The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast

Octopus Investments buys Golden Plains stage two for over A$2 billion. Plus, the blade defects new owners miss in due diligence, internal inspections, and the hosts’ conference hotel pet peeves.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Allen covers Ming Yang’s firewall from Beijing and Octopus Energy deal, US turbine orders hitting a three-year high, and Norway’s floating wind funding.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Teemu Vekkeli, Principal at Vekkeli Advisory, joins to discuss VC versus bootstrapping, budget cycles, and problems worth solving. Plus why trust drives sales in Japan, what site technicians know, and why every pitch eventually has to convince the CFO.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Ming Yang plans a 33 MW turbine while China pulls European tech out of its wind farms. Plus white-hat hackers reach 7.8 GW in Germany, Vårgrønn eyes a Greenvolt exit, and who really owns turbine data.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Trump skips turbine tariffs, the Pentagon clears two wind farms, the DOJ targets Revolution Wind, and China pushes into Europe.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

This week we’re revisiting our discussion with Andrew Davis of Tightline Composites and Brad Schmidt of Avient, who discuss a resin additive that eliminates peel ply on carbon planks.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Nordex Q3 orders jump 30% and Vestas lands about a gigawatt in Australia. Plus why turbine factories skip Australia, high project costs, and whether batteries can replace coal.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Allen covers the Trump administration’s bid to reopen Revolution Wind’s permit, a bipartisan Senate permitting deal, Nordex’s doubled third-quarter profit, and GE Vernova’s new wind chief.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Jeremy Heinks, founder and CEO of CICNDT, joins to discuss the inspector shortage, Level III oversight, blade samples, drone thermal limits, and IEC updates.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen says China barred Vestas from monitoring its own turbines. Plus Ørsted takes heat for Chinese monopiles, India’s blade design gap, and tents that beat weather delays.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Allen covers Ørsted’s Hornsea 2 drone trial, the DeepWind test site, Germany’s proposed land rent cap, and Iberdrola’s Korea exit.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Rosemary visits DTU Wind & Energy Systems in Denmark, where Nicolai Frost-Jensen Johansen explains rain erosion testing, tip speed, and LEP defects.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Rosie returns from Denmark and shares her experiences seeing DTU blade testing, a lightning lab, and a 15 MW Vestas test turbine.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Allen covers how Denmark, where modern wind began, is pushing back on China, as Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen argues to keep Chinese turbines off Europe’s grid.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Morten Handberg answers the big questions around drone inspections, including how often to inspect, how many turbines to sample, and how much AI results should be qualified. Contact Morten on LinkedIn

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

The crew discusses Hamburg takeaways, including the industry mood, bigger blade risks, and OEM announcements.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Allen covers Nordex’s Türkiye expansion, Chinese turbine makers seeking European partners, Vestas’ first V182 order, and two Pennsylvania repowers.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Dermot Kerrigan, Director and Co-founder at Active Training Team, joins to discuss how the immersive EPIC safety center helped London’s £5 billion Thames Tideway tunnel finish with zero fatalities and zero life-changing injuries. Plus similar centers built for Ørsted’s Hornsea projects and SSE, and the mobile program his US team runs for wind and solar sites.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. https://uptimetechnews.substack.com/accountSubscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

GE Vernova and Vineyard Wind drop all claims in their $4.5 billion dispute. Plus the UK approves Irish Sea cables for Morgan and Morecambe, a GE turbine order in Japan, whale recorders in the Celtic Sea, and previews of WindEnergy Hamburg.Register for the SkySpecs Customer ForumMeet with Nikki Briggs at WindEnergy Hamburg to discuss the StrikeTape Ultra LPS upgradeFind Rosie & Matthew at Booth A1-115 at WindEnergy Hamburg

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s "Engineering with Rosie" Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Episode Transcript
Speaker: [00:00:00] The Uptime Wind Energy podcast, brought to you by StrikeTape. Protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide. Visit StrikeTape.com. And now your hosts

Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. I'm Allen Hall here with Rosemary Barnes and Jelanta Padron. And f- first off, Rosemary is in Denmark in preparation to visit Wind Energy Hamburg.

Rosemary Barnes: I am. I'm in, uh, Ringkøbing, which is on the west coast of Jutland. Just, uh, took the, a train and hired a car from Copenhagen.

Drove past a whole lot of wind turbines. It's very nice to be back.

Allen Hall: So the Wind Energy Hamburg event is the event, in my opinion. There's really two, right? Wind Europe and Wind Energy Hamburg. Uh, Husum is a big event, but not of the scale of Wind Energy Hamburg. I think they're [00:01:00] predicting 40-ish thousand people probably are gonna come through the event.

It's massive. Have you been there before, Rosemary?

Rosemary Barnes: I haven't. I've only been to WindEurope once, and other than that I've been to some big composites conferences back when I was doing my PhD, but I'm kind of, like, 'cause y- when I went to WindEurope last year, that was my first big wind energy conference, and I was so overwhelmed.

