Latest / Uptime Podcast – Weather Guard Lightning Tech / India Locks Down Turbine Data, Danish Wind Jobs Dip

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India Locks Down Turbine Data, Danish Wind Jobs Dip · Uptime Podcast – Weather Guard Lightning Tech

• 0:02
  The Uptime Wind Energy podcast, brought to you by StrikeTape.
• 0:06
  Protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide.
• 0:10
  Visit striketape.com.
• 0:12
  And now, your hosts
• 0:17
  Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast.
• 0:20
  I'm your host, Rosemary Barnes, and I'm filling in for Allen
• 0:22
  today here with Jolanda Pedron.
• 0:25
  All right, onto our first story.
• 0:27
  India is drawing a line around its wind data.
• 0:29
  The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has ordered every turbine maker on the
• 0:33
  approved list of models and manufacturers to report where its data actually lives.
• 0:38
  Data centers inside India, servers inside India, research centers inside India, and
• 0:44
  no real-time data leaving the country.
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  The order went out last week with status reports due by month-end.
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  And while the government tightens the rules on data,
• 0:54
  the hardware keeps moving in.
• 0:56
  Flender has just opened another generator plant in Chennai Yolanda, I think this is
• 1:01
  gonna have a large impact on the number of companies who are, you know, there's a
• 1:04
  lot of companies around today developing, like, smarts for wind turbines.
• 1:08
  There's a lot of scope to operate turbines better, to improve power output, reduce
• 1:13
  maintenance costs, et cetera, and y- a lot of companies are taking advantage of that.
• 1:17
  Even Patlow has some projects going on in that sort of area.
• 1:20
  What do you think about the impact this will be?
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  Is India planning to develop their entire own ecosystem for
• 1:26
  that aspect of the industry?
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  I
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  mean, it looks like it, right?
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  Which is really, I mean, kind of groundbreaking.
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  I know that we talked a couple weeks ago about Europe sort of being a little
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  bit scared of bringing in, um, different manufacturers from Asia, um, and just
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  the, the idea of cybersecurity being something really prevalent and really
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  important to all of these people.
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  So just if India starts siloing everything and that works, maybe
• 1:55
  that'll translate to Europe.
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  Do you think that it, it can work?
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  Has India got the expertise in place already to, to make this work, or is
• 2:04
  this gonna be a real, like, handbrake on their, their wind industry continuing
• 2:08
  to develop as fast as it has been?
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  I mean, I'm really curious to see it because I don't know
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  if they'll bring in a lot more experts to be able to, to do that.
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  I know the Indian, um, operating environment is quite
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  different to other locations.
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  I mean, it's, it's similar in a way to Australia in its
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  dissimilarity, if that makes sense.
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  I, I think there's a lot of really India-specific problems, so of course
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  Indian companies are gonna be best placed to take advantage of that.
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  But what we've seen so far is a lot of, uh, companies from Europe or
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  America coming in to y- you know, like tweak the way that they attack
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  similar problems in other markets.
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  They're, you know, moving in to understand India better and take advantage of that.
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  Now, of course, like not every smart operating method or aerodynamic
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  improvement, they don't all need real-time data, and probably
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  most of them don't actually.
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  So I think it's not gonna like s- snip off this entire kind of improvement.
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  But it is really interesting.
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  It's quite, like it is quite severe, the restrictions, and I haven't heard of any
• 3:13
  other market, um, that is doing that.
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  I, I don't know, do you think it's warranted or is it
• 3:19
  maybe like overly paranoid?
• 3:20
  I know when I heard that in, um, in Europe they're not allowing Chinese manufacturers
• 3:25
  of inverters, for example, and I just felt like, "Ugh, is that a bit over the top?"
• 3:30
  I'm not sure.
• 3:31
  Um, yeah, what's your opinion, Yolanda?
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  I think it, it might be a little bit over the top.
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  We live in such a globalized world that the idea of one country
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  just siloing completely is, is a little bit strange to me.
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  But- I guess if, if that's, they have a, a reason for concern,
• 3:51
  then I guess it might make sense.
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  But to your earlier point, like, I don't know if the cost of doing
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  this would also come into play
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  Yeah, I think that there's always a, a, a trade-off.
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  It's like when you have any kind of l- local content rule, which is similar
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  in a way because it forces, um, yeah, it, it forces your own ecosystem to
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  develop, and that's, that's great.
