Five energy companies have joined forces to launch an initiative aimed at tackling wind turbine blade erosion.

EDF Energy, which is leading the project, is partnering with Duke Energy Renewables, ENGIE, E.ON, innogy and Kruger Energy to share data from trials on wind farms around the world on how various protection systems for turbine blades perform in different operating environments.

The data will be fed into a central database controlled by the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, with participants using a standard inspection methodology to ensure consistency.

Annual inspections will take place during the same season and reports will be supplied to ORE Catapult, which will manage the access to the shared data.

A minimum of three protection systems will be compared and the data categories will include local atmospheric details such as wind speeds, rainfall and UV exposure, wind turbine type and time in operation.

Morten Christiansen, innogy’s Asset Integrity Manager at Galloper Wind Farm said: “Blade performance is fundamental to the efficiency of a wind farm so by sharing data across numerous sites, the partners will be able to review how different leading edge protection systems operate and then apply the information to improve planning and maintenance.”

The joint initiative is seeking new partners from all onshore and offshore wind turbine suppliers and operators, including those that may already be performing trials on their wind farms.