The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult is testing a blade designed for Adwen’s AD-180 8MW offshore wind turbine.
The examination of the 88-metre component, first revealed in the latest issue of subscriber-only newsletter reNEWS, will involve static and fatigue tests at the Catapult’s Blyth facility in the north-east UK.
The testing is part of the XL-Blade project funded by the EU’s DemoWind initiative, which aims to reduce the cost of offshore wind by designing, validating and deploying the world’s largest offshore wind turbine blade.
ORE Catapult blades knowledge area lead Raul Prieto said: “The test outcomes will be used to validate the structural design of the blade.”
Image: ORE Catapult
