Dr. Hui Hu, a leading researcher on aerospace and wind turbine icing physics and aerodynamics, joined us to talk about the research his lab is churning out, and the implications it may have for the wind industry. Plus, we discuss the latest TransAlta foundation news – all 50 turbine foundations will need to be replaced in Kent Hills, spelling a huge financial disaster for that project. We also get into a debate on ExxonMobil’s net-zero emissions goals and whether offshore turbine foundations should be left underwater…forever.

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! 

00:00:00:02 – 00:00:03:02
Scientist is not just, you know,

00:00:03:15 – 00:00:06:00
after that dinner, just nothing to do.

00:00:06:05 – 00:00:08:10
We are looking into something else now.

00:00:08:20 – 00:00:10:19
And not only the banana.

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Also look at the other creatures
that live in

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and try to get inspiration for all this

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interesting observations.

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Welcome back.

00:00:26:13 – 00:00:28:00
I’m Dan Blewett.

00:00:28:00 – 00:00:32:18
I’m Allen Hall and I’m Rosemary Barnes,
and this is the Uptime podcast

00:00:32:23 – 00:00:36:03
bringing you the latest in wind energy,
tech news

00:00:36:03 – 00:00:37:18
and policy.

00:00:47:21 – 00:00:50:18
Welcome back to the Uptime
Wind Energy podcast.

00:00:50:18 – 00:00:53:01
On today’s show,
we’ve got a great friend of up time.

00:00:53:05 – 00:00:53:18
Our guest

00:00:53:18 – 00:00:58:07
today is Dr Hui Hu and he is an aerospace
and mechanical engineer by trade,

00:00:58:07 – 00:01:02:13
and he’s the director of the Advanced Flow
Diagnostics and Experimental

00:01:02:13 – 00:01:07:00
Aerodynamics Laboratory and Aircraft
Icing Physics and A.I.

00:01:07:09 – 00:01:10:21
Deicing Technology
Lab at Iowa State University.

00:01:10:21 – 00:01:14:09
So he’s going to join us today
to talk about his extensive research

00:01:14:17 – 00:01:18:04
and icing
and deicing different types of ice,

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some of the inspiration from nature
they’ve gotten

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in some of these new coatings
that are being developed.

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And it’s a really fascinating
conversation.

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Dr Hu who is going to be with us
in just a few moments.

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And before that,
we’ll talk about ExxonMobil.

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They’ve announced net zero emissions plans
by 2050.

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We’ll talk about
if that’s really a relevant goal.

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They’ve taken a lot of flak for that.

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We’ll talk about 3D printed magnets
and some of the implications therein.

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We’ll talk about cracks
in a wind turbine foundation

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that they found in a recent forum.

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We discussed this on a previous episode,

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but it looks like now

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they’re going to replace
all 50 foundations from that wind farm.

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And after the interview,
we’ll talk about Japan’s spending $43

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million on studies
regarding undersea cables, some new uses

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from Britain on undersea cables
and whether turbine reefs

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might be a really huge, beneficial effect.

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Really, the likes of which we haven’t seen
before as far as underwater

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habitat growth off offshore.

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So before we get going,
I want to remind you

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you can subscribe to Uptime Tech News,
our weekly podcast, update and newsletter

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in the show notes below,
as well as Rosemary’s excellent YouTube

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channel where she talks about everything
renewable energy.

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All right,
well, let’s start with translator’s woes,

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so they own the two sites in

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Kent Hills, up in New Brunswick, Canada,
and it’s we’ve talked about this before,

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but the 50 wind turbines on the two sites
in Kent Hills,

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it’s confirmed now that they’re going
to replace all of the foundations,

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which is going to cost the company
between 75 and $100 million,

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in addition to the 3.4 million

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per month in revenue they expect to lose
while the turbines are offline.

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Rosemary this seems like a nightmare.

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My question, I guess to you is
what are they going

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to do with the turbine?

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Why they’re replacing his foundation?

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Is it

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they’re getting completely deconstructed,
they’re going to lay it down somewhere?

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Or what might they do here?

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Well, I think that they have to
take the Blades off first

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and then I don’t know if they have
to fully fully disassemble it.

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But to be honest,
I would assume that they do have to.

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I mean, and to and isn’t designed to
just kind of like, lie on its back,

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even if it looks like that,
that might work.

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So I’m going to guess it’s
going to be kind of like a deconstruction

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reconstruction type of activity.

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Unfortunately, no sleep mode.

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You can’t like

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put those blinders next to it
and just like gently nods off for a while.

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Alan, this is obviously a huge problem.

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I mean, you’d think I mean, Trends
also has 20

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looks like 20 different sites
between the U.S.

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and Canada.

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But I mean, you imagine
some like this could have the potential

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to bankrupt a company.

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Oh, that’s why they’re insured, right?

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I think there’s a lot of insurance
companies that are going to

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bridge the gap here
because they can’t make money.

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But at some point

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the insurance companies are going to go
after either the engineers or the

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construction company for the installation
of something errors off.

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And weirdly enough,
it sounds like they’re just large crowd,

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large cracks in the foundations
that propagated.

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And to me, that always says reinforcement
bar a rebar.

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Something in the rebar wasn’t quite right,

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and it only takes, you know, one minor

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variable to be thrown off

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here because the loads are so high,
you got this massive wind turbines.

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And there’s really windy conditions
and it’s hot and it’s cold.

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Concrete doesn’t necessarily
like all those variables unless it’s

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really overdesigned, you could develop
cracks and and breakage over time.

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And at this point, I think

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I’ve seen this in other countries
where they’ve shown cracked foundations.

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I think it needs to go around,

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check the foundations right now
to make sure everything’s

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working like we think that it should.

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Well, do they, though,
because if you find one of these issues,

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then you have to fix it?

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I mean, I mean, a lot of times

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people don’t go to the doctor
because they don’t want to know what could

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be wrong with them.

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It might be a little spooky to go check

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all your foundations
with this news with trans.

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Also, I think in this case,
it was a design problem, right?

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It wasn’t that they made it incorrectly.

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Although I was surprised
by the weather conditions, I believe that

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that was actually a design fault,
and that’s why that’s why they don’t.

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They know

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they have to change all of the foundations
in this windfarm and you can do it.

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It’s like a paper, a paper exercise
to to check other turbines in the

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province or in the country.

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You don’t need to to go out and physically
look for cracks because you’ll be able

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to check from the drawings, whether
whether it was designed correctly or not.

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That makes sense.

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So you’re saying it probably wasn’t

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like an issue, like the way it was poured
or something like that, like

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they can just go to schematics and yeah,
yeah, it doesn’t sound like that.

