on your property. And the how they navigate that. So if, if, if, if whoever’s. Taking on those contracts and negotiating on those contracts has a load of work to do. It’s going to be,

Joel Saxum: and like I like, I think I go back a little bit like it’s gonna be dependent on where you are, because a contract in Kansas is gonna look a lot different than a contract in Wyoming versus a contract in Texas just simply [00:26:00] because of local laws, access rights, these kind of things.

I’d say, I mean, however, one of the, that’s one of the things that’s cool to touch on is some of these farmers and ranchers, like when I was in oil and gas stations in Wyoming, they loved when the exploration crews came ’cause they would get money for roads. And they’d be like, oh, these old two tracks. Make that into a road that can take an 18 wheeler down then, then you can have access.

And they’re happy, happier than hell. This week’s Wind Farm of the Week is the Alta Complex owned by TerraGen out in California. So at one point in time, of course if you’re a part of wind lore in the United States. You know that this was the biggest wind farm in the United States at 1,550 megawatts. It was also the third largest onshore project worldwide.

Now there’s been a couple of the Sun Zia projects and stuff have been a bit bigger, but this thing is massive. Uh, spreads across about 9,000 acres and holds, hosts almost 600 turbine. Uh, so it started in 2010. Multiple phases of construction, uh, ended in 2014 and financed with almost $3 billion. [00:27:00]Uh, and it’s in that Tehachapi Pass area.

So, uh, it has, it actually still does have some capacity for expansion. Uh, but we wanted to share this one because, uh, just the size and scale of this thing, uh, being that it’s so big, uh, and as well. Long-term power purchase agreement signed with Southern California Edison. Uh, the output averages enough power to, to power about 450,000 homes annually, uh, which is just massive.

Uh, it’s created over 3000 jobs. And I think this one, the economic story might be the, the, the, the feather in the cap, uh, is it in his injects over $1 billion into the regional economy, which is just massive. So, uh, kudos to the wind industry for making this one happen. Uh, but looking ahead, uh, it is a bigger part of that Tehachapi wind resource area when it has the expan or has expansion potential of up to 10 gigawatts.

Uh, as California continues to grow out, its renewable grid. So this week’s wind farm, the Ulta Wind [00:28:00] Complex, so owned by TerraGen out there in California, the Wind Farm of the week.

Allen Hall: That wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate all the feedback and support we receive.

From the wind industry. If today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Just reach out to us on LinkedIn, particularly Rosemary, and please don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. So for Joel Rosemary, I’m Alan Hall. And we will catch you next week on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

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