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  • Allete Goes Private, Vestas’ Strong Q4

    Allete Goes Private, Vestas’ Strong Q4
    2025/01/13
    This week in business news, Allete is going private in a $6.2B deal, Aeris suffers from financial struggles, and Vestas secures 6, 000 MW in new orders during Q4. Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug! Register for Wind Energy O&M Australia! https://www.windaustralia.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Welcome to Uptime News Flash. Industry news lightning fast. Your hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, and Phil Totaro discuss the latest deals, mergers, and alliances that will shape the future of wind power. News Flash is brought to you by IntelStor. For market intelligence that generates revenue, visit www.intelstor.com. Allen Hall: First up, the U. S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has given its approval for a 6. 2 billion acquisition of Allete. The buyers are the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board and Global Infrastructure Partners. The company brings significant renewable assets to the table, including Minnesota Power and Allete Clean Energy, which operates over 1, 300 megawatts of wind capacity across seven states. Now, Phil, this has been going on for several months now, but it looks like it's finally climbed that last rung in that ladder to become a private company again. Phil Totaro: Yeah, which I think is interesting and important given who the investors are. Keep in mind that GIP just got gobbled up by BlackRock. And the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board has been making, you know, boatloads of investments around the world. Not only in Canada. Companies like this, but also individual assets where they are a usually minority but co owner so this is giving them the diversity, it's giving BlackRock and, you know, through GIP you know, more assets in their portfolio, which they, you know, they're obviously making a concerted effort and it's, it's part of their strategy to you know, to build up that, that pipeline. So this is, I believe You know, a total of 1. 3 gigawatts of operational wind with substantially more in, in the pipeline. So, you know, it's a great thing to, to see this happen and, and usually in a take, in a go private deal The reason you want to do that is to kind of sort out some of the financials and, and there's an opportunity that they could, you know, re IPO Allete at some point. I like the move because Joel Saxum: Allete is a, you know, they're not a huge wind operator, but Clean energy, but I know that they've got ambitions to do some more development. So we are bringing in fresh capital. Also Allete's headquarters in Minnesota power is up in Duluth, Minnesota, which is a small town of about 80, people. And this will bring some hope, hopefully bring some jobs in up there and a little bit of an expansion. Allen Hall: Down in South America, Brazilian wind blade manufacturer Aeris has approached its creditors seeking a 60 day extension on upcoming interest payments. The company's financial strain stems from a slowdown in new wind turbine contracts. Leading to mounting pressure on its balance sheet. Now, current financials show a concerning picture with net debt reaching about 550 million reales and a debt to EBITDA ratio of 3. 2. Joel, Sonoma has made acquisition efforts towards Aeris for the last couple of years. Do those offers become more serious on Aeris part as they run into some financial difficulty? Joel Saxum: I think Aeris as a company has to turn to Sonoma as a more and mo...
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    7 分
  • AC883’s Guide to LiDAR and Pitch Alignment

    AC883’s Guide to LiDAR and Pitch Alignment
    2025/01/10
    From the surge in lightning strikes damaging wind turbines to the game-changing potential of nacelle-based LiDAR systems, Lars Bendsen of AC883 shares insights on wind farm maintenance. Lars describes how LiDAR installations can boost power output by 3.5%, and warns how ignoring simple pitch alignment issues leads to catastrophic turbine failures. Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Register for Wind Energy O&M Australia! https://www.windaustralia.com Lars Bendsen: Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining light on wind energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast Spotlight. I'm your host, Allen Hall. Today, we're diving into the costly challenges plaguing wind farms with Lars Bendsen from AC883. From a surge in severe lightning strikes to devastating turbine misalignments, Lars reveals why seemingly minor issues can lead to catastrophic failures, and how cutting edge solutions like nacelle based lidars are transforming maintenance strategies. Plus, discover why Lars believes too many industry tourists are making decisions that cost operators millions in unnecessary repairs. So get ready for a no holds bar discussion about what's really happening in wind farm maintenance. Lars, welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast Spotlight. