As wind farms multiply worldwide, routine maintenance of turbine blades has increasingly become an operational bottleneck, as turbine owners and manufacturers struggle with a lack of both trained rope access staff and efficient maintenance solutions. Aerones, a specialist designer and manufacturer of robots specifically designed for the maintenance and inspection of wind turbines, has that solution. CEO Dainis Kruze spoke with Richard Hagan about how its robots improve wind turbine efficiency and deliver services that are revolutionising the industry.
Based in Latvia, Aerones is the market leader in robotic wind turbine inspection and maintenance services. Instead of using rope-access technicians, Aerones utilises robots to perform crucial maintenance and repair tasks on wind turbines.
Using its unique, patented robotic technology, Aerones’ robots can perform crucial tasks up to six times faster than humans, with ten times less downtime. Aerones provides inspection, cleaning, coating and leading edge repair services globally.
As the number of wind farm installations worldwide has continued to grow, so too has the size of the average wind turbine, with turbine blade sizes now routinely approaching 100 metres in length.
When rotating, the tip of such a blade reaches speeds of up to 300km per hour. While these speeds are ideal in terms of efficiency of power output, it is less so for wear and tear, with each raindrop acting as a piece of sandpaper on the turbine blade’s leading edge.
With this increase in leading edge erosion comes a commensurate increase in the risk of lightning damage, all the while also reducing the turbine’s annual energy production by between three and five per cent.
Lack of lightning protection
Given the inherently damaging nature of a lightning strike, it is perhaps surprising that Aerones’ data shows that many wind turbines have problems with lightning
protection systems. Consequently, a lightning strike on such an installation can result in extensive damage requiring expensive repairs, all the while imposing substantial downtime on the turbine’s operation.
The wind energy industry has long understood the challenges, problems and risks associated with leading edge erosion but to date, no realistic solution to inspect and repair that edge onsite has existed. However, thanks to Aerones’ robotics technology, that has now changed.
“Maintaining the leading edge every two to three years using humans, takes too long and is too expensive in terms of the labour cost and the cost of the
downtime involved,” said Aerones CEO Dainis Kruze. “Our robots do the job several times faster, more efficiently, and at a cost that is five times less than that of humans.”
In contrast with human technicians, Aerones’ robots are also able to produce better data regarding the turbine’s condition, as Mr Kruze explained: “Humans are too slow in carrying out the work, making scalability of human capital difficult, if not impossible, given the growth rate of wind farms. However, it’s easy to scale AI and software.
“For that reason, we’re training our software, not technicians, to efficiently carry out turbine blade inspections. That allows our robots to complete a greater number of inspections faster and at a lower cost while producing better data that allows for smarter decisions about maintenance in general, but particularly preventive maintenance. Without this
technology, preventative maintenance is just a pipe dream; it’s not going to become a reality.”
Global services
Aerones was founded in 2018 by Mr Kruze and its current CTO, Janis Putrams. The company initially developed heavy-lift industrial drones capable of extinguishing fires and cleaning tall surfaces. Sometime later, the pair realised that there was a substantial and growing demand for wind turbine maintenance and repairs.
They saw that their robotics technology could not only provide a solution but could also help accelerate the shift to renewable energy and ultimately create a better planet for future generations.
Aerones’ manufacturing plant and headquarters are located in Riga, Latvia. While the European Union is the company’s primary market, Aerones is rapidly establishing a global footprint to serve the industry’s
ever-growing demand. In 2023, Aerones opened an office and a warehouse in Dallas, Texas, to support its fast-growing US operations.
In addition, Aerones has teams located in South America and Australia. Together, in 2023, the company’s portfolio of 30 robots stationed worldwide served wind turbines in more than 27 countries spanning four continents.
Patented precision
Of course, Aerones’ robotics is its biggest asset, within which its unique, patented winch system technology is a major highlight. “The technology consists of service and repair robots, our winch system for precise positioning, and a technician who operates the robot – which all have Starlink internet connections – remotely from a van on the ground,” Mr Kruze explained. “With wind turbines now exceeding 120 metres in height, the job – which was previously performed by rope-access technicians – has become extremely dangerous and is now a much better fit for robots.”
Aerones’ portfolio of modular winched robots can carry out inspections, cleaning, coating and repairs of the exterior of wind turbine blades, while its custom-built
crawler robots can be sent inside a blade to inspect the interior. All of the company’s robots are manufactured in-house, a fact that Aerones is especially proud of.
“As existing wind farms age and require repairs, it is estimated that there will be a shortage of at least 240,000 rope technicians in the coming years,” said Mr Kruze. “Our solution, in contrast, does not require a human to hang in the ropes and it means that we can work in weather conditions that rope technicians could not, including bad weather , high wind speed conditions and even freezing temperatures.”
Consequently, Aerones’ robots allow for the extension of turbine maintenance across all seasons. Whereas in the past, human teams could only carry out maintenance and repairs during the spring and summer months.
Aerones is actively participating in all major industry events across Europe, North America, Australia and other regions. Follow the company on LinkedIn to stay up to date about all product and service announcements, as well as events and trade shows it is attending. n
