Rethinking wind turbine design: Where could the next wave of optimisation come from?
At a glance
Over the past decade, the wind industry has expanded rapidly. Turbines are taller, blades are longer and projects now operate at scales that once seemed unlikely. Yet many core turbine design principles have remained largely unchanged.
As pressure grows around cost, supply chain resilience and delivery certainty, the industry is being forced to ask a different question: Are we still optimising at the margins, or is it time to rethink turbine components themselves?
Looking beyond scale
Over time, the industry has largely pursued a familiar pathway to increase energy output: building larger turbines. This approach has improved generation capacity, but it has also introduced new challenges across design, transport, logistics, construction and maintenance.
At the same time, some of the turbine’s most significant cost drivers remain concentrated in a relatively small number of components. Towers can account for around 20 to 30 percent of the total turbine cost, while the three blades may contribute another 20 to 25 percent. Together, these two elements can represent almost half the cost of a turbine.
This raises an important question for developers, manufacturers and the broader supply chain: Can the industry achieve meaningful optimisation without simply making components larger? And have we fully explored opportunities for innovation in the turbine components themselves?
Evolving tower design
Tower design has evolved steadily over time. The industry has moved from lattice towers to tubular steel structures, and more recently to hybrid and segmented designs that support higher hub heights and improved transportability.
These changes have helped address practical constraints, particularly around logistics and installation. However, the fundamental manufacturing approach remains largely material-driven.
Tower production relies on significant volumes of steel, exposing projects to fluctuations in commodity prices, fabrication capacity and transport constraints. In many cases, the challenge is less about design complexity and more about the scale and weight of the components involved. This becomes particularly relevant in markets such as Australia, where long distances between manufacturing hubs, ports and project sites can significantly influence cost.
As a result, discussions around local manufacturing often focus on foundations and tower sections, where scale and transport requirements make domestic production more viable. At the same time, many smaller, highly specialised components continue to rely on global supply chains.
This dependency is not new. The industry saw its vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty continues to influence procurement strategies. These factors disrupted the downward trajectory of wind turbine costs and introduced greater uncertainty around project viability globally. As a result, supply chain resilience has become a strategic priority, influencing procurement decisions, project timelines, delivery models and investment decisions.
Blade design evolution
Blade development has followed a similar trajectory. Longer blades continue to be introduced to capture more energy and improve overall turbine performance. Alongside this, design and manufacturing improvements have largely focused on cost reduction, material efficiency and incremental aerodynamic refinement.
While these advances have supported industry growth, the underlying design philosophy has remained relatively consistent. The primary pathway to improved performance is still linked to increased scale rather than fundamental changes in blade functionality.
Against this backdrop, the next phase of turbine evolution may explore the potential for more active or adaptive systems. In aerospace, fixed-wing aircraft use active control mechanisms such as flaps and ailerons to respond dynamically to changing conditions in flight. These systems allow performance to adjust in real time, responding to variations in airflow and operating conditions.
Wind turbine blades, by comparison, continue to rely primarily on passive systems with fixed geometry and limited active adjustment. While some control technologies exist at turbine level, blade-level adaptability remains relatively constrained.
Exploring more adaptive blade concepts could create opportunities to influence aerodynamic performance, manage structural loads more dynamically and potentially improve operational outcomes. At the same time, these approaches would need to be balanced against mechanical complexity, maintenance requirements and lifecycle reliability.
Entering a new phase
The renewable energy sector now operates in a different environment than it did even five years ago. Developers face tighter margins, more complex stakeholder environments and increasing pressure to deliver projects efficiently. At the same time, expectations around localisation, supply chain resilience and long-term asset performance continue to grow.
In this context, there is value in stepping back from incremental optimisation alone and considering how turbine systems are designed, integrated and delivered across the full lifecycle. This includes how components interact, how manufacturing decisions influence logistics and how operational realities feed back into design choices.
Some of these considerations may lead to incremental improvements. Others may shape more fundamental shifts in how wind turbines are designed and delivered over time. What matters now is creating space to explore these questions in a structured and collaborative way.
Advancing the conversation
At GHD, we work with developers, investors, manufacturers and asset owners across the wind project lifecycle, from feasibility and design through to delivery and operational performance.
These conversations often begin with a defined technical or commercial challenge, but they rarely remain contained. Questions around turbine components connect directly to constructability, transport logistics, maintenance strategies, supply chain resilience and overall project economics.
There is growing value in exploring a broader set of ideas, some already in development, that offer a different perspective on turbine design and delivery:
- Alternative foundation designs
- Innovations in tower materials and structural design
- Adaptive blade systems and new design concepts
- Enhanced turbine condition monitoring
- Smart control systems
Considering these areas in isolation limits their potential. A more integrated perspective can deliver stronger outcomes.
The next wave of optimisation is unlikely to come from a single breakthrough component. It will emerge through how engineering, manufacturing and operational thinking are brought together to address increasingly complex delivery challenges.