4th Feb 2020 13:14
(Alliance News) - Ilika PLC said Tuesday that a field trial of its Stereax M250 solid-state battery on a wind turbine blade had been successful.
Shares in Ilika were up 6.3% at 41.45 pence in London in afternoon trading.
The January 2020 trial involved integrating the Sterax battery in the condition monitoring sensors placed onto the blade of a wind turbine at the offshore renewable energy Catapult facility in Blyth, UK.
The conclusion from the trial was that energy which has been harvested from the blade's vibration could be used to charge a Sterax battery, a battery which in turn was able to power the condition monitoring sensors and long range communication.
At present, the global wind turbine market consists of more than 300,000 wind turbines, which provide in total 600 gigawatt hours of renewable energy per year. This is set to rise by 23% between 2018 and 2025, with market revenue generated expected to his USD30.5 billion.
However, Ilika noted, repairing blades of wind turbines are "very costly due to the difficulty of accessing the blades themselves", with an average blade repair costing as much as USD30,000 and a new blade costing an average of USD200,000.
Ilika explained that: "Real-time monitoring of the blade's health can help to avoid catastrophic events caused by delamination, cracks, impact or ice."
Testing confirmed that the sensors were durable in the hostile environment of the turbine blade "and yielded numerous useful data such as the best section of the blade to collect optimal wind-induced energy". Further, it also confirmed theoretical models showing the Stereax M250 could be sufficiently charged to "enable full sensing and data transmission cycles every 10 minutes".
Chief Executive Graeme Purdy said: "Everyone at Ilika and our partners is really pleased with the success of this trial to evaluate data collection and energy harvesting.
"This condition monitoring concept can be applied to many different situations in large, diverse market segments, where structures are exposed to repeat stresses. Examples include aeroplanes, boats, buildings and bridges."
By Anna Farley; [email protected]
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