Project description
Drone repairs of wind turbine blades eliminate rope-hanging manual repairs
Wind turbine blades suffer from repetitive maintenance issues. Repairs are currently done manually by specialised rope-access workers, which is a costly and slow process. In addition, there is a lack of manpower, which is projected to grow to a shortage of 150 000 repair technicians. Funded by the European Innovation Council, the flying factory project will support Danish start-up Reblade's drone-based solution for the automated repair of wind turbine blades. The innovative solution will lower the levelised cost of wind energy, offering a 90 % reduction in turbine downtime during leading edge erosion repairs. Reblade's repair drone is usable by non-specialised workers. Moreover, it will reduce the current 4,5 days for manual repairs down to just 4,5 hours, and reduce CO2 by 2.4 million tonnes by 2031 and up to 12.6 million tonnes by 2040.
Objective
All existing repair solutions use a vertically positioned blade due to rope-hanging robots or workers. The proposed solution for fast repairs of leading edge erosion is based on a first-ever approach, where a drone lands on a horisontally positioned blade. This approach eliminates both the time-consuming rope-access requirement and associated fall risks from manual repairs entirely. Being able to apply the new generation of leading edge protection, will catapult the present state-of-the-art of blade protection, enabling upgraded blades to generate energy with 10% higher output and efficiency. In addition, the application of leading edge protection by our technology, will yield an automatic, fast, uniform, controlled, and documented quality, which has been well received by key market partners in demonstrations. Our drone is targeted to repair at higher wind speeds than is realistic with existing market solutions, and is well-suited for both existing and future wind turbines.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering robotics autonomous robots drones
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-EIC-ACC-BF - HORIZON EIC Accelerator Blended Finance
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2022-ACCELERATOR-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
8544 Moerke
Denmark
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.