I walked in the door, I saw the exhibition, and within 90 seconds all the energy had drained from my body and I'm like, "I wanna go home now." But, um, so I've kind of like, I, I have just, I've spent a couple of days in, in Copenhagen and surrounds and, um, and that, that was really good. Lots of talking, lots of seeing stuff, and I'm sure we'll talk about that in a minute.

Um, but now I have preemptively, like, taken myself to a quiet corner of Denmark to just, yeah, like, put my, put my head down and, uh, yeah, have some quiet activities, some n- nature. The nature is really nice over this [00:02:00] part of Denmark. There's lots of... Like, I wanna go for some long runs in sand dunes and heaths and, um, yeah, planning to drive up to Østerild where there's a big wind turbine test center.

Uh, I just wanna see what's there just out of pure, pure geekiness, see what's there, 'cause y- you know, like, there's new, new stuff there, right? And there's often, like, offshore wind turbines being tested. I don't know what's there. That'll be cool to see. Um, and yeah, I'm trying to put together a video about how wind turbines are tested, so that will be part of it and, yeah, potentially a good recording location.

So yeah, just a bit of quiet time, trying to rest up ahead of next week where I know that there will be just so many conversations. I love, I love talking about wind energy technology, and I love catching up with old people that I know, but I just, I'm not an extrovert. Um, yeah, at best an ambivert maybe, slightly introverted.

I was actually discussing this with somebody, how, like, inappropriate it is to have such [00:03:00] sensory overload at, um, a conference that is mostly attended by engineers. It's, like, we're not known for being, you know, like, really social people. Um, and we came up with the idea that there should be, like, a what? A sensory deprivation room in there where, um, you know, you can just go in and like- Oh my

Yolanda Padron: gosh, that would be

Rosemary Barnes: great

yeah, like, get in a, one of those tanks or a soundproof booth, uh, star- just yeah, so, like, you can just go in and reset and, um, yeah, refill your social battery. I think that that would be, yeah, that would be a real, a real winner if someone... I'm sure someone could charge a, charge money for that there. Or you sell the sponsorship for, like, a million dollars because it's just so popular and everyone's so grateful that it exists.

Allen Hall: Well, Ro- Rosemary, if you want to talk to Rosemary, she's gonna be hanging around the EOLOGIX- I'm gonna be hiding ... Ping Booth. Oh. She may be hiding, but she will be somewhere near the EOLOGIX- You can find her ... Ping Booth. Yeah. Y- you just listen for the Australian accent and a bunch of, uh, German [00:04:00] accents, right?

It's pretty easy to pick out in my opinion. Austrian. Oh, yeah, and Austrian too. Yeah. So there, there's, um- A, a ton of people, obviously, that we know are gonna be at Hamburg for the week. It, it starts Tuesday. I think it finishes on Friday. Uh, uh, Rosemary will be there, Matthew Stead will be there, our own Nikki Briggs from Weather Guard will be there.

When you run into them, say hi. Uh, although Rosemary talks about not being so social, she's very social, so-

Rosemary Barnes: That's my problem, is that I get really social and then I get exhausted, like absolutely exhausted.

Allen Hall: Yeah. Yes. So, uh, uh, it'll be a fun time. I hope everybody has a good time and, and all the travels to and from are safely done.

Uh, so go visit, uh, EOLOGIX-PING. Our, our friends at CNC Onsite will also be there. Uh, they have some big announcements, uh, having to do with, uh, a new place in the United States. PES Wind will be there. Uh, s- I think [00:05:00] Stefan's gonna be there, so say hi to Stefan and pick up the, the newest copy of PES Wind.

There's an article by Weather Guard in PES Wind, uh, so go ahead and pick one of those up. Uh, and, uh, one of the o- items before we get too deep into the news this week, the SkySpecs Forum. So if you work with SkySpecs or if you d- even if you don't and know SkySpecs, obviously a huge, uh, drone inspection company doing CMS and vendor management and all the above They're having their SkySpecs Forum October 6th and 7th in Detroit, uh, at the MGM Grand, which is a, a magnificent place.

Uh, and if you're, are involved in inspections of blades or deal with CMS or doing a lot of repairs on wind farms, you should try to get to the SkySpecs Forum. There are onl- as I understand it, there's only a couple of seats left, so y- you need to go to SkySpecs and register for that event and get yourself to Detroit.

So just [00:06:00] a note, if you really want to go, and you should, you better do it quickly. Well, there's good news out of Massachusetts, which doesn't happen all that often lately. Uh, Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova has settled their fight. Now, GE Vernova had tried to quit the $4.5 billion project, and it said the developer owed it about $360 million.

Well, GE Vernova has pulled back that threat, and thank goodness. It, it has dropped all its courts appeals, and both sides are dropping every claim. So everything that was happening in the court cases in Massachusetts are all gonna go away, and GE is gonna be on site to, uh, support Vineyard Wind, which, Yolanda, has to be a huge win for both sides and the state of Massachusetts, which is the recipient of a lot of that electricity.

