“At GE, research and development is a key part of our long-term strategy,” GE said in a statement. “In our ongoing pursuit of cutting-edge wind technologies, we have followed recent advancements in composite manufacturing with great interest, and we believe modular blades could potentially become a transformational technology for the industry.
Modular blades offer scalable blade architecture, enabling lower cost manufacturing methods and a more cost-effective long-term solution for logistics challenges associated with transporting current blade technology.”
Blade Dynamics recently announced that its prototype ‘D78’ blade, which has been designed and manufactured in both the UK and U.S., has made its way from the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the UK for commissioning and testing. The company says that its modular assembly design is unique, enabling larger, more effective turbines with reduced weight and higher performance. The final stages of the manufacturing process will be completed close to the installation or deployment site, allowing manufacturing to be distributed around the country and providing a route for the future export of blade components from the UK. The offshore assembly blade will undertake approximately six months of testing at the Catapult’s world leading facilities in Blyth.