Latest / The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast / India Locks Down Turbine Data, Danish Wind Jobs Dip
Transcript
- 0:02The Uptime Wind Energy podcast, brought to you by StrikeTape.
- 0:06Protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide.
- 0:10Visit striketape.com.
- 0:12And now, your hosts
- 0:17Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast.
- 0:20I'm your host, Rosemary Barnes, and I'm filling in for Allen
- 0:22today here with Jolanda Pedron.
- 0:25All right, onto our first story.
- 0:27India is drawing a line around its wind data.
- 0:29The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has ordered every turbine maker on the
- 0:33approved list of models and manufacturers to report where its data actually lives.
- 0:38Data centers inside India, servers inside India, research centers inside India, and
- 0:44no real-time data leaving the country.
- 0:47The order went out last week with status reports due by month-end.
- 0:51And while the government tightens the rules on data,
- 0:54the hardware keeps moving in.
- 0:56Flender has just opened another generator plant in Chennai Yolanda, I think this is
- 1:01gonna have a large impact on the number of companies who are, you know, there's a
- 1:04lot of companies around today developing, like, smarts for wind turbines.
- 1:08There's a lot of scope to operate turbines better, to improve power output, reduce
- 1:13maintenance costs, et cetera, and y- a lot of companies are taking advantage of that.
- 1:17Even Patlow has some projects going on in that sort of area.
- 1:20What do you think about the impact this will be?
- 1:22Is India planning to develop their entire own ecosystem for
- 1:26that aspect of the industry?
- 1:27I
- 1:27mean, it looks like it, right?
- 1:29Which is really, I mean, kind of groundbreaking.
- 1:32I know that we talked a couple weeks ago about Europe sort of being a little
- 1:36bit scared of bringing in, um, different manufacturers from Asia, um, and just
- 1:43the, the idea of cybersecurity being something really prevalent and really
- 1:48important to all of these people.
- 1:49So just if India starts siloing everything and that works, maybe
- 1:55that'll translate to Europe.
- 1:57Do you think that it, it can work?
- 1:58Has India got the expertise in place already to, to make this work, or is
- 2:04this gonna be a real, like, handbrake on their, their wind industry continuing
- 2:08to develop as fast as it has been?
- 2:10I mean, I'm really curious to see it because I don't know
- 2:12if they'll bring in a lot more experts to be able to, to do that.
- 2:18I know the Indian, um, operating environment is quite
- 2:22different to other locations.
- 2:24I mean, it's, it's similar in a way to Australia in its
- 2:26dissimilarity, if that makes sense.
- 2:28I, I think there's a lot of really India-specific problems, so of course
- 2:31Indian companies are gonna be best placed to take advantage of that.
- 2:35But what we've seen so far is a lot of, uh, companies from Europe or
- 2:40America coming in to y- you know, like tweak the way that they attack
- 2:46similar problems in other markets.
- 2:49They're, you know, moving in to understand India better and take advantage of that.
- 2:53Now, of course, like not every smart operating method or aerodynamic
- 2:57improvement, they don't all need real-time data, and probably
- 3:00most of them don't actually.
- 3:02So I think it's not gonna like s- snip off this entire kind of improvement.
- 3:06But it is really interesting.
- 3:08It's quite, like it is quite severe, the restrictions, and I haven't heard of any
- 3:13other market, um, that is doing that.
- 3:16I, I don't know, do you think it's warranted or is it
- 3:19maybe like overly paranoid?
- 3:20I know when I heard that in, um, in Europe they're not allowing Chinese manufacturers
- 3:25of inverters, for example, and I just felt like, "Ugh, is that a bit over the top?"
- 3:30I'm not sure.
- 3:31Um, yeah, what's your opinion, Yolanda?
- 3:33I think it, it might be a little bit over the top.
- 3:36We live in such a globalized world that the idea of one country
- 3:39just siloing completely is, is a little bit strange to me.
- 3:44But- I guess if, if that's, they have a, a reason for concern,
- 3:51then I guess it might make sense.
- 3:54But to your earlier point, like, I don't know if the cost of doing
- 3:59this would also come into play
- 4:03Yeah, I think that there's always a, a, a trade-off.
- 4:05It's like when you have any kind of l- local content rule, which is similar
- 4:09in a way because it forces, um, yeah, it, it forces your own ecosystem to
- 4:15develop, and that's, that's great.
