Wind turbines look clean and white when seen from afar, but up close they can be surprisingly grubby, as they’re subject to air pollution just like any other outdoor structures.
The problem with contamination accumulating on the turbine blades is that it reduces aerodynamic performance and can impair efficiency by an average of 5 per cent.
However, cleaning off the grime is a bit more complicated than sending someone up a ladder with a bucket and a mop. This is where DCU spin-out, AeroBeam, comes into the picture.
The company has developed a drone-deployed laser cleaning system that cleans the soiled area quickly and precisely with minimum turbine downtime.
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Blade contamination builds up naturally over time (the lifespan of a turbine is about 25-30 years), but it can also happen very quickly if a turbine is subject to agricultural contamination or “invaded” by nature.
In one recorded case of insect infestation, for example, the energy output was reduced by 40 per cent over two weeks.
“With renewable energy so high up on the sustainability agenda, we need all the percentages we can get,” explains AeroBeam co-founder Dr Séamus Cummins.
“Contamination lowers energy production, and therefore revenue. If it is not removed, it can contribute to wear and leading-edge erosion, which means bringing repairs forward. For utilities and wind operators this turns into unplanned maintenance, lost power generation, and downtime risk.
“Conventional cleaning is expensive and logistically awkward, involving rope access and specialist crews, and comes with an obvious safety risk,” Cummins adds.
‘Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy means we can conduct a much deeper level of analysis and accurately determine the elemental composition of the contamination and treat it accordingly’
— AeroBeam co-founder Dr Séamus Cummins
“With manual or even robotic cleaning of blades, the turbine downtime is days, while with wash-based methods there’s also the issue of consumables and wastewater handling. As a consequence, many sites clean less often than is economically optimal, and just accept the output loss.”
AeroBeam’s drone blade cleaning system is designed to remove contamination in a controlled, targeted way using a laser ablation cleaning head to strip surface deposits without water, chemicals, or physical contact.
The system also takes its cues from the results of blade inspections, meaning the drone can be selective about where and how much it cleans. It only focuses on the parts of the blade where the contamination is actually costing energy, rather than treating the whole surface.
“Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy means we can conduct a much deeper level of analysis and accurately determine the elemental composition of the contamination and treat it accordingly,” says Cummins.
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He says the company’s timing is strong, as turbines are getting progressively bigger, which is making cleaning them even harder.
AeroBeam is aiming its technology at the wind power industry initially, but it has numerous other potential applications, from detecting rust on large structures to cleaning conventional buildings.
The idea for AeroBeam was sparked when Cummins, a laser physicist, was working on his PhD.
His research, which was funded by the ESB and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), could have remained just that: research sitting on a shelf.
However, with the blade contamination problem already known, the market clearly needed a better way of cleaning the blades – especially with the amount of wind power being generated set to grow exponentially.
Under the Government’s climate action plan, Ireland is committed to 80 per cent renewable electricity by 2030, while wind is forecast to become a major source of global electricity by 2050.
With the encouragement of his physics professor, John Costello, and funding from the European Space Agency (ESA), Cummins began looking at practical ways to combine laser, imaging, spectroscopy and machine learning to provide a solution that would help wind operators clean more efficiently and recover lost energy yield.
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With the ESB, the SEAI and funding from the ESA all in the frame, Cummins felt the idea had been given a level of external validation that stood up to scrutiny. AeroBeam was formed in mid-2025.
Cummins joined forces with two friends: Rhys Doyle, a doctor of nuclear physics and related optics, who is leading the company’s scientific development; and Pierce Lonergan, whose background is in physics, aerial optics and high-altitude laser analysis. Lonergan is also the company’s chief operating officer and, as such, is the bridge between the research and the real world.
To date, the main investment in AeroBeam has been time and brainpower, along with a shoestring budget of about €50,000, which came in the form of an ESA grant.
The company will launch a funding round later this year, but for now it is ticking over with income from its first product. This is a ground-based, real-time turbine imaging system that allows site teams to inspect wind turbines from a distance while they’re still spinning.
AeroBeam’s second product, the breakthrough laser cleaning and analysis system, is currently in its final MPV development and testing phase. A full pilot is planned for next year, and the product’s commercial launch is slated for 2028.
Right now, however, the founders’ focus is on finishing out the MPV and nailing the other commercial necessities such as completing regulatory compliance requirements and finding a laser manufacturer that can meet the company’s technical requirements on time and at the right price.
AeroBeam, which is based in the DCU Innovate hub, is one of 30 companies to make the final cut for the Free Electrons bootcamp, a highly regarded global energy accelerator that links start-ups with leading utilities worldwide to pilot breakthrough technologies in clean energy.
“Getting into the last 30 was really big for us, as around 1,000 companies from around the world applied, so we’re hoping for some positive spin-off from our selection,” Cummins says.