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  Like, it is a missed opportunity if you just have, you know, like
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  a huge new industry and you just import it all, then that i- is a lost
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  opportunity for your own economy.
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  But I mean, in the past, India has had pretty strong local content rules, and
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  they do have a bunch of wind energy manufacturing, um, within the country.
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  They are a country known for really great engineering, so it's for sure
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  not beyond them to, you know, step up.
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  So yeah, I guess time will tell if this is a smart move from that point of view.
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  I don't think it's actually the motivation behind this rule.
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  I think it's more of a, like, a cybersecurity, um, kind of perspective
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  where you don't want, you know, overseas companies having the ability to shut
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  down your energy system, for example.
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  Um, so yeah, but it, it has the potential to have that other effect
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  of, you know, like boosting the local industry or alternatively
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  just slowing down the whole industry because they can't get anything done.
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  I guess that's always that balance that you need to, need to look at
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  when you're looking at local content.
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  So India is deciding who gets to control the data inside a turbine.
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  Our next story is about something inside that same turbine nobody
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  controls yet, the air moving across a blade that isn't turning.
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  A parked turbine might look like the safest thing on the site.
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  Blades are locked, the rotor's still, nothing turning, nothing generating.
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  But a new study says that stillness is not safety.
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  When the rotor is locked and the wind shifts, air can strike the
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  trailing edge first and travel backwards across the blade.
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  That is reverse flow, and in reverse flow, the models this industry uses to
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  predict blade loads start to fall apart.
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  Field data cited in the study suggests blades on turbines above 15 megawatts
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  can go aerodynamically unstable at winds as low as eight meters per second.
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  That is nowhere near a storm.
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  So this is actually already definitely a known issue, and I know that modern
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  wind turbines don't usually park with locked rotors, right, Yolanda?
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  Yeah.
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  We, we saw that a locked rotor during installation was one of the causes
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  of the Vineyard Wind fiasco, right?
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  Where broken blade pieces washed up on the beach.
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  So definitely something that's known about.
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  And it's something that even onshore you have a, you have your
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  system so that it tracks sort of where the wind is coming from.
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  So even if it's stopped, it won't just be stopped at a specific angle,
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  particularly in case the, the winds shift.
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  Yeah, and I've seen examples of blades failing when, um, there was
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  a storm and there was power lost, so they weren't able to yaw or pitch a
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  turbine, and that also can cause…
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  Like, any time that- Wind is going in a different direction than what the
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  turbine desi- was designed for, you'll get unpredictable stuff happening
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  and often, like, really bad loads.
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  Like the harshest, conditions, loading conditions that a wind turbine blade
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  has to withstand is not in operation.
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  It's if you've got just wind hitting like a bluff body, they call it,
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  where a gust of wind just hits flat on the blade and tries to bend it.
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  Like that is way, way stronger loading than, um, than anything
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  it would see operationally.
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  If you're looking at, you know, like a really severe storm, like a one in 50
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  year kind of, um, wind speeds, and then if you have flow going on weird angles
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  where it's creating lift, then you can ratchet up those loads even more.
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  So for sure a known issue.
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  This study, it, it singled out turbines above 15 megawatts, which are huge.
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  That's a, you know, like a big offshore wind turbine.
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  But I don't think it's limited to that.
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  Like what would you think, Yolanda?
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  Is this, is this like purely a big blades thing, or is this
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  something that actually all wind turbines need to take into account?
• 7:55
  Oh, this is definitely something that all wind turbines need to take into account.
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  It's something that we've seen a lot in the US as well, um, onshore and
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  s- wind f- uh, smaller wind farms and wind farms that have, you know,
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  200 plus, um, wind turbines on them, uh, the, the 1X or 2X turbines.
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  Uh, this is also ver- a, a reason that it's really important, to check your
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  systems constantly, and I know that a lot of the, owner/operators do that,
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  in their regular maintenance checks.
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  but it's, an issue that, if you don't have the correct systems in place or
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  if you just remotely reset things, because you see an error that maybe
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  you thought, "Oh, that, must be just a glitch," then you start having issues
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  like this that can cause catastrophic failures, not just on the blade but on
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  the turbine itself if, the blade ends up hitting the turbine, um, it, it
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  ends up hitting the, the tower itself.
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  Uh, and then a similar issue, um, that can happen too is when you don't have
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  the correct systems in place for, for an emergency, and so the turbine can
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  just overspin, and that also causes a lot of blade failures, uh, both
• 9:18
  onshore and, and offshore as well.
