Published

1 year ago

January 30, 2025

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

Why Blades Fail Early w/ Morten Handberg of WInd Power LAB

Wind Power LAB’s blade expert Morten Handberg explains a critical wind industry problem: new turbine blades are failing years too early. These massive blades – now stretching over 100 meters – are experiencing unexpected structural damage due to complex aerodynamic forces. Handberg shares Wind Power LAB’s essential strategies for detecting and preventing these costly blade failures before they shut down your turbines.

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Allen Hall: As wind turbines reach unprecedented heights and blade lengths stretch beyond 100 meters, unexpected challenges are emerging from the field. This week we welcome back Morten Handberg. The renowned Blade Whisperer from Wind Power LAB. In this eye-opening discussion, Morten reveals why modern blade designs are showing structural issues earlier than expected and what operators need to watch for to protect their turbines.

Stay tuned.

Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind Energy’s brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow.

Allen Hall: Morten, welcome back to the show.

Morten Handberg: Thanks, Allen. It’s great to be, be back again.

Allen Hall: You are one of our most popular guests. You are the Blade Whisperer. And any time I’m at a trade show, people ask, how’s Morten doing? How’s the Blade Whisperer doing? Like, well, Morten’s great. Morten’s super busy, but Morten is great.

And they want to have you back on. So here we are. We’re back on again. And. The topic of today’s discussion is about aerodynamic stresses that happen to blades, and we’re seeing more problems with that than some of the quality issues. I think it’s a combination of quality and aerodynamic issues. What is happening in the field right now with aerodynamic loading on some of these new, longer, more flexible blades?

Morten Handberg: Well, it’s, it’s something that’s been been happening over time. So if we look 10, 15 years back, then the blades were of course shorter. The and they were a lot stiffer than they were today. They were heavily reinforced and you could say maybe they were. They were under optimized that they had a lot more load capacity and that were then what they needed.

And, and in, in process of the, in, in, as the blades have been become longer than the, then that buffer have gone away, so, because the, in order to build a logger blade, you had to reduce the the, the thickness of your laminates to avoid an overly, you know, bulky structure, but something that could harness the wind in a more efficient way So that leads to slender, thinner blades that are a lot softer.

And we can see that in the natural frequency that the, that the flap wise and edge wise frequencies, they have kind of gone down. And that’s because the blades become softer. And that also means that the way that the blade behaves with the wind direction means that the gravity loads are still a major, a major component, but Aeroelastic loading, which adds to shear and torsion loads, have become much more prominent loading conditions on the blades that we see today.

Allen Hall: That’s interesting. Yeah, obviously the blades are lighter than they ever been for the length. I remember being at DTU a year or so ago and looking at one of the first offshore wind blades that Vestas had made, and it was beautiful. back into DTU’s laboratory being examined. And that blade was so stiff and so overdesigned that it could have lasted, it had, it could last another 20 years.

It had been out in service for 20 years. It could have lasted easily another 20, maybe another 30 years because of the way it was designed, how stiff it was, how short it was. It was like a 20 meter blade. It wasn’t that big. But today when we’re talking 60, 80, 100 meters, those blades are just Dynamically different.

Is it a combination of just trying to lower the cost of the blade or just the mere fact that the weight is so high? We’re trying to transport it. What’s driving down the margins here in terms of the blade design and making them a lot more flexible?

Morten Handberg: Well, it is, it is an effective of well, by increasing the length, you also increases the power that you can harness from the blade.

You know, that so, so it is a, it is a desire to create larger turbines and one of the. Easiest ways to do that is simply by making the blade longer because you have to, it, you can do it. It’s, it’s compared to increasing the sweat barrier or optimizing. And in other ways, it is a, it is a low hanging fruit and by lowering the rate of the blades, you can also live with a lighter drive train, less steel in the tower, smaller foundation.

So all of these things play in into why that the blade is such a, so much in focus in terms of. Driving down cost overall is by reducing the the weight of the blades. And that comes as a consequence of it being more it, yeah, it has, has less design buffer and it also will have less lifetime compared to the, to the more conservative blades that we’ve seen before.

You can say that, you know, some of the two megawatt turbines, I wouldn’t be surprised if you can from a blade perspective that you can, you know elongate the lifetime to 30, 40 years, because they’re, they’re so conservatively designed compared to what we see today.

Allen Hall: Okay, so adding a kilogram to a blade has consequences all the way down to the foundation, which makes sense when you say it.

Okay, so that just adds cost and complexity to every other component in that wind turbine. So the drive then is to lighten the blades and also lengthen the blades at the same time. Now, when we do that, I, as I talk to operators around the world, they come back and say to me, okay, yeah, sure we’re using longer blades, of course it creates more power, but they’re all being qualified.

They’re all being tested, right? So we shouldn’t have anything to worry about what they’re in service. Has the test standards kept up with the rapid design changes that have been made? Not at all.

Morten Handberg: As I said before, you know, gravity loads was the predominant load on all the blades. And that was also what did.

Testing and certification standards focused on. And that’s still what it’s, what’s being, being done today. There are, you know more being done on hybrid loading, combining stepwise and edgewise, but that’s still gravity based loads. We’re not taking into account aeroelastic loads when, when, when testing and certifying, but that’s all only done in simulation.

And then we learn about what have, what’s happening in, in operation. In operation. So. So the testing and certification has not kept up with the with, with the load conditions that are, that, that, that we see on, on the modern blade.

Allen Hall: So I have a existing OEM that I like using, and I just want to go to the next generation of wind turbines, which is what is happening today.

