Sensoria by MISTRAS Group, a 24/7/365 wind blade monitor, is collaborating with Danish blade specialist Bladena to provide a solution to help maximize offshore wind blade integrity and uptime.
As larger offshore blades are more likely to fail than smaller onshore blades, the collaboration combines Sensoria’s blade monitoring technology with Bladena’s experience managing offshore blade risk throughout its lifecycle approach. Together, the two will provide a blade integrity solution: MISTRAS Group’s acoustic emission (AE) monitoring technology, along with Bladena’s patented blade retrofit solutions and unique structural blade understanding.
The collaboration focuses on providing the offshore wind market with solutions for the critical structural challenges wind turbine blades face in harsh environmental conditions. Offshore blades can be difficult to access and inspect due to their remote locations, potentially leading to damage forming and worsening between scheduled inspections. In addition, trends show a significant increase in severe structural damages, especially on new, large offshore blades.
By reducing the need for traditional, manual spot inspections and extending the operational lifetime of offshore wind blades by detecting and addressing the root cause of the damages, the Sensoria-Bladena collaborative relationship is focused on decreasing wind energy costs related to manual labor; unexpected structural damages; and unnecessary, prolonged blade downtime. This combination will help enhance the generating capacity and annual energy production (AEP) of wind turbines for wind energy owners and operators and contribute to lower operating expenditures (OPEX).
