Vestas’s 115.5-metre offshore wind turbine blades set for Fraunhofer IWES tests in Germany

The 115.5-metre blades of Vestas’s 15MW offshore wind turbine are to be tested at Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (Fraunhofer IWES) new test bench in Bremerhaven, north-east Germany.

The blades will be the first to be tested at the research institute’s new rotor blade test bench, which is due to be commissioned this summer.

Researchers will be able to carry out biaxial full-scale blade tests and testing of individual segments of Vestas’s blades this autumn.

Fraunhofer commissioned its 90-metre blade testing hall ten years ago. However, the recent increase in blade lengths has fuelled demand for the new bench. It will be capable of testing blades more than 120 metres long, and possibly beyond 130 metres for segmented testing.

Fraunhofer IWES’s new test bench is due to be commissioned this summer (pic credit: Nils Glinka)

Construction of the new test bench is currently underway (see above). The test block and setting up of the measurement technology is due to take place in the coming months.

Steffen Czichon, head of Fraunhofer IWES’s rotor blades department, said: “Even after more than 30 successfully completed test campaigns, a rotor blade measuring more than 115 metres still represents a special challenge for us that requires particularly close cooperation between all those involved.

“The infrastructure is not the only decisive aspect – the test methods are also being continually developed so as to be able to conduct the tests more realistically and faster.”

Vestas unveiled its V236-15.0MW turbine exclusively with Windpower Monthly in February 2021.

Its 115.5-metre blades were then at a record length but have since been surpassed with the 118-metre blades of MingYang Smart Energy’s MySE16.0-242 turbine.