LM Wind Power has announced they will join a research project to develop ‘intelligent’ blades based on wireless sensor technology. The sensors in the blades will be able to predict weather conditions and calculate when they can harvest the most energy from the wind while ensuring minimum loads on the wind turbine.
The technology could enable developers to install more powerful turbines with increasingly longer blades without incurring the excessive additional cost it requires for strengthening the turbine structure. The DKK 65 million research project is supported by the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation with DKK 33 million, and is developed between the University of Aalborg in Denmark and companies PolyTech, kk-electronic and LM Wind Power.