That design of that new wind turbine may not have the same robustness as the one you are used to using, particularly if you’d let 5, 10 years go by. And so then if you’re thinking about the blade design, you’re trying to evaluate blade design, you really don’t have the data in front of you then. If they haven’t tested that for torsional loading, aero loading effects, you really don’t know what the history of that blade will be.

Just because you don’t have the data, right? You

Morten Handberg: have no idea what the, what the fatigue lifetime is from these new combined loads and, and we are seeing, you know blades, structural blade damages, blade failures happening on, on wind farms. From a variety of wind turbine types, where there is no, no, no sign of manufacturing defects, there is no lightning strike, there is no sign of transport damage or failed repair.

So, you know, it’s very difficult to prove exactly what kind of load it is without having the exact model or having other kinds of other types of data. But, you know, When leaving everything out, then you are starting to think about, is there something, some load condition going on here since we’re seeing these buckling related failures in areas where they, the blade simply shouldn’t shouldn’t have any kind of structural damage.

We’re seeing a lot on On on shell sandwich panels where we, where we see deformation the damage and related to deformation defects. And very early on, actually, you know the blades are designed for 25 years, but in a wind farm, we can see, you know, multiple blades with long transverse cracks over the, over the, the, the shell panels, and there’s nothing to suggest any kind of manufacturing issue.

otherwise that would have allowed for this defect to develop. And that’s again, one of the, one of the things that I think we need, we need to be mindful of with these new, new turbines. So how prevalent is this issue? What should I be looking for in the field? The need for inspection. We’ve been saying this for many years, also for the older blades, but it’s, Absolutely equally true.

So you need to do, at least yearly inspection, maybe in the early years, do it a bit more often, you know, and do both internal and external because whatever you see on the outside, on the outside will likely have started on the inside. So doing an internal inspection is a really really important in order to, to capture the defects in time.

And, and we need to look again, what we’re looking for is not, not different from what we did on, on the traditional blade. It, they just develop earlier and faster. So, so looking for, for structural cracks, looking for debonding, that’s typically what you would see. It just develops in the shield laminates.

I am less concerned about beam structures in the new blades than I was before. Gravity loads are pretty well understood and the spar caps and, and beam structures, they’re there to handle those kinds of loads. So they’re not really as concerned anymore. If you have manufacturing defects, you know, wrinkles in them, that’s still a problem, of course, but when we’re talking just.

Pure, you know, operation, lifetime fatigue, then it’s the shell structures that, that, that we need to have more, more in focus, which is, you know, opposite because earlier, you know, the shell was rarely something we even considered as an important part of the structure. So it was now rarely in focus because we never redesigned the defects.

They aren’t like, unless they were made to lightning strike or otherwise, but they have started to, to show the defects early on. And that’s because that’s the weak structure. That’s the weak structure from aerodynamic loads.

Allen Hall: Okay, that’s interesting. So we’re seeing more failures early on, probably within the warranty period in a lot of blades, but they’re showing up where they normally wouldn’t show up.

So if I’m an operator, I may not even be looking for this because I wouldn’t assume that the, the shells are the weak point necessarily. I would look for more internal structure issues. What I think is The general method of inspection right now is going to get to the structure. So, if you’re looking for changes in core or wrinkles on the outside of these blades in places that you would not normally normally see them, that’s your first alarm bell that maybe this is not a des necessarily a design issue as, as much as an error load issue that wasn’t evaluated during the qualification phase.

Exactly.

Morten Handberg: I mean, you would do simulations from the OEM, but, but, you know, are they, are they accurate enough compared to the wind loads that we’re seeing out there? And with the buffer gone, then, you know, you might, you might do a simulation for a certain set of certain conditional wind loads, depending on your wind class.

But is that actually then equivalent to, to the, to the low conditions we see on site? Is ice loading really considered? You know, ice loading in a gravity, from a gravity sense load, that’s not that big of an issue. They can handle that. But when you change the the inertia of the blades, then you also change the airline, the, the, the share and the torsion load.

And again, the shell structures and areas that are, that are. susceptible to that kind of loading, they might see then an overloading that you otherwise wouldn’t have.

Allen Hall: I want to ask maybe a controversial question here because I’ve been intrigued about this. When I see a lot of these longer, newer blades being installed offshore and they’re failing, it seems to happen during the construction phase when they’re not in operation.

Is that because the Turbines maybe not be pointing in the right direction. The yaw is not engaged and maybe you have two or the three blades on or something that the aero loading is then different than what it would be in operation, which is creating unique conditions that overload the basic design of the blade.

Is that the philosophy is what’s happening in offshore right now?

Morten Handberg: I mean, any kind of loading that is where the yaw where the yaw is off. So the wind is not coming directly towards the blade. is a, is a problematic situation on any account because the blades are designed for the, for the heaviest load coming, you know, from the front of blade leading edge inward.

But having loads coming in, you know, from it on the on the, on the pressure side, suction side shell or the trailing it can create load conditions or can create vibration conditions that cause the blade to go into resonance. which can lead to very rapid failures. I guess that, you know, that they can be your situations that don’t necessarily lead to a blade failure.

That’s fine. But again, we’re flying blind if we’re just allowing the turbine to get wind directions from backwind, sidewind, all of that, then we don’t really know when and if, you know, the, the, that we reach a critical situation. So I would always be concerned. And you could also say, well, the blade was yards 15 or 50 degrees off from and, but the blade didn’t break.

So obviously the turbine was designed for that. That’s not true. You could have just created an overload situation that meant that you shaved off, you know, a few years or five years of your lifetime. That doesn’t show as an immediate defect, but you, but the blade was still fatigued more than it was supposed to.