- 4:17Like, it is a missed opportunity if you just have, you know, like
- 4:20a huge new industry and you just import it all, then that i- is a lost
- 4:23opportunity for your own economy.
- 4:25But I mean, in the past, India has had pretty strong local content rules, and
- 4:29they do have a bunch of wind energy manufacturing, um, within the country.
- 4:34They are a country known for really great engineering, so it's for sure
- 4:37not beyond them to, you know, step up.
- 4:40So yeah, I guess time will tell if this is a smart move from that point of view.
- 4:44I don't think it's actually the motivation behind this rule.
- 4:46I think it's more of a, like, a cybersecurity, um, kind of perspective
- 4:51where you don't want, you know, overseas companies having the ability to shut
- 4:56down your energy system, for example.
- 4:59Um, so yeah, but it, it has the potential to have that other effect
- 5:04of, you know, like boosting the local industry or alternatively
- 5:10just slowing down the whole industry because they can't get anything done.
- 5:13I guess that's always that balance that you need to, need to look at
- 5:16when you're looking at local content.
- 5:18So India is deciding who gets to control the data inside a turbine.
- 5:22Our next story is about something inside that same turbine nobody
- 5:25controls yet, the air moving across a blade that isn't turning.
- 5:29A parked turbine might look like the safest thing on the site.
- 5:33Blades are locked, the rotor's still, nothing turning, nothing generating.
- 5:37But a new study says that stillness is not safety.
- 5:40When the rotor is locked and the wind shifts, air can strike the
- 5:43trailing edge first and travel backwards across the blade.
- 5:46That is reverse flow, and in reverse flow, the models this industry uses to
- 5:51predict blade loads start to fall apart.
- 5:54Field data cited in the study suggests blades on turbines above 15 megawatts
- 5:58can go aerodynamically unstable at winds as low as eight meters per second.
- 6:03That is nowhere near a storm.
- 6:05So this is actually already definitely a known issue, and I know that modern
- 6:10wind turbines don't usually park with locked rotors, right, Yolanda?
- 6:13Yeah.
- 6:14We, we saw that a locked rotor during installation was one of the causes
- 6:18of the Vineyard Wind fiasco, right?
- 6:20Where broken blade pieces washed up on the beach.
- 6:22So definitely something that's known about.
- 6:24And it's something that even onshore you have a, you have your
- 6:28system so that it tracks sort of where the wind is coming from.
- 6:31So even if it's stopped, it won't just be stopped at a specific angle,
- 6:37particularly in case the, the winds shift.
- 6:39Yeah, and I've seen examples of blades failing when, um, there was
- 6:44a storm and there was power lost, so they weren't able to yaw or pitch a
- 6:48turbine, and that also can cause…
- 6:51Like, any time that- Wind is going in a different direction than what the
- 6:55turbine desi- was designed for, you'll get unpredictable stuff happening
- 6:59and often, like, really bad loads.
- 7:01Like the harshest, conditions, loading conditions that a wind turbine blade
- 7:05has to withstand is not in operation.
- 7:08It's if you've got just wind hitting like a bluff body, they call it,
- 7:12where a gust of wind just hits flat on the blade and tries to bend it.
- 7:15Like that is way, way stronger loading than, um, than anything
- 7:21it would see operationally.
- 7:22If you're looking at, you know, like a really severe storm, like a one in 50
- 7:26year kind of, um, wind speeds, and then if you have flow going on weird angles
- 7:32where it's creating lift, then you can ratchet up those loads even more.
- 7:36So for sure a known issue.
- 7:38This study, it, it singled out turbines above 15 megawatts, which are huge.
- 7:43That's a, you know, like a big offshore wind turbine.
- 7:46But I don't think it's limited to that.
- 7:48Like what would you think, Yolanda?
- 7:49Is this, is this like purely a big blades thing, or is this
- 7:51something that actually all wind turbines need to take into account?
- 7:55Oh, this is definitely something that all wind turbines need to take into account.
- 7:58It's something that we've seen a lot in the US as well, um, onshore and
- 8:02s- wind f- uh, smaller wind farms and wind farms that have, you know,
- 8:07200 plus, um, wind turbines on them, uh, the, the 1X or 2X turbines.
