This week on Uptime Power-Up, we discuss Siemens Gamesa's unique leading edge protection solution which uses a shock absorbing cavity for added cushion. Then Vestas' Utopus Insights patent that uses vibration monitoring to determine turbine health. And finally, a diaper for your bird, which Joel may be in the market for.

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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, Allen Hall, and IntelStor's Phil Totaro, as we discuss the weird, the wild, and the game changing ideas that will charge your energy future. Phil, our first idea is a Siemens Gamesa, and this leading edge protection is a little bit different than things we have normally seen.

It includes basically a cavity. So it's like a shell sort of device that would go on the leading edge, but it has a cavity with a shock absorbing medium. Inside of it. So it take the blows of the raindrops or the bugs or the hail. So it absorbs that energy. And then the, the wind turbine lives a long time.

That's a interesting concept. I haven't seen

Philip Totaro: it implemented yet though. I think because this patent application is also recent is probably something they're still testing. They've got a blade tip with a double layer with an elastomeric. Or, I mean, I guess they've described it in the patent as it could be anything kind of squishy, let's call it polymeric material, any kind of, squishy type material.

But what their, what their theory is behind this is that Because the leading edge, the, particularly around the tip, your tip speed is so high on a wind turbine blade that when you impact a raindrop or you impact a bug, obviously it makes little dents and you hit enough, especially if you've got like a swarm of bugs or flies or something, it can actually act like you're, you're sandblasting the leading edge of the blade.

And, everybody in the industry has probably seen, leading edge erosion and knows what it is. But the idea behind this is to say, all right, behind, the, the blade leading edge and the gel coat, there's this cavity with this, elastomeric damper kind of in there that would theoretically absorb some of that impact and also provide a, um, so it, it provides a rebound on the tip to, to allow it to maintain the aerodynamic profile.

The elastomeric material can be shaped to conform to the cavity so that it will, it will maintain It's aerodynamic profile on the leading edge, regardless of the amount of tip damage. So there's, there's a potential performance and certainly noise benefit to it. But I mean, Joel, I'm, I guess I'm curious about this.

There, there's other concepts out there, one from polytech included that seems kind of similar to this. Is this gonna be a thing?

Joel Saxum: What i'm looking at this material is like I see it the concept makes sense. Everything is great We have been installing shells on turbines because that's what the installation of this will look like it'll look like a shell We've been installing shells for a long time You have armor edge polytech like those things those solutions are out there but the reason i'm looking at this one with a little bit of a side eye is If this thing starts to fail, if that front edge opens up and then you have this shock absorbing elastomeric compound all of a sudden exposed and this thing starts to open itself up,