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Well, you've had a busy blade season and you've had crews all over Canada and parts of the U S what kind of problems were you solving with your blade crews this year? Lars Bendsen: That was, that was a crazy repair season. Um, and it's not to feed directly into, but it, we had a ton of lightning strikes and lightning repairs higher than I would say the average. And some of the strikes were severe. So I don't know, uh, you probably know better than me if the weather pattern has been leading up to better or worse. Um, what we do know, we had a really, um, wet summer. We had a ton of weather delays. We had a ton of high winds. We have a ton of rain. Uh, so we had our, our standby time, time was, was higher than usual. And it's annoying for everybody involved. Owners don't get their job done and money is flying out the window. So. And we don't get the job done either. So, so, so it's really wet that way. So I don't know if that's the aftermath was going on over the winter. I have no idea because you can't really see when this like was there. Uh, and, and the owners, the owners have a system that can measure when it comes. But. I don't think they're looking at it. Allen Hall: That's, that's true. Uh, we are seeing more lightning strike damage over this past summer. It's been really bad. I, I think it's just the, the set of storms that came through. But in, in your case with AC 8A3, when you have technicians on site, you're bringing high quality sort of apprenticeship plus technicians that have a lot of training so that when you get into these complicated repairs, you can actually accomplish them properly. Lars Bendsen: We are, we are getting our people from mostly from Europe, uh, simply because there's no cable, there's, there's no, uh, availability for, for staff in Canada. Uh, so we get them in from Europe on a proper work permit, simply because we are short staffed. Uh, we do pay more. We also get, uh, GWO certified technicians, all of them. And, um,
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    28 分
  • Jupiter Bach: The World’s Nacelle Cover Manufacturer

    Jupiter Bach: The World’s Nacelle Cover Manufacturer
    2025/01/09
    Andreas Kipker, CEO of Jupiter Bach, discusses their dominance in wind turbine nacelle and spinner cover manufacturing and major U.S. expansion plans, including a new 20,000-square-foot facility in Pensacola and two decades of partnership with GE Vernova. Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Register for Wind Energy O&M Australia! https://www.windaustralia.com Allen Hall: Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast Spotlight. I'm your host, Allen Hall, along with my co host, Joel Saxum. And today we have an exceptional guest who brings deep insight from one of the wind industry's most important manufacturing sectors. Andreas Kipker is the CEO of Jupiter Bach, the world's largest supplier of nacelle and spinner covers for wind turbines. Andreas joins us at an exciting time for Jupiter Bach the company just celebrated a remarkable 20 year partnership with GE Vernova and broke ground on a 20, 000 square foot expansion of their Pensacola, Florida facility. And today under Andreas's leadership, Jupiter Bach operates state of the art manufacturing facilities across Europe, Asia, and North America. The company's focus goes beyond just manufacturing. They're driving innovation in composite materials and. Engineering to help reduce the levelized cost of energy for wind power. Andreas, welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast Spotlight. Andreas Kipker: Thank you very much. Pleased to be here. Thanks for the opportunity. Allen Hall: Well, Jupiter Bach is the world's largest supplier of nacelles and spinner covers. Could you give us just a sense of what your global footprint looks like? Andreas Kipker: Absolutely. Happy to do that. Yeah, so, um, In the global market, we consider ourselves leaders. We have, um, we have factories. We have four main manufacturing facilities one in China two in Europe, then Poland and Lithuania, and then one in Sonia, Florida. Um, and then adding to that's where we do our composites. And then, and in addition to that, we have we have a number of assembly sites that are. closer to servicing this Nacelle manufacturing plants assembly plants of our customers. So they're spread. Somewhat in the same regions, but but closer to customers. Allen Hall: Well, you just recently celebrated 20 years with G. E. Vernova, which is remarkable. And you're also expanding a facility down in Florida to another 20, 000 square feet. What is your footprint right now in Florida alone? Andreas Kipker: I'm a little bit in doubt, actually, the exact number. We're around 100, 000 square foot in in, in, in Florida today of, um, of. on the roof. And then it's a process that takes a bit of outdoors storage at outdoor space as well. So, the site itself is significantly bigger. You will know this from blade manufacturing plants as well, that the parts are quite big. So it takes a little bit of storage around. But yeah, we're super excited to have to have longstanding relationship with with several of our customers, but G we just we just reached this milestone. Um, um, so yeah, proud of that. Joel Saxum: I think it's important to to talk about nacelles here, right? Like when you see, when you say when we're in the wind world, where Alan and I touch most of the time, everybody in the large manufacturing space, you hear about gearbox manufacturers, bearing manufacturers,
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    24 分
