Wind Turbine Cleaning Startup Gets $38.9 Million Funding

According to reports, Aerones, a robotics company that uses robots to clean and inspect wind turbines, just raised $38.9 million from numerous unidentified investors. For wind farms to continue producing green energy, they must be kept clean. However, they frequently spill oil, which impairs the effectiveness of the blades, increases wind resistance, and contaminates the environment. Aerones uses remote-controlled robots to spray liquid detergent over the towers and blades as they are being cleaned. In order to reuse the blades, the polluted liquid is subsequently collected in funnels underneath them. Additionally, the robots assess turbine systems using cameras and ultrasonic scanners. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="959"] Image credit- Forbes[/caption] On its website, Aerones claims to have cleaned more than 5,000 turbines in 19 different nations. There are more than 72,000 wind turbines in the US alone. According to reports, turbines generated 9% of the nation's electricity in 2021. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Aerones, a Latvian startup backed by Y Combinator, intends to raise at least $2.5 million more. Change Ventures in Estonia and Future Positive Capital in France provided $9 million to Aerones as seed finance in April. The company was fast ramping up operations, according to co-founder Dainis Kruze, and it was already partnering with nine out of ten of the biggest companies in the industry. Robotic Repair Leader The Aerones Wind Turbine Leading Edge Repair Robot is constructed from the modular toolkit. A winch mechanism controls the base platform in both vertical and horizontal space. Numerous robotic arms designed for various maintenance and inspection jobs may be supported by the platform. For blade restoration services, Aeronos developed the edge surface cleaning and sanding, 3M protective tape removal, filler solution application, and edge protection coating robot. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="730"] Image credit- TechCrunch[/caption] Along with their edge ice-phobic coating robot, the company also unveiled their new generation wind turbine blade leading edge brush in October. The blade surface is painstakingly hand-cleaned by the company's edge brush robot tool. Aerones asserts that utilising top-notch brushes and a biodegradable detergent, it can clean the leading edge of a wind turbine blade in no more than 20 minutes. Bugs, oil, algae, dirt, and other contaminants could be removed before completing repairs or coating the leading edge. They recently conducted research employing an application robot to test this technique for ice-phobic coatings. They assert that the results were perfect. They continued to use the same robotic tool base while switching from brushes to the painting tool arm. Aerones added that the coating process proceeds very swiftly. At a speed of 6 metres per minute, the robot can operate and cover the blade. In 4-6 hours, well-coated blades are the outcome of this.