Blade testing is required to meet wind turbine design standards, reduce machine cost, and reduce the technical and financial risk of deploying mass-produced wind turbine models. NREL's National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) in Colorado is the only blade test facility in the U.S. capable of performing full-scale static and fatigue testing of multi-megawatt-scale wind turbine blades. Rapid growth in wind turbine size over the past two decades has outstripped the size capacity of the NWTC blade test facility leaving the U.S. wind industry without a suitable means of testing blades for large land-based and offshore turbines. This CRADA will develop and commercialize testing technologies and test equipment, including scaling up, value engineering, and testing of equipment to be used at blade testing facilities in the U.S. and around the world.
Snowberg, D.; Hughes, S.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Technology Testing & Certification
Blades & Rotors
Technical Report