- 8:13Uh, this is also ver- a, a reason that it's really important, to check your
- 8:20systems constantly, and I know that a lot of the, owner/operators do that,
- 8:26in their regular maintenance checks.
- 8:29but it's, an issue that, if you don't have the correct systems in place or
- 8:37if you just remotely reset things, because you see an error that maybe
- 8:42you thought, "Oh, that, must be just a glitch," then you start having issues
- 8:47like this that can cause catastrophic failures, not just on the blade but on
- 8:50the turbine itself if, the blade ends up hitting the turbine, um, it, it
- 8:56ends up hitting the, the tower itself.
- 8:59Uh, and then a similar issue, um, that can happen too is when you don't have
- 9:07the correct systems in place for, for an emergency, and so the turbine can
- 9:12just overspin, and that also causes a lot of blade failures, uh, both
- 9:18onshore and, and offshore as well.
- 9:20But I think onshore it's, it's just the, the wind farms are so big that
- 9:24it's It's easy or, or easier to miss, like, one or two turbines,
- 9:31um, when you're doing those checks.
- 9:33Yeah.
- 9:33And I think another issue with keeping the rotors locked out, and one of
- 9:36the big reasons why they moved to pinwheeling as the, you know, um,
- 9:41turbine off kind of configuration, was with the, the bearings, right?
- 9:45Like, it's not good for the bearings to be totally stationary.
- 9:49Um, so I think that it's better to, yeah, pinwheel.
- 9:52It's lower loads on the bearings.
- 9:54Something, um, similar to this as well, right, and, and I think Wind Power
- 9:59posted about it the other day, um, about just, oh, it's really common for, for
- 10:05sites to, to think of, of a financial solution to, to negative pricing being
- 10:12just fully stopping turbines that might not be producing at positive pricing.
- 10:19Um, and then, uh, that can also cause a lot of loading issues because you're,
- 10:25you're having a, a turbine at, at full capacity, and then it just stops.
- 10:28Yeah, that's true.
- 10:29The braking loads are, are one of the more extreme loads that
- 10:32turbines have to withstand also.
- 10:34I mean, hopefully if they're curtailing, um, voluntarily, uh, they're not doing
- 10:39an emergency brake kind of level.
- 10:41I hope that they're being a bit more gentle on their turbines, but
- 10:43yeah, for sure, like, the easiest thing for a turbine to do is just
- 10:46operate normally its whole lifetime.
- 10:49That's exactly what it was designed to do, and anything that deviates
- 10:51from that can reduce the t- life of the turbine, complicate things.
- 10:56So machines keep getting bigger, and the physics keep getting harder.
- 11:00Meanwhile, the map keeps getting wider.
- 11:03Next, a Chinese manufacturer planting both turbines and spare
- 11:06parts across Southeast Asia.
- 11:08Stay with us
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- 11:46China's turbine makers are no longer just shipping machines.
- 11:50They are building the network that keeps those machines running.
- 11:53Envision Energy has secured its largest wind project in Vietnam, 200 megawatts
- 11:58with REE Energy, 25 turbines, grid connection targeted for October 2027.
- 12:04It is also the company's largest overseas nearshore project to date.
- 12:09And Batangas, Philippines, Envision has opened a distribution center holding
- 12:14major components and spare parts close to the projects that need them.
- 12:17Turbines first, then the parts network.
- 12:20Yelena, I'm just wondering if spare parts was a big headache for you when you worked
- 12:24in asset management, and do you think that this plan of, that Envision has is
- 12:29gonna be a successful one for Vietnam?
- 12:31I think spare parts, having spare parts on site or near a
- 12:34site is always a good strategy.
- 12:37I know that sometimes it can get the, the accounting itself can get a little bit
- 12:40difficult because for at least, you know, in the US for tax purposes, you can't
- 12:45really sell something from one project to another, so you, you have to be a little
- 12:49bit careful, um, as far as when you hold a part or you're sending one part that
- 12:55might fit in multiple sites and where you're technically buying that from.
- 13:00Uh, but I think the spare parts that they're having here I, I think it's
- 13:07a, it's a really good idea, right?
- 13:08Because oftentimes you might have a, a big, um, there might be a big queue for
- 13:15a particular component that fails years after, uh, it was produced, and then you--
- 13:24I mean, if you need it now and there's a big queue now, then you need to wait
- 13:28until it can get to site, until it can be produced, until it's your turn in line.
