Aeroblade, a Spanish company partly controlled by the Aernnova group and the Basque Government, has signed a contract to develop a wind turbine blade 68 meters in length. Aeroblade will undertake the design and development of what will be the largest wind turbine blade installed to date. Once assembled, the complete structure will reach a height of 180 meters.
The first wind turbine generators, which had a capacity of less than 1 megawatt, worked with 37 meter blades; in contrast, latest generation equipment, which has a capacity of 2 megawatts, needs blades that are 45 meters long. The new super blade from Aeroblade represents a further step toward the manufacture of 4 to 6 megawatt wind turbine generators, though still in development phase and testing, which will start to be widely sold in forthcoming years.
The development of this type of blade with a very long span represents a challenge for the wind industry, given that the new and more powerful wind turbine generators must be guaranteed to be strong enough to move, as well as have a structure that is both solid and light.
Aeroblade was founded in 2007 to design, manufacture and supply wind turbine blades. Aernnova, the parent company of Aeroblade, is an aerostructures firm that brings its broad experience to the design of products, materials engineering, process engineering for composite materials, structural engineering and certification. The group employs more than 3,900 professionals, divided between its offices in Spain, Romania, Mexico, Brazil and the United States, providing wide international coverage for the company’s activities.