Deep dive into blade durability, Equinor pauses project, UK looks at crewless maintenance

Blades fail faster and more frequently than expected - and DNV has done a lot of research on how, and why, that's true. Allen, Joel and Rosemary discuss in detail what DNV describes as Thechallenges of wind turbine blade durability. Since Equinor has more experience in floating wind than anyone else, is the company's decision to postpone its Trollvind offshore initiative "indefinitely" a setback to the industry or a reasonable decision? In the UK, National Robotarium and Fugro are partnering on UNITE, a £1.4m project to develop autonomous and semi-autonomous ROVs capable of conducting subsea inspection, and maintenance and repair tasks. What's so new about it? Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.comDNV Report - https://www.dnv.com/Publications/the-challenges-of-wind-turbine-blade-durability-243601 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!  Episode 169 Joel Saxum: All right, Allen, I gotta tell you some news. I was floating through LinkedIn today. FabricAir bought Borealis Wind. Borealis Wind's been acquired. Allen Hall: Get out. Joel Saxum: I'm telling you, and, and the, you know, what makes me, I'm, I'm super happy for Borealis Wind but Daniela Roeper, if you're listening, why we didn't get the exclusive to, to let this out. Joel Saxum: We don't know.  Joel Saxum: Where's the love? Allen Hall: Where is the love? Exactly.  Joel Saxum: So we're, we're, we're gonna jump into some things this week. Maybe talk about this FabricAir and Borealis tie up here later on. But what we're gonna discuss now is Equinor actually pausing an offshore floating wind farm just kind of based on basically commercial right now. Joel Saxum: Is what it looks like, the technical side and the commercial side not lining up to be the project they want right now. And then also just a quick segment on e r for wind turbine services. So a project that Fugro's involved with and some other government agencies. To basically electrify and autonomize some of the offshore wind farm maintenance activities in the North Sea. Joel Saxum: And then we take a look at the recent publication from DNV on the challenges of wind turbine blade durability, and we ask Rosemary and Joel their thoughts on the industry leading publication from DNV. Talking about all the, the blade problems that exist and what to do about them. And Joel and Rosemary provide some really good perspectives on that. Joel Saxum: And then our wind farm of the week is the Rattlesnake Road Wind Farm up in Oregon. I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the Vice President of North American Sales for Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxum and renewables expert Rosemary Barnes. And this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Joel Saxum: Up in Norway, Equinor has put the Trollvind project on hold due to technical, regulatory and commercial challenges. The project was aimed to address the electrification needs in the oil and gas industry and provide power to the Bergen area. And obviously in Norway, anything offshore is gonna be floating. Joel Saxum: So the, the problem appears to be that the floating technology that they were going after, Wasn't fully developed enough for Equinor and obviously the project financing everything got more expensive over the last couple of years and, and the project didn't make any sense anymore. So they're, they're not necessarily killing it,