How big can onshore wind turbines get? If it seems like we ask this question every month, get used to it: Nordex says there's no limit. That leaves engineers asking, how do you transport a rotor with a 175m diameter? And will the sites themselves become factories? Speaking of manufacturing, Allen and Joel discuss what's behind Siemens and Airborne's efforts in composites processing and automation. Hint: it may be safety as much as cost.  



In Oregon, operations are underway on the Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility, a utility-scale development combining wind and solar generation with battery storage. While it's a first in the US, other countries have relied on combined power plants for decades. Worldwide, changes in the energy marketplace - like the UK's plan to cap power producer revenue - give new meaning to the term power diplomacy.



Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com



Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com



Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com















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 135



Allen Hall: Hello everyone. We have a great show for you this week. Rosemary is still on leave, but we're going to talk about Oregon's new battery, solar and wind utility scale site. The first one in America and the UK is talking about capping renewable power revenues to keep energy prices down. 



Joel Saxum: And we're gonna jump over to the Nordic countries talk about some wooden wind turbine towers.



Joel Saxum: We've talked about these in the past, but now we wanna share with you that they're moving forward. They've got a. Letter of intent from res. So that's, that's cool for them. Also going into 10 megawatt plus onshore wind turbines, do you think it can happen? Do we think it can happen? The CEO of Nordex believes that that is the future.



Joel Saxum: And lastly on the show we're gonna talk about Siemens Gamesa partnering with Airborne on some offshore wind turbine blades and looking at automation. So they. Hopefully get the cost of the blades down and the quality up. 



Allen Hall: I'm Alan Hall, I'm president of Weather Guard, Lightning Tech, and I'm here with my good friend from Wind Power Lab, Joel Saxum, and this is the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.



Allen Hall: All right, Joel. There's a new renewable energy plant up in Oregon about 200 miles directly east of Portland. If you know your geography on the northwest coast of America, it's the Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility. It's the first utility scale development in North America that combines winds, solar and battery storage.



Allen Hall: And it's hard to believe that that's the first one, but it's the first one. Yeah. And the, the plant. Combination effort between NextEra Energy Resources. NextEra is a big wind provider across the country and Portland, Portland General Electric, which has had some problems with wind TURs in the recent past.



Allen Hall: So I'm glad they're hooked up with NextEra. on this project. They have 300 megawatts of wind with generated by 120 GE turbines. They have 50 megawatts of, of solar panels. And 30 megawatts of battery storage and they estimate they can provide power to 100,000 homes. Is this the future for America, 



Joel Saxum: man?



Joel Saxum: I think so. If I step into some developer shoes, I'm thinking less permit costs less headache. Yeah. You know, developing on one side, if you get permission from this hunk of land, and we can put all these things here. It also in my mind, and, and I haven't seen their, the business model of course, but in my mind,