ONYX Insight, an analytics specialist for the global wind sector, has unveiled ecoBLADE, a new condition monitoring system designed to give operators continuous, in‑blade insight into blade health and behaviour. The system aims to help owners avoid major failures and unlock multi‑million‑dollar savings across onshore and offshore fleets.
ecoBLADE uses two 3‑axis accelerometers per blade, enabling continuous monitoring inside the blade itself. It can detect cracks, structural faults and high‑energy, short‑lived events before they escalate into blade‑level or turbine‑level failures.
ONYX estimates that early detection can deliver 10–100x cost savings, with even higher potential for offshore turbines, where individual blade replacements can run $300,000–$500,000 and full turbine losses can exceed $5 million, not including business‑interruption costs that can peak around $100,000 per day.
The system shifts blade maintenance from periodic drone‑based inspections to predictive, data‑driven operations, flagging issues while up‑tower repairs remain feasible. Drones remain useful for surface‑level checks but are blind to internal defects, bond‑line failures and subsurface degradation that often cause the most costly failures. By combining ecoBLADE with visual inspections, operators can layer internal structure monitoring with external imaging for a more complete picture of blade health.
ONYX CEO Alexis Grenon said blade‑focused CMS is now following the same trajectory as drivetrain monitoring: a standardised, commercial necessity tool that protects the growing volume of wind capacity being installed each year.
The ecoBLADE platform builds on ONYX’s 2025 acquisition of UK-based blade monitoring specialist ELEVEN‑I, alongside more than a decade of OEM‑validated research, testing and deployment across global wind projects.
