GE Vernova Lawsuits, BP Renewables, Maersk Supply Service Acquired

GE Vernova is suing SKF USA for $386 million over failing bearings,
and American Electric Power (AEP) is suing GE Vernova for wind
turbine failures. WUPROHYD is looking to combine wave, solar, and
wind power generation into a single floating structure, potentially
revolutionizing offshore renewable energy production. BP's CEO is
moving company focus away from renewables. DOF Group acquires
Maersk Supply Service for $1.11 billion in a cash and stock deal.
Jupiter Bach is facing challenges due to EU sanctions on Chinese
fiberglass. Nordex plans to restart production at its facility in
Iowa. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has issued key
approvals for two major offshore wind projects: Atlantic Shores
South and New England Wind. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our
weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is
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www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen
Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host,
Allen Hall, and I'll be bringing you this week's top stories in the
wind energy sector. BP is making significant changes to its
strategy under new CEO Murray Auchincloss. The oil giant has
implemented a company wide hiring freeze and paused new offshore
wind projects. This marks a stark departure from the previous
leadership's focus on rapidly transitioning to renewable energy.
Auchincloss is redirecting the company's focus back to oil and gas
investments, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico and U. S. shale
basins. Dozens of employees previously working on new renewable
opportunities have been reassigned to existing projects, and the
company is also expected to make job cuts in its renewable sector,
though specific numbers haven't been announced. These changes come
as BP faces investor discontent over its energy transition
strategy, And underperforming shares. The company is now aiming to
balance its decarbonization goals with the current high demand for
oil and gas. Industry analysts see this as a significant shift in
BP's approach to the energy transition, potentially setting a new
trend in the oil and gas sector. Moving on to global shipping news,
Norwegian supply shipping company, Dof Group, has agreed to acquire
Maersk Supply Service for about 1. 1 billion. Dof will pay 577
million in cash and issue new shares worth 1. 1 billion. Merrick
Supply Service Holding set to own 25 percent of Doff's shares after
the transaction. The combined company will operate under Doff's
name and remain listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The deal is
expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. DOP plans to
finance the acquisition through a 500 million dollar debt facility
and up to 125 million dollars in equity. In related news, a new
company called Maersk Offshore Wind has been launched to accelerate
offshore wind deployment. The company will provide installation
services. Using a new wind installation vessel concept, which is
estimated to reduce installation time of offshore wind turbines by
about 30 percent compared to conventional methods. This efficiency
is expected to lower overall installation costs for developers. The
first vessel is scheduled for delivery in 2025. Maersk Offshore
Wind, a spinoff of Maersk Supply Service, is owned by AP Moller
Holding and will be headquartered in Denmark. The company aims to
support the growing offshore wind market, particularly in Europe
and the U. S., where ambitious targets for install capacity have
been set for 2030 and 2050. European wind industry supplier Jupiter
Bach is facing challenges due to EU sanctions on Chinese
fiberglass. The company's CEO warns that high tariffs on raw
materials But low tariffs on finished products are incentivizing
production in China over Europe. JupiterBot is recommending that
the EU require locally produced content in the wind industry to
maintain European production capabilities and knowledge base. In U.
S. manufacturing news, Nordex Group has announced plans to restart
production at its facility in West Branch, Iowa. The company will
manufacture nacelles for its current N163 turbine model and a new
product designed specifically for the U. S. market. Production is
scheduled to begin in the first half of 2025 with an annual
capacity expected to exceed 2. 5 gigawatts. This move is part of
NORDEX's growth strategy in North America and aims to meet domestic
content requirements while creating new jobs in the U. S. Lastly,
the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has issued key approvals for
two major offshore wind projects, Atlantic Shore South, which will
generate up to 2. 8 gigawatts for New Jersey, Received a record of
decision. New England wind is set to generate up to 2. 6 gigawatts
for Massachusetts. Got approval for its construction and operations
plan. These approvals mark significant progress in the U. S.
