The slimline 80-metre blade – developed based on the design used for its V112-3.0 workhorse – departs from Vestas’ trusty box-shell-and-spar design, instead employing “structural shell” technology, in which the wind loads are borne by the outer surface of the blade, rather than inner supports.
Fitted to the V164 prototype, which will be erected early next year at the Danish national testing centre in Østerild, the 30-tonne blades will give the machine a swept area of some 21,124 sq metres, larger than the London Eye ferris wheel.
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