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  But I think onshore it's, it's just the, the wind farms are so big that
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  it's It's easy or, or easier to miss, like, one or two turbines,
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  um, when you're doing those checks.
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  Yeah.
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  And I think another issue with keeping the rotors locked out, and one of
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  the big reasons why they moved to pinwheeling as the, you know, um,
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  turbine off kind of configuration, was with the, the bearings, right?
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  Like, it's not good for the bearings to be totally stationary.
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  Um, so I think that it's better to, yeah, pinwheel.
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  It's lower loads on the bearings.
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  Something, um, similar to this as well, right, and, and I think Wind Power
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  posted about it the other day, um, about just, oh, it's really common for, for
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  sites to, to think of, of a financial solution to, to negative pricing being
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  just fully stopping turbines that might not be producing at positive pricing.
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  Um, and then, uh, that can also cause a lot of loading issues because you're,
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  you're having a, a turbine at, at full capacity, and then it just stops.
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  Yeah, that's true.
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  The braking loads are, are one of the more extreme loads that
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  turbines have to withstand also.
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  I mean, hopefully if they're curtailing, um, voluntarily, uh, they're not doing
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  an emergency brake kind of level.
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  I hope that they're being a bit more gentle on their turbines, but
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  yeah, for sure, like, the easiest thing for a turbine to do is just
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  operate normally its whole lifetime.
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  That's exactly what it was designed to do, and anything that deviates
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  from that can reduce the t- life of the turbine, complicate things.
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  So machines keep getting bigger, and the physics keep getting harder.
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  Meanwhile, the map keeps getting wider.
• 11:03
  Next, a Chinese manufacturer planting both turbines and spare
• 11:06
  parts across Southeast Asia.
• 11:08
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• 11:12
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• 11:46
  China's turbine makers are no longer just shipping machines.
• 11:50
  They are building the network that keeps those machines running.
• 11:53
  Envision Energy has secured its largest wind project in Vietnam, 200 megawatts
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  with REE Energy, 25 turbines, grid connection targeted for October 2027.
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  It is also the company's largest overseas nearshore project to date.
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  And Batangas, Philippines, Envision has opened a distribution center holding
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  major components and spare parts close to the projects that need them.
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  Turbines first, then the parts network.
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  Yelena, I'm just wondering if spare parts was a big headache for you when you worked
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  in asset management, and do you think that this plan of, that Envision has is
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  gonna be a successful one for Vietnam?
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  I think spare parts, having spare parts on site or near a
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  site is always a good strategy.
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  I know that sometimes it can get the, the accounting itself can get a little bit
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  difficult because for at least, you know, in the US for tax purposes, you can't
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  really sell something from one project to another, so you, you have to be a little
• 12:49
  bit careful, um, as far as when you hold a part or you're sending one part that
• 12:55
  might fit in multiple sites and where you're technically buying that from.
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  Uh, but I think the spare parts that they're having here I, I think it's
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  a, it's a really good idea, right?
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  Because oftentimes you might have a, a big, um, there might be a big queue for
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  a particular component that fails years after, uh, it was produced, and then you--
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  I mean, if you need it now and there's a big queue now, then you need to wait
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  until it can get to site, until it can be produced, until it's your turn in line.
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  Uh, and so just having those components on site or really close to the
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  site I think is a really good idea.
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  Yeah, it's really challenging.
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  Like it's, it, it's easy to imagine how you could organize a spare parts
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  network or, you know, just l- literally a bunch of warehouses holding spare
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  parts for the kind of, you know, like one-off failures that happen routinely
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  throughout a wind turbine's life.
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  But when you start to see a serial issue or if there's just, you know,
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  like statistically every now and then you'll get clusters of failures even
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  if it's not a serial issue, that's when it starts to get really hard.
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  So I know in Australia, and I'm sure it's the case elsewhere, you
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  kind of got to pair your spare parts inventory with the capability
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  to repair and refurbish as well.
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  Because sometimes it's like, you know, you might do, like speaking of blades, which
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  is my specialty, you might have a bill of, you know, maybe even a million dollars
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  to do a really big repair on a blade, but that's better than spending probably,
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  honestly, the similar amount of money on a brand-new blade, but then that comes with
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  a six-month or a 12-month, um, wait time.
