Is small the new big?: Part two: George Marsh looks at a different approach to blade design from Blade Dynamics – scaling down as opposed to scaling up.

In the September/October 2011 issue, we profiled Vestas' approach to scaling up technology for its massive new generation of wind turbine blades, including a look at the company's new facility on the Isle of Wight in the UK.Staying (partly) in the same location, but for this installment of our series on blades, a startlingly different approach to scaling up wind turbine rotors is advocated by Blade Dynamics Ltd, a young company located on the Isle of Wight and in New Orleans, U.S. In fact Blade Dynamics claims to deliver a “paradigm shift in performance and reliability from existing rotor blade technology”.A bold insertion indeed, but the company insists that instead of developing ever larger monolithic fabrications, a better option is to go smaller.