Cement Decarbonization, EU Election’s Impact on Renewables, Co-Locating Solar and Wind

Rosemary discusses emerging technologies from companies like Calix
and CarbonCure to reduce emissions from cement production. Phil and
Joel analyze how the European Parliament election results could
impact renewable policies and the growing trend of co-locating
wind, solar and battery storage projects. Plus Invenergy's Purple
Skies project is the Wind Farm of the Week! 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! Pardalote Consulting -
https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech -
www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen
Hall: YouTube star Alex Choi, known for his car stunt videos, has
been charged with, by federal authorities, for orchestrating a
dangerous video involving a helicopter and a Lamborghini. The 24
year old content creator allegedly directed a video called
Destroying a Lamborghini with Fireworks, in which two individuals
in a helicopter shot fireworks at a speeding Lamborghini in the El
Mirage. Dry Lake Bed in San Bernardino County, of course,
California. Troy faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison if
convicted of causing the displacement of an explosive or incendiary
device on an aircraft. Now, Rosemary, I assume you have seen this,
being the YouTube star that you are. You have seen this video of
them shooting off Roman candles from this helicopter? Rosemary
Barnes: It hasn't come up in my suggested videos, no. Allen Hall:
I've seen it like 12 times. Joel Saxum: Yeah, I've seen it and it's
awesome. I feel bad for these guys. They created a cool video. But
if you go by the letter of the law, there's a lot of things illegal
about this. It's like the same concept of if you shoot a drone down
with a firearm, you can get the same exact penalty as if you shot
down a plane with people in it. Because they're both aircraft that
are covered under law by the FAA. So the FAA has got some pretty
stinch stringent laws, and if you don't tow the line, you can get
in a lot of trouble, as evidenced by This awesome video of shooting
fireworks from a fire, from a helicopter at a Lamborghini in the
desert. Philip Totaro: If precedent is anything, we had a guy in
Santa Barbara County who, during COVID, took up his little, tiger
cub plane or whatever single engine prop, and did a YouTube video
of him crashing his plane. He got six years. These guys can
probably expect a little more than six. Allen Hall: Wow. Don't mess
around with airplanes. I think that's the whole point of this is
don't do stupid stuff around airplanes. They're not toys, boys and
girls. They are definitely not toys. And the Wild West is over.
Maybe you can do that in Australia, but you sure can't do that in
the United States anymore. Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy
Podcast. I'm Allen Hall, and here's this week's headlines. The
International Energy Agency's latest report reveals the clean
energy investment landscape across top countries and regions. The
United States invested 280 billion in clean energy in 2023, up from
200 billion in 2020. Europe leads with the highest clean energy to
fossil fuels investment ratio, spending more than 10 euros on clean
energy for every euro invested. And fossil fuels. China saw the
most robust growth in solar, wind and nuclear power, while India's
clean energy investments reached 68 billion in 2023, a 40 percent
increase from the 2016 to 2020 average. In related news, the
increasing occurrence of negative electricity prices in Europe is
raising concerns among investors about the profitability. Renewable
energy projects. Negative pricing has become more frequent as solar
and wind production ramp up. While consumers benefit from the free
electricity during these periods, investors worry about the impacts
on returns. Germany, Europe's biggest power market, had about 300
hours of prices below zero last year, and that may double in 2024.
The solution lies in building more energy storage systems, such as
batteries, to absorb excess electricity and stabilize prices.
However, the current scale of energy storage deployment is.
Insufficient to mitigate the impact of negative pricing fully.
Experts estimate that Europe's energy storage capacity needs to
increase sevenfold. By 2030 to effectively address the issue. And
in Iowa region fiber, a subsidiary of Alliant Energy has opened a
wind turbine blade recycling facility. The facility aims to divert
30, 000 tons of scrap wind turbine materials annually by shredding
the blades and transforming the extracted components into premium
products for use in construction materials such as concrete and
asphalt. The eco friendly process provides a sustainable
alternative to burning or land filling the blades. Reduces the
carbon footprint of construction projects and enhances the
durability and environmental resistance of materials. Region 5 has
also established strategic partnerships nationwide to expand its
recycling efforts. That's this week's top news stories. Now, here's
our panel. Renewable energy expert and founder of Pardalote
Consulting, Rosemary Barnes. CEO and founder of IntelStor Phil
Totaro. And the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard, Joel
Saxum. Phil, over in Europe, the European Parliament elections are
in, and this has caused a lot of consternation in the renewable
energy markets. As is being described in the United States, the
European Parliament is shifting right. And the word I hear a lot on
the U. S. news is far right. Now, I've done some research into
that, and I don't Far right in the United States and far right in
Europe are not really the same thing. So it's moved a little bit to
the right and it seems like a little more off center may be the
best way to approach it because I think some of the left and the
right have picked up some some votes or some elections. Here's the
rub, and Rosemary, I could use your input on this too. It does seem
like the, there is a push within Europe from some portion of the
citizenry to slow down renewables and to go a little bit slower
than what the current pace is. Now, is that The European Parliament
doesn't have that much oversight, the European Commission seems to
have the most oversight over what actually happens in Europe at the
moment. Do these Parliament results really change the landscape for
renewable projects in Europe, or is it just a little bump in the
road? Philip Totaro: It changes them from the perspective of
Influencing national elections as a result of these parliamentary
elections, France already has announced a snap elections, Belgium
Belgium's prime minister announced that he's going to step down and
there's going to be a reelection for the PM there. So the real
influence of this is in pushing some of the member states in the
EU. A little bit further to the right, which could have the
consequence of having objection to or non adoption of some of the
policies that have been proposed, like around this Green New Deal
that they want to and that, frankly, Wind Europe got behind and has
also been trying to champion. The reality of it is it can
eventually have an impact. Anything that's in the pipeline right
now, probably unlikely to get affected by it, as long as, they're
far enough along the permitting process. But anything that's
earlier stage, That was hoping to get sped up as a result of
permitting reforms in, in, France, Germany, Italy, Spain some of
these things are looking a little more tenuous at this point. And
as we know, the markets never particularly capital markets, never
like uncertainty. They don't want to put foreign direct investment
into Countries where there's uncertainty about what the policy
regime is going to be because they want to be able to provide
certainty to the returns. Joel Saxum: Phil, let me ask you a
question here. And this is pardon my ignorance on the European
Parliament. But do they, they don't have direct influence over the
country? So if I was a German developer and I was selling power
within Germany and it's not crossing my borders, the European
Parliament can't do anything for me or against me. It would only be
if I'm going across borders or what is their actual influence?
Philip Totaro: No, it's a, that's a great, it's a great question.
So yes, that you're correct in that the European Parliament only
does things at the EU level where it crosses country borders.
However Since a lot of the there's two, two things at play here.
One is the shift to towards a little more center, right? In Europe
is again, influencing what's going on in the individual countries.
So as I just mentioned with France, Belgium, you're even seeing
some things in Spain, you're likely to see things in the
Netherlands and a few other countries as well. Where this shift to
the, the center right is gonna, play out in the individual
countries and their country level parliament elections or,
president or PM elections could could end up being influenced by
this outcome. Generally what happens when. Things start becoming
more protectionist and more kind of conservative is it slows down
free trade, which is bad for the renewable sector, and it slows
down foreign direct investment, which is bad for the renewable
sector. So as you mentioned, while you're right, they don't have a
regulatory influence on what happens in any one specific country.
Other than how that is harmonized throughout the entire EU, so that
when they want to enact policies across the entire EU, Parliament,
can vote to adopt recommendations from the European Commission and
Parliament. If they do that, there's,