So you, you lost a lot of lifetime in that event, but it didn’t break. But that’s still an issue.

Allen Hall: Oh yeah, it definitely is. So weather forecasting during the construction phase is becoming critical then.

Morten Handberg: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s always been an issue, you know, that, you know, when the, when the rotary is locked that, you know, you need to get the turbine installed and commissioned as fast as possible.

So it can, it can start to operate as it’s, as it’s supposed to be. But with. Lower design margins problem have have increased in significance. You could say

Allen Hall: that would explain some onshore things that I’ve seen also. All right. This, this is fascinating. So we have a problem out in the field. It’s really early still.

What are some of the approaches to deal with it? Obviously inspection, probably more frequent inspection, probably during the warranty period, cause it’s going to happen earlier. But what are the, some of the things that Winpower LAB and you are recommending right now?

Morten Handberg: So we’re, we’re recommending at least yearly inspection.

And there are, you know, there are some turbines, wind farms that are receiving, inspections two times every year. Some even more often depending on what kind of conditions that they’re seeing. All of that makes a lot of sense because until we have some more data on how, on, on how these defects develop and what we’re seeing, then, you know, it, it is important to have, to have a data set because we’re, we’re dealing with a new generation of turbines where we don’t have a lot of historical data to lean on, on, on how defects would develop or, Under what circumstances.

So having more frequent inspections is something that we do recommend. And, you know, or previously we would recommend an end of warranty inspection and that would be fine, you know, that, you know, then you’re pretty much good to go, but, but today, you know, it’s, you should, if you’re, if you’re building a new wind farm today, you should do yearly inspections from day one in order to, to, to to avoid critical failures, at least.

Allen Hall: Let me ask you this question, and I’ve heard it discussed on certain wind farms, large wind farms, where in windy areas, when the blades are even on the ground. Is there a chance that those blades can get torsional loading that is unnatural or that it wouldn’t like to see and could decrease a lifetime?

Morten Handberg: It’s actually an interesting, an interesting topic. I mean, when the blades are being transported, when they’re in storage, they are still introduced to to, to wind to winds, right? So there is still an interaction with the wind. That can create its own set of vibrations. It might not be the same resonance that you would, that you would see on a, on a, on an erected turbine, but it still is a factor.

It’s really not well understood how much of an impact it has on the lifetime of the blade the storage conditions and something, you know, early on, it was just not considered. And again, that would, that would have been completely fair because the blades were stiffer. They were more robustly designed but today it might actually matter.

But I think right now we can’t really say anything with certainty, but you know, yeah, it is something to look out for. I would definitely say that, but it’s not something I can add a lot of details to, unfortunately, because it’s, it’s something we’re still, you know, trying to figure out what, what it actually means for, for, for the blade.

Allen Hall: Well, would that explain why some of the OEMs and some independent inventors are coming up with these sock designs that go over the blade for a significant portion, probably the outer third of the blade, to disrupt the airflow over the blade so it’s not creating lift and maybe not creating torsion in the blade?

I’ve seen a lot more of those. Recently is, is that the rationale for those?

Morten Handberg: It is, it is definitely a part of the rationale or something we’ve seen also during construction that they were, they were applied and that it’s typically something you would do if you, if you know, as a constructor, that a high wind system is coming in that is without within the limit that can cause edgewise via vibration.

Then you can apply one of these socks or nets or however they look. And that will, that will create a disruption of the blade. So it’s not allowed to move as freely as it, as it would, if it had just been on its own. So that is absolutely something, but yeah, it, it, yeah. I mean, they are, of course, if you can prevent the blade failure, it’s absolutely worth it.

But you have to be mindful, you know, it’s, it’s something that adds to the cost. It, it’s not, it’s not a, it’s not a trivial thing just to apply a 50 meter Saco over a blade, not at all. And what we’ve seen in, in, in Scandinavia where we have icing conditions is that ice can actually then start to build up on, on, on the net and start, you know, hammering in on the, on the blade.

And that can create some structural damages on it, on it, on its own. I would. in general argue that, you know, these damages are lesser than what you would have suffered as if you had seen resonance from edge wise vibrations. The problem is though that then instead of having, you know, a few cases of a really damaged blade, you then see a wide sweep of damages across your entire fleet suddenly because these nets pick up a lot of things and and create some some damages to the blade on their own.

So, It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s a solution to a, to a problem that, that we do recognize that we do know no, no, no one knows there. So yeah I, I would probably still apply them if it was, if I was the owner. But I would also, you know, open my eyes to that. Okay, doing this, but I’m also looking into a repair campaign afterwards anyway.

That’s just, you know, to be expected, especially if you’re in Scandinavia. And I presume some of the, you know, Canada and some of the Midwestern states, they would have similar conditions.

Allen Hall: They do. Does continuous monitoring systems play into this detection at all? Can they pick up some of these aero loading effects, the vibrational effects, in them and detect what they are and give an early warning that maybe you have a problem?

Morten Handberg: You can absolutely see if something is going on. So, so I mean, I would generally say any kind of condition monitoring is better than no condition monitoring. Obviously if we want to learn about blade, the blade behavior that we have, that, that, that, that we have within the wind farm, we want to have sophisticated detection of damages early on.

And we, if we want to get to a point where we can understand, What kind of wind conditions actually drive lifetime fatigue? Then we need to go for a more sophisticated system that monitors vibration or loads or otherwise. But right now, you know, it’s, it’s. Condition monitoring is not a given, and I think for older turbines, it’s definitely a good value proposition, but it’s really essential for the newer ones because we can, because if you have some kind of damage detection, there’s some, some kind of condition monitoring you can, you can prevent that you suffer from a complete blade failure.

