Wind energy is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world's energy markets. According to the EWEA, the European wind market it is expected to grow consistently at a compound annual growth rate of 9.8%. As annual blade failures are estimated at around 3,800 with poor maintenance the most common cause of accidents, ensuring the integrity of blades is a key issue with respect to the business, safety and the environment. The overall problem envisaged is the lack of effective condition monitoring systems for the blades, representing a business opportunity for the project’s partners Hence, the Project aims to commercialize a novel solution, BladeSave, marketed as a fusion between a Fibre Optic Structural Health Monitoring System providing multi-sensing capability and a management software incorporating risk based inspection data analysis and offering a comprehensive solution for blade monitoring, repair and management. Based on existing technologies developed by the partners at TRL6, BladeSave will assist WFOs in satisfying newly imposed regulations by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (amendments to EN 50308) and benefit European ISPs in the CM services market, giving them a competitive edge over global rivals. Our product market target consists predominantly of the WTFs installed before 2011 (currently around 71,620 in Europe) as old wind turbines have an average annual maintenance cost larger than newer models, are not covered by warranties and offer a bigger risk of catastrophic failures. The project brings together five experienced companies with a unique set of skills and expertise in the wind industry. BladeSave will have an impact on both European and foreign markets, and over the five year sales projection, we forecast a total cumulative gross profits of at least €48 million, a return of EU investment of 23:1 and the creation of about 380 jobs within consortium and associated companies which are part of the supply chain.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Reliability is essential to the success of renewable energy systems. The estimated life of wind turbines is about 20 years, this is in comparison to 40 years for a conventional steam turbine generator unit. However the failure rate of wind turbines is about 3 times higher than that of conventional generators. The key feature that differentiates a renewable energy source, from conventional generation, is the inherent fluctuation of the source, giving rise to poor reliability due to fatigue cycling and consequently high life-cycle cost. This proposal aims to build a consortium of UK and Chinese researchers to investigate the scientific causes of poor reliability of components and develop solutions to improve it. Stress analysis and impact evaluation will be performed for stresses in thermal, mechanical, or coupled thermo-mechanical domains, taking into account the practical operating conditions. Accelerated aging test will be carried out to identify critical areas where improvement can be made cost-effectively. The research aims to develop new design concepts and new techniques that can be integrated in future renewable energy conversion systems and networks for reliability. Potential new techniques include active thermal management, integrated power smoothing, and mechanical stress releasing methods. These will be compared with alternative technologies that have been pursued by the consortium members and other researchers, such as gearless direct-drive systems, modular and fault tolerant designs and condition monitoring. The research will initially focus on wind turbines but will be extended to other forms of renewable electrical power generation including wave and tidal stream systems.Five UK and four Chinese universities as well as Chinese Academy of Sciences are initially included in the consortium which is strengthened by seven industrial partners from the two countries, in order to establish the expertise and facilities needed to address the multidisciplinary problem. The programme promotes essential and close interaction between the themes and the individual tasks. The interactions take a range of forms, from providing testing materials and facilities to the development of stress and reliability models for techniques for performance improvement. Chinese organisations will commit 9 PhD studentships to compliment the 7 themed PhD studentships in UK universities. The dissemination will involve academic publications, a dedicated website, consortium meetings, international seminars and events.