Gio Scialdone: Helping Your Technicians with 3S Lift

08/31/23 • 18 min

As the wind maintenance season comes to a close, it is time to plan for the spring! Safety and efficiency are critical investments for every wind site. In the United States, and most of the western hemisphere, technicians must climb ladders to get to their job sites. This is an unnecessary task and also leads to injuries and down time. Uptime hosts Joel Saxum and Allen Hall visited with Gio Scialdone, President of 3S Lift Americas, in New Orleans this spring to learn more about their Climb Auto System and how it improves efficiency and reduces technician wear and tear. 3S Lift - https://www.3sindustry.com/product/climb-auto-system/Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelStor - https://www.intelstor.com 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! 3S Lift Gio Scialdone Allen Hall: Welcome back to the Uptime podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall. Well, we've been busy here at the Uptime Podcast this summer and we thought it would be a good idea to relive or re-listen to, uh, earlier podcasts with guests that you may have missed. We thought that it would be great to bring Brack Geodon in three s Lift, and we spoke with Geo at American Clean Power, uh, earlier this spring in New Orleans of all places. That interview I think is really good 'cause it highlights all the things that Three S Lift is doing to make technicians safer and to get up and down those wind turbines easier with their climb auto system. So if you have missed this episode earlier this spring, no problem 'cause we're gonna bring it back to you. Here is Geo Schone with three s Lift. Gio Scialdone: We're here again at Allen Hall: uh, a C P 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana with Geo Shaone from three s Lift. If you don't know three s lift, you're missing out on so much. Uh, three s Lift is about saving technicians and making sure they get up and down, uh, towers safely and, and uh, efficiently. Gio Scialdone: Gio, welcome back to the program actually. Thank you for having me, Allen. Joel, nice to to meet you. You as well. Allen Hall: This has been a really busy show compared to San Antonio last year. Yeah, I think so. Uh, I think much roughly doubled the amount of people from what I can tell. You, I assume you guys have been busy. I've been by your booth a couple of times. So there's a lot of people thinking Gio Scialdone: about technicians this week. I think people have to be thinking about technicians. If you, if you, you look backwards and you look forwards in terms of the operational existing towers. You have to think about technicians for your existing fleets. Yeah. You look at the forward projections of the, the, the build out plan. You have to think about who are the people that are gonna work at these places. Um, We talked about the the competition, indirect competition that some of these workers could. Go be an Amazon truck driver and make 25 or 30 bucks out. Yeah, absolutely. They don't have to climb a winter on a tower. Yeah. You know, that's tough work. So there's some competition out there, not just inside the industry, but certainly outside. Joel Saxum: So we know that, like across the industry, of course, it's been the word for a long time. We've talked to a lot of people around the show about just the shortage of technicians. Yeah. Right. And everybody, and you're starting to see, which is great. A lot of companies pop up, trainee. Hey, we're opening a G W O training center. We're opening this training center. We're gonna,

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Will Siemens Energy’s Onshore Business Survive?

Siemens Energy is in turmoil as warranty claims spiral out of control. Insiders say an internal investigation has been launched into potential wrongdoing, and rumors are swirling about a possible fire sale of the struggling onshore division. Meanwhile, Equinor is popping champagne bottles to celebrate the grand opening of its futuristic Hywind Tampen floating wind farm. EDP Renewables is bringing the wind power revolution to the American heartland. The company just opened a state-of-the-art training center in Bloomington, Illinois that aims to create an army of 100 wind turbine techs over the next year. But the winds of change are blowing in another direction in Alberta, where Premier Danielle Smith has slammed the brakes on new wind and solar projects. The controversial move has the industry on edge and sets up a showdown with the federal government. At the same time, researchers at NREL and GE are cooking up radical new offshore wind turbine designs using superconducting direct drive generators that could dramatically cut costs. It's a sneak peek at the floating wind farms of tomorrow! The DOE is betting big on carbon capture, doling out a whopping $1.2 billion in funding. The lion's share is going to high-profile projects by Occidental and Battelle. But some are questioning whether carbon capture is a smart investment or just an expensive distraction. In wacky wind power news, a Dallas doctor wants to harvest electricity from the gusts generated by jets and propeller planes at the city's Love Field airport. Is this genius or crazy? Our Wind Farm of the Week is the just-completed Viking wind project in the gusty Shetland Islands. SSE Renewables finished this 103-turbine wind farm a full 6 months early. Raise your mugs - the winds of Shetland are blowing strong! 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! Uptime 180 Allen Hall: So college has started in the States, which means I am building IKEA furniture. It seems like IKEA should give you a Swedish citizenship certificate when you complete one of those things. It they are What is with Swedish engineers, are they some sort of state of mask or something? Because there are some installations which. That can only be done in the most painful positions. It is insanity. Rosemary Barnes: I actually knew quite a few engineers when I was living in Europe. I, I, I, you would run into engineers at, at parties that were working for IKEA or doing their master's projects on, you know, simulation. The, you know, they've got finite element analysis engineers working for them and, and, and stuff. Allen Hall: What Rosemary Barnes: They really are engineered, they spend a lot of effort on those products. Phil, would you agree with that? Now I sound like an ad for ikea, but I, I had never set foot in IKEA before I moved to Denmark. That was the first time that I ever entered in ikea. Allen Hall: Let's all try to pronounce Ikea in the way they would pronounce it in Sweden. And the rosemary has to go last. Phil, give it a shot Phil Totaro: isn't it? Ikea, Ikea. Rosemary Barnes: Rosemary. I just said Ikea. As long as you just don't say I, you say E. That's, that's the only change that I made and that was understood. But I was in Denmark, not Sweden, and it's not exactly the same. You, they definitely laugh at you if you say, I Ikea, see am part, Allen Hall: I am part Swede. You wouldn't know it. But I am part Swede and I, I was paying attention. I knew that IKEA could not be a Swedish word. So there you go. Ikea is not a Swedish word. It's an American word. Ikea.

