Wind
Task maturity · five steps · every value is an analyst assessment| Task | Maturity | Dominant approach | Vendors | Deployed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blade visual inspection | Mature | Drone-based | 3 | 1 |
| Tower and nacelle inspection | Scaling | Drone-based | ||
| Blade cleaning | Early commercial | Rope/cable-suspended robot | 1 | |
| Lightning-protection testing | Early commercial | Rope/cable-suspended robot | 1 | |
| Blade repair | Pilot | Rope/cable-suspended robot | 3 | |
| Contact NDT | Pilot | Blade crawler |
Blade cleaning
Early commercialRemoving dirt, insects and ice residue from blade surfaces to restore aerodynamic performance, including leading-edge protection application.
Aerones and others operate cleaning and leading-edge protection commercially with suspended robots, and the work is paid, repeated and multi-customer. It is not scaling because it is still a specialist service sold campaign by campaign rather than a line item in standard O&M contracts.
The incumbent process
Rope-access crews with pressure washers, or no cleaning at all.
Many owners skip cleaning because the technician cost exceeds the recovered output.
Robotics approaches
A robot lowered from the nacelle on ropes or cables and positioned against the blade for cleaning, coating, testing and repair.
Vendors and deployments
Target customers
Asset owners and operators
Owners capture the output gain and pay for cleaning.