RIC Smart Thought Series: Learn the Story of the Largest Wind Turbine Blade

Engineers at Siemens working on the B75 Wind Blade Casting Process

Wind Turbines have come a long way since, Charles Brush's windmill of 1888, which was a 12KW, 60 feet tall with 56 feet diameter. These Turbines belonged to the KW era. Now MW Class machines are ruling the Wind Power World.

In this part of the series we are going to introduce you to the Largest Wind Turbine Blade ever Manufactured - Siemens B75 blade. Let's put the size into perspective - each B75 Blade has a span as large as the wing span of Airbus A380. Siemens is currently fitting these blades on SWT 6.0 - 154 off shore Wind Turbines, which will be seen operational at DONG Energy's Gunfleet Sands offshore wind farm, which is about five miles off the Essex coast near the Thames estuary in UK Coast. These wind turbines belong to the new Siemens 6MW class offshore turbines.

How are these Blades Made

These are made of Fiberglass reinforced with epoxy resin and balsa wood, the most common component used in the Manufacturing of Wind Turbine Blades. Each B75 are made of casting Fiberglass in one piece and by doing so Siemens aims to make these Blades 10% to 20% lighter than Blades which were cast out in Different sections and also eliminate the use of adhesives or overlapping materials.

The SWT 6.0 - 154 wind turbines, using these blades will be 154m in diameter and will have a swept area of 18,600 m2 (To let you the size of it, the blades will have a swept area equivalent to the size of two cricket Stadiums combined). Another Important fact of the Wind Blade is it's weight. These Blades weighs about 25 tons which is roughly equivalent to the weight of four fully grown bull elephants.

Though 25 tons may sound like a lot, but for a structure of this size the B75 is actually very low weight, all thanks to Single Piece Casting.

Blade Transportation:

A special vehicle, traveling 60 kilometers per hour, transported these giants over a distance of 575 kilometers from the blade factory in Aalborg to the Danish town of Nakskov on Lolland Island.

Article Contributed by Rahul R Prabhu

For more information and sponsoring contact: rprabhu@renewindians.com