We4Ce and ADIOS Technology, two wind turbine blade companies based in Enschede in the Netherlands, have combined their commercial operations under a single brand, eProWind. The move was announced on 21 September, a day before WindEnergy Hamburg opens.
eProWind becomes the client-facing organisation for both firms, offering turbine manufacturers, asset owners and wind farm operators a single contact for blade lifecycle services: structural engineering, yield and lifetime-extension assessments, damage analysis, on-site blade root repairs and de-icing systems. The underlying technologies keep their existing names. Re-FIT remains We4Ce’s patented method for replacing loose blade root bushings on site, avoiding the cost and downtime of transporting whole blades. ADIOS remains the name of the ultra-thin electrothermal heating system integrated into blade surfaces to prevent and remove ice build-up.
“Operating through eProWind as the main commercial contact is a key step in We4Ce’s international growth,” said Sebastiaan Weij, chief commercial officer of eProWind. Customers already use the engineering, blade root repair and de-icing services separately, he said, and unifying them is intended to make it easier for asset owners to deploy the full range through one partnership.
The rebrand coincides with a leadership handover at We4Ce. Bart Nijhuis takes over as chief executive of eProWind, while founding We4Ce chief executive Arnold Timmer moves to an advisory board role. Edo Kuipers, co-founder and chief technology officer, remains technical lead for We4Ce. The two companies say they bring more than 50 years of combined rotor blade and heating technology experience.
We4Ce has supplied rotor blade design, blade root bushing technology and sectional blade tip technology for more than 25 years, and runs a research lab performing fatigue and extreme load tests on bushings, working with the TNO test institute on certification-related testing. ADIOS Technology B.V. specialises in electrothermal de-icing for rotor blades developed for freezing conditions.
Blade icing is a recurring operational issue for onshore fleets in Scandinavia, the Baltic states and northern Poland, where winter icing cuts output and raises safety risks. Root bushing failures and blade repairs are likewise a growing share of the operations and maintenance market as European fleets age. The eProWind team will be at WindEnergy Hamburg, 22 to 25 September, in Hall B7, Stand 433.