- 13:33Uh, and so just having those components on site or really close to the
- 13:37site I think is a really good idea.
- 13:39Yeah, it's really challenging.
- 13:40Like it's, it, it's easy to imagine how you could organize a spare parts
- 13:45network or, you know, just l- literally a bunch of warehouses holding spare
- 13:48parts for the kind of, you know, like one-off failures that happen routinely
- 13:53throughout a wind turbine's life.
- 13:55But when you start to see a serial issue or if there's just, you know,
- 13:58like statistically every now and then you'll get clusters of failures even
- 14:01if it's not a serial issue, that's when it starts to get really hard.
- 14:05So I know in Australia, and I'm sure it's the case elsewhere, you
- 14:09kind of got to pair your spare parts inventory with the capability
- 14:14to repair and refurbish as well.
- 14:16Because sometimes it's like, you know, you might do, like speaking of blades, which
- 14:20is my specialty, you might have a bill of, you know, maybe even a million dollars
- 14:26to do a really big repair on a blade, but that's better than spending probably,
- 14:31honestly, the similar amount of money on a brand-new blade, but then that comes with
- 14:35a six-month or a 12-month, um, wait time.
- 14:38You know, like obviously you're gonna save overall if you can
- 14:40get that turbine up faster.
- 14:42And we also see a lot of, um, in-country capabilities to refurbish, you know, all
- 14:47of the drivetrain components and, and everything like that, and I think that
- 14:50that is such an important complement.
- 14:53Like your spare parts strategy should never just be about having them
- 14:57physically sitting there, 'cause if you were to have enough to cover any
- 15:02situation, then, you know, most of your components would go unused over
- 15:06the, the lifetime of the wind farm.
- 15:08And it's not like they're just swap in, swap out for any
- 15:11different wind turbine, right?
- 15:12Like they are usually quite turbine specific.
- 15:14I completely agree with the idea, especially with blades and how trif-
- 15:18tricky some of the new blades and their, their repair processes can be.
- 15:22It's really important to have a plan and not necessarily just, "Okay, now
- 15:25I'm gonna throw this one out and bring in a new one, and always hold a new
- 15:28one," because that's really expensive.
- 15:30Um, and it's also really, really important to, uh, that doesn't matter
- 15:34what particular part it is, that whatever storage facility you're using,
- 15:39that you're, you make sure that the environmental factors impacting the
- 15:45spare parts are taken care of, right?
- 15:48So, um, I know I've seen spare parts for a battery site or spare parts for
- 15:54a solar site, uh, that just kind of end up degrading even more than the
- 15:59parts that were in operations because no one was really looking at them.
- 16:01They were just outside in the elements, and then you just wasted millions and
- 16:06millions of dollars for really nothing.
- 16:09Um, something that you need to take to the landfill eventually or report.
- 16:12Hopefully recycle it if it's electronic waste.
- 16:14I completely agree that to, to be able to, to have any sort of replacement strategy,
- 16:22you, or any sort of spare parts strategy, you need to make sure that, that the
- 16:26replacement strategy is there and that the refurbishment strategy is there.
- 16:29If there's anything that you can recycle in-house and use in-house, that's
- 16:34a lot better than just landfilling anything or sending anything to
- 16:39be recycled elsewhere where it just piles and piles and piles up.
- 16:43Yeah.
- 16:44I think also it's reassuring if you're buying wind turbines from maybe a, a
- 16:49less well-known manufacturer or less well-known in your country, I think it is
- 16:53reassuring to have a, like just a stack of spare parts on site, because that will
- 16:57give you the confidence that if and when things start to go wrong, you know, a
- 17:02few 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
- 17:10well-known, uh, manufacturers into some of the less well-known ones and have the
- 17:15confidence that y- you know, you wouldn't have any- anyone to ask what they're
- 17:19like for service, uh, for example, and you might also not have confidence that
- 17:23they're even gonna exist in, you know, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years' time.
- 17:27So having the parts on site can give you that confidence.
- 17:31Although, as you say, if those parts aren't actually functional when you
- 17:35go to use them, that can be worse than not having them in the first place
- 17:38because you thought that you were okay and then you find yourself scrambling.
- 17:42That's not ideal at all.
