DNV GL engineers and wind energy consultants Alex Byrne and Matt Malkin came on the Uptime podcast to talk about wind turbine lightning damage, force majeure, assessments, data & more. With decades of industry experience, they discuss common turbine blade damage modes, how data is helping to better assess the lightning environment of wind farm sites, why on-turbine sensors are so critical, and where the industry is headed. Check out their recent article here, which brought to light many of the contract difficulties that are presented when all lightning damage is classified as force majeure.



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Full Transcript: EP28 - Alex Byrne and Matt Malkin from DNVGL Talk Lightning Damage, Assessment, Forecasting & Force Majeure



Welcome back to the uptime podcast on today's show. We've got two amazing guests, engineers, Alex Byrne, and Matt Malkin from DNVGL. Alex and Matt are both experts on lightning's effect on wind turbines. And these two are gracious enough to join us, to share their expertise. We reached out to them actually for conversation after reading their really good article titled Lightning, wind turbines, and force majeure - a risky mix.



So first let me tell you a little bit more about our guests. Alex Byrne brings over 15 years of experience in the wind industry. Her areas of expertise include understanding and assessing lightning protection systems. Using statistical methods, evaluating blade failures, including performing inspections and identifying root causes, developing, operating wind farm data analytic models and evaluating site-specific turbine loading for broad applications, such as failure analysis site suitability re powering and life extension.



Ms. Byrne has also performed turbine certification for DNV GL in Denmark and holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering. And our second guest, Matt Malkin has 20 years of engineering experience and 11 years of experience in wind energy with a focus on blade technology. He has led multiple blade failure, investigations and field assessments of blade damage.



Matt has analyzed SCADA and meteorological data in support of blade failure investigations, and is familiar with blade construction, failure mechanisms and failure modes. He has conducted multiple blade and turbine manufacturing and quality surveys in North America, Europe and Asia. Mr. Malkin has participated in the examination and evaluation of composite turbine blades, structural design analysis methods, and manufacturing methods for technical due diligence.



So Allen, what were some of your key takeaways from this really in-depth conversation with, engineers, Alex Byrne and Matt Malkin.



Allen Hall: [00:02:38] first that Matt and Alex are really knowledgeable about the lightning and wind turbine interaction space. There's very few people who have as much experience in such a broad area of winter been lightning protection.



so it's kinda special to talk to them because they have such a huge knowledge base and have worked with so many customers around the world on helping operators with their wind turbines and lightning protection systems and making sure that they're operating at peak efficiency. so that was fascinating.



I think, Alex describing her, way of providing, as a field assessment where she has, over time been able to predict what lightning environment will be for new wind turbine sites or, even for existing, wind turbine sites, what to expect in terms of lightning protection, and then, Matt's very knowledgeable in the blade structure and, how that lightning protection system interacts with the blade structure and how



defects in the blade structure or damage to the blade structure can, affect later on in the blade's lifetime.