In this episode we discuss Vestas' recent press release about a partnership with resin manufacturer Olin, and their excitement over new technology to break down wind turbine blades into, essentially, their original materials. Is this possible? Plus, we chat about the recent approval of the Vineyard Wind Project in the United States and talk about SkySails and KiteMill kite power generation technology - is it a viable power source for the future?



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Transcript EP61 - Vestas Blade Recycling; Vineyard Wind & Kite Powered Turbines?



0:00This episode is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. At Weather Guard, we make lightning protection easy. If your wind turbines are due for maintenance or repairs, install our StrikeTape retrofit LPs upgrade at the same time. A StrikeTape installation is the quick, easy solution that provides a dramatic long lasting boost to the factory lightning protection system. Forward Thinking wind site owners install StrikeTape today to increase uptime tomorrow, learn more in the show notes of today's podcast.



0:37Welcome back. I'm Allen Hall. I'm Dan Blewett. And this is the uptime podcast where we talk about wind energy engineering, lightning protection and ways to keep your wind turbines running.



0:57All right, welcome back to the uptime wind energy podcast. I'm your co host, Dan Blewett. On today's show, we're going to talk a little bit about the vineyard wind project just approved here. In the US we're going to chat about drainage hole cleaning and some of the lightning implications for drainage holes and the water that can be potentially kind of reservoir up inside of a blade. We'll talk about kite power, which is something obviously it's not. It's wind energy just have a different type. And we'll also talk a little bit about some new blade recycling tech just announced by Vestas. So, Alan, let's start with the vineyard wind project. So obviously, this was a big thing with the beide administration. And this got approved pretty quick. And it's going to bring a lot of offshore wind power to your neck of the woods. Yeah. And off the coast of Massachusetts and New York and all the eastern seaboard states is that if you've ever been out there, it's kind of windy, especially to get off shore a little bit this like constant wind. So it has been talked about for years, at least 10 years now about having some wind turbines offshore.



2:07Off coast, Massachusetts, because the winds are just good and stable. And it's it's finally happening, there's been a lot of resistance in the state about it, particularly



2:17from fishermen, from people own land on the along the ocean, I've been complaining about it for a long time. So to see it, at least start is a good sign. But until it's in, I kind of wonder if it's really going to happen. So it has a long way to go. I think before we get through all the little tiny details about the the site and what's going to happen and what's going to be installed and how it's going to be installed and what effect that it has on the local economies. And all those things haven't been settled yet. So there's still details to go through. But it's it's a good start. It is a good start, well, potentially up to 4000 megawatts of capacity. And the 800 megawatt of vineyard wind project is going to be a piece of that. But so it's a lot of wind power coming to the US. So it'll be interesting to see how just how fast that comes together. And



3:11like you said, some of the industrial changes that are going to have to happen in factories and all these jobs, they're going to come to fruition, they're up in the northeast, there's going to be a ton of new jobs and training going on.