Sales vs. Engineering: Tension in Wind Turbine Development

In this episode, Allen, Joel, Phil, and Rosemary discuss new German legislation to streamline wind permitting, the economics of floating offshore wind in France, and Iberdrola's increased investments in offshore wind. They also delve into how the U.S. Production Tax Credit has impacted wind farm maintenance practices and explore the industry-wide challenges that arose when sales teams overpromised on turbine capabilities, creating tension with the engineering realities. 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: Down in Kyle, Texas... Joel Saxum: That's by me! Allen Hall: It's near Joel. That's why I'm bringing it up. They were trying to break a world record for the largest gathering of people with one name and despite having 706 Kyles they missed The bar because the crown is held by a town in Bosnia. They had 2, 300 people named Ivan together in 2017, but it seems a lot easier to do quite honestly. Having a lot of people named Kyle and Kyle, Texas, that's got to be relatively hard, Joel, because there's not, we know Kyle Weatherman, right? So we have a Kyle. We know, I know a couple of other Kyles, but I don't think I could get 2, 300 Kyles in a two town in Texas. Joel Saxum: I think we could do this one. We go to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. And see how many fills we can get. Allen Hall: Oooooh. Joel Saxum: It has to be on the groundhog day. Allen Hall: Phil, has that been tried? Philip Totaro: I, to my knowledge, it has not been tried. I have never heard of this. I'm befuddled by these what constitutes a Guinness World Record now? Shouldn't we be striving for things that are, like, advancing society, rather than, hey, can we get 8, 000 people with the same name in a fricking single town. I don't know. What are we doing? What are we doing? Allen Hall: I'm not with Phil. This is fun. We should do more of this. See, here's the problem with this whole thing in Kyle, Texas is that they chose the 416th ranked name. You got to pick something in the top 10. Well, Joel, the German government has agreed to speed up authorizations for wind turbines and industrial plants. The new law aims to enable faster construction through digitalization, And reducing bureaucratic hurdles. Plants affected include wind turbines, metal mills, foundries, waste disposal, and hydrogen production facilities. And I think Rosemary would be against the hydrogen production facility, but the change is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks and. Renewable energy plants will get special priority for faster approval under the coalition agreement. So that has been one of the big holdups in Germany in terms of wind deployment. They don't have the space to put up a thousand turbines, right? So you're getting turbines spread around the country a good bit. And every little province town has had restrictions, right? And they've been trying to remove those restrictions. Piece by piece. This is a big move for Germany, I think, Joel. Joel Saxum: Yeah. If you look at the way it's this, these things are rolling out in developments worldwide, right? So the ACP and the developers and people have been complaining about permit restrictions and let's get this thing streamlined, let's get this, able to put more Megawatts in the ground for renewable energy production. Everybody on the U S has been screaming about that. They've been screaming about it at wind.