Cost of energy reduction-driven development, manufacturing and in-field validation of the world’s largest offshore wind turbine blade (XL-BLADE)

The offshore wind turbines currently undergoing prototype testing are in the range from 6-8 MW. In order to take the next step into the 8-10 MW size a light weight wind turbine blade approaching 90 meters in length will be developed, manufactured and in-field validated. The blade structure will be designed with an innovative hybrid carbon/glass fiber technology, and the structural design follows a Design-for-Manufacturing concept, which leads to an optimal design fit for manufacturing of ultra-long blades.

The harsh offshore environment can lead to erosion of the leading edge of the blades during the life time of the wind turbine. A novel leading edge protection system with superior lifetime performance compared to standard protective tapes will be developed. The performance of the developed protection system will be validated in an accelerated set up in a rain erosion tester that simulates the harsh offshore environmental conditions. Further the final leading edge protection system will be tested in-field in a real offshore environment. The project will deliver a test blade for full scale static and fatigue testing as well as a proto-type rotor for field validation.

The project is part of the DemoWind program with the overarching objective of reducing the overall cost of offshore wind energy by merging the technological leadership of three offshore industry leaders across three participating countries to design, validate and deploy the world’s largest offshore wind turbine blade.