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  You know, like obviously you're gonna save overall if you can
• 14:40
  get that turbine up faster.
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  And we also see a lot of, um, in-country capabilities to refurbish, you know, all
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  of the drivetrain components and, and everything like that, and I think that
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  that is such an important complement.
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  Like your spare parts strategy should never just be about having them
• 14:57
  physically sitting there, 'cause if you were to have enough to cover any
• 15:02
  situation, then, you know, most of your components would go unused over
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  the, the lifetime of the wind farm.
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  And it's not like they're just swap in, swap out for any
• 15:11
  different wind turbine, right?
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  Like they are usually quite turbine specific.
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  I completely agree with the idea, especially with blades and how trif-
• 15:18
  tricky some of the new blades and their, their repair processes can be.
• 15:22
  It's really important to have a plan and not necessarily just, "Okay, now
• 15:25
  I'm gonna throw this one out and bring in a new one, and always hold a new
• 15:28
  one," because that's really expensive.
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  Um, and it's also really, really important to, uh, that doesn't matter
• 15:34
  what particular part it is, that whatever storage facility you're using,
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  that you're, you make sure that the environmental factors impacting the
• 15:45
  spare parts are taken care of, right?
• 15:48
  So, um, I know I've seen spare parts for a battery site or spare parts for
• 15:54
  a solar site, uh, that just kind of end up degrading even more than the
• 15:59
  parts that were in operations because no one was really looking at them.
• 16:01
  They were just outside in the elements, and then you just wasted millions and
• 16:06
  millions of dollars for really nothing.
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  Um, something that you need to take to the landfill eventually or report.
• 16:12
  Hopefully recycle it if it's electronic waste.
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  I completely agree that to, to be able to, to have any sort of replacement strategy,
• 16:22
  you, or any sort of spare parts strategy, you need to make sure that, that the
• 16:26
  replacement strategy is there and that the refurbishment strategy is there.
• 16:29
  If there's anything that you can recycle in-house and use in-house, that's
• 16:34
  a lot better than just landfilling anything or sending anything to
• 16:39
  be recycled elsewhere where it just piles and piles and piles up.
• 16:43
  Yeah.
• 16:44
  I think also it's reassuring if you're buying wind turbines from maybe a, a
• 16:49
  less well-known manufacturer or less well-known in your country, I think it is
• 16:53
  reassuring to have a, like just a stack of spare parts on site, because that will
• 16:57
  give you the confidence that if and when things start to go wrong, you know, a
• 17:02
  few years into the wind farm's operation, you are gonna have that capability.
• 17:06
  'Cause I think it is, like it's a big leap to move away from the really, really
• 17:10
  well-known, uh, manufacturers into some of the less well-known ones and have the
• 17:15
  confidence that y- you know, you wouldn't have any- anyone to ask what they're
• 17:19
  like for service, uh, for example, and you might also not have confidence that
• 17:23
  they're even gonna exist in, you know, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years' time.
• 17:27
  So having the parts on site can give you that confidence.
• 17:31
  Although, as you say, if those parts aren't actually functional when you
• 17:35
  go to use them, that can be worse than not having them in the first place
• 17:38
  because you thought that you were okay and then you find yourself scrambling.
• 17:42
  That's not ideal at all.
• 17:44
  Yeah, I completely agree.
• 17:45
  I did hear about someone who, um, had a, a blade that they They thought
• 17:53
  they, they didn't really have the capabilities in-house to, to restore
• 17:57
  it, and so they sent it to be recycled, and then later it was sold
• 18:01
  to them by their OEM, um, on site.
• 18:05
  And so I think that also speaks to the…
• 18:08
  And, and it was just because someone noticed the serial number was
• 18:11
  exactly the same and kind of noticed.
• 18:13
  It was, it was really honestly kind of a funny, funny thing in retrospect.
• 18:17
  But, uh, and it, it just speaks to the idea of you really need to
• 18:21
  understand if you're holding spare parts and, and just in general, even
• 18:24
  if you don't wanna hold spare parts.
• 18:26
  Um, the idea of being able to refurbish or have a plan to be able to refurbish
• 18:31
  the, the materials that you have on site is really, really, really important
• 18:34
  because it can save you so much money.
• 18:37
  I mean, the, I mean, the, for that case, just the, the transportation costs
• 18:41
  of hauling the blade off, of paying someone to recycle it, of paying for a
• 18:45
  new blade, um, and everything just to kind of be bamboozled in that way where
• 18:50
  you could've just repaired it on site is, is It's almost a no-brainer, yeah.
