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Andreas Kipker, CEO of Jupiter Bach, discusses their dominance in wind turbine nacelle and spinner cover manufacturing and major U.S. expansion plans, including a new 20,000-square-foot facility in Pensacola and two decades of partnership with GE Vernova.
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Allen Hall: Welcome back to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast Spotlight. I’m your host, Allen Hall, along with my co host, Joel Saxum. And today we have an exceptional guest who brings deep insight from one of the wind industry’s most important manufacturing sectors. Andreas Kipker is the CEO of Jupiter Bach, the world’s largest supplier of nacelle and spinner covers for wind turbines.
Andreas joins us at an exciting time for Jupiter Bach the company just celebrated a remarkable 20 year partnership with GE Vernova and broke ground on a 20, 000 square foot expansion of their Pensacola, Florida facility.
And today under Andreas’s leadership, Jupiter Bach operates state of the art manufacturing facilities across Europe, Asia, and North America. The company’s focus goes beyond just manufacturing. They’re driving innovation in composite materials and. Engineering to help reduce the levelized cost of energy for wind power.
Andreas, welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast Spotlight.
Andreas Kipker: Thank you very much. Pleased to be here. Thanks for the opportunity.
Allen Hall: Well, Jupiter Bach is the world’s largest supplier of nacelles and spinner covers. Could you give us just a sense of what your global footprint looks like?
Andreas Kipker: Absolutely. Happy to do that.
Yeah, so, um, In the global market, we consider ourselves leaders. We have, um, we have factories. We have four main manufacturing facilities one in China two in Europe, then Poland and Lithuania, and then one in Sonia, Florida. Um, and then adding to that’s where we do our composites. And then, and in addition to that, we have we have a number of assembly sites that are.
closer to servicing this Nacelle manufacturing plants assembly plants of our customers. So they’re spread. Somewhat in the same regions, but but closer to customers.
Allen Hall: Well, you just recently celebrated 20 years with G. E. Vernova, which is remarkable. And you’re also expanding a facility down in Florida to another 20, 000 square feet.
What is your footprint right now in Florida alone?
Andreas Kipker: I’m a little bit in doubt, actually, the exact number. We’re around 100, 000 square foot in in, in, in Florida today of, um, of. on the roof. And then it’s a process that takes a bit of outdoors storage at outdoor space as well. So, the site itself is significantly bigger.
You will know this from blade manufacturing plants as well, that the parts are quite big. So it takes a little bit of storage around. But yeah, we’re super excited to have to have longstanding relationship with with several of our customers, but G we just we just reached this milestone.
Um, um, so yeah, proud of that.
Joel Saxum: I think it’s important to to talk about nacelles here, right? Like when you see, when you say when we’re in the wind world, where Alan and I touch most of the time, everybody in the large manufacturing space, you hear about gearbox manufacturers, bearing manufacturers, and then a few tower things here and there, but it’s mostly blades.
Everybody’s worried. You know, what’s TPI here? What’s Iris doing here? What’s, You know, LM doing here or how is that all working? But the part that’s like the most recognizable part on the whole turbine, the nacelle, it’s the box that holds the brains. It’s the thing that gets all of the work done inside of it.
We don’t talk about that much. And I think one of the reasons is there’s usually not very many issues with it, right?
Andreas Kipker: No, I would say we do not see a lot of issues. I think we could in, in all fairness, talk a little bit more about it because There’s a lot of safety features that allows our technicians, not our technicians, but the industry’s technicians to, to carry out their job safely is really important.
Things that we mount on on, on, on the nacelle. So yeah it, it deserves probably a little bit more face time in in a world where we where we expose our technicians to a lot of a lot of risks and we need to keep them safe from that.
Allen Hall: So let’s talk about the nacelle for a minute.
The nacelles are made out of. Basically fiberglass and foam is that how they’re constructed?
Andreas Kipker: Before I joined Jupyterbug, I worked in a company that supplies blade manufacturers. The materials that are being used here are very much the same. It’s slightly different densities of foam because it does less of a structural load than a blade, but yeah, we’re talking about.
Glass fibers, foams, and then the typical resin systems as well. And then surprisingly enough quite a bit of steel parts that are mounted on on that as well.
Allen Hall: So the approach from Jupiter. Box manufacturing, and I’ve seen some things on YouTube, which are quite interesting how you do this.
