Our project aims to automate the repair of wind turbine blades that have been damaged by a phenomenon called leading edge erosion.

Leading edge erosion develops over time due to rain hitting the wind turbine blades as they rotate at very high speeds.

This issue is happening much faster than wind turbine manufacturers expected, with blades needing repairs every 3-7 years (depending on manufacturer, size and location).

This occurs onshore and offshore, and larger turbines with longer blades experience this erosion at a faster pace. It is estimated that the cost to offshore wind-power operators alone is €61 million due to direct repair costs and lost revenue.

Currently, blades in operation are repaired by removing them from the wind turbine or by a method known as rope access, in which technicians abseil down the wind turbines and fix the blades from ropes.

We are developing a tool named Blade RunnR which is designed around a proprietary coating which when applied correctly will protect the wind turbine blades for the remainder of its lifetime and cause no aerodynamic losses. However, the properties which make the coating perform so well also make it hard to apply correctly. The coating is a viscous resin that sets quickly, but must also be applied in a very specific cross-sectional profile. Applying the coating to the required specification by hand is all but impossible and very slow. Blade RunnR will take a new approach to applying this coating, guaranteeing conformity to specification and speeding up the application process significantly.

We aim to reach our ultimate goal of automated repairs through a two-phase implementation. In Phase 1 the tool will be deployed via rope access acting as a hand-tool for the technicians, and this is planned to be active in Q1 2021\. For Phase 2, we will take the learnings from this, refine the design of the application system, and produce a robotic solution to deploy the coating. We are seeking to fund Phase 1 of this implementation strategy through this grant.

This will ultimately improve HSE of wind farm operations by removing the need for multiple repairs of the leading edge due to rain erosion, and create large savings for the wind power operations market in the UK and abroad, which will contribute to reducing the cost of renewable energy.