• 18:56
  I gotta say, that's like a real recycling win, right?
• 18:59
  Like, you can't get better than, than that.
• 19:01
  Uh, you know, you had a blade, you recycle it into a blade.
• 19:05
  It's, you know, performing exactly the same function, better than shredding it
• 19:08
  and hiding it in a, you know, a footpath, a sidewalk, or something like that.
• 19:12
  Stay with China a moment longer, because the product strategy tells
• 19:15
  you as much as the project map.
• 19:17
  Mingyang Smart Energy has unveiled the Tianchi MCD 5 MW turbine
• 19:22
  at its factory in Guizhou.
• 19:24
  It's the first machine in the company's new medium-speed compact drive platform,
• 19:28
  a semi-direct drive that Mingyang says cuts component count by 60%.
• 19:33
  And it is built for sites nobody used to bother with: mountains, plateaus,
• 19:38
  places where the wind averages four and a half meters per second.
• 19:42
  Now, Yolanda, 5 MW is pretty big for an onshore turbine in locations.
• 19:47
  It sounds like, you know, these locations, aside from the, like, less than ideal
• 19:52
  wind resource, also sounds like places where it's actually, you know, transport
• 19:56
  might be a bit of a constraint.
• 19:58
  I wonder what their strategy is gonna be to get those large components
• 20:02
  and installation equipment in.
• 20:04
  Yeah, I mean, it's, it's not gonna be the first site, I think, that we've
• 20:07
  seen that where they have to develop some sort of game-changing vessel
• 20:14
  or crane or something to be able to, to get things, uh, to the site.
• 20:20
  Uh, my, my first thought honestly was just kind of like, "Oh goodness,
• 20:24
  that might be a lightning nightmare depending on, on where they're located."
• 20:29
  Yeah, that's true.
• 20:29
  Like we've seen in Japan, they have all their turbines on the ridges where
• 20:33
  the wind speeds are great, at least.
• 20:35
  Um, but they have been just absolutely destroyed by lightning, like really,
• 20:40
  really dealing with extreme situations.
• 20:43
  I think also, like these are low wind speed sites.
• 20:46
  Like what, what did they say?
• 20:46
  Four and a half meters per second average wind speeds?
• 20:50
  I mean, that's like half what you would consider a good, a good site, right?
• 20:54
  And we know that the power in wind, it goes, like it increases
• 20:58
  with the cube of wind speed.
• 21:00
  So, um, you know, like if you double the wind speed, you
• 21:04
  get eight times as much power.
• 21:05
  So it's like all of the challenges associated with a high wind speed site
• 21:11
  in the mountains or, you know, somewhere tricky to get to you know, at least
• 21:15
  you've got eight times the power to make up for the effort of maintaining it.
• 21:19
  Uh, just it seems like, like a lot of effort to get to a
• 21:23
  low wind speed site, right?
• 21:25
  I think these turbines, the cut-in wind speed is gonna be two and a half meters
• 21:30
  per second, so you know, again, like you can reduce your, yeah, like the, the wind
• 21:36
  speed a- again by another factor of eight.
• 21:38
  It's almost nothing at that wind speed.
• 21:40
  It really, yeah, I don't know that you can make up for a low
• 21:45
  wind speed site by having a really low cut-in wind speed, right?
• 21:48
  Like, you're still gonna end up with low power across the board.
• 21:52
  Yeah, and it's, it's strange too, I mean, we said it's, it's
• 21:56
  a mountainous region, right?
• 21:58
  And so, and the transportation in itself, I mean, we talked about the idea of
• 22:03
  bringing them in is gonna be difficult.
• 22:05
  But I know that a lot of times we see a lot of blades that have issues down
• 22:10
  the line because of the transportation issues and because of the way that
• 22:13
  maybe they, they didn't use the lifting points right, and there might be a lot
• 22:18
  more transportation issues or damages from transportation on the site if
• 22:22
  they come in and it's a completely different terrain that they're used to.
• 22:27
  Uh, and teams have to build in a completely different terrain to- that-
• 22:32
  than they're used to, then that might also cause problems down the line.
• 22:37
  Not to mention the idea that I know sometimes in sites where there's already
• 22:43
  roads, uh, it, it, because of the position of the turbines, because of the, the
• 22:47
  way that things are, are mapped out in development and construction, sometimes
• 22:52
  it's a, a hassle for operations to, to get the correct cranes or trucks or everything
• 22:57
  in there to do any sort of maintenance.