Yolanda Padron: Absolutely, and it's a win, too, for just the US offshore market in general, right? It's, it's something that's been happening for quite a bit of time. [00:07:00] Uh, we were talking about it pre-recording, that this is-- the idea of, of settling in court is really not typical for onshore or offshore. It's kind of, it's almost like a game of chicken, I feel like, and this time it just, it took a little bit longer than, than usual for them to settle on something.

But happy that they settled. Um, yeah, no, this is a big, a big win for the US.

Allen Hall: Yeah, the optics around it was just bad for US offshore wind. With everything else going on, to have two of the bigger parties fighting one another in court is, that just did not look good. And I, I think everybody knew at the, at the time, I think Rosemarie had said it even, that they're gonna have to settle.

They're gonna have to work together. That, that's the only outcome that, that can happen here. No one is walking away from this project. That will not happen. So it's good this has finally been settled, because we gotta get moving on. I know there's, there's, contrary to what you probably hear in the press, there are some other [00:08:00] offshore wind farms that are still being constructed quietly, dutifully, and will be done roughly on time.

So more to come on the US offshore side. So GE also has better news this week. They won a turbine order in Japan, and we'll have that after the break.

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CIC-NDT maps every critical defect, delivers actionable reports, and provides support to get your blades back in service. So visit cicndt.com because [00:09:00] catching blade problems early will save you millions

Well, GE Vernova has won an order in Japan. It'll supply seven turbines to Eurus Energy. That wind farm will be up in, in the northern part of the country. Uh, it's a small market obviously for GE Vernova, but it is a steady one and it gives a,...

Allen covers record bank financing for clean energy, Oracle's 1.7 GW Texas wind deal, RWE's German auction win, Denmark scrapping its turbine cap, and Revolution Wind finishing off Rhode Island.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s "Engineering with Rosie" Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Episode Transcript
September 18, 2026Happy Monday, everyone.Off the coast of Rhode Island this past week, the last turbine went up. Hold that thought. First, the banks.BloombergNEF says global banks put one-point-one-five trillion dollars behind low-carbon energy last year. A record. For every dollar banks lent to fossil fuels, they lent ninety-seven cents to clean energy. Five years ago, that ratio was seventy-nine cents. Wind project finance in Europe grew seventy-five percent in a single year. The money is moving. And here is where it lands.In Texas, Oracle just signed wind energy deals across ten projects. One-point-seven gigawatts. Partners include RWE, Engie, Clearway Energy, and Scout Clean Energy. All feeding the ERCOT grid. All powering Oracle's data center campus in Abilene. Oracle wants one hundred percent of its AI data center electricity matched with carbon-free power by twenty thirty-five. Big tech needs big power. Wind is answering.Now cross the Atlantic. RWE won one hundred and nineteen megawatts of onshore wind in Germany's latest federal auction. Two projects. The first, Juchen Three. Eighty-four megawatts on reclaimed land at the former Garzweiler coal mine in North Rhine-Westphalia. Wind turbines, on a former coal mine. The second, Seedorf in Lower Saxony. Five old turbines totaling nine megawatts, replaced by five modern machines at thirty-five. Nearly four times the power. Same number of towers. Both projects target twenty twenty-eight.And just north of Germany, Denmark just made a move. The Danish government scrapped its cap on onshore wind turbines. That cap was set in twenty eighteen: eighteen hundred and fifty turbines by twenty forty. The government's own forecast says Denmark will need thirty-three hundred. Climate Minister Samira Nawa said tearing down working turbines because of an old cap would be outrageous. But the Danish Chamber of Commerce warns: more turbines need more grid.Now, back to Rhode Island. Ørsted's Revolution Wind has installed its sixty-fifth and final turbine. Seven hundred and four megawatts. Six-point-two billion dollars. The federal government issued two stop-work orders against this project. Federal judges threw them both out. Revolution Wind kept building. It joins South Fork Wind and Vineyard Wind as the third completed large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States. During Winter Storm Fern, Vineyard Wind showed up big for New England. During the July heat wave, offshore wind kept oil-burning peakers quiet.So here is what matters. Banks are lending at near parity with fossil fuels. Big tech is signing gigawatt-scale wind deals. Turbines are going up despite political headwinds. The constraint now is the grid behind them. Denmark said it this week. Germany's offshore foundation said it last month. The next decade of wind energy growth will be won or lost on transmission and interconnection. Not turbines. Not money. Wires.And that is the state of the wind industry for the 21st of September 2026. Join us for the Uptime Wind Energy podcast tomorrow.Sources:BloombergNEF — Low-Carbon Bank Financing Tops One TrillionCanary Media — Major US Offshore Wind Farm Installs Its Last TurbineDCD — Oracle Signs 1.7GW of Wind Energy Supply Agreements in TexasRWE — RWE Secures 119 MW of Onshore Wind in Latest German AuctionEnergyWatch — Denmark Scraps Onshore Wind Turbine Cap