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That was the problem.

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So big, big problem for them,
and it will definitely affect

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whose insurance is paying for it
because, you know, if it’s a

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if it’s a design problem,

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I guess it’s possible that it could be
a problem with the standards or something.

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But then it would be like a really,
really widespread problem.

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So it sounds like someone just
just incorrectly designed it.

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And I would assume
that professional indemnity

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insurance would be would be covering it
and that premiums will be going up.

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Yeah.

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Well, and it sounds like bondholders, it
so says here bondholders of more than 50%

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of the outstanding principal have their
right to immediately collect what’s owed.

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And it sounds like that’s
a scary proposition for trans alta.

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And what does that mean?

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That’s interesting.

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Usually, bondholders
don’t have that right.

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That’s at least
and these kind of projects, which is odd.

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So does that mean that they can get
their money back out of the project?

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Sounds, but there’s a default. Maybe?
I don’t know, right?

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I guess it’d be a default, right?

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Yeah, that would be bad
if that’s the case.

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one of the reasons you use bonds
is because they’re like a stable platform

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and as an investment,
it makes a lower percentage.

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It’s not as if doesn’t fluctuate
as much as stocks do,

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and they tend to be more around.

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Industrial projects like these are power
projects building projects.

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Bridge projects tend to be bonds

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because they just pay a steady rate.

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And if the bondholders can back out
and say

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there was something really off

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in this bridge wind turbine building

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and I want my money back, ouch.

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That can really squash a project quickly

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and that you don’t want that
to start right

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and don’t want to get put in anybody’s

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heads like, yeah,
I can back out of a project

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if things are not going
the way that I want to.

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It’s not good.

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Yes, we’ll see what happens,
I’m sure this saga will continue on.

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Obviously, we’re talking about it
a couple of months ago

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and now here’s
the next sort of evolution of it,

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and we’ll see how this continues
to evolve over time.

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So moving on, teams from the John L’Amour
Institute in France

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have developed the technology,
or at least are perfecting

00:08:01:08 – 00:08:04:22
some current technology
to 3D print magnets.

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Alan, this seems like mind blowing,
obviously.

00:08:08:12 – 00:08:10:22
I mean, typically magnets
are just what taken from the Earth.

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But here we’re now getting
I mean, we’ve talked about so much

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about 3-D printing,
be it concrete or thermoplastic or metals.

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Now we’re able to 3D print magnets.

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Yeah, it’s it’s crazy, right?

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We’ve all played around with magnets
as kids, and that can be these

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very hard, brittle things
that if you drop of the crack in the end.

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And so

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to 3D print, something like that
seems almost impossible

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because there’s still magic and magnetism.

00:08:40:23 – 00:08:42:01
I think it’s one of those things

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we don’t really understand all that
well at times and in the United States.

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And I think across the world,
everybody’s getting concerned that

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the rare earth minerals
that make up some of these really strong

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man magnets are located mainly in China.

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And in order to find alternatives
for Chinese mined magnets,

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they’re looking to these 3-D
printed pieces

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where they can basically form a magnet in
any shape using either recycled material

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or new types of magnetic materials
to be more efficient.

00:09:18:09 – 00:09:22:19
So you don’t have to machine them
or form them like you would,

00:09:23:01 – 00:09:26:21
you would just put them
like you’re going to build a concrete

00:09:26:21 – 00:09:28:14
house would be a very similar thing,
right?

00:09:28:14 – 00:09:31:20
You’re just going to start
printing these magnets that

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the exact shape and size, which is things
we really haven’t done much of.

00:09:35:15 – 00:09:39:06
And then the motor world generator world,
we just use,

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you know, we make them in the
in the sheet that we want to,

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but we haven’t really super controlled it
because you can’t do a lot

00:09:44:21 – 00:09:46:15
with those magnet materials.

00:09:46:15 – 00:09:48:13
But 3D printing them is.

00:09:49:12 – 00:09:50:09
Astounding.

00:09:50:09 – 00:09:53:15
I think I think it’s a really
an interesting change and Rosemary.

00:09:53:22 – 00:09:56:10
Can you see where this is going?
Yeah, I love this one.

00:09:56:13 – 00:09:58:18
This is I mean,
I love additive manufacturing.

00:09:58:18 – 00:10:03:06
It is like magic and the air
and then the magnets.

00:10:03:06 – 00:10:07:05
I mean, in a lot of magic tricks,
the you know, the secret is magnets.

00:10:08:02 – 00:10:10:06
They are basically magic.

00:10:10:06 – 00:10:13:13
But what I really love about it
is that if you don’t need the same

00:10:13:22 – 00:10:15:23
magnetic field strength everywhere,

00:10:15:23 – 00:10:19:20
you can put the magnet where you need it
and not where you don’t.

00:10:19:20 – 00:10:22:08
So you can really

00:10:22:08 – 00:10:24:18
start to start to make the

00:10:25:15 – 00:10:29:06
the component that you need, rather
than the one that you could manufacture.

00:10:29:15 – 00:10:32:14
And in that way, it really reminds me of
when I first got interested

00:10:32:14 – 00:10:33:17
in composite materials,

00:10:33:17 – 00:10:36:18
it was kind of for the same like,
Oh, well, this changes everything now.

00:10:36:23 – 00:10:40:14
We don’t need to, you know, just machine
something out of a block of of steel.

00:10:40:14 – 00:10:42:11
We can say we need strength

00:10:42:11 – 00:10:45:12
in this direction, in this location,
and then we can we can make it.

00:10:45:13 – 00:10:49:07
And so, yeah,
I think additive and now, you know, like

00:10:51:10 – 00:10:53:17
additive
has done that to all sorts of components.

00:10:53:17 – 00:10:57:03
And now to add magnets to it,
it really seems like it’s going to

00:10:57:13 – 00:11:01:01
help solve some of the problems
that we have with the rare earth

00:11:01:08 – 00:11:05:01
supply chain
and any any kinds of expensive components

00:11:05:01 – 00:11:08:13
or expensive materials
can be used in a more targeted way.

00:11:08:14 – 00:11:10:21
So I think
I think that’s going to really help

00:11:11:01 – 00:11:14:21
help solve some of the problems
that we’re anticipating in supply chains

00:11:14:21 – 00:11:16:10
coming up in the next decade or two.

00:11:16:10 – 00:11:21:11
And so last year on the docket before
we get to our interview is ExxonMobil.

00:11:21:11 – 00:11:25:18
So they’ve set a public,
you know, net zero ambition by 2050,

00:11:26:17 – 00:11:29:08
which has been met
with a lot of sharp criticism

00:11:29:08 – 00:11:32:00
that it’s not very ambitious at all,
I suppose.