- 17:44Yeah, I completely agree.
- 17:45I did hear about someone who, um, had a, a blade that they They thought
- 17:53they, they didn't really have the capabilities in-house to, to restore
- 17:57it, and so they sent it to be recycled, and then later it was sold
- 18:01to them by their OEM, um, on site.
- 18:05And so I think that also speaks to the…
- 18:08And, and it was just because someone noticed the serial number was
- 18:11exactly the same and kind of noticed.
- 18:13It was, it was really honestly kind of a funny, funny thing in retrospect.
- 18:17But, uh, and it, it just speaks to the idea of you really need to
- 18:21understand if you're holding spare parts and, and just in general, even
- 18:24if you don't wanna hold spare parts.
- 18:26Um, the idea of being able to refurbish or have a plan to be able to refurbish
- 18:31the, the materials that you have on site is really, really, really important
- 18:34because it can save you so much money.
- 18:37I mean, the, I mean, the, for that case, just the, the transportation costs
- 18:41of hauling the blade off, of paying someone to recycle it, of paying for a
- 18:45new blade, um, and everything just to kind of be bamboozled in that way where
- 18:50you could've just repaired it on site is, is It's almost a no-brainer, yeah.
- 18:56I gotta say, that's like a real recycling win, right?
- 18:59Like, you can't get better than, than that.
- 19:01Uh, you know, you had a blade, you recycle it into a blade.
- 19:05It's, you know, performing exactly the same function, better than shredding it
- 19:08and hiding it in a, you know, a footpath, a sidewalk, or something like that.
- 19:12Stay with China a moment longer, because the product strategy tells
- 19:15you as much as the project map.
- 19:17Mingyang Smart Energy has unveiled the Tianchi MCD 5 MW turbine
- 19:22at its factory in Guizhou.
- 19:24It's the first machine in the company's new medium-speed compact drive platform,
- 19:28a semi-direct drive that Mingyang says cuts component count by 60%.
- 19:33And it is built for sites nobody used to bother with: mountains, plateaus,
- 19:38places where the wind averages four and a half meters per second.
- 19:42Now, Yolanda, 5 MW is pretty big for an onshore turbine in locations.
- 19:47It sounds like, you know, these locations, aside from the, like, less than ideal
- 19:52wind resource, also sounds like places where it's actually, you know, transport
- 19:56might be a bit of a constraint.
- 19:58I wonder what their strategy is gonna be to get those large components
- 20:02and installation equipment in.
- 20:04Yeah, I mean, it's, it's not gonna be the first site, I think, that we've
- 20:07seen that where they have to develop some sort of game-changing vessel
- 20:14or crane or something to be able to, to get things, uh, to the site.
- 20:20Uh, my, my first thought honestly was just kind of like, "Oh goodness,
- 20:24that might be a lightning nightmare depending on, on where they're located."
- 20:29Yeah, that's true.
- 20:29Like we've seen in Japan, they have all their turbines on the ridges where
- 20:33the wind speeds are great, at least.
- 20:35Um, but they have been just absolutely destroyed by lightning, like really,
- 20:40really dealing with extreme situations.
- 20:43I think also, like these are low wind speed sites.
- 20:46Like what, what did they say?
- 20:46Four and a half meters per second average wind speeds?
- 20:50I mean, that's like half what you would consider a good, a good site, right?
- 20:54And we know that the power in wind, it goes, like it increases
- 20:58with the cube of wind speed.
- 21:00So, um, you know, like if you double the wind speed, you
- 21:04get eight times as much power.
- 21:05So it's like all of the challenges associated with a high wind speed site
- 21:11in the mountains or, you know, somewhere tricky to get to you know, at least
- 21:15you've got eight times the power to make up for the effort of maintaining it.
- 21:19Uh, just it seems like, like a lot of effort to get to a
- 21:23low wind speed site, right?
- 21:25I think these turbines, the cut-in wind speed is gonna be two and a half meters
- 21:30per second, so you know, again, like you can reduce your, yeah, like the, the wind
- 21:36speed a- again by another factor of eight.
- 21:38It's almost nothing at that wind speed.
- 21:40It really, yeah, I don't know that you can make up for a low
- 21:45wind speed site by having a really low cut-in wind speed, right?
- 21:48Like, you're still gonna end up with low power across the board.
