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many purchasers for their blades, which is often unnoticed but an
important part of the Danish wind power success. Many emerging
economies are on the threshold of using wind power. For them
creating work places and building new industries is often of
primary importance, and there it would be of mutual interest asking
a company such as LM to build a blade factory. With blades from
an experienced supplier, newcomers within wind turbine manu-
facturing can also better overcome potential scepticism towards
the quality of their product.
7.12.2 Vestas also Becomes Manufacturer of Blades
It is part of the history that Vestas, being one of the first and
biggest users of Økær blades, around 1981 found themselves in a
difficult situation after some blade accidents. The company acted
accordingly and started their own blade production with own
design, root system, etc. Since then Vestas has been almost self-
sufficient in blades.
Vestas started out with a 7.5 m fibreglass blade for the 55 kW
wind turbine, which was later extended in two stages. Blades were
needed for the 75 kW and 90 kW wind turbines, and therefore the
7.5 m blade was given rather primitive “stilts”. Since then Vestas
has always been in the front regarding blade design and advanced
production technology.
Figure 7.51
Vestas repowering in Thy; dismantling a 225 kW turbine with
29 m diameter rotor (left) and installing a new 2 MW unit with
90 m diameter rotor (right).
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