Blade Dynamics is attempting to turn the issue of bigger blades and more challenging logistics on its head.
As wind blades get ever larger and more difficult to transport, an eight-year-old company called Blade Dynamics has come up with a novel solution: modular assembly.
“If we make them in pieces, the overall blades can be better, lighter, more durable and more easily customized,” maintained Theo Botha, Blade Dynamics’ co-founder and head of sales and marketing. What’s more, he added, “We can make these blades in small enough components that most can be transported in containers.”
Blade Dynamics, which is located in Britain’s University of Southampton Science Park, took delivery in August of its newest prototype, a 78-meters offshore blade. The blade, designed for use with a 6MW turbine, was made in a NASA assembly facility in New Orleans, where Blade Dynamics has its American operations. The blade will be undergoing six months testing in Britain.
The company’s newest design follows a 49 meters onshore blade that the company unveiled in 2012. All components in that initial blade could be transported in 40-foot containers. The new blade isn’t quite so portable.
“The parts, while they are transportable, they don’t have to be FedEx-able,” Botha said. But he added that the whole idea is flexibility in how the blade is put together. “We could happily make a blade in more pieces or less pieces.”
What’s more, he said, components could be made in, say, multiple states to satisfy local content requirements. The idea is to ship various sections and components of the blade to near the site or launch area, where they can be assembled. According to Botha, “final assembly isn’t a case of just clicking it together, but it will be a fast and highly reliable process applicable to the field.”
A wind turbine blade is made from carbon fiber and epoxy resin, “tons of liquid and tons of fabric,” said Botha. The company’s goal is to reduce the size of modules, not only to ease transport, but also to simplify manufacturing by reducing the stress. “A blade is a very highly stressed mechanical structure,” he said. “It’s a more and more complex structure as it gets bigger and bigger.”
Botha likened the company’s new approach to boatbuilding. “Boats are made from multiple pieces that are glued together.”
While Botha declined to give a timetable for commercial production, he said that “pre-serial production” would follow the new blade’s six-month testing.”
