Maine announced an indefinite ban on offshore wind in state waters. California, on the other hand, is a step closer to passing laws establishing wind energy goals, setting the stage for a long relationship with wind energy. Why is there such a big difference between states? Can we expect more of this in the future? Plus, the PowerPod by Halcium 1kW wind turbine, off-shore engineering and more.







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. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! 



Transcript: EP69 - Why are Some US States Different in Offshore Wind Regulations? Plus, PowerPod Wind Turbine



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. Welcome back.



0:38I'm Allen Hall.



0:39I'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.



All right, welcome back to the uptime podcast. I'm your co host, Dan Blewett. In today's episode, we're gonna talk about a lightning storm igniting some natural gas from a leak offshore near Mexico, New Jersey versus Maine some of the different legislation that's going on over there as far as use of offshore assets, you know, federal versus state waters, mains put in a big ban on using offshore wind in state waters. So we'll chat through that turbine validation at the galfer wind farm, offshore and then beyond wind to hydrogen project that's getting a little bit of steam, we'll talk about this unique powerpod wind turbine, which is a one kilowatt prototype for residential use. And also we'll talk a little bit about offshore wind, some of the engineering challenges and how ocean cleanup might have a relatable story to some of this unproven technology. Before we get going, let me remind you, you can easily sign up for uptime tech news, which is just our weekly newsletter in the description, or show notes of this podcast. And that's just getting a weekly update from us as hey, here's our latest podcast, check it out. Here's some other news from around the web. So if you're interested in staying up to date, definitely check out uptime tech news in the show notes below. So Alan, how you doing? Sir, let's talk about lightning, your favorite thing. This lightning storm out in the waters near Mexico looks like it ignited some natural gas leak from a pipe, you know, well below the surface.



2:31So there's a big gas explosion in the Gulf of Mexico next to an oil rig. And one of the byproducts of oil drilling is you get natural gas spots, right? So they had a lightning storm come through it ignite that gas. And it looks like this a big apocalyptic lit the fire in the middle of the ocean like Wow, those water Wow, those fire those two don't go together, there must be something wrong with the earth or wrong with humans involvement with the earth that caused this big thing to happen. No, none of that was true in the Twitter, bouncing around from environmentalists groups, so to speak. And business groups on the other side are pro drilling groups on the other side, which is ridiculous on both ends a little bit. The fire was put out within a couple of hours. And they had a handle on how to go do that. It sounds like because it got it out.