Edo Kuipers talks to IQPC Germany

See how we4ce is contributing to the Advances in Rotor Blades for Wind Turbines 2024 conference in our conference agenda!

The main challenge facing the Rotor Blade industry, in your opinion?

Being cost effective without losing quality and lifetime. These costs are not only related to design and manufacturing but moreover to costs related to infrastructure, costs for maintenance and liability. Furthermore, lifetime is the key for limiting waist. Then ones we have this waist, it would be very welcome that this can be recycled.  

Where do you see the industry heading in the next 5 years?

A tendency towards bigger offshore projects where only a limited amount of players in the market can participate. Beside this, smaller companies concentrating on niche markets onshore like industrial areas, on- and off grid. Also chances will arise for different types of turbines like vertical axis, this for the general public’s acceptance and diversity.

What will our attendees uncover about the latest developments with Blade lifetime extension and Re-FIT repair for loose inserts (bushing)?

In the end we want to go for lowering of the final costs for park owners. With the We4Ce Re-FIT blade-root we do aim on the needs for park / turbine owners. To help them out. For the root, we have seen problems after 8-13 years with several designs and often this can be just outside a guarantee period. With our solution we hope to be able to help these owners to continue running their wind parks up to the aimed lifetime of 20 years, without a need to go back to the turbine manufacturer. Having this solution avoids blades to be thrown away prematurely, thus minimizing waist. As a second, for the tip part of the blade we see a lot of LE erosion and costs for maintenance. Ideally having exchangeable blade tip sections lower stand still time on site. We4Ce’s AdapTIP is potential here, for which a first project in Asia is executed having a 12m (fitting a 40 feet container) exchangeable tip section.

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Want to know who will be present at the Advances in Rotor Blades for Wind Turbines 2024? Check our speaker panel out!