Not a perfect system. There can still happen things, but your, but your risk is lower significantly. But I would, if you’re, if you’re, if you’re, if you have a larger set of turbines and you want to go into more how do you say proactive operation maintenance and understand what yeah, what, what kind of things are actually driving the damages that I’m seeing.

You need to have a really sophisticated either by vibration sensor or low load sensor that can tell you, well, I got this damage and this was how, but this, this is how the blade behaved before before, before the event or during these kind of wind conditions, my vibration signal is tripling or quadrupling.

And, and this is something that is that is driving the, my, my, my lifetime,

Allen Hall: fatigue. I want to tap into that Lifetime piece, Morten, if Blades are not properly aligned in pitch, or they have a lot of leading edge erosion where the, the air flow over a significant portion of the blade is not normal, not based on what the engineers had on their computer at the time.

Does that change error loading enough where I start to worry as blades age that the error loading is changing and that I may then induce Vibrations or loads later on in life that I maybe wouldn’t have seen in year one or two. And do I need to be monitoring for that also?

Morten Handberg: If you have leading edge erosion, then you are creating more turbulence around your blade.

So from a logical perspective, I would say, yeah, that is something that is driving load. I would assume, I would assume that if it, what the magnitude is, that’s difficult to predict again without having any kind of load condition monitoring. Then. Where, yeah, we, we, we have no way of quantifying this.

So that, and that’s also why it’s so important that we, because that it becomes more of a, a must have instead of a nice to have these kind of monitoring system. And I would say that both for lightning, but also, but especially for condition monitoring, given, given what, what, what, what, what we’re seeing in the industry today.

Allen Hall: Wow, there’s a lot happening in blade design at the minute and then out in the field. It sounds like we have to be more vigilant than ever with these new designs. So Morten, this is fascinating because I’ve learned a ton here and I’m trying to absorb it all. So I’m going to watch this episode on YouTube probably several times after we complete it just to, you know, Learn all the things you’re trying to explain to me because I’m an electrical person.

A lot of people you get out in the field also are mechanically inclined. They’re not aerodynamically inclined. They’re not blade structures people. If they want to get a deeper understanding of what’s happening and get some insights from you, how do they do that?

Morten Handberg: You can reach me at well, I would say Intim, not anytime, but you can reach me at Wind Power LAB and we’re always happy to set up a meeting or or call with people.

Owners or insurers who want to learn more about the the blade problems that they’re, they’re facing. And in wind power, we’re all about, you know, knowledge sharing and about raising the bar in the industry so that, you know, we all progressively, you know, learn what it is actually that we have to deal with for the next 25 years.

And I think if we can do that. We also, we have a chance that these newer turbines, that they are, we can, we can, we can increase the lifetime compared to what we would likely look into if we don’t. Yeah, as you say, become more vigilant in our approach to operation and maintenance.

Allen Hall: So you need to reach out to windpowerlab. com. That’s their website. A lot of great information on that website, windpowerlab. com. And you can reach out to Morten via LinkedIn. He’s available. He’s on there. Just reach out to Morten Handberg. Morten, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I really appreciate you coming back. You are our official Blade Whisperer.

Love having you on. Fantastic being here and thank you so much.

https://weatherguardwind.com/blades-fail-wind-power-lab/

Renewable Energy

Wind Industry Operations: In Wind’s Next Chapter, Operations take center stage

Published

8 hours ago

February 26, 2026

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

Wind Industry Operations: In Wind’s Next Chapter, Operations take center stage

This exclusive article originally appeared in PES Wind 4 – 2025 with the title, Operations take center stage in wind’s next chapter. It was written by Allen Hall and other members of the WeatherGuard Lightning Tech team.

As aging fleets, shrinking margins, and new policies reshape the wind sector, wind energy operations are in the spotlight. The industry’s next chapter will be defined not by capacity growth, but by operational excellence, where integrated, predictive maintenance turns data into decisions and reliability into profit.

Wind farm operations are undergoing a fundamental transformation. After hosting hundreds of conversations on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, I’ve witnessed a clear pattern: the most successful operators are abandoning reactive maintenance in favor of integrated, predictive strategies. This shift isn’t just about adopting new technologies; it’s about fundamentally rethinking how we manage aging assets in an era of tightening margins and expanding responsibilities.

The evidence was overwhelming at this year’s SkySpecs Customer Forum, where representatives from over 75% of US installed wind capacity gathered to share experiences and strategies. The consensus was clear: those who integrate monitoring, inspection, and repair into a cohesive operational strategy are achieving dramatic improvements in reliability and profitability.

Takeaway: These options have been available to wind energy operations for years; now, adoption is critical.

Why traditional approaches to wind farm operations are failing

Today’s wind operators face an unprecedented convergence of challenges. Fleets installed during the 2010-2015 boom are aging in unexpected ways, revealing design vulnerabilities no one anticipated. Meanwhile, the support infrastructure is crumbling; spare parts have become scarce, OEM support is limited, and insurance companies are tightening coverage just when operators need them most.

The situation is particularly acute following recent policy changes. The One Big Beautiful Bill in the United States has fundamentally altered the economic landscape. PTC farming is no longer viable; turbines must run longer and more reliably than ever before. Engineering teams, already stretched thin, are being asked to manage not just wind assets but solar and battery storage as well. The old playbook simply doesn’t work anymore.