offshore wind industry, with BOEM having now approved nine projects
tolling more than 13 gigawatts of offshore wind energy in the
development pipeline. That's this week's top news stories. Now
let's welcome our co host, CEO and founder of InterStor, Phil
Totaro, and the Chief Commercial Officer of WeatherGuard, Joel
Saxo. In some recent legal developments affecting the wind energy
sector in the United States There are two significant lawsuits
involving GE Vernovo. And the first one is with SKF bearing
manufacturer for about 380 million. And then the second one is with
AEP suing GE Vernovo over wind turbine failures, primarily focused
on SKF bearings. So this is a big deal. Where, wherever this, these
lawsuits go, whether they settle or not, which they probably will
there is a significant bearing issue out in service on a bunch of
GE turbines. And I would assume this probably exists on other
turbines, but maybe just not as well noticed. But it has to do with
the coating on the bearings, Joel, there's a diamond light coating,
a very hard coating that's applied to some of these bearings. that
from what I'm hearing from the field starts to flake off and then
gets stuck into the lubrication system and then gets all caught up
in the bearing. It is a huge problem. And I know when we traveled
through Texas and Oklahoma operators brought this up to us. Joel
Saxum: Yeah, for sure. Imagine going to your car and opening up the
oil reservoir and just pouring some metal chunks in there and then
expecting your motor to last. That's just not how it works. So when
this coating flakes off, it gets ground up a little bit smaller
than the flakes, but not much because the coating is super, super
hard. So it just creates. Basically debris within the lubrication
system. So where they're supposed to be. Solid bearing material,
solid ball bearings or rollers rolling against a, or a guide you
now and with grease in there, of course, you now have impregnated
in all of that grease, all kinds of little particles that are
chewing up your bearings. We heard to the point where the bearing
races got chewed through by this basically mixture of this coating
and the grease so much that the roller bearings were falling out of
the actual bearing race. And that, That's extreme. Allen Hall: And
Phil, this has implications on a grander scale about service
agreements, right? That I think AEP is using GE. I think it's maybe
under warranty still, but there are also a lot of operators that
are, have service agreements with GE. It puts a lot of pressure on
GE Vernova at a time that they don't really need it. And it opens a
door, I think, to a lot of ISPs offering services that maybe GE
doesn't want to do anymore. Does that make sense? Philip Totaro:
The reason why this is a big deal now is that A, it was leaked out.
It's not, it's public information, but it's not something that
people would have necessarily known about had it not been for
somebody tracking and finding the complaint that got filed in the
state of New York where there's also, an ongoing legal battle
between GE and a bearing supplier SKF on, some of those main
bearing issues that you mentioned, including the diamond light
coating. But AEP's complaint against GE, they actually identified
pitch bearing outer raceway issues gearbox torque pin migration
they also identified cracks in TPI made blades Let's see, blade
edgewise vibration issues on TPI made blades, LM blade root
delamination issues. There was also a blade liberation event that
they specifically identified. This has impacted three of AEP's
biggest project sites, which use GE 2. 0 I want to say 2. 5 116s
and 2. 0. 8 1 27. And this is more than a gigawatt worth of
capacity installed between these three project sites. The traverse
Maverick and Sundance projects in Oklahoma. So these turbines are,
probably not unique in the issues being experienced. Although
again, a lot of this does come back down to how are they being
operated? What's the turbulence intensity at the site, et cetera,
et cetera. And that's been GE's kind of position is, an owner
operator brings up these kind of maintenance issues and these
breach of contract issues on. The faults, failures, and the general
state of operation and the availability of the plant. GE's kind of,
it feels according to AEP and the complaint that they filed, it
feels like GE's slow rolling them on a response. They're basically
saying, oh, we need time to investigate what's really going on, and
do all this root cause analysis, et cetera, et cetera. And AEP's
hey, we've been telling you almost since day one that there's been
some issues.