The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast

Nicholas Gaudern, CTO at PowerCurve joins the show to discuss advanced blade upgrades that improve turbine performance and reduce noise. PowerCurve's technology helps operators make smart decisions about maintenance and upgrades. Gaudern explains why combining repairs with performance enhancements is a cost-effective strategy that benefits both operations and community relations. 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: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast Spotlight. I'm your host, Allen Hall, along with my co host, Joel Saxon. Today, we're diving deep into the world of wind turbine aerodynamics and blade optimization with one of the industry's leading experts. Our guest is Nicholas Gaudern, the Chief Technology Officer at PowerCurve, a company that's revolutionizing how we approach wind turbine performance through advanced Aerodynamic solutions. Now, Nicholas has over 15 years of industry experience and his journey includes significant roles at industry giants like Vestas, where he led the design of next generation blades. And as CTO of PowerCurve, Nicholas and his team are pushing the boundaries of what's possible in wind turbine optimization. They've developed innovative solutions like AeroVista, which helps operators make data driven decisions about blade maintenance and upgrades. Their work spans from custom designed vortex generators to trailing edge serrations, all aimed at increasing AEP while reducing turbine noise. So please welcome to the Uptown Wind Energy Podcast Spotlight, Nicholas Gaudern. Nicholas Gaudern: Thanks, Allen. Yeah, good to see you as well, Joe. Allen Hall: We have a lot going on in the United States in terms of rotors on the ground. Variety of reasons, but anytime that Joel and I are running through the Midwest, we see rotors down, and when I run into those people, I always ask, why are you not putting arrow improvements on your blade? It is the lowest cost way to do it. There's an opportunity there Nicholas? Nicholas Gaudern: Yeah, there, there really is, and I find it very surprising as well, because whilst you can put upgrades on at lots of different points in a turbine's life cycle, if you do have that roach on the ground it just makes everyone's lives that bit easier, and also it's going to save you a lot of money on installation costs. So yes, I think it's a great thing to be considering because you can be working on different parts of the blade at the same time. And if you're going to increase the AEP with those devices you put on, you can consider that as a way of paying for some of the other work you might be doing while the rotor's down. Allen Hall: Yeah. And we've run into many operators that have talked to us about noise of all things in the middle of the United States where there's not a lot of neighbors to them. But neighbors are concerned about the noise produced by the turbines and in very windy places. Yeah. like Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, there is blade noise. It's there. And most of the equipment out in service does not have trailing edge serrations. And I'm beginning to wonder if that is trying to be, if there's needs to be an adjustment made there that you may not technically need trailing edge serrations for noise quieting, but to be a good neighbor.

We discuss a rope management tool for wind turbine maintenance, TotalEnergies' floating offshore wind anchor idea, and a stress relief device. 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 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 patent of the week is a clever, portable device for managing industrial ropes used in wind turbine maintenance. Now, the key to this innovation is a rope driver system that combines mechanical and electrical components to safely control wind energy. Heavy duty ropes, and we know those can be kind of a pain to deal with. This device features a rope storage container with a hardened lower portion and a flexible top portion, along with a motorized driver mechanism that can both lift and lower ropes. And I'll think of it as a sophisticated wind system that not only moves the rope, but stores it properly, too. Seems like a lot of good uses for this idea, Phil. Phil Totaro: And when you consider that regardless of remote inspection technology, we still do end up dangling a lot of service techs off ropes in, in this industry. So, this is actually something that comes from seemingly independent inventors with no corporate affiliation. And it's, there's a lot of patents like that that are usually just kind of crackpot things that, Is something that's never going to be adopted by the industry. This is something I hope they can find a way to commercialize or, find somebody that is interested in licensing this or acquiring the, the patent because this is actually Besides being kind of a clever and unique idea, I think this would actually come in handy in a lot of sites, because if you have multiple techs working on a blade repair up tower you can get techs. Crossed ropes, and it creates a safety issue. So having proper storage really does come in handy and, and enhances safety of, of uptower workers. Allen Hall: Our next idea comes from TotalEnergies, One Tech. And it is a patent that tackles one of the biggest challenges in offshore wind, how to securely Anchor wind turbines to the seabed. Now, the invention introduces an innovative monopile foundation design that's specifically engineered for offshore wind turbines. And the key feature is a specialized lower end structure with inner and outer tubes connected by Wing plates, they create compartments, think of it as a hybrid between a traditional monopile and a suction bucket foundation. Now, what makes this design special is how it handles both the vertical and horizontal forces from the turbine. And Phil, we all know trying to attach the C4 is really complicated and Totaro Energies has been out in the forefront of this for a number of years. This patent is just one of those ideas from Totaro. Phil Totaro: Yeah, and, and, like we've been talking about on PowerUp over the past few weeks, the reason I wanted to, to key in on this one today was, besides being this clever combination of kind of a, as you said, either a suction bucket or a jacket type approach and a monopile which, again, you would, you would not necessarily use this everywhere, but this is something that would come in for potentially sites in France where they're looking to d...

There were 500 attacks on undersea energy in Europe in 2024--what does that mean for offshore wind? SunTrain may be powering Denver in the near future. And the latest workplace trend, "Coffee Badging", may not be the best plan for new employees. 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: Coffee badging hits the workplace, NATO addresses offshore wind security, and a wild proposal to move solar power by train. Plus, NextEra's massive Montana wind project powers up. 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. We want to help to shape the future of your favorite wind energy podcast. I need you to take our quick five minute survey at uptimewindenergy. com for a chance to win an exclusive Uptime mug. Now your insights matter to us, whether you're a longtime listener or have just joined us. So please go to uptimewindenergy. com and complete the survey. And our friends at Wind Energy O& M Australia. are busy at the moment because everybody's registering. Now you don't want to miss this event. It's on February 11th and 12th in Melbourne, and you're going to get hands on with solutions, including leading edge erosion, lightning protection advances, life extensions, CMS. Gearbox. Anything you want to know about turbines, we're going to be talking about it in Melbourne. And you're going to be able to connect with a bunch of experts from Maroon, SkySpecs, Tilt Renewables, GE Vernova, RigCom, Whirly, Elogix Ping, and many, many more. So you need to reserve your spot now by visiting windaustralia. com Phil, is there any highlights on, on windaustralia. Phil Totaro: com? Allen, you're right. We have a total of 32, uh, or participants and speakers from a total of 32 different companies at this point, registrations today, uh, that I haven't even checked in yet. So, it's, uh, you know, tickets are going like hotcakes at this point, and we are actually capacity limited at this facility, so get yours today, uh, if you want to be part of this event. Allen Hall: And it's time to transform your safety program with 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, laptop training sucks. But Active Training Team uses real live actors on site to place your team members in real world situations. 24th, and to secure your spot, you should go to ActiveTrainingTeam. org. dot U S H slash contact or email Florence at ActiveTrainingTeam dot co dot U K. 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 and save money. 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: There's a new workplace trend called coffee badging and companies are pushing for return t...

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...