Abstract

The Caldwell Blade‑Reuse Hybrid Wind‑Solar Expansion Module (BRH‑WSX v1.0) is a modular method for converting retired wind-turbine blades into ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) support structures at the same wind-farm site where they were removed.

The invention is not based on the claim that using retired blades as solar supports is new. That concept has already been demonstrated by Turn2Sun’s Blade2Sun system, which used reclaimed blades as horizontal supports for solar modules.eepower+2

BRH‑WSX v1.0 instead addresses a site-level deployment problem:

  1. Retired blades are already being removed at wind farms.

  2. Transporting them off site can be expensive.

  3. A wind-farm site already has land control, roads, electrical collection infrastructure, operations staff, and a grid interconnection.

  4. Solar generation can complement wind generation during periods of low wind.

  5. Blade replacement occurs over time, creating an opportunity for incremental solar expansion rather than one large upfront solar project.

The proposed system uses retired blades as reusable structural beams, adds a separate engineered PV mounting frame, and routes PV output through a properly designed inverter and

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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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