It is a resident fusion process, very similar to blades, but instead of making a, you know, a shell, you’re making these panels, but then it’s sort of a modular assembly, right?
Andreas Kipker: Different OEMs have different design philosophies, and we work with them on optimizing that. Some are focusing on the ease of the assembly plant, and some are focusing more on The flexibility in, in, in the supply chain.
So we see it going both ways. We do manufacture both parts that that are quite modular, but we do also manufacture a lot of parts that are quite significant in size and do not fit into a container in in, in any way. That that’s also why we have.
Regional setups and some setups that are, need to be closer to the customer so that we can assemble these containerized parts into something that’s easier to install for turbine for the OEM.
Allen Hall: Can we use GE as an example here? You’re manufacturing basic sub assemblies down in Pensacola, Florida, and then they’re moving them up to Schenectady, New York, which is nearby to me, and then you’re assembling them.
near the manufacturing facility that GE has established. Isn’t that the process?
Andreas Kipker: We have this plant down in Florida that makes actually fully fully assembled nacelles. It’s an oversized transport that goes down to the GE factory as well. When we talk about the parts in Schenectady, these are these are from a different design philosophy.
Where we manufacture them offshore. We sent them into Schenectady and then we mount them in Schenectady to to ease the assembly at the GE plant in Schenectady. So, so actually GE has I hope I’m not giving anything away here, but they will they use both design methodologies.
And you will see that if you see the the turbine up close.
Allen Hall: Quite amazing. Okay. So some of your OEMs, even internally to a single OEM asking for like a full completed. Nacelle, other ones want something that’s modular. That’s really fascinating. And on top of that, they’re asking you to install a bunch of a number of safety features and accessories to these nacelles that, there’s, it’s quite complicated now.
It used to be when, years ago, the nacelles tend to be really simple. Now they’ve figured out that they can add on a lot of features to the nacelles, right?
Andreas Kipker: And we see that as some of our value add here in trying to take these parts that can be mounted already in advance. That does not have to go into the assembly line at at the OEM facility.
And we try to take that over, prepare that, make it as easy as possible, mounting as much as we can on the covers. But then also, um, preparing kits. So they are, so they fit right for installation into the assembly line. So yeah, that, that’s an avenue that we have been trying to go.
Going down that road with a higher pace over the past two years. Um, so yeah we, we see the need in certain markets for that, for sure.
Joel Saxum: I like the approach because one of the things that you hear, whether you’re at an offshore conference, an onshore conference, or you’re talking to Anybody in development, it’s all about supply chain, right?
It’s like supply chain, building out local supply chain. How can we optimize the supply chain? Um, you know, like to the point where procurement, good procurement people in supply chain, people in wind are, they’re worth gold, right? But if, so you guys are taking on a bit of that front end work and alleviating the pressures from the OEMs to get it done themselves is what it sounds like.
Andreas Kipker: Absolutely. And, um, you’d say in a growth market that’s making a lot of sense, right? You, yeah, you go to less parts that you need to procure, less logistics that you need to worry about. And we step into that role as a partner.
Joel Saxum: Um, so Jupiter Buck sees that sees that I don’t want to say revenue, but let’s see that opportunity and just grabs, grabs it as well.
It’s a good place to be.
Andreas Kipker: We see it as a way of. servicing our customers much better. So, yes, it gives us more revenue, but it also, and I think more importantly for me, actually gives us an opportunity to move closer to the customer, to become more of a partner, enabling their their higher outputs.
And we see that especially in offshore today. As a need that to meet the growth of the next few years there’s a need for someone to step into that role. And we’re happy where we can take it that that we get that opportunity.
Joel Saxum: So let me ask you a question with staying in that supply chain procurement kind of mode, what drives or what drove the original decision and what drives the staying power to, to be in Pensacola?
Because when you think wind, you don’t think Pensacola, Florida. I guess, unless we’re talking about next era, we don’t talk about Florida that much, but why Pensacola? What’s attractive to that as a manufacturing center?
Andreas Kipker: There’s a very clear logic behind it. There’s a big G E Vanova manufacturing plant in Pensacola.
So, we are like five miles away from from that plant. And that’s the main reason why we we picked that place in the original space It started on a smaller scale and it’s been growing up to to now being um, one of our biggest plants. Um, so yeah, I’m I’m proud of that journey.
