wind turbine blade manufacture 2014_ conference deck "winning from re-blading"

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Winning from Reblading Carlo Durante – eta.Blades

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Eta – wind blades solutions

Who we are

Mission

Competences

Vision !  Enhance the value of wind assets (vs lower or no incentives) !  improve wind farm efficiency (vs market saturation) !  At a lower environmental impact (vs. deteriorated social acceptance).

!  Innovation: design, materials, process / product integration !  Ability to understand / anticipate business needs !  Time to market

!  Blade Design, Industrialisation, Manufacturing !  Blade Services !  Innovative materials testing and certification

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A Significant amount of installed capacity …

Germany – leading: !  Multi MW: 31.308 MW !  Mini: 15MW

Spain – co -‐leader: !  Multi MW: 22.796 MW !  Mini: 7MW

UK – fast follower: !  Multi MW: 8.845 MW !  Mini: 65MW

France – stop and go: !  Multi MW: 7.564 MW !  Mini: 2MW

Italy – growth stopped: !  Multi MW: 8.144 MW !  Mini: 11MW

Source: EWEA, eLeMeNS

Installed wind capacity in Europe (MW, 2013)

Background

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… but challenging Emerging megatrends

European wind landscape moving towards an increasingly difficult phase for developers / operators and suppliers

!  High yield European sites availability: saturating / riskier permitting process (NIMBY) / “stressed” electricity infrastructure

!  Incentives schemes: becoming less remunerating or competitive

!  Governments pushing for grid parity and innovation: bring wind energy to competition

!  Wind industry consolidating – massive waves of acquisitions have overpassed the fragmentation of the industry: new, more professional players, are emerging

!  Aging assets deteriorating while at the same time their overall value is decreasing over time

!  A new “Equity Story” is needed for Wind !  Performance differentials / total life-‐cycle cost become substantial for investment decisions !  Enhancing the value of assets in operations is the emerging Value Proposition

Megatrends

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Aging capacity: Repower, Refit – or Reblade?

Germany: 500 turbines

Spain: 6,500 turbines

Italy: 890 turbines

Source: eTa Blades, eLeMeNS

Aging capacity of Multi-‐megawatt wind farms (WTGs with more than 12 years in operation)

Megatrends

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Winning from reblading

Reblading is enhancing returns for wind-‐farmers

!  Significant improvement of the output from old sites

!  Remarkable cost reduction ratio (€/kW)

!  Greater efficiency even at low wind speed conditions while maintaining high efficiency under conditions of greater wind.

!  Loads reduced under any wind condition (reduced maintenance cost)

!  Longer life-‐cycle of the assets

!  Existing WTG as input or “system of constraints”: Loads, Vibrations, De-‐formation !  New blades “designed to fit” !  Not just a “new blade”: reverse engineering given existing turbine and site

Why reblading

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Steps into reblading – Client’s perspective

Time lapse: from “Kick-‐off” to “Acceptance Test” (indicative timing) – new blade

! Defined target improvement and key constraints

! Meetings / calls with experts to solve initial re-‐engineering problems

! Re-‐blading targets and constraints agreed

! Test defined: 1 rotor to be on selected site / WTG

! Reverse-‐engineering advanced stages

! Meetings on wind-‐farm site with client / O&M suppliers

! Developed all moulding solutions, ordered and received the mouldings for the prototypes

! Manufactured the prototypes for the first rotor (plus one blade for certification purposes)

! Legal, Technical and Insurance DD to support the client’s authorisation needs

! Collaboration with client’s team in order to speed the authorisation procedure

! Follow-‐up of Authorisation matters until re-‐blading permits achieved

! Test installation on first target turbine

Q6 Q5 Q4 Q3 Q2 Q1

Indicative timing for repetitive reblading programmes

Reblading steps

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“Design to performance”

Site testing / measured results New blade design Existing blade

baseline Range of solutions

Baseline and targets

!  Configuration of wind farm / blades degradation

!  All parameters measured and set as baseline

!  Performance targets and key constraints identified

!  Project Baseline !  Jointly defined

performance targets

!  Key factors defining the alternatives: Bend twist coupling; site class-‐specific design; blade customisation based on actual site-‐specific characteristics

