The subject matter described herein relates generally to wind turbines and, more particularly, to blades for use on a wind turbine.
Many known wind turbines include a tower and a rotor mounted on the tower using a nacelle. The rotor includes a number of blades that rotate to drive a generator through a gearbox using a rotor shaft, and the gearbox steps up the inherently low rotational speed of the rotor shaft such that the generator may convert the mechanical energy to electrical energy.
The swept area of the rotor is directly correlated with the power output of the wind turbine. Given that the swept area is essentially equal to the area of a circle (as calculated by the formula πr2) for which the length of each blade essentially defines the radius, an increase in the blade length tends to increase the power output potential of the wind turbine, and a decrease in the blade length tends to decrease the power output potential of the wind turbine. As such, increasing the blade length is sometimes desirable. However, the blades are often manufactured away from the installation site of the wind turbine, and blade transportation costs have been known to constrain the blade length increase and, therefore, the swept area and the power output potential of a wind turbine.