Leading edge erosion on wind turbine blades is a major cause of reduced power output and efficiency as wind farms age. But, this growing problem is not well understood, so in today’s article we’ll tackle some of the root causes of leading edge erosion, what’s being done about it, and what we should look to in the future to solve this industry-wide problem.

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Across Europe, some 14,000 blades from 4,700 first generation turbines are due to be decommissioned by the end of 2023. WindEurope’s End-of-Life Issues and Strategies Seminar (EoLIS 2020) aims to offer assistance. The guidance provides a comprehensive overview of the rules and regulations on decommissioning.

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“Discussions regarding community benefit are held separately to any planning discussions taking place,” the document adds. Highland Council says its position is clearly stated on its website, with the entry reading: “Scottish Government planning guidance prevents this type of payment from becoming a condition of planning permission.”

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Siemens Gamesa has launched 14 MW offshore Direct Drive wind turbine with 222-meter rotor catering to the world’s need for clean, renewable energy. 

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“Despite strong technical progress, the road to commercialization is longer and riskier than hoped, so from today Makani’s time at Alphabet is coming to an end,” Fort Felker, Makani’s chief executive, wrote in a blog post. Astro Teller, the head of X, said the lab will be “redirecting resources to more promising areas.”

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But the commercialization of floating wind turbines has been hampered because the cost of the technology remains high.  At the same time, governments say costs need to fall before they'll allocate capacity to floating wind projects.

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Technologies exist that can be built into the turbine. Although they are used in Canada, Denmark and Sweden, Hu said the U.S. wind industry has found them to be cost-prohibitive.... blades can incorporate a material that conducts electricity that can prevent icing by warming the blade. He said the cost for the power amounts to roughly 5% of the energy a turbine might typically produce.

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With this new removal technique, the top metre of the base is removed. A backhoe digs a hole around the concrete base once the tower is removed. Then an automated high-pressure water jet is set up to fire a jet of water up close and rotate around the concrete base, directing the thin, high-pressure stream of water, cutting deeply into the base, slicing both the concrete and the rebar inside. The water jet rotates around the concrete pillar firing the high-pressure water jet until it is done. The top metre of the top of the concrete pillar is then lifted off.

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“Over the past four decades, wind turbine scaling has been critical to wind power cost reduction. Looking ahead, scaling continues to offer potential cost savings, but new innovations are needed to enable scaling while effectively managing capital expenditures and the logistics of moving equipment to the plant site.”

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The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has predicted as much as 5,000 megawatts of new renewable energy will be generated in the state's west by 2025. ...There is just one problem. "The current electricity lines in some parts of regional Victoria can't accept high volumes of electrical flow without becoming overheated." 

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IntelStor estimated between $120-150 million was required to develop a new 4-5MW onshore wind turbine "from a clean sheet of paper", including R&D, testing and supply chain build-up. Therefore, between 340-450 units need to be sold in order to achieve a return on capital above parity. "The unit sales can be difficult to achieve if companies do not have a globally focused sales strategy."

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At the Texas wind farms included in the study, some turbines at the upwind Loraine wind farm, which completed a second phase in summer 2011, are located within 300 meters of turbines at the downwind Roscoe wind farm, which came online in March 2008. The authors note that turbine wakes have been observed to extend 25 miles or more for both onshore and offshore wind farms.

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The California projects are among a growing number of efforts ...fueling growing optimism that these giant batteries will allow wind and solar power to displace a growing share of fossil-fuel plants. But there’s a problem with this rosy scenario. These batteries are far too expensive and don’t last nearly long enough, limiting the role they can play on the grid, experts say. If we plan to rely on them for massive amounts of storage as more renewables come online—rather than turning to a broader mix of low-carbon sources like nuclear and natural gas with carbon capture technology—we could be headed down a dangerously unaffordable path.

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Developers have abandoned plans to extend a controversial wind farm in Moray. EDF Energy put forward proposals to increase the size of 35 turbines planned for the Dorenell wind farm development on the Glenfiddich Estate, near Dufftown.

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In a nugget of very good news for the renewable energy sector, a survey of 163 wind energy experts has found that in the coming decades, the cost of electricity generated by wind should plunge, by between 24 and 30 percent by the year 2030, and even further by the middle of the century.

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The Department of Energy reports a 1,000-mile truck trip can run more than $20,000. Considering the average wind turbine now runs $3.3 million, that's a relatively small piece of the overall cost. But multiply the trucking bill by the three blades per turbine and the 100 turbines that might make up a wind farm, and the pricetag rises quickly.

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A wind turbine's effects on digital communications are dramatically different from those of a large building. The rotation of the wind turbine blades generates a dynamic force which depends on the direction and speed of the wind. Until recently, few tools have been available to assess this impact. A standard building produces a static impact.

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Leading-edge erosion continues to be a high priority for further research and development. According to Andrew Kay, renewable technology engineer at ORE Catapult, blades that lack sufficient leading-edge protection are showing serious signs of erosion after only two years, causing significant power production losses. 

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Wind turbines provide clean, abundant energy and bolster America's power grid. But across the world people are banding together to fight wind farms, blaming noise for interrupted sleep and a host of health problems. Scientists lack sufficient understanding of wind turbines' noise and best ways to mitigate the effects. 

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It was the largest curtailment of green energy last year, according to grid operators, and it highlights a hurdle for Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to increase the state's reliance on renewable energy. Peak demand for electricity rarely coincides with the brightest sunshine or the strongest winds, so finding a way to store clean power and deliver it when needed will be critical as California relies more on renewable energy.

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