This week on Uptime Power-Up, a method from Vestas for modifying control of a wind turbine using load probability, a blade tip swap-out for Cypress turbines from GE, and a wind turbine tower with solar panels installed.

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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, Alan Hall, and idasaur's Phil Totaro, as we discuss the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will charge your energy future.

Well, our first idea is from Vestas, and it is an idea where they're monitoring the Turbine tower loads for natural vibration frequency, and you say, well, why would you want to do that? Well, of course, as things change on a wind turbine, maybe something goes wrong. Those frequencies of vibration are going to change, and the system will detect those and say, hey, something is wrong.

Here's probably what it is, which is a smart way of detecting failure modes in the turbine fill. But the other thing it could do, is push the turbine harder if it's not being driven hard enough and creating enough power.

Philip Totaro: Yeah, and this is actually really fascinating because, again, this might not sound like the world's most revolutionary, innovation, but it's a practical solution to a challenge that is faced out there in the field when you're operating a wind farm.

And specifically, in addition to just monitoring the, the tower loads and vibration over time, they have the option to monitor the max extreme load in relation to the original design load limit and readjust that max extreme load value over time as there's an evolution of the, the.

Mechanical performance of, of the turbine. And that to me is, is really clever way of approaching this challenge of having additional safety factor. Or as we see in the United States where turbines get run a lot harder. Than they were potentially designed for. Sometimes because companies are trying to maximize their production tax, credit revenue.

This is a way for a company like Vestus to keep an eye on whether or not they're exceeding a. Safety criteria, or by how much are you exceeding a safety criteria of, the design load limit versus the max extreme load limit, which will necessarily change over time. As components wear and, and as the tower sees certain load cases on it.

So I, I like this one a lot. I think, again, this is a really practical and clever thing. It might not be, or sound like the world's most revolutionary. Invention ever, but I, I like stuff like this. This is a really great one.

Joel Saxum: I think it's a functional way of ensuring the safety and operation of the turbine.

Right. The, the ability to adjust and to understand what kind of loads are being sensed and of course, When we talk about load changes in turbines, it's every component is completely different, right? The loads in the blades and fatigue loads over time and what can be and can't be exerted on them. To, to look, like a 20 year old blade is a lot different than a one year old blade and a 20 year old piece of drivetrain is a lot different than a 20, a one year old piece of drivetrain.

So adjusting those load limits by calculation and understanding as the turbine ages and operations change. It's something that should actually absolutely be d...