Gamesa awards prizes for an invention that prevents the build-up of ice on turbine blades and a system for managing turbine inertia

Gamesa, a global technology leader in wind energy, has celebrated the fourth edition of its Patents and Inventors Competition, which is designed to acknowledge its employees' efforts to develop innovative new technology with the potential to set the company's technology offering apart from the competition.

This year's prizes were awarded to two inventions for which the respective patents have been applied for. The first is the Bladeshield anti-icing system, which was conceived of by three of Gamesa's engineers, María Yoldi, Rosario Ortigosa and Almudena Muñoz. This solution consists of an anti-freeze ‘paint' which not only prevents the formation of ice but also boosts the coating's resistance to erosion, instead of reducing it as other solutions on the market tend to do.

The Bladeshield system is the result of the development of an innovative procedure for obtaining the mix, as the additive is dissolved first in the ideal dispersing agent and then in the paint base. This ultimately results in a homogenous mix that improves, even doubles, the paint's anti-erosion and durability properties. This new system is apt for application across all of the company's onshore and offshore platforms as well as on other OEMs' blades.

This year's other prize-winning innovation is the inertia management system devised by Francisco Jiménez Buendía, Gamesa's chief electrical engineer. Thanks to this development, as soon as the control system detects a change of frequency in the power grid, the wind turbines immediately inject the energy stored in the powertrain; until now this did not happen until some 30 second after the disruptive event.

This feature is already a grid connection requirement in certain markets, such as Canada, and is expected to be demanded in a growing number of countries in the future.

Every year Gamesa assesses the best inventions developed by its technology experts. The company then selects which developments will be patented in accordance with a series of requirements and ultimately chooses the best one, i.e., the winner of the Patents and Inventors Competition. This year, however, there were two winners.

"Our customers won't let us sit on our laurels; they require us to come up with the best possible solutions day in and day out. The goal is to further improve wind turbine reliability and availability as part of our bid to continually bring down the cost of energy", said José Antonio Malumbres, Gamesa's Chief Technology Officer.

During the prize ceremony, Ignacio Martín, Executive Chairman of Gamesa, also highlighted the importance of the effort made by the company's technology developers and their commitment to helping to consolidate Gamesa's technology leadership.