!  Alternatives discussed (results vs. constraints)

!  Alternatives

shortlisted !  Target project IRR

agreed

!  Geometry reverse engineering

!  Analysis of the best construction methods / lamination

!  Physical and structural properties assessment

!  Vibration vs. turbine structure, on-‐site

!  Native firmware assessment

!  Benchmark blade /

turbine based on actual site characteristics / loads

!  Design-‐to-‐performance developed on base-‐lined elements, constraints /key factors identified

!  Choice of mix of materials that suit the performance factors

!  Same loads on WTG

vs. longer blade (no risk of blade strike)

!  First rotor tested for the needed amount of time

!  Tests made on the benchmark blade replicated “live”

!  Power curve tested and certified / accepted

!  Roll-‐out program defined

!  Measured

improvements !  IRR confirmed !  Re-‐blading kick-‐off

Key activities

Results

Re-‐design to performance

Reverse Engineering

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Key Factors Embedded solutions Specific Know-‐how experiences

Low cut-‐in and high efficiency with low wind

Customized concepts •  Aerospace application and design of new airfoil profile •  Tunnel test and wings prototype

Lightness / low friction •  Advanced composite manufacturing process •  Surface treatments for friction reduction

High Efficiency even at high wind conditions

Auto Adaptive profiles and geometries •  Advanced design with composite materials •  Special design model for aero elastic wind blade deformation

High rigidity •  Advanced composite manufacturing process •  High modules fiber, resin and core materials

Loads Reduction Inertial masses reduction •  Advanced design with composite material

Auto Adaptive profiles and geometries •  Aero elastic models developed specifically for wind blades

Life-‐cycle Cost Reduction

Logistic Cost Reduction •  Modular Blades (no need for “special transport vehicles ”)

Manufacturing Cost Reduction •  Standard parts, modular components, skilled manpower •  Production facility close to shipyard / motorway / railway

Structural downsizing •  Loads Reduction -‐ lower CAPEX / OPEX

Product Reliability Structural reliability •  Chemical, Physical and Mechanical properties control

•  Testing of all composite material

Design Model reliability •  Aero Elastic tests on scale model in wind tunnel •  Sensorization for analysis of deformation of the blade in the field

New product Time to market

Mold crafting flexibility / speed Fast manufacturing process ramp-‐up

•  Advanced composite manufacturing process •  Experience on molds from naval / aerospace industry

Results enabled by specific know-how experiences


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Concept 1: targeting higher efficiency


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Concept 2: new airfoil geometries


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Concept 3: loaded structure to deform AND reduce loads

Introducing passive load mitigation / bend-‐twist coupling

Bend-‐Twist coupling – chosen alternative ! Exploit anisotropy of composite materials ! No actuators, no moving parts, no sensors

Swept (scimitar) blades


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Results: re-designed blade – the eta4x


Optimized weight ratio

Noise reduction

Blade de-‐forming

Stiffness on the blade structure

Aerodynamic / aero-‐elastic improvement

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Results: improved power curve


Reference / baseline

eTa4x result

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Results: power curve differential, no impact on WTG loads

Over-‐performance % eta.X49 vs benchmark

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 11.5

!

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Impact on loads


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Target: + 20% yield for wind farmers

+ 2-‐4%

+ 5-‐7%

+ 7-‐8%

+ 3% + 17-‐22%

Degradation recovery

Aerodynamics improvement

Lenght +1m Lower cut-‐in Expected over-‐performance

Due to surface degradation of the existing blade in operation

Profiles maximising output between 3-‐8 m/s + bending / twisting control at higher speed

Possible / no blade-‐strike risk due to de-‐formation imposed constraints

Capturing lower winds / shift of the power curve to the left

Estimated over-‐performance (6 m/s average Weibull sites)

Increase in length

Enhancing asset returns

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www.etablades.com [email protected] Tel +39 02 84927853

wind turbine blade manufacture 2014_ conference deck "winning from re-blading"

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