Consider the scope of just one challenge: polyester blade failures. During our podcast conversation with Edo Kuipers of We4Ce, we learned that an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 blades worldwide are experiencing root bushing issues. ‘After a while, blades are simply flying off,’ Kuipers explained. The financial impact of a single blade failure can exceed €300,000 when you factor in replacement costs, lost production, and crane mobilization. Yet innovative repair solutions, like the one developed by We4Ce and CNC Onsite, can address the same problem for €40,000 if caught early. This pattern repeats across every major component. Gearbox failures that once required complete replacement can now be predicted months in advance. Lightning damage that previously caused catastrophic failures can be prevented with inexpensive upgrades and real-time monitoring. All these solutions are based on the principle that predicted maintenance is better than an expensive surprise.

Seeing problems before they happeny, and potential risks

The transformation begins with visibility. Modern monitoring systems reveal problems that traditional methods miss entirely. Eric van Genuchten of Sensing360 shared an eye-opening statistic on our podcast: ‘In planetary gearbox failures, they get 90%, so there’s still 10% of failures they cannot detect.’ That missing 10% represents the catastrophic failures that destroy budgets and production targets. Advanced monitoring technologies are filling these gaps. Sensing360’s fiber optic sensors, for example, detect minute deformations in steel components, revealing load imbalances and fatigue progression invisible to traditional monitoring. ‘We integrate our sensors in steel and make rotating equipment smarter,’ van Genuchten explained.

Other companies are deploying acoustic systems to identify blade delamination, oil analysis for gearbox health, and electrical signature analysis for generator issues. Each technology adds a piece to the puzzle, but the real value comes from integration. The impact of load monitoring alone can be transformative.

As van Genuchten explained, ‘Twenty percent more loading on a gearbox or on a bearing is half of your life. The other way around, twenty percent less loading is double your life.’ With proper monitoring, operators can optimize load distribution across their fleet, extending component life while maximizing production.

But monitoring without action is just expensive data collection. The most successful operators are those who’ve learned to translate sensor data into operational decisions. This requires not just technology but organizational change, breaking down silos between monitoring, maintenance, and management teams.

In Wind Energy Operations, Early intervention makes the million-dollar difference

The economics of early intervention are compelling across every component type. The blade root bushing example from We4Ce illustrates this perfectly. With their solution, early detection means replacing just 24-30 bushings in about 24 hours of drilling work. Wait, and you’re looking at 60+ bushings and 60 hours of work. Early detection doesn’t just prevent catastrophic failure; it makes repairs faster, cheaper, and more reliable.

This principle extends throughout the turbine. Early-stage bearing damage can be addressed through targeted lubrication or minor adjustments. Incipient electrical issues can be resolved with cleaning or connection tightening. Small blade surface cracks can be repaired in a few hours before they propagate into structural damage requiring weeks of work.

Leading operators are implementing tiered response protocols based on monitoring data. Critical issues trigger immediate intervention. Developing problems are scheduled for the next maintenance window. Minor issues are monitored and addressed during routine service. This systematic approach reduces both emergency repairs and unnecessary maintenance, optimizing resource allocation across the fleet.

Turning information into action

While monitoring generates data, platforms like SkySpecs’ Horizon transform that data into operational intelligence. Josh Goryl, SkySpecs’ Chief Revenue Officer, explained their evolution at the recent Customer Forum: ‘I think where we can help our customers is getting all that data into one place.

The game-changer is integration across data types. The company is working to combine performance data with CMS data to provide valuable insights into turbine health. This approach has been informed by operators across the world, who’ve discovered that integrated platforms deliver insights that siloed data can’t.

The platform approach also addresses the reality of shrinking engineering teams managing expanding portfolios. As Goryl noted, many wind engineers are now responsible for solar and battery storage assets as well. One platform managing multiple technologies through a unified interface becomes essential for operational efficiency.

The Integration Imperative for Wind Farm Operations

The most successful operators aren’t just adopting individual technologies; they’re integrating monitoring, inspection, and repair into a seamless operational system. This integration operates at multiple levels.

At the technical level, data from various monitoring systems feeds into unified platforms that provide comprehensive asset visibility. These platforms don’t just display data; they analyze patterns, predict failures, and generate work orders.

At the organizational level, integration means breaking down barriers between departments. This cross-functional collaboration transforms O&M from a cost center into a value driver. Building your improvement roadmap For operators ready to enhance their O&M approach, the path forward involves several key steps:

Assessing the Current State of your Wind Energy Operations

Document your maintenance costs, failure rates, and downtime patterns. Identify which problems consume the most resources and which assets are most critical to your wind farm operations.

Start with targeted pilots Rather than attempting wholesale transformation, begin with focused initiatives targeting your biggest pain points. Whether it’s blade monitoring, gearbox sensors, or repair innovations, starting with your largest issue will help you see the biggest benefit.

• Invest in integration, not just technology: the most sophisticated monitoring system is worthless if its data isn’t acted upon. Ensure your organization has the processes and culture to transform data into decisions – this is the first step to profitability in your wind farm operations.

Build partnerships, not just contracts: look for technology providers and service companies willing to share knowledge, not just deliver services. The goal is building capability, not dependency.

• Measure and iterate: track the impact of each initiative on your key performance indicators. Use lessons learned to refine your approach and guide future investments.

The competitive advantage

The wind industry has reached an inflection point. With increasingly large and complex turbines, monitoring needs to adapt with it. The era of flying blind is over.

In an industry where margins continue to compress and competition intensifies, operational excellence has become a key differentiator. Those who master the integration of monitoring, inspection, and repair will thrive. Those who cling to reactive maintenance face escalating costs and declining competitiveness.

The technology exists. The business case is proven. The early adopters are already reaping the benefits. The question isn’t whether to transform your O&M approach, but how quickly you can adapt to this new reality. In the race to operational excellence, the winners will be those who act decisively to embrace the efficiency revolution reshaping wind operations.

