In a challenging experiment, ECN and LM Wind Power have successfully extended blades with an add-on tip extension to test new blade tip designs in the InnoTip research project.
How are companies keeping production costs downs as blade sizes increase?
Blades are getting longer as developers demand more power from current turbine platforms. To move the trend along, the Department of Energy recently offered up $1.8 million dollars in funding for the development of 60-m long (or more) wind-turbine blades on turbines that stretch over 120 m from base to hub. The challenge for blade-manufacturing…
Wind lidar shows good agreement in wind tunnel test
Renewable-energy consultancy, Natural Power, has demonstrating matched performance of its continuous wave wind lidar, ZephIR, to a calibrated wind tunnel. The lidar unit measures wind speed and characteristics from ground level to 200 m. It was deployed in LM Windpower’s wind tunnel in Denmark and successfully measured wind speeds from 5 to 75 m/s with…
Manufacturer develops record 73.5-m wind turbine blade
Blade manufacturer LM Wind Power launched a world-record wind turbine blade in February this year, and marks Global Wind Day by formally announcing the length—73.5 m—equivalent to a 24 storey building.
AWEA Windpower Supply Chain Workshop – State of Wind Turbine Manufacturing
Moderator: Dan Radonski – Kinetic Partners 9:15a – Ralf Sigrist : President/CEO Nordex USA – Arkansas legislator is voting on a cap for amount of Windpower to add into utility. Argument is it will drive cost of overall energy up. Want to cap at 5MW down from 50MW. – North America represents 25% of overall…
Longest turbine blades yet
In a recent chat with turbine blade supplier LM Wind Power, I learned that the company will develop what they say is the “longest turbine blades ever produced.” The company is partnering with French Alstom, which provides power generation equipment services, to develop the blade designed to fit its 6-MW turbine for the European offshore market.
‘World’s longest blade’ finds work in the Belgian coast
Denmark-based LM Wind Power will deliver its 61.5-m blades for the 48 REpower 6M-type wind turbines which will be installed as part of phase II and III of the Thornton Bank Offshore Wind Farm off the Belgian coas
Longest air cargo ever carried makes landing
A record-breaking journey has ended safely. The largest airplane in the world, a 175-ton Russian cargo carrier (the Antonov 225), transported two prototype wind turbine blades from China to Denmark. The 42-m GloBlades, headed for LM Wind Power’s technology center in Lunderskov, are the longest cargo ever transported by air. China’s demand for new energy…