- 21:52Yeah, and it's, it's strange too, I mean, we said it's, it's
- 21:56a mountainous region, right?
- 21:58And so, and the transportation in itself, I mean, we talked about the idea of
- 22:03bringing them in is gonna be difficult.
- 22:05But I know that a lot of times we see a lot of blades that have issues down
- 22:10the line because of the transportation issues and because of the way that
- 22:13maybe they, they didn't use the lifting points right, and there might be a lot
- 22:18more transportation issues or damages from transportation on the site if
- 22:22they come in and it's a completely different terrain that they're used to.
- 22:27Uh, and teams have to build in a completely different terrain to- that-
- 22:32than they're used to, then that might also cause problems down the line.
- 22:37Not to mention the idea that I know sometimes in sites where there's already
- 22:43roads, uh, it, it, because of the position of the turbines, because of the, the
- 22:47way that things are, are mapped out in development and construction, sometimes
- 22:52it's a, a hassle for operations to, to get the correct cranes or trucks or everything
- 22:57in there to do any sort of maintenance.
- 22:59Uh, so I can't imagine in a place where it's just really, really
- 23:04difficult to get to in general.
- 23:06Yeah, and especially over the lifetime, you know, maintenance
- 23:10i- is gonna be such a challenge.
- 23:12So I think that it sounds like they're aware of that because their emphasis with
- 23:17this new platform, dropping the component count by 60%, that's a claim from Ming
- 23:23Yang that I haven't seen the details of.
- 23:25It seems highly implausible but, um, yeah, I would wanna look into
- 23:29that a bit more to believe it.
- 23:31But they also say that their new bearings and gearbox features lift reliability by
- 23:3510%, so yeah, I think that that is going to make their job a little bit easier,
- 23:41but yeah, I don't know if it's enough that would make me wanna invest in a
- 23:45wind farm with a, what was the number?
- 23:48Four and a half meters per second average wind speed.
- 23:51Seems marginal at best.
- 23:53So new machines for marginal sites built in China and priced to compete.
- 23:59Now let's move to Denmark, where the employment numbers
- 24:01show what that competition feels like from the other side.
- 24:05Back in a moment.
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- 24:55Numbers out of Denmark tell two stories at once.
- 24:58Green Power Denmark counted just under 110,000 full-time jobs across
- 25:03the Danish energy sector in 2025.
- 25:05That is up 1,526 positions or 1.4%, slightly ahead of
- 25:12Danish employment overall.
- 25:13That is the good news.
- 25:15Inside the wind sector, employment fell to 32,700, a drop of roughly 500.
- 25:22Green Power Denmark blames international competition and
- 25:25unfavorable market conditions.
- 25:27Its chief economist calls the dip normal You know what, Yolanda?
- 25:31I think that if Denmark's labor market is weak in the wind industry, there
- 25:35are many countries outside of Denmark that would wanna snap up that talent.
- 25:39I know that my own company, Pardalote, is included in those numbers of people that
- 25:44would really like to have Danish talent.
- 25:46I'm trying to s- hire someone currently that's got wind turbine
- 25:49blade expertise, and I tell you what, that is not easy to do in Australia.
- 25:53So I would say if there are any Danes listening or watching who fancy a
- 25:57move to Australia, then please do get in touch if you have some excellent
- 26:01wind turbine blade experience.
- 26:03You guys would have a lovely, lovely boss.
- 26:05I've- I just gotta say that.
- 26:06The learnings that you have in Denmark and just the, the, the school- not just
- 26:11from the schooling, the, the onsite, I mean, it- it's just historically Denmark's
- 26:16been really, really great in, in wind.
- 26:20And there's just so many bright minds, um, that d- I mean, if, if they can't
- 26:26find a j- a job in Denmark, then I, I agree that there's a lot of places in
- 26:31wind that if they're, they're okay with moving, they'll, they'll find a, a good
- 26:37spot that'll receive them really happily.
- 26:39I know it is a bit of a, like, a cultural blocker.
- 26:42Danes more than other nationalities that I know are, are really, um, I don't
- 26:48wanna say attached, it makes it sound like not quite the word I'm looking for,
- 26:52but they, they do really appreciate the region that they're from and, you know,
- 26:56family is so important to Danes, so not the easiest thing to just say, "Just
- 27:00move to the other side of the world."