Unless otherwise noted, images here are from We4C Rotorblade Specialist.

Wind Industry Operations: In Wind's Next Chapter, Operations take center stage

Contact us for help understanding your lightning damage, future risks, and how to get more uptime from your equipment.

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Wind Industry Operations: In Wind’s Next Chapter, Operations take center stage

Renewable Energy

BladeBUG Tackles Serial Blade Defects with Robotics

Published

11 hours ago

February 26, 2026

Alice Rush

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

BladeBUG Tackles Serial Blade Defects with Robotics

Chris Cieslak, CEO of BladeBug, joins the show to discuss how their walking robot is making ultrasonic blade inspections faster and more accessible. They cover new horizontal scanning capabilities for lay down yards, blade root inspections for bushing defects, and plans to expand into North America in 2026.

Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy’s brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering Tomorrow.

Allen Hall: Chris, welcome back to the show.

Chris Cieslak: It’s great to be back. Thank you very much for having me on again.

Allen Hall: It’s great to see you in person, and a lot has been happening at Blade Bugs since the last time I saw Blade Bug in person. Yeah, the robot. It looks a lot different and it has really new capabilities.

Chris Cieslak: So we’ve continued to develop our ultrasonic, non-destructive testing capabilities of the blade bug robot.

Um, but what we’ve now added to its capabilities is to do horizontal blade scans as well. So we’re able to do blades that are in lay down yards or blades that have come down for inspections as well as up tower. So we can do up tower, down tower inspections. We’re trying to capture. I guess the opportunity to inspect blades after transportation when they get delivered to site, to look [00:01:00] for any transport damage or anything that might have been missed in the factory inspections.

And then we can do subsequent installation inspections as well to make sure there’s no mishandling damage on those blades. So yeah, we’ve been just refining what we can do with the NDT side of things and improving its capabilities

Joel Saxum: was that need driven from like market response and people say, Hey, we need, we need.

We like the blade blood product. We like what you’re doing, but we need it here. Or do you guys just say like, Hey, this is the next, this is the next thing we can do. Why not?

Chris Cieslak: It was very much market response. We had a lot of inquiries this year from, um, OEMs, blade manufacturers across the board with issues within their blades that need to be inspected on the ground, up the tap, any which way they can.

There there was no, um, rhyme or reason, which was better, but the fact that he wanted to improve the ability of it horizontally has led the. Sort of modifications that you’ve seen and now we’re doing like down tower, right? Blade scans. Yeah. A really fast breed. So

Joel Saxum: I think the, the important thing there is too is that because of the way the robot is built [00:02:00] now, when you see NDT in a factory, it’s this robot rolls along this perfectly flat concrete floor and it does this and it does that.

But the way the robot is built, if a blade is sitting in a chair trailing edge up, or if it’s flap wise, any which way the robot can adapt to, right? And the idea is. We, we looked at it today and kind of the new cage and the new things you have around it with all the different encoders and for the heads and everything is you can collect data however is needed.

If it’s rasterized, if there’s a vector, if there’s a line, if we go down a bond line, if we need to scan a two foot wide path down the middle of the top of the spa cap, we can do all those different things and all kinds of orientations. That’s a fantastic capability.

Chris Cieslak: Yeah, absolutely. And it, that’s again for the market needs.

So we are able to scan maybe a meter wide in one sort of cord wise. Pass of that probe whilst walking in the span-wise direction. So we’re able to do that raster scan at various spacing. So if you’ve got a defect that you wanna find that maximum 20 mil, we’ll just have a 20 mil step [00:03:00] size between each scan.

If you’ve got a bigger tolerance, we can have 50 mil, a hundred mil it, it’s so tuneable and it removes any of the variability that you get from a human to human operator doing that scanning. And this is all about. Repeatable, consistent high quality data that you can then use to make real informed decisions about the state of those blades and act upon it.

So this is not about, um, an alternative to humans. It’s just a better, it’s just an evolution of how humans do it. We can just do it really quick and it’s probably, we, we say it’s like six times faster than a human, but actually we’re 10 times faster. We don’t need to do any of the mapping out of the blade, but it’s all encoded all that data.

We know where the robot is as we walk. That’s all captured. And then you end up with really. Consistent data. It doesn’t matter who’s operating a robot, the robot will have those settings preset and you just walk down the blade, get that data, and then our subject matter experts, they’re offline, you know, they are in their offices, warm, cozy offices, reviewing data from multiple sources of robots.

And it’s about, you know, improving that [00:04:00] efficiency of getting that report out to the customer and letting ’em know what’s wrong with their blades, actually,

Allen Hall: because that’s always been the drawback of, with NDT. Is that I think the engineers have always wanted to go do it. There’s been crush core transportation damage, which is sometimes hard to see.

You can maybe see a little bit of a wobble on the blade service, but you’re not sure what’s underneath. Bond line’s always an issue for engineering, but the cost to take a person, fly them out to look at a spot on a blade is really expensive, especially someone who is qualified. Yeah, so the, the difference now with play bug is you can have the technology to do the scan.

Much faster and do a lot of blades, which is what the de market demand is right now to do a lot of blades simultaneously and get the same level of data by the review, by the same expert just sitting somewhere else.

Chris Cieslak: Absolutely.

Joel Saxum: I think that the quality of data is a, it’s something to touch on here because when you send someone out to the field, it’s like if, if, if I go, if I go to the wall here and you go to the wall here and we both take a paintbrush, we paint a little bit [00:05:00] different, you’re probably gonna be better.

