The 107-metre-long offshore wind turbine blade being developed by LM Wind Power for GE Renewable’s 13MW Haliade-X has been anointed with its ‘component certificate’, making it market-ready.

Certified by TÜV Nord on the basis of a battery of tests on two blades laid-up at GE’s fabrication hall in Cherbourg, France – one which has been trialed at the WTTC facility in Boston, US, and the other put through static, fatigue and post-fatigue tess at the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) ORE Catapult’s facility in Blyth, UK.

“Validating a blade and composite structure with the size and complexity of the Haliade-X LM 107P is a technological milestone never seen or tried before,” said Hanif Mashal, VP Engineering at LM Windpower

Mashal said that as well as “validating our design hypothesis” the extensive trials had also helped by throwing up “unknown risks and challenges”.

“One of the biggest learning from such a test campaign has been the use of lean operational practices, specifically during the last six months of testing, which helped achieve the needed milestone of certification. We will continue learning and push the boundaries of what is possible.”

ORE Catapult test and validation director Tony Quinn said: “The testing programme undertaken on the LM 107P blade has been the most intensive and rigorous that we have undertaken, applying extreme loads under laboratory conditions 50% greater than ever previously applied in a blade test.”

Three first series versions of 107-metre-long unit are being flown by the Haliade-X prototype currently being being trialled at a site in the Port of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. John Lavelle, CEO of GE offshore wind division, reported on LinkedIn today that the machine had “broke[n] its own record ... produc[ing] 312MWh in a single 24-hour period”. The prototype’s previous best was 288MWh of power in a day, in February 2020.

Wind

'Never before tried': world’s longest wind turbine blade inches closer to market