Iberdrola and Arbórea are leading a project that helps spot defects as small as two millimeters in wind turbines. This effort will greatly simplify work that used to be carried out with cranes and ground telescopes.

Iberdrola has now demonstrated the promise of drones or, in this case, the spider helicopter ‘Aracnocóptero’ Eol16 for these tasks. Using this drone for inspecting wind turbines simplifies the work greatly compared to current methods using cranes and ground telescopes. Only two flights of fifteen minutes each by the spider multi-rotor craft are enough to detect the exact location of a problem on a turbine. The system uses a micro-camera that takes pictures of the turbine and can locate defects as little as two millimeters in size.

Another advantage of this system is that it saves time. When action is taken quickly for example to correct the impact of erosion, it then becomes unnecessary to disassemble a turbine’s blade; this in turn means that the turbine can be fixed more quickly and it is out of service for a shorter period.

The first tests took place in the Sierra de Dueña wind farm near the Spanish city of Salamanca. They were performed by the firm Arbórea which is behind the design and development of this project.

The helicopter can be charged by the wind turbine itself and is thus powered by clean energy. In addition, it obtains much more precise data than other conventional systems.

Iberdrola and Spain’s Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) last year entered into an agreement with Arbórea Intellbird, that led to the implementation of this project.