ONYX Insight has secured a significant grant to supercharge the adoption of blade sensing technologies for the wind industry in a bid to reduce downtime for wind operators across their turbine fleets.
The Nottingham-based company has been awarded the funding by the UK’s Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP), part of the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult to further develop its world-leading sensor technology.
The awarded funding will support a major project over the next 18 months which will see ONYX Insight expand its market-leading predictive maintenance solutions from the drivetrain into the blades. The project will build on the success of ONYX’s wind turbine drivetrain condition monitoring product, ecoCMS, which is used by operators around the world.
As a global provider of condition monitoring services (CMS) to the wind industry, ONYX Insight uses advanced sensing technology and data analytics to support wind farm operators to optimise their fleets by empowering them to identify potential faults and plan maintenance effectively.
ONYX Insight collects data directly from more than 14,000 turbines across 30 countries across the globe.
Catastrophic blade failure in onshore settings can cost upwards of £300,000 in materials, equipment, labour and unscheduled downtime, and can be many times higher in an offshore setting. However, if this same fault is predicted and remedied when it is less severe, repairs can be significantly less.
It is anticipated that the adoption of blade monitoring technologies will increase over the coming years, delivering significant financial and time savings for wind operators, with blade failure being one of the leading contributors to offshore and onshore asset downtime after gearbox faults.
OWGP funding is provided to projects that focus on the commercialisation of technologies, products and services that will either support offshore wind decarbonisation or improve the reliability and robustness of offshore wind developments.
