Technical cost modelling for a generic 45-m wind turbine blade producedby vacuum infusion (VI)

A detailed technical cost analysis has been conducted on a generic 45-m wind turbine blade manufactured using the vacuum infusion (VI) process, in order to isolate areas of significant cost savings. The analysis has focused on a high labour cost environment such as the UK and investigates the influence of varying labour costs, programme life, component area, deposition time, cure time and reinforcement price with respect to production volume. A split of the cost centres showed the dominance of material and labour costs at approximately 51% and 41%, respectively. Due to the dominance of materials, it was shown that fluctuations in reinforcement costs can easily increase or decrease the cost of a turbine blade by up to 14%. Similarly, improving material deposition time by 2 h can save approximately 5% on the total blade cost. However, saving 4 h on the cure cycle only has the potential to provide a 2% cost saving.