The SG 14-222DD is headed to Scotland for its first deployment, first power in 2024.  A German engineer envisions 250 meter-tall turbine lattice wind towers; is lattice worth revisiting? Some SPRIN-D designers think so. Meanwhile, Japan has installed its first offshore wind turbines. The country plans to deploy 10 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and up to 45 GW by 2040, including floating wind. While critics say it's not enough, Japan is moving forward - including with a new "clarity" for offshore bidding, and a little friendly competition.



Back in the US, the lower 48 states were recently ranked by wind energy potential. Spoiler alert: Joel does the math and says Texas has some serious export potential.



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! 


Uptime 120



Allen Hall: [00:00:00] Welcome to the uptime wind energy podcast. We got a great show for you this week. Just a couple of highlights. Siemens Gamesa is debuting their SG 14 - 222 DD offshore wind turbine. Mechanical engineer in Germany is talking about building 250 meter tall wind energy towers. Interesting. And we'll look at some of the, the latest gyrations in the United States in terms of untapped, wind energy and the Biden administration hooking up with 11 east coast states to push offshore wind supply chains and ships.



So there's a lot on our dock this week. It's gonna be a great show. Stay tuned.



So guys, Siemens Gamesa SG 14 dash 222 DD wind turbines are getting some orders and that's good. Right? Siemens Gamesa needed some orders here on those offshore projects. So they had a firm order for 60 turbines off the coast of Scotland, and they are the B 108 blades. So I was thinking the B108 blades is not even the latest generation of blades off from Siemens Gamesa.



The latest generation is the B-115, this so it's even longer. But the, the first deployment is gonna be in 2024. And I know they were already generating their from their prototype. Back in 2021, they were generating electricity in 2021 with that same tournament. So it is taking like three years, two and a half years between prototype to actual first installs Rosemary. Does that seem right? Is there, is there a two to three year time lag between prototype and first installations? Or is this a sales / COVID issue? 



Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, it's not normal. Maybe if you know, it was. I don't know some massive, massive design [00:02:00] change then that might happen. But that would mean like maybe they've gone from a, a three blade rotor to a two blade rotor or , you know, an upwind to a downwind or, you know, something major you would take years, but normally it's six months to one year.



Yeah. So, oh, it's a, it's a bit surprising. Yeah. 



Allen Hall: Okay. So, so. How long does the prototype sit in development, then how long do they sit it on its on the test site and spin it before they say thumbs up and off, we go to production. 



Rosemary Barnes: So hold on. Is it a whole new turbine or it's a 



Allen Hall: it, it is roughly, yeah.



It's 14 Megawatts so sure. 



Rosemary Barnes: Ah, okay. Yeah. Well, in that, in that case then forget what I said. I thought we were just talking about a different blade on a, on an existing platform in that case. Yeah. Then they're gonna want a season of, of validation data. So. Yeah, but it still seems like two, two years after installing a, a prototype to start production seems lengthy.[00:03:00]



There must be something agreed. Yeah. So like some new design. feature that they need to, you know, properly test out before they really get started with the, you know,