The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast

Massive Wind Runner Plane, India Forces Local Manufacturing


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Allen discusses Trump's offshore wind cancellations, Dominion Energy's tariff troubles in Virginia, and India's new wind manufacturing rules helping Suzlon Energy. He also mentions Scotland's massive Berwick Bank approval and Colorado company Radia's ambitious Wind Runner cargo plane project.
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!
I'm about to tell you about the biggest airplane you've never heard of.
A Colorado company called Radia is building what could be the world's largest aircraft. They call it the Wind Runner. And if it is completed it's going to change everything about clean energy.
Mark Lundstrom, an aerospace engineer from Boulder, has a simple problem to solve. Wind turbines keep getting bigger and more powerful, but we can't get them where they need to go.
Here's why. Offshore wind farms can use turbine blades longer than 105m. But land-based turbines? They're stuck at about 80m. Not because of engineering limits - because of bridges, tunnels, and highway curves.
The turbines are simply too big to get under bridges, through tunnels, or around curves, Lundstrom explains.
So he's building a monster. The Wind Runner will be three hundred sixty-five feet long with a two hundred sixty-one foot wingspan. That's bigger than a Boeing 747. Much bigger.
The payload volume? Twelve times greater than that famous jumbo jet. It'll run on sustainable aviation fuel and land on dirt strips right inside wind farms.
Radia aims to complete the first Wind Runner in 2028. By doing this, Lundstrom says, we'll create the path to the cheapest energy in the world.
Keep that plane in mind. Because everything else I'm about to tell you connects to that story.
Now, let me tell you what's really happening with wind power. It's a story of global momentum meeting American resistance.
President Trump just canceled plans to develop new offshore wind projects in federal waters. More than 3.5 million acres had been designated as wind energy areas. Gone.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is rescinding all designated wind energy areas. They're ending what they call speculative wind development.
Offshore wind projects planned for Texas, Louisiana, Maine, New York, California, and Oregon? Canceled. The Biden administration's five-year schedule to lease federal offshore tracts? History.
But here's the twist. While America pulls back, the rest of the world doubles down.
Just days after Trump called wind turbines a con job during his visit to Scotland, the Scottish Government approved the world's biggest offshore wind farm project.
The Berwick Bank project will power six million homes when finished. Trump said those turbines were some of the ugliest you've ever seen. Scotland said, "We'll take six million homes' worth of ugly, thank you very much."
The message from Scotland? We're moving forward with wind power, regardless of what President Trump thinks.
Now here's where policy meets your pocketbook.
Dominion Energy's offshore wind project in Virginia just got over a $500 million price increase. The culprit? Trump's new tariffs on imported goods.
The project features 176 giant wind turbines, 27 miles off Virginia Beach. It will power 660,000 homes next year.
But those European Union tariffs, possible additional Mexican duties, and current taxes on Canadian and Mexican goods? They're adding up to $640 million to the project cost.
Here's the kicker: Virginia customers will pay between $253 million and $320 million to cover those import taxes.
Company chairman Bob Blue says the project is still the most affor...
...more
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The Uptime Wind Energy PodcastBy Allen Hall, Rosemary Barnes, Joel Saxum & Phil Totaro

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