Years of Blade Erosion but a Cure Remains Elusive
In our over 50 years of combined wind energy work, we have watched leading-edge erosion go from a curiosity to a crisis nobody has fully solved. This is not a product review. It is a field record, written from the blade up. From our first eroded blade, at Altamont Pass in 1999, through years of repair work, to spinning test blades at 96m/s (215mph) to put leading-edge protection products through their paces, the story keeps circling back to one fact: nothing has reliably fixed the problem yet. Modern turbines – with longer blades and higher tip speeds – are eroding faster than older fleets ever did, and even the newest coatings are leaving something to be desired. A few years ago, we decided to find out more for ourselves.
By Jack Wallace and Myron Miller, RPE Services LLC, USA
Jack Wallace (co-author) began in wind energy in 1985, working across nearly every discipline, from turbine O&M to blade work. He did not encounter leading-edge erosion until 14 years later, and it stopped him in his tracks. Myron Miller (co-author) later joined, bringing testing and materials expertise.
