By their very nature, wind turbines are exposed to the elements. This also makes them vulnerable to lightning, rainfall and the increasingly extreme weather events we’re experiencing due to climate change. Because of this, the wind turbines are often over-designed using extra materials to protect against damage. While useful in the case of physical wear and tear, this also leads to inefficient material waste.
RTDT Laboratories (a spin-off of ETH Zurich) has developed a product, Aerosense, that can be attached to wind turbine rotor blades and monitor aerodynamic, acoustic and structural data. Aerosense was originally intended as a tool for predictive maintenance: using data to anticipate equipment failure. However, the team soon realised that Aerosense’s data could prove useful in improving wind turbine design.
Real-time data helps manufacturers adapt designs
Just as a fitness tracker gives you insights on your heart rate, step count or sleep quality, Aerosense gives manufacturers data about their wind turbines. Described by the RTDT team as an intelligent plaster, Aerosense can simply be stuck to the rotor blade of a wind turbine in the space of five minutes. The product then shares real-time data, including temperature, acoustic emissions and vibrations, with manufacturers. This data helps them adapt designs, optimising them to reduce material or be more aerodynamic.
The resulting wind turbines use between five and ten percent less material, reducing production costs for manufacturers, too. If these numbers sound marginal, consider that 23,098 new wind turbines were installed worldwide in 2024. Now consider that all these wind turbines might have used up to ten percent more steel and concrete thanks to inefficient design. This would have led to a significant amount of material waste, not to mention the additional CO2 emissions needed to produce the materials.
The power of wind in the fight against climate change
It takes a wind turbine just one year of operation to offset its entire lifecycle of greenhouse gases, according to the European Commission. And in 2024, Europe reduced its CO2 emissions by 142 million tonnes by using wind energy, equivalent to the emissions from 185 million flights from Los Angeles to New York. Weather permitting, wind turbines have the potential to run 24 hours a day, as well as being low-cost, long-lasting and quick to deploy.
Working hand in hand to “revolutionise wind turbines”
In 2025, Aerosense underwent a year-long testing period in Austria, in order to prove it can withstand the extreme weather that wind turbines endure. Now, they plan to collaborate with a manufacturer who can produce rotor blades with Aerosense already attached, then scale up production to hundreds of units. Aerosense is the first product of its kind on the market, and feedback from manufacturers has so far been “excellent”. Imad Abdallah, RTDT CEO and Senior Scientist at ETH Zurich, described the team’s next step: “We can now work hand in hand with manufacturers to develop something that will revolutionise wind turbines.”