  • LM Wind Power Blade Power Loss Tool, ZF Rotating Gearbox

    LM Wind Power Blade Power Loss Tool, ZF Rotating Gearbox
    2025/01/08
    On Power-Up this week, LM Wind Power's method using thermal imaging to estimate power performance, ZF's system which allows the generator to be rotated independently from the gearbox, and a patent for a flame-throwing trumpet. Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug! Register for Wind Energy O&M Australia! https://www.windaustralia.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Phil Totaro: This is Power Up, where groundbreaking wind energy ideas become your clean energy future. Here's your hosts, Allen Hall and Phil Totaro. Allen Hall: First up this week, Phil, is an idea from LM Wind Power, and this idea uses thermal imaging to turbine turbulence and then to use that data to predict the power calculations and energy production. on an actual wind turbine blade. So this approach is thermal imaging can detect turbulence and losses on a blade. If you can use that data then in a calculation, in a predictive model, then you can pretty well estimate what the power output of a turbine would be. This is a really useful piece of information. If you're trying to predict the outcome of a wind farm and what the power production will be like. Phil Totaro: Yeah. And this is, this is not new in terms of utilizing, infrared technology. We've actually done this before in the industry, not only for, remote inspections and things like that. But to apply this technology to an operational asset where you're using that output for modeling purposes is unique because what they're able to actually detect is changes in surface roughness. So when it comes to figuring out leading edge erosion and how much is that actually dinging your performance and your annual energy production, this comes in kind of handy. But it's my understanding that, LM isn't the only company that's been investigating this, right? Allen Hall: Yeah. There've been several efforts in the EU to do this. We've had some of them on the podcast. The technique is very fascinating, because you wouldn't think you could see turbulence with an infrared camera and, but you can. And once you do that, then you can use the BEM method of calculating power production, which is how a lot of Blazer design is with the BEM method. The tools are all available. The missing link was just really determining how much turbulence there was on a blade. And this idea makes an infinite amount of sense if it can be put into production. There's a lot of theoretical things we talk about on the podcast that are really hard to implement. This is going to be one of them. Getting some real thermal images off of blades is not the easiest thing in the world to do. Phil Totaro: Yeah, but it makes for a valuable IP for a company like LM to own and there's a high degree of likelihood that this technology could be obviously leveraged by GE their parent organization, or even licensed to some of these other companies. Our next Allen Hall: idea is Phil Totaro: from ZF Frederick Allen Hall: Schaffen, AG, and it is a patent that presents an innovative design for maintaining wind turbine gearboxes with integrated generators. Now, the key innovation is a special gearing system that allows the generator rotor to be rotated independently from the gearbox output shaft during maintenance. And this enables technicians to safely position and lock the rotor for service without having to completely remove the gearbox.
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    9 分
  • Dominion Offshore Wind Success, RTO Mandates

    Dominion Offshore Wind Success, RTO Mandates
    2025/01/07
    Allen, Joel, and Phil discuss the growing popularity of return-to-office mandates. New York state has signed a climate change superfund act, making companies pay for pollution retroactively. And Dominion Energy's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project should be successfully finished in 2026. Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug! Register for Wind Energy O&M Australia! https://www.windaustralia.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Newark launches a landmark challenge to Big Energy. Dominion Energy proves offshore wind can work in America and the great return to office debate hits the wind industry. All this, plus much more. You're listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. You're listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by buildturbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the clean energy revolution. Visit BuildTurbines. com today. Now here's your hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes. Allen Hall: Hey Uptime community, want to help shape the future of your favorite wind energy podcast? Take our quick 5 minute survey at UptimeWindEnergy.com com for a chance to win an exclusive Your insights matter to us, whether you're a long time listener or just joined us. Please go to uptimewindenergy. com and complete the survey. We would appreciate it. And then, if you haven't registered for Wind Energy O& M Australia, now's the time to get on that because we're gonna have a great time down in Melbourne, and we'll be with bunch of industry leaders on February 11th and 12th in Melbourne. It's a great time to discuss leading edge erosion, lightning