00:11:32:21 – 00:11:35:11
Rosemary, what’s the deal with ExxonMobil?

00:11:35:17 – 00:11:38:07
Was this just sort of a PR
play and not really, really

00:11:39:06 – 00:11:39:20
moving the

00:11:39:20 – 00:11:43:09
chains
or what’s what’s going on with Exxon?

00:11:43:21 – 00:11:46:15
I do think it’s a weird PR play
because now

00:11:46:15 – 00:11:49:10
they’ve got this huge
philosophical inconsistency.

00:11:49:15 – 00:11:53:04
If they are recognizing on the one hand,
you know, this announcement well,

00:11:53:04 – 00:11:54:22
I’ve seen a lot of people say,
Oh, you know, like actually,

00:11:54:22 – 00:11:56:06
there’s some glimmer of hope

00:11:56:06 – 00:11:59:12
in this terrible announcement
because now they’re finally accepting

00:11:59:12 – 00:12:02:09
that climate change is real
and something needs to be done about it.

00:12:02:16 – 00:12:07:01
But if that’s true, then why have they got
plans to just expand and expand

00:12:07:01 – 00:12:11:02
fossil fuels, which is incompatible
with doing something about climate change?

00:12:11:03 – 00:12:13:00
So I don’t know if it was.

00:12:13:00 – 00:12:15:09
I think that they had the
the better position,

00:12:15:20 – 00:12:17:23
more logically defensible
when they just said

00:12:18:05 – 00:12:20:10
climate change isn’t real
and we won’t do anything about it.

00:12:20:10 – 00:12:21:18
At least it was consistent.

00:12:21:18 – 00:12:22:15
Now it’s like,

00:12:22:15 – 00:12:25:23
yeah, climate change is important and
what’s not going to do anything about it?

00:12:26:11 – 00:12:27:13
It’s really weird to me.

00:12:28:20 – 00:12:30:00
Well, and I want to pick your

00:12:30:00 – 00:12:33:03
brain about these different scopes
of greenhouse gas emissions.

00:12:33:03 – 00:12:35:22
So there’s Scope one and two and three.

00:12:35:22 – 00:12:38:23
And so from this article from ABC News,
they are saying Scope one

00:12:39:01 – 00:12:44:12
refers to direct emissions
coming from the company scope to emissions

00:12:44:12 – 00:12:45:11
associated with the energy

00:12:45:11 – 00:12:48:21
that they produce , or I’m sorry,
they purchase or used to run operations.

00:12:49:07 – 00:12:52:06
And then scope three
is sort of like end consumer.

00:12:52:06 – 00:12:57:00
So maybe, you know, were consumers
using their pumped gas in their car?

00:12:57:20 – 00:12:58:21
Can you explain a little deeper?

00:12:58:21 – 00:13:01:17
Well, what the difference in scope
one and scope to us? Yeah.

00:13:01:17 – 00:13:02:22
So this

00:13:02:22 – 00:13:04:15
this isn’t something
that I’ve actually spent

00:13:04:15 – 00:13:08:00
a lot of time digging into,
because it’s kind of it’s very

00:13:09:14 – 00:13:11:05
it’s kind of complicated and

00:13:11:05 – 00:13:15:04
it’s more like of an accounting thing
than an engineering thing because I mean,

00:13:15:04 – 00:13:19:15
you just define the emissions pretty well,
the different types of them.

00:13:19:15 – 00:13:23:12
But obviously, what is scope
one emissions for one company?

00:13:23:12 – 00:13:25:03
Those same emissions are going to be,
you know,

00:13:25:03 – 00:13:26:18
scope two emissions for someone else.

00:13:26:18 – 00:13:30:21
And so the big criticism with Exxon
Mobil is they’re not close to the Scope

00:13:30:21 – 00:13:36:06
three emissions, which is emissions that
occur when their product is is burned.

00:13:36:06 – 00:13:39:05
So we’re using their product
creates emissions.

00:13:39:14 – 00:13:43:12
So that’s going to be
so they’re selling a lot of a lot of fuel

00:13:43:12 – 00:13:44:20
with a lot of fossil fuel

00:13:44:20 – 00:13:48:13
and somewhere down the line say a power
station is going to burn that,

00:13:48:13 – 00:13:53:08
then that is going to be scope
one emissions for the the power plant

00:13:53:17 – 00:13:56:09
and then anyone who buys electricity
from that power plant,

00:13:56:09 – 00:13:58:09
that’s going to be their Scope
two emissions.

00:13:58:09 – 00:14:02:01
So you can say that if everybody accounted
for all of their scope

00:14:02:01 – 00:14:05:04
one, two and three, you’d end up triple
counting everything.

00:14:05:04 – 00:14:09:03
Once the whole world is committed to net
zero and is accounting for these three,

00:14:09:10 – 00:14:10:16
then you triple count.

00:14:10:16 – 00:14:14:11
So I guess on that technicality,
what Exxon is saying

00:14:14:11 – 00:14:17:19
is is true that, you know,
it doesn’t make any sense for everyone

00:14:17:19 – 00:14:18:21
to be looking at all of them.

00:14:18:21 – 00:14:21:09
But I think the reason why people
are rolling their eyes

00:14:21:09 – 00:14:23:16
at this announcement
is because you’re like,

00:14:23:17 – 00:14:26:14
you’re a fossil fuel company
and you’re planning to sell more and more.

00:14:26:14 – 00:14:30:02
So you’re not just in charge
of your own scope one and two emissions,

00:14:30:02 – 00:14:34:10
you’re actively pushing
those emissions onto your customers.

00:14:35:09 – 00:14:39:08
So it it’s pretty cynical to say Scope
three emissions

00:14:39:08 – 00:14:43:16
don’t matter for fossil fuel manufacturer
that it might be OK for something.

00:14:43:16 – 00:14:45:13
If you’re selling cakes or something,

00:14:45:13 – 00:14:48:21
then maybe you’ve got a more
defensible position that your scope.

00:14:49:01 – 00:14:51:09
Emissions aren’t that relevant.

00:14:51:09 – 00:14:53:15
You know, you don’t know
if someone puts it in, puts it

00:14:53:15 – 00:14:56:17
in a fire or something and generates
electricity from your cake or whatever.

00:14:56:17 – 00:14:57:22
But ExxonMobile know

00:14:57:22 – 00:15:01:14
what’s happening to that,
to their product, to people selling cakes.

00:15:01:21 – 00:15:03:14
This sounds terrible.

00:15:03:14 – 00:15:04:09
You could.