You’re gonna be able to reach higher spots than I can.

Allen Hall: This is true.

Joel Saxum: That’s true. It’s the same thing with like an NDT process. Now you’re taking the variability of the technician out of it as well. So the data quality collection at the source, that’s what played bug ducts.

Allen Hall: Yeah,

Joel Saxum: that’s the robotic processes.

That is making sure that if I scan this, whatever it may be, LM 48.7 and I do another one and another one and another one, I’m gonna get a consistent set of quality data and then it’s goes to analysis. We can make real decisions off.

Allen Hall: Well, I, I think in today’s world now, especially with transportation damage and warranties, that they’re trying to pick up a lot of things at two years in that they could have picked up free installation.

Yeah. Or lifting of the blades. That world is changing very rapidly. I think a lot of operators are getting smarter about this, but they haven’t thought about where do we go find the tool.

Speaker: Yeah.

Allen Hall: And, and I know Joel knows that, Hey, it, it’s Chris at Blade Bug. You need to call him and get to the technology.

But I think for a lot of [00:06:00] operators around the world, they haven’t thought about the cost They’re paying the warranty costs, they’re paying the insurance costs they’re paying because they don’t have the set of data. And it’s not tremendously expensive to go do. But now the capability is here. What is the market saying?

Is it, is it coming back to you now and saying, okay, let’s go. We gotta, we gotta mobilize. We need 10 of these blade bugs out here to go, go take a scan. Where, where, where are we at today?

Chris Cieslak: We’ve hads. Validation this year that this is needed. And it’s a case of we just need to be around for when they come back round for that because the, the issues that we’re looking for, you know, it solves the problem of these new big 80 a hundred meter plus blades that have issues, which shouldn’t.

Frankly exist like process manufacturer issues, but they are there. They need to be investigated. If you’re an asset only, you wanna know that. Do I have a blade that’s likely to fail compared to one which is, which is okay? And sort of focus on that and not essentially remove any uncertainty or worry that you have about your assets.

’cause you can see other [00:07:00] turbine blades falling. Um, so we are trying to solve that problem. But at the same time, end of warranty claims, if you’re gonna be taken over these blades and doing the maintenance yourself, you wanna know that what you are being given. It hasn’t gotten any nasties lurking inside that’s gonna bite you.

Joel Saxum: Yeah.

Chris Cieslak: Very expensively in a few years down the line. And so you wanna be able to, you know, tick a box, go, actually these are fine. Well actually these are problems. I, you need to give me some money so I can perform remedial work on these blades. And then you end of life, you know, how hard have they lived?

Can you do an assessment to go, actually you can sweat these assets for longer. So we, we kind of see ourselves being, you know, useful right now for the new blades, but actually throughout the value chain of a life of a blade. People need to start seeing that NDT ultrasonic being one of them. We are working on other forms of NDT as well, but there are ways of using it to just really remove a lot of uncertainty and potential risk for that.

You’re gonna end up paying through the, you know, through the, the roof wall because you’ve underestimated something or you’ve missed something, which you could have captured with a, with a quick inspection.

Joel Saxum: To [00:08:00] me, NDT has been floating around there, but it just hasn’t been as accessible or easy. The knowledge hasn’t been there about it, but the what it can do for an operator.

In de-risking their fleet is amazing. They just need to understand it and know it. But you guys with the robotic technology to me, are bringing NDT to the masses

Chris Cieslak: Yeah.

Joel Saxum: In a way that hasn’t been able to be done, done before

Chris Cieslak: that. And that that’s, we, we are trying to really just be able to roll it out at a way that you’re not limited to those limited experts in the composite NDT world.

So we wanna work with them, with the C-N-C-C-I-C NDTs of this world because they are the expertise in composite. So being able to interpret those, those scams. Is not a quick thing to become proficient at. So we are like, okay, let’s work with these people, but let’s give them the best quality data, consistent data that we possibly can and let’s remove those barriers of those limited people so we can roll it out to the masses.

Yeah, and we are that sort of next level of information where it isn’t just seen as like a nice to have, it’s like an essential to have, but just how [00:09:00] we see it now. It’s not NDT is no longer like, it’s the last thing that we would look at. It should be just part of the drones. It should inspection, be part of the internal crawlers regimes.

Yeah, it’s just part of it. ’cause there isn’t one type of inspection that ticks all the boxes. There isn’t silver bullet of NDT. And so it’s just making sure that you use the right system for the right inspection type. And so it’s complementary to drones, it’s complimentary to the internal drones, uh, crawlers.

It’s just the next level to give you certainty. Remove any, you know, if you see something indicated on a a on a photograph. That doesn’t tell you the true picture of what’s going on with the structure. So this is really about, okay, I’ve got an indication of something there. Let’s find out what that really is.

And then with that information you can go, right, I know a repair schedule is gonna take this long. The downtime of that turbine’s gonna be this long and you can plan it in. ’cause everyone’s already got limited budgets, which I think why NDT hasn’t taken off as it should have done because nobody’s got money for more inspections.

Right. Even though there is a money saving to be had long term, everyone is fighting [00:10:00] fires and you know, they’ve really got a limited inspection budget. Drone prices or drone inspections have come down. It’s sort, sort of rise to the bottom. But with that next value add to really add certainty to what you’re trying to inspect without, you know, you go to do a day repair and it ends up being three months or something like, well

Allen Hall: that’s the lightning,

Joel Saxum: right?

Allen Hall: Yeah. Lightning is the, the one case where every time you start to scarf. The exterior of the blade, you’re not sure how deep that’s going and how expensive it is. Yeah, and it always amazes me when we talk to a customer and they’re started like, well, you know, it’s gonna be a foot wide scarf, and now we’re into 10 meters and now we’re on the inside.