• 22:59
  Uh, so I can't imagine in a place where it's just really, really
• 23:04
  difficult to get to in general.
• 23:06
  Yeah, and especially over the lifetime, you know, maintenance
• 23:10
  i- is gonna be such a challenge.
• 23:12
  So I think that it sounds like they're aware of that because their emphasis with
• 23:17
  this new platform, dropping the component count by 60%, that's a claim from Ming
• 23:23
  Yang that I haven't seen the details of.
• 23:25
  It seems highly implausible but, um, yeah, I would wanna look into
• 23:29
  that a bit more to believe it.
• 23:31
  But they also say that their new bearings and gearbox features lift reliability by
• 23:35
  10%, so yeah, I think that that is going to make their job a little bit easier,
• 23:41
  but yeah, I don't know if it's enough that would make me wanna invest in a
• 23:45
  wind farm with a, what was the number?
• 23:48
  Four and a half meters per second average wind speed.
• 23:51
  Seems marginal at best.
• 23:53
  So new machines for marginal sites built in China and priced to compete.
• 23:59
  Now let's move to Denmark, where the employment numbers
• 24:01
  show what that competition feels like from the other side.
• 24:05
  Back in a moment.
• 24:09
  Delamination and bondline failures in blades are difficult
• 24:12
  problems to detect early.
• 24:14
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• 24:19
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• 24:24
  they become expensive burdens.
• 24:26
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• 24:31
  to find voids and cracks traditional inspections completely miss.
• 24:36
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• 24:40
  reports, and provides support to get your blades back in service.
• 24:44
  So visit cicndt.com because catching blade problems early will save you millions
• 24:55
  Numbers out of Denmark tell two stories at once.
• 24:58
  Green Power Denmark counted just under 110,000 full-time jobs across
• 25:03
  the Danish energy sector in 2025.
• 25:05
  That is up 1,526 positions or 1.4%, slightly ahead of
• 25:12
  Danish employment overall.
• 25:13
  That is the good news.
• 25:15
  Inside the wind sector, employment fell to 32,700, a drop of roughly 500.
• 25:22
  Green Power Denmark blames international competition and
• 25:25
  unfavorable market conditions.
• 25:27
  Its chief economist calls the dip normal You know what, Yolanda?
• 25:31
  I think that if Denmark's labor market is weak in the wind industry, there
• 25:35
  are many countries outside of Denmark that would wanna snap up that talent.
• 25:39
  I know that my own company, Pardalote, is included in those numbers of people that
• 25:44
  would really like to have Danish talent.
• 25:46
  I'm trying to s- hire someone currently that's got wind turbine
• 25:49
  blade expertise, and I tell you what, that is not easy to do in Australia.
• 25:53
  So I would say if there are any Danes listening or watching who fancy a
• 25:57
  move to Australia, then please do get in touch if you have some excellent
• 26:01
  wind turbine blade experience.
• 26:03
  You guys would have a lovely, lovely boss.
• 26:05
  I've- I just gotta say that.
• 26:06
  The learnings that you have in Denmark and just the, the, the school- not just
• 26:11
  from the schooling, the, the onsite, I mean, it- it's just historically Denmark's
• 26:16
  been really, really great in, in wind.
• 26:20
  And there's just so many bright minds, um, that d- I mean, if, if they can't
• 26:26
  find a j- a job in Denmark, then I, I agree that there's a lot of places in
• 26:31
  wind that if they're, they're okay with moving, they'll, they'll find a, a good
• 26:37
  spot that'll receive them really happily.
• 26:39
  I know it is a bit of a, like, a cultural blocker.
• 26:42
  Danes more than other nationalities that I know are, are really, um, I don't
• 26:48
  wanna say attached, it makes it sound like not quite the word I'm looking for,
• 26:52
  but they, they do really appreciate the region that they're from and, you know,
• 26:56
  family is so important to Danes, so not the easiest thing to just say, "Just
• 27:00
  move to the other side of the world."
• 27:01
  But you know, I did it.
• 27:03
  It, it can be done and, uh, yeah, Australia is, has got very nice
• 27:08
  weather, especially at the moment.
