ORE Catapult Welcomes Longest Blade at Blyth

One of the world’s longest offshore wind turbine blades has arrived at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult’s testing facilities in Blyth, Northumberland.

The 88.4-metre LM Wind Power blade, the longest blade to date to arrive at Blyth to be tested, will be put through its paces at ORE Catapult’s 100m blade-test facility over the coming months.

The blade has been developed as part of XL-Blade, an EU Demowind-funded project.

Started in January 2016 and ending in June 2019, the XL Blade project aims to reduce the overall cost of offshore wind energy by designing, validating and deploying the world’s largest offshore wind turbine blade.

Specific technological objectives are design, manufacturing and in-field validation of a blade approaching 90m in length with aggressive weight targets.