The R&D projects will address the challenges of manufacturing, transporting, assembling, and installing rotor blades longer than 60 meters using design concepts scalable to greater lengths.
Another focus of this research involves lowering blade weight and improving design to help industry reduce production costs. This will also help lower transportation costs for installing these very large components.
Wetzel Engineering of Pflugerville, Texas, in partnership with DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Northern Power Systems, TPI Composites, and NextEra, will develop a field-assembled blade called "SparBlade" using a lightweight bonded composite space frame.