• 27:10
  It's, um, it's gonna be… It's been, like, in the high teens Celsius all this
• 27:15
  week, and this is, I'm in Canberra in still winter and, uh, yeah, like, on
• 27:21
  the weekend it's gonna be 20 degrees.
• 27:23
  It's, you know, normally 15 degrees is a really great one-off day in winter.
• 27:28
  It was my birthday this week and in Denmark there is a, a saying or
• 27:32
  a, you know, a belief that if you have good weather on your birthday,
• 27:35
  then that means that you must have been really good all year.
• 27:38
  And the weather was just, like, unprecedentedly good for my
• 27:41
  birthday, um, yeah, for a winter day.
• 27:44
  So obviously I was very, very good this year.
• 27:47
  You're a great person, and happy belated birthday.
• 27:50
  Thank you.
• 27:51
  But it is something that I say every time we get another story about
• 27:54
  another Danish wind energy company that's, you know, doing layoffs and,
• 27:58
  you know, I'm honestly surprised that it's only 500 fallen in wind energy.
• 28:02
  If you look at, like, even just the job losses at LM Wind Power alone, um, I think
• 28:08
  that it would be about that many, right?
• 28:10
  And so there are obviously some other companies um, growing to
• 28:14
  absorb some of the job losses, 'cause for sure we've covered more than
• 28:17
  500 job losses just on the show.
• 28:20
  But I know I always feel really sad, um, not just for the people involved
• 28:24
  who y- you know, probably love wind energy and wanted to work in that
• 28:27
  field, but I feel sad that, you know, this was such a strength for Denmark,
• 28:31
  their, their wind industry, that they had been, you know, developing this
• 28:34
  expertise since the '70s, honestly.
• 28:36
  Uh, really, really world leading and, uh, of course, like, globalization means that
• 28:41
  you can't, like, stay siloed forever, and Denmark obviously also took advantage of
• 28:46
  that globalization to, you know, export.
• 28:49
  Wind industry was a huge export market for Denmark, and still is.
• 28:53
  Um, but I do, I, I just feel really bad at the companies that are
• 28:56
  losing, um, all of that, you know, institutional knowledge and the really,
• 29:00
  really deep specialist knowledge.
• 29:02
  It's, um, yeah.
• 29:04
  Uh, and they'll go on to, you know, bring new skills to other
• 29:07
  industries, but it just makes me sad.
• 29:09
  As a wind energy lover and, um, you know, somebody who has a lot of
• 29:12
  friends that work in wind industry in Denmark, I do feel, feel sad.
• 29:16
  And there are some of my old colleagues who are amazing, like, literally the
• 29:20
  best engineer that I ever worked with, an electrical engineer, it, it was not
• 29:25
  easy for him to find a new job in wind.
• 29:27
  I'm actually not sure if he's working in that industry now.
• 29:30
  And plenty of other, like, really, really talented engineers that have
• 29:34
  gone on to other, um, yeah, other different kinds of industries, and
• 29:38
  it just makes me a little bit sad.
• 29:39
  Yeah.
• 29:39
  I mean, there are a lot of people too that are com- And I agree, it's sad.
• 29:42
  It's really sad.
• 29:43
  But I, there are a lot of people too, some friends that, uh, just,
• 29:46
  you know, started doing consulting on their own, and it's, it's good to see
• 29:50
  that they're still in wind, you know?
• 29:51
  Because they're, they, they're so smart and they have so much knowledge of so many
• 29:56
  years in the industry that they bring to the table, um, that, I mean, it, it might
• 30:02
  even work out better for them, right?
• 30:04
  Because maybe now they're not just wor- focusing on Denmark itself,
• 30:08
  and now they get to, to expand and do what they evidently love to do,
• 30:13
  uh, the, for clients around the world, which is really exciting.
• 30:16
  Well, that wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast,
• 30:20
  and my first as the primary host of the show, so let me know if you think
• 30:25
  I did a terrible job in the comments.
• 30:27
  Comments boost engagement, make me look better.
• 30:30
  So if today's discussion sparked any questions or ideas,
• 30:34
  we'd love to hear from you.
• 30:35
  Reach out to us on LinkedIn, and if you found value in today's
• 30:38
  conversation, please leave us a review.
• 30:40
  It really helps other wind energy professionals discover the show.
• 30:44
  And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
• 30:47
  For Jolanda, and Matthew and Allen Cole in their absence, I'm Rosemary
• 30:51
  Barnes, and we'll see you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy podcast.