00:15:04:09 – 00:15:07:00
And how is that my responsibility
as a baker?

00:15:07:05 – 00:15:11:12
I mean, yeah, that’s it’s one thing
when it’s a bakery and another another

00:15:11:12 – 00:15:16:21
thing when it’s a fossil fuel company
that has 11 use in mind for that product.

00:15:17:07 – 00:15:21:22
Of all the post-apocalyptic movies
I’ve watched or read, and my most recent

00:15:21:22 – 00:15:25:16
was The Road by Cormac McCarthy,
no one has burned any excess food.

00:15:25:16 – 00:15:27:18
They’re eating there.
They’re eating their excess food.

00:15:28:18 – 00:15:30:19
Anyway, Alan is the bleakest movie

00:15:32:15 – 00:15:33:04
they made.

00:15:33:04 – 00:15:35:04
Oh, they made that into a movie,
didn’t they?

00:15:35:04 – 00:15:37:11
It was a bleak, as bleak as the book.

00:15:38:02 – 00:15:41:07
It’s my boyfriend’s favorite book.

00:15:41:07 – 00:15:42:00
I wasn’t.

00:15:42:00 – 00:15:44:20
I wasn’t enthralled
by the book personally, but we’ll go there

00:15:45:00 – 00:15:45:13
another time.

00:15:45:13 – 00:15:49:15
Alan, how this math this math scope
one scope to scope three.

00:15:49:15 – 00:15:51:06
You’re shaking your head a little bit.

00:15:51:06 – 00:15:53:12
I mean, what does this mean to you?

00:15:53:12 – 00:15:57:12
It’s it’s it’s just in a different
accounting system to me.

00:15:57:12 – 00:16:02:04
And do we really have to worry
what Exxon does?

00:16:03:00 – 00:16:06:06
I think as an engineer,
what the answer is on our side

00:16:06:06 – 00:16:10:21
as we make the cost of energy cheaper
than what Exxon can produce it for.

00:16:10:21 – 00:16:13:20
And it doesn’t matter anymore,
and that’s where we’re headed.

00:16:13:21 – 00:16:14:23
So everybody’s worried

00:16:14:23 – 00:16:19:01
about Exxon all the time
and the United States, because it’s a U.S.

00:16:19:01 – 00:16:21:09
based company,
there’s a lot of fervor about it.

00:16:22:01 – 00:16:26:06
But the answer is on the other side
is the stuff that Rosemary is doing

00:16:26:06 – 00:16:27:14
with all these wind turbine people,

00:16:27:14 – 00:16:30:22
all the solar people are doing,
they’re making the impact Exxon’s

00:16:31:13 – 00:16:34:11
most likely going to be
on the wrong side of the equation.

00:16:34:19 – 00:16:36:05
It’s just a matter of time.

00:16:36:05 – 00:16:39:11
All right, we’re going to jump
to our conversation with Dr.

00:16:39:11 – 00:16:43:05
Hui Hu on wind turbine blade icing.

00:16:50:23 – 00:16:52:04
All right, well, Doctor Who,

00:16:52:04 – 00:16:55:03
thank you so much for coming on the show,
we’re excited to chat with you today.

00:16:55:03 – 00:16:56:19
Yeah, no problem.

00:16:56:19 – 00:16:57:15
You’re welcome.

00:16:57:15 – 00:17:00:04
Obviously, we want to talk
about your research at Iowa State,

00:17:00:12 – 00:17:03:22
and we know since the Texas incident
last year with the winter

00:17:03:22 – 00:17:06:01
have been easing.
You know, you’ve got a lot of calls,

00:17:06:01 – 00:17:08:10
you’ve been really, really busy
since then.

00:17:08:10 – 00:17:10:17
So we want to talk, obviously
about some of the stuff

00:17:10:17 – 00:17:13:07
you’ve learned over the years
in your Iowa lab.

00:17:13:07 – 00:17:13:18
But first,

00:17:13:18 – 00:17:16:09
I think some clarification on climate
will be important

00:17:16:09 – 00:17:18:11
because obviously Texas
is here in the U.S.

00:17:18:11 – 00:17:19:08
and there’s wind turbines

00:17:19:08 – 00:17:22:11
all over the U.S., including tons of them
in the Midwest where you are.

00:17:23:02 – 00:17:27:10
So you can can you kind of take us through
why was it such a crisis in Texas?

00:17:27:22 – 00:17:30:12
And yet, why do the Dakotas and you know,

00:17:30:12 – 00:17:34:06
the Minnesota’s
and the huge cold belt in the Midwest?

00:17:34:16 – 00:17:38:04
Why don’t they have
the same issues that Texas had?

00:17:38:05 – 00:17:40:16
I mean, what’s
what’s the situation with climate?

00:17:40:22 – 00:17:44:20
The second question
you mentioned that why the Texas,

00:17:44:20 – 00:17:49:01
particularly in last year,
was hit by the storm and have a problem.

00:17:49:08 – 00:17:55:15
And the Midwest, like Iowa, we have cold
winter every year, but we don’t see that

00:17:55:21 – 00:18:00:22
actually does, because for the ice bed up,
there are different kind of ice.

00:18:01:05 – 00:18:02:13
We all know that ice

00:18:03:12 – 00:18:06:10
build up have two key factors.

00:18:06:10 – 00:18:08:18
one is cold temperature.

00:18:09:02 – 00:18:11:14
Another is moisture.

00:18:11:14 – 00:18:13:06
A water, OK?

00:18:13:06 – 00:18:15:10
We usually is scientifically

00:18:16:13 – 00:18:20:13
words, so we call the liquid water content
within the airflow unity.

00:18:21:07 – 00:18:23:21
In Iowa, we are cold, but we are dry.

00:18:24:13 – 00:18:26:23
But in the East Coast,

00:18:27:10 – 00:18:32:08
they’re usually not that cold, but
lots of moisture propagate in this time.

00:18:32:20 – 00:18:36:04
In Texas, they’re usually not a cold.

00:18:36:15 – 00:18:39:22
But last year it was hit by the cold snow.

00:18:39:22 – 00:18:43:18
And also you have Gulf of Mexico nearby.

00:18:43:18 – 00:18:45:21
There’s lots of moisture came from there.

00:18:45:21 – 00:18:51:21
As a result, you have temperature
not as cold as Midwest, but

00:18:51:21 – 00:18:57:05
lots of moisture that’s caused up probably
yearly for ice and for cold and dry.

00:18:57:09 – 00:18:59:06
We get the remise.

00:18:59:06 – 00:19:02:20
And for that, not that cold,
not a moisture.

