The very large growth of wind turbines during the last 20 years has led to a significant increase in some component prices. The need to meet the strong pressures to deliver electricity from wind as cheaply as possible has resulted in a very close cooperation between turbine and blade developers. The generic blades of the past have almost totally disappeared. This article describes some of the resulting effects in terms of more efficient material use and the design criteria at the interface between blade and turbine design (which cannot be optimised from just one side). This design integration is essential for smaller or start-up turbine manufacturers in order to enable them to survive in a market that is more and more dominated by ‘all-in-one-house’ global players.

By Roland Stoer, EUROS Entwicklungsgesellschaft für Windkraftanlagen mbH, Germany