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Uptime News Flash: CaixaBank continues to fund Siemens Gamesa, Aeris Energy reports $3.9 M loss, EDPR sells wind farms to Statkraft

Siemens Gamesa secured financial backing from CaixaBank at a critical time as the wind turbine manufacture deals with a potential $4.5B in expenses. Aeris Energy in Brazil is on a slight losing streak but Phil Totaro believes their huge backlog will provide a financial windfall in the near future. Also in Brazil, EDPR is selling new wind turbine farms to Norwegian based Statkraft. Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWind Power LAB - https://windpowerlab.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelStor - https://www.intelstor.com News Flash September 4 Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I'm here with the founder and CEO of Intelstor, Phil Totaro. And this is your News Flash. CaixaBank renewed the financing and, and working capital to Siemens Gamesa in the first half of 2023. Now this is important because Siemens Gamesa, and Siemens Energy just announced about $4.5 billion of upcoming expenses. So having a working capital line for Siemens Gamesa is really important right now, right, Phil? Phil Totaro: Absolutely. And there, look, with the situation that Siemens Gamesa finds itself in, there are two ways out of it. Either sell off an asset strip or invest and pull yourself out of this hole that you've sunk yourself into. And I, I. You know, continue to get this kind of support from their banks and other, you know, finance partners to be able to pull themselves out of this out of this situation and out of this hole. So this deal with, with CaixaBank is, is important. Allen Hall: Will the banks ask Siemens Gamesa to divest of some their assets to back those loans? Phil Totaro: Potentially, yes. And there are things that, you know, Siemens Gamesa as a whole and Gamesa in particular, still kind of owns that could be desirable to be divested. The question is how far do they go with that? You know, I think a lot of what they have, they probably want to keep it for operational or potentially sentimental reasons. But the bank may in fact require those kind of guarantees or the asset divestiture to ensure that they've got the cash flow necessary to keep making debt service payments absolutely. Allen Hall: Well down in Brazil, Aeris Energy has reported about a $3.9 million loss in their second quarter down about 14% from last year at the same time. Accumulative losses for the first half of the year are about eight and a half million dollars, which is up about 50% from the previous half year. Aeris is investing obviously because there's a lot of activity down in Brazil and they, they poured in about six and a half million dollars into machinery and equipment to boost production capacity at their blade manufacturing plant. Phil Aeris has a huge backlog with Vestas on blades. Phil Totaro: Exactly. They are, I believe, the exclusive supplier for the Brazilian market for the V150 Vestas product. And Vestas is also looking at bringing the the V162 production online. In the coming years as they start getting some orders for the bigger machines. So I think even though their Aeris is showing a net operating loss in a few quarters here in 2023 long-term, I'm actually quite optimistic about their You know, their long-term prospects, their financial health and, and their order book as it relates to their relationship with Vestas. Allen Hall: Renewable Energy Company EDPR announced that it has sold two wind farms with a combined capacity of 260 megawatts in Brazil to Norwegian Power Company Statkraft. The $320 million in assets were commissioned over the past 12 months. So Phil, these are new wind farms that are exchanging hands down in Brazil. Phil Totaro: Yes. And it's enhancing Statkraft's position in the market where I believe they've already got, I wanna say about five or six different wind complexes where they were. They are the owner or they were at least partially involved in the development phas...