On March 10, 2021, Re-Wind Principal Investigator Dr. Russell Gentry, PhD student Yulizza Henao-Barragon, and undergraduate student Chloe Kiernicki made the 16-hour trek from Georgia Tech in Atlanta to Lincoln, Kansas. Lincoln is home to the Smoky Hills I & II Wind Farm, a 250MW operation run by Enel Green Power, where Re-Wind was granted access to several decommissioned GE37 blades for analysis and testing. After meeting with Paul Smull, Enel’s Operations Supervisor for Smoky Hills, he drove the team out into the vast farmland of Smoky Hills to inform the team about how the wind power is connected to the grid, how Enel manages the plant’s output, and how the blades are removed from the turbines.

*Dr. Gentry and Yulizza Henao-Barragon setting up scanning equipment on decommissioned GE blades that are due to be transported to another wind farm where they will serve as reserve blades.*

Using point cloud scanning, Yulizza created the below map of a blade (and its neighbor) as both an exercise in registering multiple scans of the same object as well as providing valuable information about the exterior of GE37 blades.

Dr. Gentry and Chloe Kiernicki took measurements of the root of the blade as well documenting the interior behavior of the spar cap and webs. Because the blades they were testing have no plan yet for afterlife, the team was able to cut into the blade to glean a better understanding of the interior geometry from root to tip.

*Dr. Gentry and Chloe Kiernicki with the blade used for physical testing .*

Now that the team is back at Georgia Tech, they are applying their findings from the trip in developing knowledge and understanding of the GE37 blade so that reuse solutions will be feasible and based on accurate blade geometry and property measurements. The information will be used most immediately for the Re-Wind Enel BladePole collaboration, and will also inform our other re-use projects such as the BladeBridge project ongoing in Ireland.

Back in the fall of 2020, Dr. Gentry and Chloe Kiernicki participated in the I-Corps program through the National Science Foundation, which provided the funding for this trip. As part of the I-Corps process, in addition to learning from Paul Smull about his work, the team also met a local farmer who owns the land where the above blades now rest. The team is grateful to the Enel team out at Smoky Hills I and II for hosting them and for providing such pertinent access and information.

Georgia Tech Re-Wind Team visits ENEL's Smoky Hills wind farm in Kansas