LM Wind Power designs longest wind blade in the world
by June 21, 2016 7:36 am 130 views
Danish wind turbine maker LM Wind Power and offshore wind farm operator Adwen announced Tuesday (June 21) that they’ve partnered to design the longest wind blade in the world, an 88.4 meter component that is longer than a football field.
The huge blade has been specifically designed for Adwen’s AD 8-180 wind turbine model, with 8 megawatts (MW) nominal capacity and 180-meter rotor diameter. The first of these huge blades has just been manufactured at LM Wind Power’s factory in Lunderskov (Denmark) and will be transported to a facility in Aalborg in the following days, where it will commence rigorous testing in the framework of Adwen’s extensive product validation plan.
“When you are building the largest wind turbine in the world, almost everything you do is an unprecedented challenge. We are going where no one else has ever gone before, pushing all the known frontiers in the industry. Having developed and integrated together with LM Wind Power the first unit of the longest blade ever and being able to start testing is a key step forward in the development of our AD 8-180 and proves that Adwen is at the forefront of the industry”, says Luis Álvarez, Adwen General Manager.
LM Wind Power’s CEO, Marc de Jong added: “The LM 88.4 P blade is an extraordinary example of industrialized innovation at record breaking scale. It is based on innovation building blocks, rooted in 35 years of real life experience, in the design, technology and manufacturing of ultra-long, reliable blades. This blade is a strong proof point of the shared ambition of Adwen and LM Wind Power to bring forward best in class and proven rotor solutions for offshore application, increasing Annual Energy output through efficient and reliable technology.”
The engineering teams of both companies have been working together for months to design and integrate a blade that company officials said represents an important step forward in the race to lower the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE). With the largest rotor in the industry (180 meters), the AD 8-180 has the highest annual energy production (AEP) of all wind turbines.
The 88.4 meters length of the blades is the best compromise between swept area, energy production, and the weight as well as the loads transferred to the wind turbine, officials said. This combination provides the optimum balance of plant costs and contributes to one of the most competitive LCoE in the industry. In addition, the blade design has been conceived with scalability in mind to enable the further development of Adwen’s 8 MW platform.
LM Wind operates a scaled-down manufacturing facility at the Little Rock Port Authority. The Danish wind turbine maker originally employed 300 workers in Little Rock, but cut hundreds of jobs at the beginning of 2013 due to the expiration of a tax credit provision that was renewed at the end of last year.