Allen Hall and Joel Saxum had a great conversation with Daniela Roeper of FabricAir, formerly Borealis Wind, regarding their innovative wind turbine blade heating system to mitigate icing. They discuss the system's impressive new capabilities, including advanced controls, analytics, and an efficient service model, now enabled further through the strategic Borealis acquisition, to provide exceptional value for wind farm owners. Roeper shares insightful perspectives on overlooked icing costs and explains how this optimized technology can boost production at icy sites. With FabricAir's substantial resources supporting ongoing enhancements, the future shines bright for effectively tackling troublesome turbine icing.

Learn more and reach out! https://www.fabricair.com/ice-protection-systems/

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Allen Hall: We're at CanREA the Electricity Transformation Canada 2023 event, and because it's so icy, we decided to grab Daniela Roeper, who was formerly with Borealis Wind, who is now VP at FabricAir. So we have a lot to discuss, icing wise, on turbine blades. It must be a huge discussion point this week because it is terrible outside.

Joel Saxum: Yeah, there's a half inch of ice on every bar.

Allen Hall: Oh yeah, everywhere.

Daniela Roeper: Couldn't ask for better marketing.

Allen Hall: No, this is great.

Joel Saxum: And the fantastic marketing that you guys did with the ice scrappers at the booth.

Allen Hall: Oh, yep. Spot. Perfect timing. Spot on. Yeah. I gotta grab one of those before we leave. Yeah.

Daniela Roeper: Free ice protection systems for your vehicle.

Joel Saxum: The base model.

Allen Hall: Yeah. So lot's happened since we have spoken to Borealis and you, which just realized 'cause you reminded me.

We, we talked in Copenhagen, which was earlier this year. But a lot has happened since then, so maybe you could give us a timeline of what you've been through over the last couple of months.

Daniela Roeper: So we spoke at the end of April, and in June we closed a deal with Fabricare to become part of the FabricAir group.

FabricAir is an HVAC company, they've been around for 50 years. They produce fabric ducting, which is used in many different industries. And they've been our fabric duct supplier since we started the company. And there was a very good strategic fit. So as of June 1st, we are officially part of the FabricAir group, and Borealis Wind is the product line in FabricAir.

Otherwise, the system itself hasn't changed, so that stays the same, and we have some exciting developments with our business model that I want to share, but I don't know if I should do that yet.

Allen Hall: Let's work our way up to that. FabricAir, if you don't realize makes all the ducting for all the air conditioning and heating systems in a lot of factories and buildings around the world.

In terms of your product, though, it's like a toughened, almost like a fire hose consistency of material. Is it Kevlar? What is this magic fabric that you stick in blades?

Daniela Roeper: We are using Cordura fabric.

Allen Hall: Okay.

Daniela Roeper: Which is a fabric you may have heard of. It's advertised on work pants, backpacks, military gear.

Allen Hall: Yeah, it's really tough stuff. Exactly. Okay. That makes a lot of sense then. Alright, so FabricAir is based in Denmark, right? But they have a lot of facilities all over the wor...