The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, in partnership with leading wind power company RWE, has announced the result of a new testing programme which shows how the lifespan of turbine blades could potentially be extended significantly.

With some of the earliest models of wind turbines now approaching the end of their intended operational lifespans, this breakthrough identifies options that could extend the life of the existing blades – in some cases by up to half their expected lifetime again. This means operating wind farms could continue generating clean power for longer.

Sally Poxon, Principal Validation Engineer at ORE Catapult, said:

“With hundreds of wind turbines, both onshore and offshore, approaching the end of their planned life cycles over the next few years, it’s important that we understand more about how to potentially extend the life of turbine blades. This is a vital part of making sure we have a clear route to meeting the UK’s clean power and net zero targets.

“By working closely with colleagues at RWE, we applied real-world physical testing to a blade which has already seen 20 years of operation and aged it dramatically to test a variety of different technical solutions and monitoring techniques. This process meant we were able to provide RWE with findings that allow them to make informed decisions about how to extend the life of the blade. We believe this could be a breakthrough moment for the wind industry, and one which further underlines the value and importance of this type of bespoke physical testing.”

Jessica Woodhall, RWE Head of Operations Strategy and Optimisation said:

“This groundbreaking testing programme by ORE Catapult and RWE marks a significant milestone. By demonstrating the potential to extend the lifespan of turbine blades, we can unlock substantial benefits, including increased energy production, reduced maintenance costs, and enhanced sustainability. This innovation can help us maximize the value of our existing assets and support the growth of renewable energy.”

The physical blade testing was carried out at ORE Catapult’s world-leading test facility in Blyth and focused on a blade which had already been in operation for 20 years at one of RWE’s harshest onshore wind sites. Because of the extreme weather and exposure at the site, the blade had already been subject to significant natural wear and tear.

As part of the test, ORE Catapult engineers replicated the real world conditions faced by a 20-year-old turbine blade and sped up the ageing process in a controlled environment. The team was able to replicate one year of real world impact every 48 hours thus able to apply the equivalent of many more years of stress and strain to sections of the blade. This allowed the team to test the effectiveness of different solutions to prolong its operational life.

In conclusion, the testing clearly demonstrated that, with specific adaptations and solutions applied, it could be possible to extend a blade’s operational life significantly. If rolled out across the sector this could, in turn, help provide further options alongside repowering for the future of turbines already in life extension, providing cost savings for consumers, while protecting and prolonging home-grown clean power generation. For RWE, the company intends to apply the findings to ongoing life-extension assessments across its wind fleet and will share the learnings across its wider business.

A key contributor in the testing was UK-based blade monitoring specialist ELEVEN-I, which was recently acquired by ONYX Insight. Their approach uses cutting edge software, sensors and data analysis to monitor blade health throughout its lifetime. This was applied to the blade throughout the test and provided a full picture of how to extend its operational life.

Dr Philip Shackleton, Principal Engineer for Blade Sensing from ONYX Insight (formerly ELEVEN-I) added:

“Working with ORE Catapult provides unique opportunities for industrial collaboration in the space of emerging technologies, such as for our blade condition monitoring hardware and analytics.

“Our vision is for whole life blade monitoring that can deliver benefits to the widest range of wind energy stakeholders, and end of life/lifetime extension is a key period in that wind turbine blade life cycle. To be able to participate in this joint project between ORE Catapult and RWE on accelerated lifetime extension testing was therefore invaluable for further validation of our analytics techniques and theories.

“By monitoring the blade over the subsequent years of simulated operation, accrued in just several weeks, allowed us to clearly see the effects of aging on the blade structural response – a proof that would be impracticable to achieve through in-field monitoring alone. The outputs of the analytics used, and further developed during this project, not only provide additional insight into the effects of fatigue on the blade structure but also demonstrate the potential benefits of in-service monitoring of life extended blades. By understanding how a blade response is expected to change with extended operation 24/7 reassurance can be provided on the blade structural health, while other mitigations such as costly and intrusive inspections can be reduced.”