Experts from across the industry discuss how to optimise blade performance and reduce the cost of operations and maintenance.

Recorded at our Blades USA conference, held in Austin, Texas, earlier this year, this episode of the Wind Power podcast features speakers from Vestas, RWE, the Electric Power Research Institute in the US, Envision and Aerones.

What emerged loud and clear from the discussions is just how far the industry has come over the last decade but also the challenges brought by the rapid growth in blade length in recent years.

Bigger blades bring bigger challenges and blade failures can happen in unexpected ways. In an industry where the cost of maintenance and downtime can be very high, identifying whether a blade defect is cosmetic or structural and, crucially, how much time there is before that defect turns critical, is becoming increasingly important.

According to our experts, drones, robotics and artificial intelligence will all increasingly play their part as this industry develops, particularly given the workforce challenges facing the industry and the limited weather windows for carrying out blade maintenance.

This episode features Noah Myrent, a senior technical leader at the Electric Power Research Institute, Kevin Standish, director of the Global Blade Innovation Center at Envision Energy, Pasquale Braione, head of global repair at Vestas, Arnold Wilmink, VP of reliability engineering for the Americas at RWE and Greta Krumina, regional manager for North America at Aerones.

The episode was produced by by Inga Marsden

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