The very first industrial scale carbon fabric blade heating technology was demonstrated in Olos wind farm in Northern Finland. Olos wind farm consists of five wind turbines with 600 kW rating, supplied by Bonus. These turbines represented the industrial scale of late 90’s. Winter conditions in Olos fjell are severe, and thus blade heating is necessary for energy production. Besides production, blade heating is necessary to minimize ice on the blade and thus ice throw because of ski slopes in the same fjell.
The used technology was an early version of the technology later patented by Wicetec. Today, the turbines have been up and running for 20 years and are still going strong, proving the long lifetime of the WIPS heaters!