00:19:02:20 – 00:19:04:09
You get a glass ice.

00:19:04:09 – 00:19:08:15
And we all know that glass ice
is much more trouble than can cause

00:19:08:15 – 00:19:13:09
much more damage
to the aerodynamic performance of the air

00:19:13:09 – 00:19:16:21
falls, for example
cross-section of the wind turbine.

00:19:16:23 – 00:19:21:04
Therefore, you will lose all the lift out.

00:19:21:11 – 00:19:25:04
Generate that course are much less torque

00:19:25:04 – 00:19:28:08
to drive the turbine to rotate.

00:19:28:14 – 00:19:30:14
If turbine cannot rotate, of course,
there’s is.

00:19:30:19 – 00:19:32:22
Electricity was generated.

00:19:33:05 – 00:19:35:22
So the big issue is the humidity in Texas.

00:19:35:23 – 00:19:39:12
Obviously, that makes that better climate
for ice formation.

00:19:39:19 – 00:19:41:06
Yeah, that’s as I mentioned.

00:19:41:06 – 00:19:43:04
You have to factor this to.

00:19:43:04 – 00:19:44:22
There’s balance together.

00:19:44:22 – 00:19:48:09
Make some very non-linear we have.

00:19:48:09 – 00:19:49:08
I will say that

00:19:50:09 – 00:19:51:19
not only cold,

00:19:51:19 – 00:19:56:03
not only moisture,
you really have this to work together

00:19:56:10 – 00:19:59:07
and to ease some conditions
that can be quite bad.

00:20:00:07 – 00:20:04:04
So you said non-linear, you mean like
just even small changes in humidity,

00:20:04:04 – 00:20:07:18
you could have just really gigantic
effects on how much ice builds up.

00:20:08:00 – 00:20:11:22
That’s true
because we all know that for the Air

00:20:12:02 – 00:20:14:19
France has a scientific point of view.

00:20:14:23 – 00:20:20:20
What are turned to the ice is for a high
energy level to the low energy level.

00:20:21:01 – 00:20:24:05
So as a result, you need to get that.

00:20:24:07 – 00:20:28:19
We call the lighter heat fusion release
how fast that

00:20:29:22 – 00:20:31:05
heat was released.

00:20:31:05 – 00:20:34:15
What determines
what kind of ice you’re going to build up?

00:20:34:23 – 00:20:37:22
So that’s really not near term mean.

00:20:38:04 – 00:20:43:04
So some of the conditions
that can go very bad, for example,

00:20:43:04 – 00:20:48:09
glass ice that we use to say,
and there you not only have

00:20:48:20 – 00:20:54:01
that heat unit is tremendous
because of the high moisture in the air.

00:20:54:17 – 00:20:57:15
However, temperature is not low enough.

00:20:57:16 – 00:21:02:03
Therefore, that heat
release cannot disparage fast.

00:21:02:08 – 00:21:07:21
We will accumulate locally,
make the water do now turning into the ice

00:21:07:21 – 00:21:12:12
right away, then air blow
the mixture of the water and the ice

00:21:13:05 – 00:21:16:19
go too crazy into the region that is water
not near.

00:21:17:03 – 00:21:19:18
We have what we call the water.

00:21:19:18 – 00:21:25:22
Rumbek process cause the geometry
of the complicated ice buildup doctor who.

00:21:25:22 – 00:21:26:11
There’s there’s.

00:21:27:11 – 00:21:29:06
two main

00:21:29:06 – 00:21:32:22
kinds of ice here, and I just want to get
a little more description about them.

00:21:33:04 – 00:21:36:16
So ryme ice is something
that we typically see on airplanes,

00:21:36:19 – 00:21:41:22
which is looks like smaller ice crystals
that seem to accumulate

00:21:42:07 – 00:21:45:04
on the leading edge of a wing
or on the front of the airplane.

00:21:45:11 – 00:21:47:07
Pretty normal things.

00:21:47:07 – 00:21:51:00
If you’ve flown a long time in cold
climates, you see rim ice a good bit.

00:21:51:07 – 00:21:53:22
The glaze ice is the one
which is a little bit different

00:21:54:01 – 00:21:57:21
because you don’t see
as much in aerospace, but it seems like

00:21:57:21 – 00:22:03:04
the glaze ice was really important
in Texas, and it’s sort of a much thicker

00:22:03:13 – 00:22:06:07
layer of ice like something
you may get on your automobile.

00:22:06:16 – 00:22:10:00
one, like in Massachusetts, when it’s
really cold that you get these sort of

00:22:11:05 – 00:22:13:20
the water tends to run back big
and then freeze.

00:22:14:04 – 00:22:18:06
You get globs right as big blocks
that tend to build up on your car.

00:22:18:16 – 00:22:23:12
It sounds like Texas was more
this thicker glaze ice.

00:22:23:18 – 00:22:27:12
And how thick can the glaze ice

00:22:28:05 – 00:22:30:12
be on a winter and how thick can they get?

00:22:30:22 – 00:22:33:16
What kind of ice you get going to get.

00:22:33:16 – 00:22:36:22
It really depend on the temperature
and the humidity, as

00:22:37:12 – 00:22:42:00
you mentioned at the four aircraft,
since they appear to fly very high

00:22:42:00 – 00:22:46:20
in the sky at their temperature, very low,
but usually moisture in the clouds

00:22:47:07 – 00:22:51:18
in that altitude also relatively low
compared on the ground.

00:22:52:00 – 00:22:55:19
Therefore,
when the water that super cold droplets

00:22:55:19 – 00:22:58:22
in the cloud
impinge on the surface that goes into

00:22:59:14 – 00:23:03:03
the total amount is less
when they’re impinging into the leading

00:23:03:03 – 00:23:06:14
edge, that’s most of the location
they’re going to be.

00:23:06:14 – 00:23:11:11
Japan turned to the ice right away
when the lights turned to ice.

00:23:11:18 – 00:23:15:16
You will get very small
graying of that remise.

00:23:16:05 – 00:23:20:17
However, as you mentioned that in Texas,
usually temperature

00:23:20:22 – 00:23:25:12
is not that cold comparably
to worry about high above in the sky

00:23:26:01 – 00:23:30:03
that you have lots of moisture
came from that Gulf of Mexico.

00:23:30:12 – 00:23:34:21
Therefore, there
the total water amount is much sick.

00:23:35:14 – 00:23:38:07
They’ve weakened higher and temperatures
lower.

00:23:38:07 – 00:23:43:14
Therefore, warm water flowing into the ice
for the first punch and the heat

00:23:43:14 – 00:23:47:19
you release cannot be dissipated
because temperature is not that cold.

