Fusion Power, Blade Plant Reopens, Vestas Orders, BladeRobots

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast

Long-anticipated improvements in Fusion energy may or may not be the holy grail, but what's the significance? and when will we really know? While fusion is interesting to watch in the long term, service agreements are changing now. We have a lot of questions, like, does a 35-year service agreement make sense? Will these agreements be good or bad for preventative maintenance? And what other major changes will we see from OEMs this year? Vestas is also in the news because its spinoff, BladeRobots A/S, uses AI-informed robots to provide leading edge maintenance (and a few other things). Skagen Blade Technology ApS is a minority partner. And in Iowa, production lines are back up and running at the Siemens Gamesa blade factory that closed earlier this year. And there's more! Don't miss this episode! Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.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! Uptime 144 Allen Hall: Well, hey guys I'm am about to head into one of the worst snow storms of the season so far. They're talking about two feet of snow and, and rosemary, that's like two thirds of a meter of snow, so I can put it in metric terms for you. . Well, you too. Are sitting in warm, comfortable places. And Rosemary, you're probably even near the ocean. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, that's right. It is unseasonably cold though. . Joel Saxum: Oh man. I'm in shorts and I'm in shorts and flip flops. Houston, Texas is 74 Allen Hall: degrees today, I guess. Some people can live in the lap of luxury and us Hardy nor New Englanders, so will just suffer through the winter like we always do. , well, I mean, Well, yeah, not a big skier. Unfortunately. I've seen too many people blow at their knees, hips, elbows, break their thumbs. , it's so, it's getting old roast man. I, I, I try to avoid that. Well, this is, this is true. Old or smart, one or the other. Joel Saxum: It comes one in the same. Stick with one in same, yeah. Allen Hall: So there's a lot going on this week in renewable energy news, particularly in wind. But we want to start by talking about the Lawrence Livermore Fusion effort. And Rosemary and I go back and forth about how great America is or how long this is gonna take. Rosemary's probably right? I'll, I'll grant her that. But it, it's a good discussion. And then we talk about the Siemens Ka Mesa opening a. Over in Iowa. One, they had mothball for a while, so it's good to see that one kick back open again. Okay. Rosemary Barnes: We're going to talk about a Vestas order that's been announced for Southern Sweden and the interesting part of that is that it comes with a 35 year service agreement. Joel Saxum: And then as we all love innovation and we're sticking with Vestas again, we're gonna talk about Blade robots, the company that they started out of their, their venture capital fund and are now releasing to the market. So you'll be seeing some more, more robots climbing blade. Replacing Allen Hall: technicians possibly. I'm Alan Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with Australian Renewables guru Rosemary Barnes. And my good friend Finn Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxon. And this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. The big news of the week is Lawrence Livermore, national Laboratories Niche, national Ignition Facility, created fusion where they had more energy out than energy in.