And with how we see the wind evolving in US for the next few years, we expect that that to continue. And that’s also why we’re building that out. Yeah. It’s because of proximity to to the market especially to GE that we’re in now.
Allen Hall: How much of the engineering is done by Jupyter box?
So when you’re working with an OEM say it’s Festus or Nord X or whatever you and you do work with those companies You’re pretty much everybody on the planet at the moment how much are they throwing over to you in terms of engineering saying? Here’s the shape, build it. We have
Andreas Kipker: some where we get a fully complete design that we take over.
And we, we just take that from a part design until how are we going to manufacture it. And we do only really process engineering on, on, on that. And there’s other parts where we come in very early in the stage. We do load calculations. We help with. Developing the manufacturing, um, taking design for manufacturing into the design.
So, so we, some places we step in very early, some places we step in very late and If I get an opportunity, we would like to step in early because that, that, that will, in the end we believe that we can save costs in, in, in such a setup. So,
Allen Hall: absolutely. It’s always a smart idea to bring the manufacturer of the component in early because you don’t realize where.
You can actually save on costs and improve the process time. And that’s one thing that JupyterBot has been very aggressive about. There’s been a number of changes I know you’ve implemented internally. You want to talk about some of the concepts and ideas that you’ve been implementing to make the nacelles more efficient and lower costs?
If
Andreas Kipker: we look at some of the some things we’ve done in the past, it has been focused on how to help standardize and improve performance. In, in an industry creating solutions that that we could work with across across the OEMs. If I look at where we are focusing right now, a lot of our focus is on internally, how do we prepare ourselves for the growth?
How do we prepare ourselves for standardization of processes? Um, so, so, While we’re of course working on some opportunities to help the industry grow outside, we, there’s a, quite a bit of focus on internally growing right now growing our readiness for the future. Yeah, for
Joel Saxum: the next few years.
So with that one being said, a question for you then, is the, where’s the majority of your bandwidth going right now? So is it, are you, we had some great conversations with a few OEMs in the last few weeks, and I know like GE say, we’ve been talking about GE a lot here. GE is shifting towards that. We’re going to make a workhorse and we’re going to, you know, we’re going to not have 300 models we can do.
And we’re going to get down to brass tacks here. So are you guys building a lot of those, like, um, the Cyprus, the 606. 1 nacelles or where’s most of your bandwidth right now? I would say
Andreas Kipker: where we focus right now on ramping up is certainly on supporting the Sierra ramp up in in, in, in US. The Sonsia project naturally takes a lot of attention these these months.
But second to that, we have we’ve had a steep ramp up over the past year in in in Europe, um, that that we will continue to see also coming into next year on, on offshore products. So there’s projects around the world that that are at different stages. Um, but I would say offshore in U.
S. is where we see. The biggest movements right right now.
Joel Saxum: What are, what do you guys do special to the marine bound nacelles? Is there special gaskets? Is there special close outs? So what are they, how are they different than the onshore ones in a general sense? It’s quite similar, right? Where
Andreas Kipker: we see the main difference is just the sheer size of it.
You see these parts that go on the road? Yes. And then you see these parts that are just too big to ever fit fit on the highway. So, I, that, that’s the first real impression you get when you get close to this. You think, wow, that’s a big part. And then you realize it’s only it’s only one back end corner of of the full nacelle that we’re looking at here.
So that’s number one, right? But to, to your point, no, where we see the bigger, the difference on offshore is actually on, um, coating of the steel that go out there. Right. It’s a pretty tough environment that we ship these parts into. So, that’s where the biggest difference is.
Joel Saxum: Always a focus offshore coatings because if you have one little nick in the coating like it’s gonna be a month before that’s Rusting and showing and all kinds of stuff. That’s why I’ve seen RFPs for offshore projects And maybe our listeners have never seen this before but when they do offshore projects There’s an RFP right before, or that goes out to all kinds of people, that right before commissioning, they bring in people just to touch up paint.
And these are people on ropes, and they’re going up and down the towers, everywhere around that thing, because there cannot be any exposed metal. There cannot be any nicks, dents, anything that happened in, you know, transportation or anything like that. So yeah, coatings. Definitely huge offshore. What I want to, what I’m thinking about right now is, um, when GE originally put the hate, they had the first kind of press releases about the Heliad X platform, and they showed that in a cell and it was like rolling out of a factory door and there was a bunch of people standing around it.