protection, life extension, CMS, all the things that we talk about all over the world. We're going to focus on the Australian market and we'll have industry experts from our own Sky Specs, Tilt Renewables, GE, Vernova, RigCom, Whirly, Eelogix, Ping and many more. So reserve your spot now by visiting www. WindAustralia. com. It's time to transform your safety program at Active Training Team's Free Houston Expo on January 24th. Experience the innovative training methods that are revolutionizing the energy sector. And let's face it, the era of laptop training is over. Is Dead Active training team uses real actors live humans on site to place your team members in real world situations. Now there's limited spots available. And to secure your spot, you need to go to active Training team.us/contact, or email florence@activetrainingteam.co. Unlock your wind farm's best performance at Wind Energy O& M Australia, February 11th to 12th in sunny Melbourne. Join industry leaders as they share practical solutions for maintenance, OEM relations and asset management. Discover strategies to cut costs, keep your assets running smoothly and drive long term success in today's competitive market. Register today and explore sponsorships at www. windaustralia.com. Allen Hall: All right. 2025 is going to be an exciting year for the return to office. Now, a lot of companies are mandating the return to office, but the attendance hasn't been so great. The. Office attendance reached about 62 percent at pre pandemic levels, according to Betty. And it's planned to increase to almost 70%. So there's 30 percent of society that hasn't really returned to office. Now, as we have seen on X and on With Amazon and a number of other tech companies,
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    1分未満
  • $4B for Rural US Energy, Brookfield Neoen Acquisition

    $4B for Rural US Energy, Brookfield Neoen Acquisition
    2025/01/06
    The USDA has announced $4.37 B in funding for the Empowering Rural America program, Brookfield Asset Management has acquired a 53% stake in Neoen, and European Energy and Nova Holdings will upgrade 17 aging German wind farms. Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug! Register for Wind Energy O&M Australia! https://www.windaustralia.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Welcome to Uptime News Flash. Industry news lightning fast. Your hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, and Phil Totaro discuss the latest deals, mergers, and alliances that will shape the future of wind power. News Flash is brought to you by IntelStor. For market intelligence that generates revenue, visit www.intelstor.com. Allen Hall: Right, first up, the U. S. Department of Agriculture has announced a 4. 37 billion dollars in funding through their Empowering Rural America program. This historic investment, the largest in rural electrification since 1936, will support clean energy development across seven states. Now the program aims 5, 000 jobs, reduce electricity costs, and cut climate pollution by about 1. 1 million tons annually. 4. 37 billion as the Biden administration exits the executive branch is a lot of money. Does this have a chance of, of existing once the new administration comes in? Phil Totaro: Yeah, I actually think so because this, this program is done through the Department of Agriculture interestingly enough, not the Department of Energy, and the reason that they're doing it is because the co ops are actually, outside of kind of the, the organized utilities coordinating like corporate power buying. The co ops are actually one of the biggest You know, in aggregate power buyers in, in the United States, especially when you start talking about all the co ops, we're getting kind of gobbled up by Touchstone and, you know, most co ops in the United States are now organized under, you know, a parent kind of umbrella corporation. So this is a lot of money that's going into, you know, basically subsidizing renewable energy power buying or the development of distributed power generation facilities. That are gonna be adjacent to these these rural communities that are able to take advantage of this this bunny. So, this is one where I really do hope that they don't try and cut it because this is actually, like, Putting money in the pockets of people that are doing clean energy power buying, and it's actually helping get wind and solar and storage deployed on the grid. So I, this is actually a great program. Great for the department of agriculture to be doing it. Not sure why the department of energy wasn't previously on board with something like this. Joel Saxum: Coming from someone who has co op power now and grew up with co op power up in Northern Wisconsin in a rural area, injection of capital into rural environments anywhere makes me smile. So, because they usually don't see as much, right? So when a big project comes through or something gets announced like this, everybody gets a little bit happy in those areas. And so, weird to see it. Not weird, I suppose, in a lame duck situation from the federal government, but yeah, I hope this one continues to, to roll forward in these projects to get some ink behind them before January 20th. Allen Hall: In our next story, Brookfield Asset Management has completed its acquisition of 53 percent stake in French renewable power ...
