An Atlas of Wind Turbine Blade Leading Edge Erosion for CONUS

Wind turbine blade leading edge erosion (LEE) reduces energy production and increases operation and maintenance costs. It is caused by the collisions of falling hydrometeors with rotating blades. Here we present the first digital atlas of LEE potential based on calculations for 883 ASOS sites across the contiguous USA derived using 18-years of high-fidelity meteorological measurements. The 18-year accumulated distance to failure (ADF) of blade coatings is presented along with the ADF during the top-100 most erosive 5-minute periods at each site.