00:23:48:05 – 00:23:52:23
Therefore, the second bunch up the water
impinges on the air quality.

00:23:53:06 – 00:23:55:17
They don’t froze into the ice right away.

00:23:55:23 – 00:23:58:07
Therefore, air will push them.

00:23:59:08 – 00:24:01:01
Moved to the downstream.

00:24:01:01 – 00:24:02:20
That’s what we call the Rumbek.

00:24:02:20 – 00:24:06:02
As a result, and the water

00:24:06:02 – 00:24:08:23
film, while Kerry the ice water mixture.

00:24:09:04 – 00:24:11:23
Cover no honey at the leading edge,

00:24:12:06 – 00:24:17:05
but also run back to cover
almost all the blade surface.

00:24:17:18 – 00:24:21:01
And second question
you ask How bad did that

00:24:21:07 – 00:24:24:04
glass house can be become?

00:24:24:05 – 00:24:29:15
Actually, we happened to
did field a study of one turbine

00:24:29:22 – 00:24:33:03
which said near the ocean very similar

00:24:33:19 – 00:24:36:20
to what Texas wind turbine location is.

00:24:36:21 – 00:24:41:20
You have an ocean not far away,
but you have temperature now that cold.

00:24:42:04 – 00:24:44:20
We found that after 24 hours

00:24:44:20 – 00:24:48:06
of the storm, that a slow condition

00:24:48:18 – 00:24:52:18
the blade at the leading edge of the tip,

00:24:53:04 – 00:24:56:23
the thickness can be as high as point
three meters.

00:24:57:04 – 00:24:58:06
That’s about twelve

00:24:59:07 – 00:24:59:17
inch.

00:24:59:17 – 00:25:02:07
What was fatally shot?

00:25:02:07 – 00:25:02:15
Yeah.

00:25:02:15 – 00:25:05:23
Of this,
yeah, slow is significant, rosemary.

00:25:05:23 – 00:25:08:03
Obviously, you worked on

00:25:08:03 – 00:25:11:16
the ice mitigation team for on wind power,
did you guys?

00:25:11:16 – 00:25:15:04
I mean, was this issue of run back ice
a pretty significant challenge?

00:25:15:10 – 00:25:18:04
Well, it’s interesting
because it’s all through the academic

00:25:18:04 – 00:25:21:07
literature on deicing.
It’s mentioned a lot.

00:25:21:21 – 00:25:24:07
And so I made a point to

00:25:24:17 – 00:25:27:17
to ask every wind farm
operator and cold climates

00:25:27:17 – 00:25:31:22
about how much of a problem
it was because you can’t.

00:25:31:23 – 00:25:32:18
one of the issues

00:25:32:18 – 00:25:36:01
with installing a deicing system
is that you can’t hate the whole blade

00:25:36:01 – 00:25:39:19
if you like the amount of heat energy
that you need to melt the ice.

00:25:40:10 – 00:25:44:08
If you put that over
the entire blade surface, then it’s it’s

00:25:44:10 – 00:25:46:07
absolutely prohibitive.

00:25:46:07 – 00:25:50:10
It’s megawatts of energy
that you’d need to disarm a blade.

00:25:50:21 – 00:25:53:04
So you have to target it.

00:25:53:04 – 00:25:57:05
And the trailing edge area has a lot
more surface area than the leading edge.

00:25:57:20 – 00:26:01:08
So in most cases,
people are leading a heating

00:26:01:08 – 00:26:03:01
just the leading edge of the Blades.

00:26:03:01 – 00:26:06:02
So there’s this big contrast
between what the academic literature is

00:26:06:02 – 00:26:10:06
saying is important
as a lot of focus on one black ice versus

00:26:10:06 – 00:26:11:15
what’s happening in industry.

00:26:11:15 – 00:26:15:10
And it was really interesting
because without exception, every single

00:26:15:10 – 00:26:19:19
wind farm operator that I talked to said
run back ice is something that academics

00:26:19:19 – 00:26:24:01
care about, and it’s never
no one had ever noticed a problem.

00:26:24:10 – 00:26:27:11
But that said, I never
I never talked to anybody who saw

00:26:27:23 – 00:26:30:12
300 millimeter thick run black ice.

00:26:30:12 – 00:26:33:21
If found if they were experiencing that,
then I can guarantee you that they

00:26:34:05 – 00:26:35:19
they would have been very concerned
about it.

00:26:35:19 – 00:26:40:08
So yeah, and the wind farms
that I was working with were in areas

00:26:40:08 – 00:26:44:10
like Quebec and New Brunswick,
which are pretty, pretty moist.

00:26:45:07 – 00:26:48:13
And then a lot in Sweden,
those were the main areas I was working.

00:26:48:13 – 00:26:51:20
So a bit a bit different weather
conditions than, yeah, than

00:26:53:06 – 00:26:54:22
Texas or something like that.

00:26:54:22 – 00:26:58:03
Our air rage, depending on location,
for example, in that

00:26:58:03 – 00:27:01:20
in the Midwest area,
that poor reduction due to the ice,

00:27:02:01 – 00:27:07:03
maybe about 10% of the up to 15%

00:27:07:03 – 00:27:11:09
not as high as what Texas get, about 50%.

00:27:11:16 – 00:27:14:05
And in the in the paper we published

00:27:14:12 – 00:27:18:06
based on the field measurements
during that stone period,

00:27:18:14 – 00:27:21:00
we see the maximum of 80%

00:27:21:09 – 00:27:24:03
and that’s correspond that

00:27:24:06 – 00:27:28:13
about three meter
thickness of ice buildup.

00:27:28:13 – 00:27:32:06
Of course, that’s a particularly strong

00:27:32:13 – 00:27:35:20
experienced by the turbine for 24 hours.

00:27:36:04 – 00:27:39:14
And for others,
maybe not as significant as that, but

00:27:40:02 – 00:27:46:04
the power reduction from 10% to 30%
that’s yearly

00:27:46:06 – 00:27:50:19
is the average based on what we know
from the wind farmers.

00:27:51:08 – 00:27:54:06
And when when we’re talking about
the power reduction, is it?

00:27:55:08 – 00:27:58:02
Because obviously,
Alan, like these can stall out, right,

00:27:58:02 – 00:28:01:01
and they’ll just stop spinning
if the error is the airfoil gets,

00:28:01:01 – 00:28:03:11
you know what to poorly shaped
from glazed eyes.

00:28:03:11 – 00:28:07:09
But I mean, if you said
80% power reduction, does that just mean

00:28:07:09 – 00:28:10:13
it’s been off like completely not moving
for a pretty long period of time?