- 27:01But you know, I did it.
- 27:03It, it can be done and, uh, yeah, Australia is, has got very nice
- 27:08weather, especially at the moment.
- 27:10It's, um, it's gonna be… It's been, like, in the high teens Celsius all this
- 27:15week, and this is, I'm in Canberra in still winter and, uh, yeah, like, on
- 27:21the weekend it's gonna be 20 degrees.
- 27:23It's, you know, normally 15 degrees is a really great one-off day in winter.
- 27:28It was my birthday this week and in Denmark there is a, a saying or
- 27:32a, you know, a belief that if you have good weather on your birthday,
- 27:35then that means that you must have been really good all year.
- 27:38And the weather was just, like, unprecedentedly good for my
- 27:41birthday, um, yeah, for a winter day.
- 27:44So obviously I was very, very good this year.
- 27:47You're a great person, and happy belated birthday.
- 27:50Thank you.
- 27:51But it is something that I say every time we get another story about
- 27:54another Danish wind energy company that's, you know, doing layoffs and,
- 27:58you know, I'm honestly surprised that it's only 500 fallen in wind energy.
- 28:02If you look at, like, even just the job losses at LM Wind Power alone, um, I think
- 28:08that it would be about that many, right?
- 28:10And so there are obviously some other companies um, growing to
- 28:14absorb some of the job losses, 'cause for sure we've covered more than
- 28:17500 job losses just on the show.
- 28:20But I know I always feel really sad, um, not just for the people involved
- 28:24who y- you know, probably love wind energy and wanted to work in that
- 28:27field, but I feel sad that, you know, this was such a strength for Denmark,
- 28:31their, their wind industry, that they had been, you know, developing this
- 28:34expertise since the '70s, honestly.
- 28:36Uh, really, really world leading and, uh, of course, like, globalization means that
- 28:41you can't, like, stay siloed forever, and Denmark obviously also took advantage of
- 28:46that globalization to, you know, export.
- 28:49Wind industry was a huge export market for Denmark, and still is.
- 28:53Um, but I do, I, I just feel really bad at the companies that are
- 28:56losing, um, all of that, you know, institutional knowledge and the really,
- 29:00really deep specialist knowledge.
- 29:02It's, um, yeah.
- 29:04Uh, and they'll go on to, you know, bring new skills to other
- 29:07industries, but it just makes me sad.
- 29:09As a wind energy lover and, um, you know, somebody who has a lot of
- 29:12friends that work in wind industry in Denmark, I do feel, feel sad.
- 29:16And there are some of my old colleagues who are amazing, like, literally the
- 29:20best engineer that I ever worked with, an electrical engineer, it, it was not
- 29:25easy for him to find a new job in wind.
- 29:27I'm actually not sure if he's working in that industry now.
- 29:30And plenty of other, like, really, really talented engineers that have
- 29:34gone on to other, um, yeah, other different kinds of industries, and
- 29:38it just makes me a little bit sad.
- 29:39Yeah.
- 29:39I mean, there are a lot of people too that are com- And I agree, it's sad.
- 29:42It's really sad.
- 29:43But I, there are a lot of people too, some friends that, uh, just,
- 29:46you know, started doing consulting on their own, and it's, it's good to see
- 29:50that they're still in wind, you know?
- 29:51Because they're, they, they're so smart and they have so much knowledge of so many
- 29:56years in the industry that they bring to the table, um, that, I mean, it, it might
- 30:02even work out better for them, right?
- 30:04Because maybe now they're not just wor- focusing on Denmark itself,
- 30:08and now they get to, to expand and do what they evidently love to do,
- 30:13uh, the, for clients around the world, which is really exciting.
- 30:16Well, that wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast,
- 30:20and my first as the primary host of the show, so let me know if you think
- 30:25I did a terrible job in the comments.
- 30:27Comments boost engagement, make me look better.
- 30:30So if today's discussion sparked any questions or ideas,
- 30:34we'd love to hear from you.
- 30:35Reach out to us on LinkedIn, and if you found value in today's
- 30:38conversation, please leave us a review.
- 30:40It really helps other wind energy professionals discover the show.
- 30:44And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
- 30:47For Jolanda, and Matthew and Allen Cole in their absence, I'm Rosemary
- 30:51Barnes, and we'll see you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy podcast.