Wind Power LAB

From CAD visualisation to real implementation: Mock-up check and done ?. Well prepared for offshore construction now. Before heading offshore, we put the foundation for our Nordseecluster A offshore wind farm to the test! Over the past two weeks, our onshore mock-up brought together critical turbine components for the first time — validating design, checking alignment, and refining every step of the process. The result: a rock-solid foundation for what’s to come. Bringing together 44 components from multiple suppliers — including monopiles from Dajin Heavy Industry Co.,Ltd, boat landings, main access platforms (MAP), and internal cassettes from Poland — we tested precise fabrication tolerances of ±2mm. This meticulous process ensures perfect alignment, reduces offshore installation risks, and refines evacuation procedures for both installation and operations. From now on, we will also start pulling the cables into the foundation. The mock-up will then be successfully completed with the electrical tests. Our TP-less design saves over 30 tonnes of steel but also instead of one heavy lift it comes with three smaller lifts compared to the TP solution — an approach the mock-up helped refine for both safety and efficiency. The boat landing and MAP installations proceeded smoothly, with robotic and manual flange inspections by AXIST Controlli Dimensionali ensuring structural integrity. T-bolt baskets were fine-tuned to meet exact specifications, securing a perfect offshore fit. Our teams also executed heavy lifts with precision, handling components weighing 10 to 50 tonnes. Scaffolding almost 30 metres high was erected in just 48 hours, enabling safe access while minimising downtime. This mock-up didn’t just validate design — it set a new benchmark for TP-less efficiency and safety in offshore wind. A big thank you to our partners Van Oord, AXIST Controlli Dimensionali, Muehlhan Wind Service ,Dajin Heavy Industry Co.,Ltd, Buss Ports, and all involved for making this a success. Now, we’re ready to deliver at sea.

Why and how wind turbine blades are damaged? The most often observed mechanisms is the leading edge erosion. Looking more closely at the field observations, one can see that the erosion mechanisms changed over last few years, with the development of new coatings: Now, almost half of surface degradation events are due to coating detachment (some years ago, most of them were mainly due to surface roughening). Thus, debonding of coatings becomes more and more critical damage mechanism for wind turbine blades. We investigated it in our new article, ?Debonding and surface degradation of protective coatings of wind turbine blades” (https://lnkd.in/eVh95Wyj). The most interesting conclusion: ”?At lower velocities, both the coating and adhesive layers degrade at relatively similar rates. However, at higher velocities, the adhesive interface deteriorates much faster, leading to coating detachment prior to its complete structural failure.” In other words: if we develop a larger wind turbine, with larger blades, one should expect more interface debonding and detachment of coatings. New, larger blades will require better adhesion technology for coatings.??with Puneet Mahajan, Nikesh Kuthe, Suhail Ahmad

NABOHJ?LP TIL BLACKOUT-TRUEDE BRITER ??? Hurtig hj?lp fra Energinet forhindrede i sidste uge en kritisk situation i det britiske elnet. Da engl?nderne onsdag producerede for lidt elektricitet i forhold til deres forventede forbrug, frygtede de et omfattende str?msvigt. Men krisen blev afv?rget, da Energinet hurtigt 'skruede op' for Viking Link-forbindelsen hen over Nords?en p? et tidspunkt, hvor kapaciteten ellers var reduceret p? grund af vedligeholdelse. Den historie skriver EnergiWatch og andre medier i dag. Aktionen lykkedes i ?vrigt kun, fordi Energinet - som ikke havde store m?ngder dansk str?m i overskud den dag - kunne f? hj?lp fra kollegerne i Tyskland. Tyskerne fik nemlig sendt tilstr?kkelig str?m op til Station Revsing ved Vejen, som er udgangspunkt for Viking Link p? den danske side. Viking Link-forbindelsen, som har v?ret i drift i lidt over et ?r, blev prim?rt bygget for at underst?tte den gr?nne omstilling og handel af el p? tv?rs af Nords?en. Is?r handel med dansk overskud af gr?n str?m. Men bidraget til forsyningssikkerheden er ogs? en af fordelene ved Viking Link og andre udlandsforbindelser. Som Energinets chef for kontrolcentret, Bent Myllerup, siger til EnergiWatch: "N?r vi er i problemer, s? hj?lper vi jo hinanden. Det g?lder ikke kun os; hvis jeg er i problemer, kan jeg ogs? ringe til mine venner i Tyskland, Norge, Sverige, Holland eller England. Og n?r vi er ude, hvor det begynder at v?re virkelig alvorligt, s? g?r man alt for at hj?lpe sine naboer." https://lnkd.in/dStgKtt5

In case you haven't yet seen how WTG's 98m long & weighing 27t blade being transported to construction pad in mountain area.. A video by a friend, drone recorded in Fengchui (literal meaning: wind blows) Village, Chongqing City. Have a nice weekend! ??

Microplastic emission due to offshore wind turbine blades: There are some wild rumors about #microplastic #emission from wind energy. We decided to calculate,?how much microplastic can fall into water due to wind turbine blade erosion. Two new estimation methods were developed: direct and indirect. Direct method is based on modelling of rain erosion, as multiple liquid impacts, leading to the stress waves and local damage of polymers.?Indirect method is based on empirical data from wind turbine service companies. If a blade needs to be repaired N times per year (in real life, N varies from 0.15 to 0.4), and, when each repair starts, a technician sees that volume V was worn out from the blade surface,?then the volume of eroded microplastic is N*V. Our estimations shows that between 30 and 600 gramm per blade per year are removed, which yields 1.7 tonnes for all wind turbines in all of Denmark. Is it a lot? Let us compare it with other plastic emission sources. Car tires can emit up to 1700 tones plastic per year into the sea. Textiles bring 60 tones per year. Paints bring 390 tones per year. All this is one, two or three orders of magnitude larger, than the estimated?#plastic #emission from?wind turbines. Our new articles was published in the journal “Energies”: https://lnkd.in/eZv-DDGs . The project PREMISE (https://lnkd.in/drGki9ZD) is funded by VELUX FONDEN.