RA Wind Lands Innovation Norway Grant to 3D Print Turbine Blades With Robots

Blades are the bottleneck

Manufacturing wind turbine blades is a demanding application. It relies on large fixed molds, labor-intensive composite layup, and complex logistics to move finished blades — some longer than a football field — to the installation site. Those economics are exactly what Norwegian startup RA Wind AS wants to upend with 3D printing.

A grant for robotic blade printing

RA Wind, founded in 2023 and a member of Energy Transition Norway (ETN), just received a 500,000 NOK (roughly $52,000) grant from Innovation Norway for a project on onsite, robot-controlled 3D printing of wind turbine blades. The funding supports commercial and technical clarification work, including 3D printing, process simulation, and analysis of small composite-material prototypes.

“Execution of the Innovation Norway project is a deciding factor for moving this innovative project into the prototype stages,” said RA Wind CEO Lars Raunholt.

The company also completed a capital increase from local investors to match the grant. The next step is a pilot factory project with up to four large additive robots.

Why print blades instead of molding them

By using large industrial robotic 3D printing to fabricate blades onsite, RA Wind hopes to enable site-specific blade design, eliminate long-distance transport, and open the door to lighter, possibly reusable materials. More broadly, the company aims to use a patented modular turbine design to cut installation, operations and maintenance costs for offshore wind by as much as 50%.

The wider wind-energy AM push

RA Wind is not alone in rethinking the blade. Researchers at Concordia University have demonstrated a 4D-printing method that forms curved vertical-axis blades from flat composite panels — roughly 80% lighter than conventional designs — while Europe’s Voodin consortium recently secured a €48 million EU grant to build Spain’s first automated wooden-blade factory. Together, the projects signal a broader shift: as wind turbines scale up, the industry is looking to additive manufacturing to escape the constraints of fixed tooling.

For a technology long associated with prototypes and small parts, printing something as large and load-bearing as a turbine blade is a statement of ambition — and RA Wind’s grant is a small but concrete step toward proving it can work.