And it is literally the size of like a three story home. Like it, it’s massive.
Andreas Kipker: It is very big. Um, no but I would like to come back to Joel you have a good point here in that there’s a lot of repair jobs that are being done to make sure that it fits in the end. Right. That’s on us as an industry to help also design solutions that do not need that extra service and attention.
Now while your business might appreciate that I would say for us. We appreciate if we can take some of these parts and we can convert them into composites instead, because then corrosion doesn’t, it’s not a problem, right? So, so we see some parts where we actually do change it into corrosion to avoid issues.
Joel Saxum: Smart. I like that. I like, I think that’s great as an, as a lifetime O& M cost saver. Convert steel parts into composites if you can, because then you don’t have to deal with rust and that kind of stuff. That’s smart. It
Andreas Kipker: of course depends on what we’re talking about. We’re not going to make a tower out of composites.
Right. But there are a lot of parts that can be converted into composites up tower.
Allen Hall: Well, that’s why it’s important for OEMs to talk to Jupiter Bach early in the process to get those details figured out. It saves yourself a tremendous amount of money and time, and Jupiter Bach clearly has the advantage there.
And let’s talk about the end of life, the recycling efforts that are going on across the world at the minute. I mean, the United States is a big proponent of recycling. You are already thinking about that and have some ideas about The nacelle and the spinner itself, those are composite structures that have a lot of useful life in them.
What’s the future there?
Andreas Kipker: Let’s say today when you design and when our customers design a new turbine, they’re talking about a lifetime of more than 30 years on, on, on average, right? As a useful lifetime. Um, the composites that that we deliver for the vast majority, if not all of it has a lifetime that extends well beyond that with with what it’s the conditions that it’s in.
So, we have looked at different avenues we’re both looking at end of life solutions that, um, where we where we follow some of the solutions that the blade manufacturers has been following, right? We see with a lot of interest into projects like decom blades. Um, there’s other avenues as well.
When we get more com more, more standardized panels back, it’s easier to find a way to use them to, to build new stuff when it comes back. Um, so that was part of our, um, our thoughts into a design concept as well. We do not have the full solution to all of these problems, but we see that the parts that we’re making today certainly certainly has a very long lead time.
Oh, lifetime, sorry. We can find other uses for it at the end of at the end of the current life.
Allen Hall: What is the future for JupyterBock? You seem very busy at the moment and wind is growing faster than ever. What’s what’s going to happen over the next year or two for JupyterBock?
Andreas Kipker: I’m the super happy version of myself here today because right now things are quite positive.
Let’s see how it evolves. But as we see it right now, focus remains on ramping up with the U. S. market, barring any big changes. We expect that to continue for the next for the next two or three years and then find a good stable level after that, um, and then offshore. I know we talked about Offshore being being on a ramp up for already more than a year, but that’s continuing, right?
That’s, um, we’re still at the very early stage of of the volumes that Offshore should be able to deliver. Now here, it’s all dependent on on the markets coming together and making sure that the projects are delivered and not do not end up Um, being canceled again. But if we look at the opportunities, yeah, offshore is where we where we still see a lot of growth potential also going forward.
So, and stepping into this assembly partnerships with with our customers assembly means a lot of different things. I mean, for me, it’s making their Nacelle manufacturing assembly easier by by delivering larger parts of that.
Allen Hall: Well, the next time you’re down in Pensacola, Florida, we need to come down and visit you.
I would love to see your facility, because I think you’re doing remarkable things, and the scale of nacelles and even spinners is remarkable, and it’s hard to even envision some of these things. And Jupiter Bach is poised for big growth. Andreas, it’s been Remarkable having you on the podcast. I’ve learned a ton.
I know we talked a lot off here. I’ve learned a tremendous amount and, you know, and the best of luck to you over the new year. It’s gonna be a fantastic 2025 for you, I think.
Andreas Kipker: I hope it is for us and for the entire industry here. Right. That, that’s what that’s what we all need.
So it’s been it’s been a joy chatting here about, about wind and about the passions that we have. So thank you very much for for this opportunity. And I hope have a great time coming forward as
well.