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    8 分
  • Malloy Wind Solves Gearbox Bearing Mysteries

    Malloy Wind Solves Gearbox Bearing Mysteries
    2025/01/02
    From mysterious white etching cracks to cutting-edge material innovations, Malloy Wind's expert Cory Mittleider reveals the complex world of gearbox bearing failures that plague wind turbines. Learn why traditional monitoring may not be enough and what operators need to know about the latest solutions to keep their gearboxes running reliably. Read the EPRI article Cory references: https://restservice.epri.com/publicdownload/000000003002021422/0/Product Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Register for Wind Energy O&M Australia! https://www.windaustralia.com Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining light on wind energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast Spotlight, where we tackle the technical challenges and innovations in wind energy. I'm your host, Allen Hall, joined by my co host, Joel Saxum. We're excited to welcome back one of our most popular guests, Cory Mittleider from Malloy Wind. In his previous appearance, Cory shared his expertise on main bearing failures. And many of you reached out asking for a deep dive into gearbox bearings. Today, Cory returns to do exactly that. As Malloy's business unit manager, he and his team have diagnosed and solved countless gearbox bearing issues across different turbine platforms. Having spent over 15 years in power transmission, Cory has become a specialist in understanding why these critical components fail and, more importantly, how to prevent those failures through better bearing selection and maintenance practices. Cory, welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast Spotlight. Thanks for having me again. All right, so we've got a lot of requests to hear about gearbox, bearing, and what the issues are with those bearings. Gearboxes is something I know a little bit about. But you're the expert. I hear a lot of complaining from the field. What is happening to gearbox bearings at the minute? Cory Mittleider: Sure. Gearbox bearings has been an interesting one for me. So when I started in wind in 2011, it was generator bearings and gearbox bearings is where I started learning about this stuff. A lot of the generator stuff was electrical fluting damage. That's pretty well figured out how to avoid that. The gearbox one was a little more complex than that. And I don't know if you've heard of. NREL's Drivetrain Reliability Conference that's happened for the last 12 plus years now. That's a recurring topic for the last every single year, right? Is gearbox bearing failures. A lot of the conversation that started back in the day and is still going on is around what they call white etching cracking or white etching failures. And back, in say, 11 and 12, A lot of the conversation was around was around that. It was around, the oils in the gearboxes. It was around coatings and bearing types and how they could affect the bearing itself to improve the life. And, specifically when it comes to gearbox bearings That was really hard back in the, the service providers and the operators themselves weren't used to having to replace gearbox bearings. They maybe weren't even planning on having to replace gearbox bearings, right? But they started to see these problems. They started to get their head around the scope and how to identify them early and started to dig into it.
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    29 分
  • Vestas Anti-Oscillation Tool, Windspider Tower Builder

    Vestas Anti-Oscillation Tool, Windspider Tower Builder
    2025/01/01
    We discuss Vestas' anti-oscillation blade tool, which seems to have a dual purpose, Windspider's self-erecting tower method, and a terrifying way to disguise vaccinations for kids. Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug! Register for Wind Energy O&M Australia! https://www.windaustralia.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Phil Totaro: This is Power Up, where groundbreaking wind energy ideas become your clean energy future. Here's your hosts, Allen Hall and Phil Totaro. Allen Hall: Well, Phil, our first idea of the week is from our friends at Vestas, and it's an anti oscillation tool for wind turbine blades. And how this patent is described, it's like a sock for your wind turbine blade with a little bit of a covering over the trailing edge serrations, and you slide this device on And it stops oscillations during deployment, when the, when the turbine may be a little more vulnerable, it's not a full operation, maybe in lockouts, where you really don't want any lift, and particularly you don't want any oscillations that could, in theory, Phil Totaro: Yeah. And maybe it's an idea that GE should have come up with or LM should have come up with first considering some of the issues they've had this year. But what's kind of fascinating about this though, is that this isn't necessarily a new idea from the perspective of putting a little sock on the end of your wind turbine blade to protect the tip during a lift. Usually it's for making sure that you don't damage the serrations or whatever you've stuck on the trailing edge of the blade. In this case, Vestas and, and I'm, I'm kind of expressing my opinion or suggestion here that I think Vestas is basically trying to get an extra 20 years of life on a patented concept that, They, are potentially using on a daily basis for that construction purpose. They found another way to describe that same technology and as an anti oscillation tool. Allen Hall: You ever seen a device called a slap chopper, Phil? No. It slices and it dices. Oh, that thing. Yeah, I have. I have. So what they've To have done, in a sense, is they've taken the Slapchopper and got a patent for slicing, and then when that got close to expiring, they came back and said, well, it dices too, which is a separate patent, and thereby you can extend the same device for Covering two areas. It's very unique way of patenting and very effective by the way. It's smart. Phil Totaro: Yeah, it is. If, if you're trying to capture and protect your IP, but it also doesn't say much for the patent examiners we've ever had in this industry who can't seem to recognize that this is what companies are doing because this is not the first time this has happened. I can recall a few examples in the past where companies had You know, had, their 20 years of patent protection on a concept and then repatented basically the same thing and said, Oh, well, it's not for cooling. It's for vibration damping, or it's not for one thing. It's for something else. So it looks like that's what's happening here. And, I guess kudos to Vestas for trying and maybe not so many kudos to the U. S. Patent Office for allowing stuff like this to get pushed Allen Hall: through. Roncopeel made a living doing that. If you're familiar with Ronco, it's Christmas time and every Christmas you would have another Ronco product, which slices, dices, cooked a chicken or something.
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    7 分