Power-Up: Dual Wind Turbines and Modular Blades

First up, Aerodyn Consulting's patent for a single point mooring
system with dual wind turbines. This concept is only being utilized
by MingYang for their OceanX wind turbine so far, but it's
promising. Then Newtech Group's method for connecting modular wind
turbine blades, which could make the concept more viable. Finally,
a method for keeping your dogs ears out of their food. Sign up now
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technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard
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www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen
Hall: Welcome to Power Up, the Uptime podcast focused on the new,
hot off the press technology that can change the world. Follow
along with me, Allen Hall, and IntelStor's Phil Totaro, as we
discuss the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will
charge your energy future. Phil, another busy week in the ID and
patent world. And we're going to start off with the single point
mooring wind turbine with two wind energy conversion units. That's
a complicated name for something that seems rather simple from
Aerodyn Consulting over in Singapore. And this idea has been
implemented by MinYang and we've seen this, I think it's called
OceanX, where they have two independent turbines on a platform. a
master controller for the two and it's floating and it points
itself on a single mooring system But there's more details to that
you want to explain what else they have going on in this idea.
Philip Totaro: Yeah, so this this is a pretty complicated and but
clever idea And I actually want to take a step back and talk about
the fact that nobody else in the industry at this point is using
this technology other than Ming Yang, who's licensed the design
from, from Aerodyn. And, and again, what this does is it's going to
ensure that. Basically, the, the platform that has these two
counter rotating turbines on it doesn't basically kind of yaw
itself or shake itself apart from, from having the having the both
rotors pointed in, in different directions. Directions that they
shouldn't be pointed in. So the mooring system is kind of helping
with with that to an extent. But it's also ensuring that the entire
platform is able to yaw into into the wind in a way that's going to
be favorable, including the typhoon that this thing actually just
survived over in China. So when they deployed this prototype, it's,
in a typhoon prone area. And it seems like this single mooring
system did his job pretty well. Joel Saxum: Yeah, the single point
mooring is not a new concept, right? It's just with this patent,
it's filed with the addition of the twin rotor and how that thing
works together. But single point mooring has been used offshore and
oil and gas world for a very long time. There's a, There's a type
of vessel called an FPSO. It's a floating production and storage
and offloading facility. But these things are massive. If you've
ever seen an offshore, what they, it looks like an offshore oil
rig. They look like a big ship, but usually they aren't powered or
anything. They're drug out there by tugs and they're hooked up to
what is called the single point mooring system. And that single
point mooring system is a way of affixing that structure topside to
one spot and then it can rotate around it. in production and one of
the downfalls of this this setup for operations and maintenance is
not so much with this ming yang machine because it's a 16 megawatt
machine it's a big big thing but if you have to put a lot of these
out there a single point more Needs to be anchored off in usually
the four cardinal directions. Sometimes they do six. So you end up
with a lot of lines and a lot of anchors coming off of this single
point more. So there's a lot of work to be done to get these things
out into position. 'cause you have to do geotechnical
investigations. All the anchors go in these kind of things. A lot
of anchor lines, chain lines to get 'em. to get them in place. Now,
that being said, these processes have been done many times in the
offshore world. So the knowledge of how to install a single point
mooring system is there. It's pretty common. You're not reinventing
the wheel to get this done. And they're robust. That's one of the
reasons they use them for these massive SPF, SPF PSOs. They can be
1300 feet long. Those ships can and weigh hundreds of tons. So, It
proved itself in the typhoon that just came through in that part of
the world. And I think that it's a good design, it's a robust
design, and you're not going to be reinventing the wheel to get it
installed offshore. Philip Totaro: At this point, Ming Yang, as I
mentioned, is the only company that's utilizing this. So this
patent is kind of a purely defensive thing for them, just
protecting their little corner of the world. But the fact that this
technology has proven itself to be kind of typhoon resistant, so to
speak this could encourage more companies to go talk to Eridan
about licensing this technology and utilizing it in, in other
markets where, floating platforms are, are likely to become more
prevalent, including places like South Korea. And potentially even
Brazil. Allen Hall: One of the dreams in the blade world is to be
able to make modular blade sections and allow you to make sorter
sections, transport them, and then maybe even assemble them on
site. Well, this next idea comes from the new tech group over in
China for a cord wise segment connection structure for wind turbine
blades. And to simplify this a little bit, the they're building the
blade in roughly three sections of leading it, a trailing edge, and
then a Sort of a box section in the middle. But Phil, the key to
this idea is how they're attaching all the pieces together. Philip
Totaro: Yeah. And it's kind of interesting. And I made the comment
off air that this seems very similar to how you already kind of
bond and attach a shear clip. For those that aren't familiar, this
is basically a part of the blade that goes into what we call the
shear web. So it's a structural beam. Usually towards the, the back
end of, of the blade and the, the trailing edge of the blade away
from, the, the, what Allen just mentioned, the, the box beam
section or your, your either single or dual vertical spars and
vertical supports. So, The, the interesting thing about this is
it's, it's maybe kind of combining a couple ideas and while that
usually doesn't sound very exciting to, engineers or even, patent
office reviewers, what they Are able to do with concepts like this,
where you're combining kind of preexisting technologies is say, and
explain that, Hey, we're doing something in a new way and that's
still valid and viable to be able to go get a patent on whether or
not this technology is going to revolutionize the market. We'll
see. The one thing I can say though, is in China, the reason that
they've probably developed this is because you're now seeing blades
that are at a minimum. meters in length, just the blade. And some
of these rotors for onshore turbines are now going up to like, And
I'll call it 230 meters rotor diameter. So there, you, like I said,
you're talking about blades that are anywhere from 85 up to,
potentially 120 meters in, in length. And you're, you're going to
need, new technologies and new ways of assembly potentially to, to
be able to address that those kind of logistical challenges. Joel
Saxum: So what this aims to do is solve some of the structural
issues in the sealing up of these blades in a modularized fashion,
if you can build them on site The validity of it and the reality of
it is, is what, what I've heard and what we've seen on root cause
analysis studies and stuff for modularized blades right now is the
technology's just not quite ready. So maybe this can get some of
these projects down the road and over some of the hurdles that we
have and make that a reality. Philip Totaro: And, and that's a good
point, Joel, because a lot of what we've seen for modular blades in
the past was, was, bolted joint connections that tends not to work
that well. You get fatigue failure and other things that, that
happen. This is literally a, a means for assembling a modular blade
utilizing again, kind of the same type of bonding methods that you
would use in a factory controlled environment, it's just whether or
not you can have that same level of quality control out in the
field when you're trying to put together these little bonded
sections of, of blades. Allen Hall: And our last idea of the week
is a really useful device to keep your ears from falling into your
food. Now, most people don't have that problem, but your four
legged friends probably do, particularly if you're a poodle, that
when you reach down into your bowl to eat your dinner, your ears
flop around into your food. So this device rolls over the poodle's
ears and wraps around the back of its head to keep its ears up and
away from the dinner bowl. Now, Phil, come on. This is a really
good idea. There's a lot of poodles with this problem. I'll tell
you what, I, Joel Saxum: I'm gonna agree. It's a useful idea. And
I'm here to tell you, if you try to put this on, on my dog, Yogi,
at dinner time, you're gonna lose a finger. This is not gonna
happen. This is not gonna happen while there's food ready in the
bowl. She's not gonna go down with it. You're gonna have to just
let it go and use a rag to clean off the ears, or in her case, her
chin beard. Philip Totaro: Which is, you know what, Joel?