Commercialisation of ventura habitat - a novel wind turbine blade maintenance enclosure tomaximize downtime productivity
GEV Wind Power is one of Europe's leading wind-turbine maintenance companies with teams working on more than 40 wind
farms both on and offshore every year. With a presence throughout Europe and North America, GEV Wind Power is a truly
global service provider. We understand that it is important to wind energy maintenance companies to find new ways of
delivering core services to reduce the cost of energy provision. To realise this vision, we commit significant financial
resources to in-house R&D and are constantly looking at technologies that fit well for Wind Energy. We have now developed
a patented habitat solution that retrofits to market available access platforms. This creates the perfect protective working
environment for blade maintenance and repairs to be completed. Maintenance productivity is increased and, with the added
benefit of 24 hour working, GEV Wind Power are able to eliminate the cost uncertainty of weather downtime and will help
wind farm owners reduce maintenance costs, improve Annual Energy Production (AEP) and the competitiveness of wind
generated energy.
Trials completed onshore with our Ventura Habitat prototype using two different access platforms (Power Climber and
Kaeufer) in varying weather conditions and ranging between 30 metres and 100 metres high, with successful deployment
demonstrating the flexibility and operability of the Habitat in a real-life environment.
The overall objective of this development project is to create a commercially ready Ventura Habitat system, with validated
results through field trials. This will enable us to achieve our overall commercial objective to become the leading blade
maintenance services provider in Europe and North America.
We forecast a total revenue of €20 million and a profit of €5 million 5 years post-commercialisation, with a breakeven on
investment after 3.43 years and an ROI of 150%.