00:28:10:13 – 00:28:11:22
Or is it really speed,

00:28:11:22 – 00:28:16:04
you know, spinning 80% slower than normal
or some combination of the two?

00:28:16:14 – 00:28:19:12
Yeah, that’s during the field we see.

00:28:19:12 – 00:28:23:21
We also know that honey use our drone
to fly near that hip hop popped

00:28:25:13 – 00:28:26:06
one turbine.

00:28:26:06 – 00:28:30:15
That’s about 50 meter
milhao blade to take a picture.

00:28:30:15 – 00:28:33:04
Also, we do where we’re lucky.

00:28:33:05 – 00:28:36:22
William
Farmer wants a great shared operation data

00:28:38:03 – 00:28:39:03
of the turbine.

00:28:39:03 – 00:28:43:07
We measured one speed at the tower.

00:28:43:14 – 00:28:46:07
We also measured
the rotation speed up the blade.

00:28:46:12 – 00:28:47:13
We also get a power

00:28:48:18 – 00:28:50:16
output from the generator.

00:28:50:16 – 00:28:53:11
All these things
indicate during that period

00:28:53:19 – 00:28:57:11
there are significant time

00:28:57:20 – 00:29:02:06
that turbine just stop and rotation
velocity equals zero.

00:29:02:11 – 00:29:06:00
But sometimes that also they do rotate.

00:29:06:01 – 00:29:10:19
However, the output from the generator
is not as high

00:29:10:19 – 00:29:16:22
as without the ice does
cause the both stop

00:29:17:01 – 00:29:20:20
rotation also even their rotation
that don’t generate enough

00:29:21:08 – 00:29:24:18
electricity,
the power as they’re supposed to be.

00:29:24:19 – 00:29:28:17
So both these two combination
make that particular turbine.

00:29:28:17 – 00:29:34:05
We study up to 80% of that
energy reduction during that period.

00:29:34:17 – 00:29:37:07
And that’s exactly
what I was going to say.

00:29:37:07 – 00:29:39:18
I’m actually really surprised to hear that

00:29:39:18 – 00:29:44:02
any wind turbine is operating
with 300 millimeter thick at that I,

00:29:44:07 – 00:29:47:06
because that must be hundreds
and hundreds of kilos of of ice.

00:29:47:06 – 00:29:51:17
And I know that when turbine blades
are not designed to are not designed

00:29:51:17 – 00:29:56:11
with that load case in mind,
so are they’re not ice detection systems

00:29:56:11 – 00:30:00:02
on a lot of the
the turbines that you’re looking at.

00:30:00:23 – 00:30:03:21
Why? Why is it the case
that they’re still trying to operate

00:30:03:21 – 00:30:05:18
with so much weight of ice there?

00:30:05:18 – 00:30:06:23
Yeah, that’s a good question.

00:30:06:23 – 00:30:10:14
And that’s why I say we really
we have tried to identify

00:30:10:14 – 00:30:14:09
the collaborators
and many of the women farmers

00:30:14:10 – 00:30:18:15
that usually the most common
strategy is one to have.

00:30:18:23 – 00:30:22:21
The detection of ICE is bigger

00:30:22:21 – 00:30:25:21
than some amount
based on vibration desktop.

00:30:26:08 – 00:30:30:00
But for this particular study,
we really are

00:30:30:16 – 00:30:32:21
very glad we have a wind hammer.

00:30:33:03 – 00:30:37:04
They agreed that during that period,
no matter what happened

00:30:37:13 – 00:30:42:18
and still can produce that data for us,
that’s not the routines operation.

00:30:43:02 – 00:30:46:08
It’s just for the scientific study
we do out there.

00:30:46:09 – 00:30:50:16
We really grateful that we
they can collaborate

00:30:51:04 – 00:30:53:07
for this field of study.

00:30:53:18 – 00:30:56:16
So before we move on to
some of the coatings

00:30:56:16 – 00:31:00:00
that you’ve worked with
and some of the other physics,

00:31:00:10 – 00:31:04:03
is there a way to prevent one type of ice
versus the other?

00:31:04:03 – 00:31:06:00
Or is there anything to really be done

00:31:07:02 – 00:31:09:01
with Reimer Glaze ice?

00:31:09:01 – 00:31:12:03
Or is it really just more like based
on your climate, you’re going to get one

00:31:12:03 – 00:31:15:15
or the other or, you know, a
higher proportion of one versus the other

00:31:15:20 – 00:31:19:18
for many of the wind farmers,
when they really see that, I don’t

00:31:19:20 – 00:31:25:05
I mean, they just turned down the turbine
that may be safer and also easier

00:31:25:11 – 00:31:28:14
to take care after than you.

00:31:29:00 – 00:31:32:05
Deicing costs
lots of energy in the meantime.

00:31:32:05 – 00:31:34:23
Also, Ross Mayor mentioned that

00:31:34:23 – 00:31:39:04
when the turbines have the ice buildup,
that’s going to generate

00:31:39:06 – 00:31:43:06
tremendous set of the fatigue
loading to the blade.

00:31:43:07 – 00:31:48:05
That’s easy to short the lifetime
of the turbine, or not only a turbine

00:31:48:12 – 00:31:53:10
blade also within that gear system
that can cost, per Boswell.

00:31:53:18 – 00:31:59:07
So therefore, what we do in recent
years is try to figure out a way

00:31:59:11 – 00:32:02:16
you won’t get rid of the ice
but do not cost

00:32:02:16 – 00:32:06:10
too much energy as current system do.

00:32:06:16 – 00:32:08:16
So we do fund that

00:32:09:19 – 00:32:11:07
one research

00:32:11:07 – 00:32:14:08
object is related to some special coating.

00:32:15:02 – 00:32:19:14
Usually, people call them hydro
for cutting out ice.

00:32:19:14 – 00:32:22:20
For recording in this,
too is a little bit different,

00:32:22:20 – 00:32:26:10
even though they sometimes
come back to each other.

00:32:26:17 – 00:32:32:15
Hydro means water, so hydrophobic
means water don’t easy to stay there.

00:32:32:16 – 00:32:36:11
Of course,
the last water is less ice buildup.

00:32:36:18 – 00:32:40:23
Ice phobic means was
you have ice build up on there,

00:32:41:08 – 00:32:46:18
and the bonding between the substrate
and the ice is weak.

00:32:46:18 – 00:32:50:08
Therefore,
if you have some vibration or even

00:32:50:08 – 00:32:53:18
sometimes that wind speeds generate that.

00:32:53:18 – 00:32:54:01
Airflow.