Yeah. And the outside. Why did you not do an NDT? It seems like money well spent Yeah. To do, especially if you have a, a quantity of them. And I think the quantity is a key now because in the US there’s 75,000 turbines worldwide, several hundred thousand turbines. The number of turbines is there. The number of problems is there.

It makes more financial sense today than ever because drone [00:11:00]information has come down on cost. And the internal rovers though expensive has also come down on cost. NDT has also come down where it’s now available to the masses. Yeah. But it has been such a mental barrier. That barrier has to go away. If we’re going going to keep blades in operation for 25, 30 years, I

Joel Saxum: mean, we’re seeing no

Allen Hall: way you can do it

Joel Saxum: otherwise.

We’re seeing serial defects. But the only way that you can inspect and or control them is with NDT now.

Allen Hall: Sure.

Joel Saxum: And if we would’ve been on this years ago, we wouldn’t have so many, what is our term? Blade liberations liberating

Chris Cieslak: blades.

Joel Saxum: Right, right.

Allen Hall: What about blade route? Can the robot get around the blade route and see for the bushings and the insert issues?

Chris Cieslak: Yeah, so the robot can, we can walk circumferentially around that blade route and we can look for issues which are affecting thousands of blades. Especially in North America. Yeah.

Allen Hall: Oh yeah.

Chris Cieslak: So that is an area that is. You know, we are lucky that we’ve got, um, a warehouse full of blade samples or route down to tip, and we were able to sort of calibrate, verify, prove everything in our facility to [00:12:00] then take out to the field because that is just, you know, NDT of bushings is great, whether it’s ultrasonic or whether we’re using like CMS, uh, type systems as well.

But we can really just say, okay, this is the area where the problem is. This needs to be resolved. And then, you know, we go to some of the companies that can resolve those issues with it. And this is really about played by being part of a group of technologies working together to give overall solutions

Allen Hall: because the robot’s not that big.

It could be taken up tower relatively easily, put on the root of the blade, told to walk around it. You gotta scan now, you know. It’s a lot easier than trying to put a technician on ropes out there for sure.

Chris Cieslak: Yeah.

Allen Hall: And the speed up it.

Joel Saxum: So let’s talk about execution then for a second. When that goes to the field from you, someone says, Chris needs some help, what does it look like?

How does it work?

Chris Cieslak: Once we get a call out, um, we’ll do a site assessment. We’ve got all our rams, everything in place. You know, we’ve been on turbines. We know the process of getting out there. We’re all GWO qualified and go to site and do their work. Um, for us, we can [00:13:00] turn up on site, unload the van, the robot is on a blade in less than an hour.

Ready to inspect? Yep. Typically half an hour. You know, if we’ve been on that same turbine a number of times, it’s somewhere just like clockwork. You know, muscle memory comes in, you’ve got all those processes down, um, and then it’s just scanning. Our robot operator just presses a button and we just watch it perform scans.

And as I said, you know, we are not necessarily the NDT experts. We obviously are very mindful of NDT and know what scans look like. But if there’s any issues, we have a styling, we dial in remote to our supplement expert, they can actually remotely take control, change the settings, parameters.

Allen Hall: Wow.

Chris Cieslak: And so they’re virtually present and that’s one of the beauties, you know, you don’t need to have people on site.

You can have our general, um, robot techs to do the work, but you still have that comfort of knowing that the data is being overlooked if need be by those experts.

Joel Saxum: The next level, um, commercial evolution would be being able to lease the kit to someone and or have ISPs do it for [00:14:00] you guys kinda globally, or what is the thought

Chris Cieslak: there?

Absolutely. So. Yeah, so we to, to really roll this out, we just wanna have people operate in the robots as if it’s like a drone. So drone inspection companies are a classic company that we see perfectly aligned with. You’ve got the sky specs of this world, you know, you’ve got drone operator, they do a scan, they can find something, put the robot up there and get that next level of information always straight away and feed that into their systems to give that insight into that customer.

Um, you know, be it an OEM who’s got a small service team, they can all be trained up. You’ve got general turbine technicians. They’ve all got G We working at height. That’s all you need to operate the bay by road, but you don’t need to have the RAA level qualified people, which are in short supply anyway.

Let them do the jobs that we are not gonna solve. They can do the big repairs we are taking away, you know, another problem for them, but giving them insights that make their job easier and more successful by removing any of those surprises when they’re gonna do that work.

Allen Hall: So what’s the plans for 2026 then?

Chris Cieslak: 2026 for us is to pick up where 2025 should have ended. [00:15:00] So we were, we were meant to be in the States. Yeah. On some projects that got postponed until 26. So it’s really, for us North America is, um, what we’re really, as you said, there’s seven, 5,000 turbines there, but there’s also a lot of, um, turbines with known issues that we can help determine which blades are affected.

And that involves blades on the ground, that involves blades, uh, that are flying. So. For us, we wanna get out to the states as soon as possible, so we’re working with some of the OEMs and, and essentially some of the asset owners.

Allen Hall: Chris, it’s so great to meet you in person and talk about the latest that’s happening.

Thank you. With Blade Bug, if people need to get ahold of you or Blade Bug, how do they do that?

Chris Cieslak: I, I would say LinkedIn is probably the best place to find myself and also Blade Bug and contact us, um, through that.

Allen Hall: Alright, great. Thanks Chris for joining us and we will see you at the next. So hopefully in America, come to America sometime.

We’d love to see you there.

Chris Cieslak: Thank you very [00:16:00] much.