Taking windmill blades to the edge

$30m Charlestown test center puts gear for a growing industry through the paces

Max Eliot stopped just inside the door at the state’s new Wind Technology Testing Center in Charlestown, eyes wide at the nearly 160-foot fiberglass blade bolted to a far wall, left hand tight around a set of model wind blades he made for his sixth-grade graduation project.

Overhead, a large blade from Clipper Windpower of California undulated as workers in a control room used remote controls to replicate the stress a working turbine would endure in its lifetime. It’s here that turbine manufacturers like Clipper, or blade makers like TPI Composites in Fall River, send the blades they have designed to be checked for efficiency, strength, anddurability.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/06/20/taking_windmill_blades_to_the_edge/

Article courtesy of The Boston Globe by Erin Ailworth/Globe Staff