Eleven-I: Predicting Wind Blade Failures with Precision

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast

This episode Allen and Joel speak with Bill Slatter, CEO of Eleven-I, about their innovative blade monitoring technology. Eleven-I's sensors provide real-time data to detect and prevent blade damage, potentially reducing maintenance costs and improving turbine efficiency. Gain insights into the challenges of wind blade lifetimes, the importance of proactive monitoring, and the future of blade condition monitoring systems in the wind energy industry. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, joined by my co host, Joel Saxum. As we have all experienced, wind turbine blade failures can lead to costly downtime and repairs. And Eleven-I is tackling this challenge head on with their innovative monitoring technology. Their systems provide real time data that helps increase efficiency and reduce maintenance costs. And if you are new to Eleven-I, they are based in the UK. Near Manchester, England. Today, we're joined by Bill Slatter, CEO of Eleven-I. We'll be discussing the challenges in Windblade Lifetimes, Eleven-I's solutions, and the impact on the industry. Bill, welcome to the show. Bill Slatter: Thanks for having me. Allen Hall: There has been a number of horror stories over the last several months in regards to Blades And I know Eleven-I has been called into action on some of those because I've dealt with the operators on those projects but there does seem to be a lot of blade issues at the moment. And it mostly, at least in my opinion it evolves from not knowing what is actually happening with the blade. Bill Slatter: So one of the things that Eleven-I is trying to do is not just detect damage, but help understand what's causing most of those damaging conditions. It's something that we've. We've been trying to pioneer is yeah, picking out what causes damage, not just picking out when it's happened. Is that already too late? I think that's one of the things that the industry is picking up on. We need to Obviously pick out that damage earlier on. What would happen if we could actually get to the point where we're preempting damage and stopping it happening? Joel Saxum: So I think Bill, that's one of the things of course we've known each other for a couple of years now, and that was one of the things that originally, when I was in my blade life attracted me to you and your solution. Of course, I like working with you because you're a nice guy. But, on the other side of that, it is what Eleven-I brings to the table as far as its CMS technology, and you immediately caught me when we had our first call and you showed me a presentation about, and you're like, this is an active movement of what's happening in the blade now, And you guys are doing things rather than, hey, we've detected a crack, it's, we have these physics engines, we're trying to do, we can, we're looking at modeling fatigue over lifetime, we're trying to understand why these issues are happening, or being able to warn operators or give them flags of hey, you're overloaded here, or you've got this going on, Before, and what we feel like a lot of other CMS systems do, they're like, Hey, problem, flag, come and inspect. So can you walk us through a little bit about what sets the Eleven-I solution apart from the rest of that Blade CMS marketplace? Bill Slatter: Absolutely. I think one of the sort of things that perhaps differen...