Istanbul, Turkey, XX September 2019 – Sulzer Schmid, a Swiss company pioneering UAV technology for rotor blade inspections, and Ülke Enerji, the largest independent wind farm service provider in Turkey, have teamed up to provide autonomous drone-based blade inspections to Nordex / Acciona Windpower on all of their wind turbines located in Turkey.
By licensing Sulzer Schmid’s advanced inspection technology, Ülke Enerji becomes the only player to offer high-definition rotor blade inspection campaigns by means of autonomous drones in the fast-developing Turkish wind market.
Ülke Enerji has already completed blade inspection campaigns in three wind farms equipped with Nordex /Acciona Windpower wind turbines this year. Further inspections have been planned in the short run. “We are happy to have completed these inspections successfully. This is a significant step forward on the road to wider market adoption of high-quality drone-based inspections in Turkey”, said Ali Aydın, General Manager of Ülke Enerji.
The combination of Sulzer Schmid’s state-of-the-art inspection technology and the field operation and health & safety expertise of Ülke Enerji provides wind turbine inspection at an unprecedented level of quality and cost effectiveness to the Turkish wind industry. The autonomously flying drones of the 3DX™ Inspection Platform of Sulzer Schmid assure high-definition quality and consistent image acquisition time as well as 100% blade coverage while minimizing human errors and operational risks.
Thanks to the powerful capabilities offered by unmanned aerial vehicles, the market for blade inspections by means of autonomous drone is becoming increasingly dynamic. “It is becoming clear that UAV technology will play a central role in wind turbine inspections from here on in. It offers the best possible performance in terms of campaign quality, time and cost effectiveness. With the complimentary expertise of Sulzer Schmid and Ülke Enerji, we believe we have access to the soundest inspection solution currently available on the market in Turkey”, commented Ferit Yeşilay, Head of Service Turkey of Nordex /Acciona Windpower.
“Nordex /Acciona Windpower are very significant players for Sulzer Schmid. And we are very satisfied that a local industry leader such as Ülke Enerji has decided to adopt our 3DX™ inspection platform to serve them in this important wind market”, concluded Tom Sulzer and Christof Schmid, Co-founders of Sulzer Schmid.
About Sulzer & Schmid Laboratories AG
Founded in 2015 by Tom Sulzer and Christof Schmid, Zurich-based Sulzer Schmid is at the forefront of innovation in the energy service sector. Recognizing the potential for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology to redefine industrial grade inspections, the two entrepreneurs and their engineering team have developed an end-to-end technology platform that produces high-quality inspection results with ease – precisely, repeatably, efficiently. The development of the dedicated 3DX™ Inspection Platform started in 2015. Since those days, thousands of autonomous inspection missions have been conducted based on its technology throughout Europe, each underpinned by a commitment to the highest quality, efficiency, safety and ground-breaking use of technology. www.sulzerschmid.com .
About Ülke Enerji
Ülke Enerji the largest independent service provider active in the areas of turbine erection, maintenance, inspection, operations and blade services. The company gets its solid structure and success from its experienced team members and continues to get bigger and more successful day by day. Ülke Enerji offers unique service quality to all its valued clients in the region. Ülke Enerji was established in Istanbul in 2013, has the most experienced team in the field of wind power plants in Turkey and aims to succeed aggregating the best expertise possible. It has the ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and OHSAS 45001:2018 certificates as essential requirements to perform its services. Ülke Enerji has a variety of clients including largest local investors and global manufacturers around the world. Global players like Nordex, Siemens, GE, Vestas, Sinovel, EWT, Vensys and Gold Wind choose Ülke Enerji on manpower support for numerous maintenance and service works at hundreds of turbines both in Turkey and surrounding areas.
