This week we spoke to Alex Fournier, a field operations manager who works on wind turbines in frigid temperatures, about the safety precautions and practices technicians need when doing turbine maintenance and repairs in extreme cold. Recommendations such as heated gear, taking breaks to warm up, and using procedures to mitigate risks like icefalls are only a few ways that techs could keep safe in winter temperatures. Visit https://www.fabricair.com/ice-protection-systems/



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Allen Hall: Welcome to the special edition of the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, along with my co host, Joel Saxum. In this episode, we explore the unique hazards faced by wind turbine technicians working to keep the turbine spinning during extreme cold weather events. As renewable energy expands, more wind farms are located in remote areas with harsh winter conditions, placing technicians at risk of frostbite, hypothermia, and injury.



Joining us to discuss cold weather safety is Alex Fournier, field operations manager at Borealis Wind, which is a division of FabricAir now. Alex is based in Quebec, Canada, and has been working in the wind industry for seven years. Alex will share his insights on the precautions technicians should take when performing maintenance and repairs in cold climates.



Alex, welcome to the program.



Alex Fournier: Thank you guys for having me today.



Allen Hall: So it's been really cold in Canada and the United States. There's been we're expecting a snowstorm tonight. So we're battening down the hatches. But as the wind turbines must keep running. And I was recently down in Texas when a cold front was coming on.



Coming through there and the technicians were really concerned about it because it's something that doesn't happen very often They're not really prepared for the cold weather to stay any length of time And I thought Alex does this all the time. He lives in this kind of environment That's my day today and with Borealis, Borealis obviously creates the de icing systems for wind turbine blades And so Alex is up and down on wind turbines all the time putting systems in and keeping blades Turning, I thought this is a good opportunity to talk about wind turbine safety and cold weather conditions and some of the things that you do and your technicians you work with to keep yourself safe in this cold weather conditions.



Because I'll have to tell you one of the coldest times I was ever in was in Montreal, very near to you, actually.



Alex Fournier: Yeah the thing with Montreal is, oh, it's an island, so it's a circle of water. And so it's really humid. So when you're in the city, you can feel the humidity go through your clothes.



It's so yeah, you don't go in Montreal when it's minus 30.



Allen Hall: No, and you better bring a hat and gloves because I thought I could make about a hundred yard run to the building I was working at from my car and I got about halfway there and I thought, I'm going to have hypothermia. I am not going to make it.



Alex Fournier: Oh yeah, no, it's not not temperature you want to play around with.



Allen Hall: Yeah. Some of the gear that's used up in Canada, and I've seen some pictures of technicians up in Canada, getting ready to go work on wind turbines. I think it's really important that we all highlight what are those things are and the safety gear you guys take.