US Renewable Approvals, EDF French Nuclear

The Uptime hosts examine Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's federal
oversight mandate, the administration's plan to replace Idaho's
cancelled Lava Ridge Wind Farm with six nuclear reactors, and
critique a recent wind conference in Australia. The discussion also
covers French utility EDF's plan to sell 50% of its North American
wind portfolio to raise 2 billion euros for nuclear upgrades in
France. Sign up for the next SkySpecs webinar! Register for  UK
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This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech.
Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS
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Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes'
YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the
show? Email us! Allen Hall: [00:00:00] Mark your
calendars December 11th at the Royal Highland Center in Edinburgh,
because you'll want to be at the UK offshore wind supply chain
Spotlight 2025. This isn't just another conference. It's where the
UK's offshore wind supply chain comes together. Co-hosted by ORE
Catapult and the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership. Spotlight 2025
is where developers connect with suppliers and where the next
breakthrough in offshore wind technology gets its moment to shine.
So whether you're looking to forge new partnerships, secure
critical investments, or simply stay ahead of the curve in this
rapidly evolving sector, you'll need to register for this event.
Remember December 11th in Edinburg for Spotlight 2025. Just Google.
Edinburgh Supply Chain Spotlight 2025. You can register today.
You're listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you
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Revolution. [00:01:00] Visit build turbines.com today.
Now here's your hosts, Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Tartaro, and
Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: Well, greetings from
Charlotte, North Carolina to the Queen City. I'm Alan Hall and I'm
here with Phil Tartaro from the Golden State of California. And
Joel Saxon is at an undisclosed location in a secure bunker, so
that's not gonna leak out where he is. And Rosemary is enjoying the
winter months in beautiful Australia. And we have some interesting
topics this week, but I wanna lead off with Rosemary. Went to
another WIN conference, WIN plus conference in Australia.
Rosemary.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, actually I, I feel
petty, um, dissing this conference now because this is the one that
Alan, you and I did a whole episode on how bad this conference was
last year and, um. That's what caused us to feel like we needed to
organize our own wind energy conference. Uh, that covered some
technical topics, but you're walking around the conference, like,
why is there so much hydrogen stuff at a wind energy conference?
And I'm like, okay, well maybe that's like what they perceive that,
you know, most of the [00:02:00] new projects in
Australia, all the big ones say that they're associated with
hydrogen. So maybe that's it. And then I started seeing a lot of,
um, carbon capture things and, you know, like eels and all sorts
of, all sorts of things related to. CO2. Um, so that confused me.
Um, and then I saw that it was also a carbon capture conference
too. So yeah, the exhibition was, was not, not too bad. I had
definitely had lots of good conversations with people. Um, some
interesting things like, um, the drone, uh, yeah, drone
inspections, a few new capabilities coming up. There were a couple
of people with good drones, um, that can. Test the resistance of an
LPS and say that they can do a whole turbine in an hour and a half.
So, um, that's, that's pretty good. There was also some cool NDT,
uh, non-destructive testing stuff and a really small portable
ultrasound machine, and they wouldn't give me a price, but it
seemed like maybe, um, a wind farm could own one and use it
to [00:03:00] sometimes check repairs. I know I've heard
some operators in Australia have been saying how. Um, they are a
bit confused about whether their repairs are good or not because
they do see the same blades coming in for repair over and over
again. And I haven't actually, um, seen, seen the data to know is
this the exact same location or is it somewhere else? But you know,
if you're having a problem like that, then in investing in a small
ultrasound machine and the expertise to use it. 'cause it's
definitely not something where just any random off the street can,
can interpret. The results. But this particular machine, and I
haven't looked into it, I just had the chat at the booth yesterday.
They say that it can work on quite curved surfaces, which, um,
usually it, it will struggle. So if that's true then that could be
quite handy. But yeah. Um, I didn't go to any of the presentations
'cause I was so, I dunno, I'm gonna say disgusted. I was actually
disgusted by it last year. Not just like disappointed or not
interested. It was like a stronger emotion than that because it's
just like, you know, they get all these people here. Kind of
promise that you're gonna learn [00:04:00]something about,
about wind energy. But instead they just put people on stage who,
uh, either one, they work for a company who has sponsored the
event. If you sponsor the event, then it comes with a certain
number of speaker slots attached to it. Um, or two that they, you
just explicitly pay for the presentation and I can't remember, but
I think it's around about 10,000 US dollars. So this year I saw
just a few of the, there's some smaller stages in the exhibition
area. Um, I saw some like weird ones on hydrogen where they're
still talking like it's, I don't know, 2018 and no one's really
sure what hydrogen can or can't do. What else? Oh yeah. And the
other thing, um, I did pass this hilarious, um. Hilarious little
scene where they had a backdrop that said Women in net zero future,
um, like written on the background, not like projected on there,
written there. And then, um, you know, panel after panel was, uh,
yeah, full of, full of men. This particular photo took is extra
funny 'cause it just looks like five versions of the exact same
guy. It's, it's like, you know, [00:05:00] say same age,
same haircut, same race. It is just like, is this just, yeah. So
that is a handy tip for organizers that if you're gonna, you know,
write women on your background, maybe think about how many women
that you have speaking worth going. Um, and uh, again, it, you
know, reignites. My, uh, passion for putting together an event
where you actually, you know, talk about the technical issues and,
um, you know, present information that people can learn from. Um,
yeah. You know, um, companies with products can learn about what
the problems that operators are facing and operators can learn
about solutions that exist. So that's, um, yeah, we we're working
at the moment on that for next conference. I think that's, uh, also
the goal of what's, um, we've got Wind Summit coming up in Houston
in a few months, so there are good events out there.  Allen
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stop damage before it's too late. Visit og ping.com and take
control of your turbine's health today. Uh, the White House has
issued a new order requiring interior Secretary Doug Bergham to
personally approve all wind and solar energy projects on federal
lands and waters. And. Uh, this enhanced oversight covers
everything from leases to right of ways to construction plans and
operational approvals across literally millions of acres of federal
property. And the interior Department is saying that it aims to end
preferential treatment for what it calls unreliable subsidy,
dependent wind and solar energy. And my first thought of this is
like, all right, fine. Do it. Let's see how long this
lasts, [00:07:00] because I don't think the
administration can produce the amount of energy that it needs to
produce in the short amount of time they're gonna be around.
Without wind and solar, they're gonna have to let some of these
projects through, or there's going to be big time power
constraints. Right. Phil?  Phil Totaro: The bigger issue
is offshore as, as pertains the Department of the Interior for
onshore wind. I mean certainly solar, but for onshore wind. We only
have out of the 55 gigawatts or so that's either, um, already been
approved for construction and has started construction. Uh, is in
the interconnection queue or hasn't been fully approved and
permitted yet? Um, I think it's like less than six gigawatts that's
even on or touching any kind of federal land or requiring any kind
of federal permit, which would fall under this jurisdiction. So,
and most, like I said, most of the stuff's already been approved,
so there's not much that it's going to impact onshore wind. Solar
will be [00:08:00] more. Modestly impacted, um, just
because for utility scale projects, they sometimes use federal
land. Um, but for the most part, we, we don't really get out there
and, and touch that, where this has obviously the, the biggest
implication is what we've already seen since January, which is
offshore wind. Um, but that's not really a big. Change. Although
what's interesting to me is we'll see, you know, with this whole
push for accountability, um, you know, we'll see if they're willing
to stand behind their, uh, you know, approvals and assessments the
same way they're challenging ones issued by previous
administrations. Joel Saxum: I mean, 'cause at the end of the
day, there's not,