00:32:54:04 – 00:32:56:23
Airflow over their blades

00:32:56:23 – 00:33:01:01
that can generate a shear stress
that can blow those eyes away.

00:33:01:05 – 00:33:06:03
If that bonding between the eyes
and the substrate is low enough,

00:33:06:08 – 00:33:10:03
therefore we do locate hydrophobic hody.

00:33:10:04 – 00:33:14:13
Also ice phobic cordon
and combine them with a heater.

00:33:15:11 – 00:33:20:11
That means you really only need
to use a heating area

00:33:20:21 – 00:33:23:15
into a critical position that’s usually

00:33:23:15 – 00:33:28:08
based on our study of the thunder
along the leading edge of the blade.

00:33:28:11 – 00:33:33:07
And there we usually see
a spider called stagflation point.

00:33:33:15 – 00:33:37:19
What that means there
the velocity of the air go to a zero

00:33:38:00 – 00:33:42:14
also share stress, and
there are also worries more close to zero.

00:33:42:18 – 00:33:46:22
So will that water go into those regions
that don’t move it?

00:33:47:02 – 00:33:51:00
When the water to move temperature is cold
there turn into ice.

00:33:51:10 – 00:33:54:00
So wouldn’t that start to gather ice?

00:33:54:00 – 00:33:58:17
Build up, then lacks water
impinging in the labor hold

00:33:58:21 – 00:34:02:16
while on the surface of that water ice,

00:34:02:23 – 00:34:06:07
they’re not on the Coating
Oblates surface anymore.

00:34:06:07 – 00:34:08:02
That region became bigger and bigger.

00:34:08:02 – 00:34:11:21
Therefore, for those regions,
doesn’t matter what you use,

00:34:12:13 – 00:34:16:12
don’t solve the problem
that space, our extensive studies show.

00:34:16:19 – 00:34:19:14
However, in those area, if you can put

00:34:20:14 – 00:34:23:02
the heater or under

00:34:23:13 – 00:34:28:19
mechanical vibration on something,
make that that bonding to

00:34:28:19 – 00:34:33:07
the surface is not strong,
then the shut off does is help.

00:34:33:14 – 00:34:36:02
So therefore, we do recently study.

00:34:36:02 – 00:34:40:06
We call the hybrid system
a very small area

00:34:40:06 – 00:34:42:21
near the leading edge, not like a regular

00:34:43:22 – 00:34:46:15
current design cover,

00:34:46:15 – 00:34:49:07
significant amount and the leading edge.

00:34:49:07 – 00:34:50:08
That’s, for example,

00:34:50:08 – 00:34:54:10
we best how what we know
they can cover about 20% of the current,

00:34:55:00 – 00:35:00:07
but we are talking about only 5%
or less in those regions.

00:35:00:16 – 00:35:03:23
And you put a not significant up

00:35:03:23 – 00:35:08:13
the heat are due to a small area
also due to him

00:35:08:13 – 00:35:13:14
because the bonding between the ice
and the surface became much smaller.

00:35:13:19 – 00:35:18:10
So by doing that,
we do have a did a composition study.

00:35:18:10 – 00:35:19:19
We found that compared

00:35:19:19 – 00:35:25:15
with the regular design,
we can save about 80% to 90% of energy

00:35:26:03 – 00:35:29:14
to keep whole surface free of the ice

00:35:30:00 – 00:35:32:22
in most of the commercial systems
that are operating.

00:35:32:22 – 00:35:37:03
In fact, in all of them,
your heating more of the leading edge

00:35:37:03 – 00:35:40:06
than than just that you’re trying
to hate the whole leading edge surface go.

00:35:40:07 – 00:35:44:11
That’s the that’s where most of the ice
builds up, and that’s where most of the

00:35:45:06 – 00:35:48:23
the aerodynamic effect is, you know, clean
leading edge is much more important

00:35:48:23 – 00:35:52:11
for the aerodynamics
and the than the rest of the air foil.

00:35:52:22 – 00:35:57:18
So it was yeah, I wouldn’t say
I was specifically more worried about that

00:35:57:18 – 00:36:00:05
because it was already taken,
taken care of.

00:36:00:20 – 00:36:06:03
I definitely was interested in passive
coatings, anti anti ice coatings and

00:36:07:02 – 00:36:09:00
how different ice phobic coatings.

00:36:09:00 – 00:36:12:07
But the problem that we had and me
and other people

00:36:12:07 – 00:36:15:02
at GE had done studies over,
you know, over

00:36:15:09 – 00:36:19:19
ten years, also keeping up to date
with new advances in the materials.

00:36:19:19 – 00:36:25:09
And there were there were a lot of people
promising an ice phobic coating

00:36:26:00 – 00:36:30:12
a lot less that actually performed
in ice and tunnel tests.

00:36:30:12 – 00:36:33:14
And by the time I left LM,

00:36:33:16 – 00:36:37:10
I’d seen zero that had actually done
anything in the field.

00:36:37:18 – 00:36:40:01
And the problem was that

00:36:40:01 – 00:36:43:04
when you put a surface on a wind
turbine blade, then it’s, you know, it’s

00:36:43:04 – 00:36:46:23
rotating around through dust
and moisture and bugs.

00:36:47:00 – 00:36:50:00
And as soon as the surface
got even slightly

00:36:50:00 – 00:36:53:04
damaged, it wouldn’t perform
the way that it was supposed to.

00:36:53:04 – 00:36:58:10
And in most cases, we actually saw when
something that was ice phobic was slightly

00:36:58:10 – 00:37:01:22
damaged in the field, which happens,
you know, immediately after installing it,

00:37:02:11 – 00:37:06:19
you’d actually say it attracted more ice
then than a normal, a normal surface.

00:37:06:20 – 00:37:11:08
So by the time I finished up
on anti-aliasing technology,

00:37:12:11 – 00:37:12:22
I had

00:37:12:22 – 00:37:16:17
ever seen a surface, a finish that was,
you know, providing

00:37:17:03 – 00:37:19:09
provide it like it was, you know,

00:37:19:17 – 00:37:23:02
actually
delivering on the ice phobic on ice.

00:37:23:02 – 00:37:23:20
So it promises.

00:37:23:20 – 00:37:27:03
But I was definitely always
keeping an eye out for advances

00:37:27:03 – 00:37:30:13
because sometime it’s got a
it’s got to happen that someone

00:37:30:17 – 00:37:35:01
someone gets there
with a, yeah, an anti enticing coating.

00:37:36:01 – 00:37:39:05
Well, and with the offshore wind
that’s happening

00:37:39:09 – 00:37:42:11
in Europe and the United States
and eventually in Australia that