Construction begins on ‘world’s longest’ wind turbine blades

The company plans to build the blades using using carbon fibre rather than conventional fibre glass, and will construct them through the assembly of smaller, more accurate and easily manufactured components pieces, rather than from extremely large and expensive full length mouldings. This is expected to result in weight savings of up to 40% and enable significant cost savings to be achieved throughout the rest of the turbine system. The project will see prototype blades manufactured, and in a position to be put into production by late 2014. The investment has enabled the company to grow its workforce by around a third. Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts said: "This investment will enable Blade Dynamics to develop and demonstrate a potentially world leading technology. "The project could vastly improve the manufacturing process of very large turbine blades, as well as helping to reduce the cost of the energy generated. It shows Britain is leading the way in developing innovative solutions to help with the transition to a low carbon economy." David Cripps, Blade Dynamics' senior technical manager, added: "We have worked hard on the design of this blade technology for a number of years now. Our driver is to make the generation of electricity through offshore wind both more reliable and more economical. "We believe longer, low weight blades to be a key part of the solution, but for such blades to be most effective we need to design their construction differently."