Clobotics joined Goldwind and wind industry leaders in Cape Town for the opening of Goldwind’s South Africa Solutions Factory during Windaba 2025. At the ceremony, Clobotics and Goldwind signed a long-term Memorandum of Understanding focused on advancing intelligent wind farm inspection, wind turbine maintenance, and operations across Africa.
The agreement is intended to expand the application of drone technologies in wind farm inspection, environmental monitoring, and operations and maintenance. By combining automated data capture with AI analysis and digital asset records, the two companies aim to reduce frontline workload, improve personnel safety, and strengthen ESG performance across projects.
The video below shows the partnership and the role of intelligent inspection technology in supporting safer, more connected wind operations across Africa.
Building local service capacity for Africa’s wind industry
Goldwind’s new facility reflects a broader shift in Africa’s wind market: projects increasingly require local technical capacity throughout the asset lifecycle, not only equipment delivery. Located in Cape Town’s Montague Gardens industrial area, the approximately 2,500-square-metre facility brings together remote operations, testing and O&M, technical support, regional warehousing, and GWO training.
According to Goldwind, the South Africa Solutions Factory is its sixth overseas solutions facility. It is designed to provide lifecycle services for renewable energy projects in South Africa and across Sub-Saharan Africa, helping improve project execution, shorten spare-parts lead times, and provide more responsive local support.
For Clobotics, the MOU creates a framework for intelligent wind technologies to support this localized service model. It also advances Goldwind’s “In Africa, For Africa” approach by connecting global technology with local operating teams and regional project needs.
From inspection tools to connected blade intelligence
At Windaba, Clobotics presented three solutions designed for different parts of wind turbine inspection: IBIS for external blade inspection, KIWI for internal blade inspection, and Hummingbird for lightning protection system testing. Together with the IRIS cloud platform, these technologies turn field evidence into a connected blade lifecycle record.
IBIS: Autonomous external blade inspection
IBIS uses autonomous drone flight and high-resolution imaging for wind turbine drone inspection across external blade surfaces. A full inspection can be completed in approximately 15 minutes, with data transferred to IRIS for defect analysis, reporting, and long-term blade maintenance tracking.
KIWI: Reaching inside the blade
External inspection cannot reveal every structural risk. KIWI is a purpose-built crawler for internal blade inspection, helping teams examine areas that are difficult or unsafe to reach manually. High-resolution internal evidence supports the detection of issues such as laminate cracks, bondline fractures, and root damage.
Hummingbird: Drone-enabled lightning protection testing
Hummingbird brings drone technology to lightning protection system testing. It performs resistance measurements from the lightning receptor to the blade root, replacing a labor-intensive rope-access task with a faster, safer, and more standardized workflow.
IRIS: One record across the blade lifecycle
IRIS organizes inspection evidence, defect locations, severity ratings, and reports in one cloud workspace. By connecting multiple inspection methods and retaining a digital history for each blade, the platform helps teams move from isolated findings to fleet-level maintenance priorities.
Safer workflows, better O&M decisions
The partnership is not simply about introducing more drones into wind farms. Its value lies in building a more complete operating workflow: collect reliable evidence, identify the issues that matter, connect findings with asset history, and direct teams toward the right next action.
Clobotics currently supports wind operators, turbine manufacturers, blade manufacturers, and service providers across more than 40 countries. With over 180,000 blade inspections completed, the company continues to connect autonomous inspection, AI analysis, and robotic repair across the blade lifecycle.
The partnership in South Africa brings that experience into a regional service framework built around safety, local capability, and long-term asset performance.
Editorial sources: Clobotics’ original announcement, Goldwind’s official announcement, and current Clobotics wind product information.
