Wind blades containing carbon fibre weigh 25% less than ones made from traditional fibreglass materials. That means carbon fibre blades could be longer than fibreglass ones and, therefore, capture more energy in locations with low wind. A switch to carbon fibre could also extend blade lifetime because carbon fibre materials have a high fatigue resistance, said Brandon Ennis, a wind energy researcher at Sandia Labs and the principal investigator for the project.

The project is funded by DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Partners on the project include Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Montana State University.

Of all the companies producing wind turbines, only one uses carbon fibre materials extensively in their blade designs. Wind turbine blades are the largest single-piece composite structures in the world, and the wind industry could represent the largest market for carbon fibre materials by weight if a material that competed on a cost-value basis to fibreglass reinforced composites was commercially available, said Ennis.

Cost is the main consideration during component design in the wind industry, yet turbine manufacturers also have to build blades that withstand the compressive and fatigue loads that blade experience as they rotate for up to 30 years.

Ennis and his colleagues wondered if a novel low-cost carbon fibre developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could meet performance needs while also bringing cost benefits for the wind industry. This material starts with a widely available precursor from the textile industry that contains thick bundles of acrylic fibres. The manufacturing process, which heats the fibres to convert them to carbon, is followed by an intermediate step that pulls the carbon fibre into planks. The plank-making pultrusion process creates carbon fibre with high performance and reliability needed for blade manufacturing and also allows for high production capacity.

When the research team studied this low-cost carbon fibre, they discovered it performed better than current commercial materials in terms of cost-specific properties of most interest to the wind industry.

ORNL provided developmental samples of carbon fibre from its Carbon Fiber Technology Facility and composites made from this material as well as similar composites made from commercially available carbon fibre for comparison.

Colleagues at Montana State University measured the mechanical properties of the novel carbon fibre versus commercially available carbon fibre and standard fibreglass composites. Then Ennis combined these measurements with cost modelling results from ORNL. He used those data in a blade design analysis to assess the system impact of using the novel carbon fibre, instead of standard carbon fibre or fibreglass, as the main structural support in a wind blade. The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office.

Ennis and his colleagues found that the new carbon fibre material had 56% more compressive strength per dollar than commercially available carbon fibre, which is the industry baseline. Typically, manufacturers accommodate a lower compressive strength by using more material to make a component, which then increases costs. Considering the higher compressive strength per cost of the novel carbon fibre, Ennis’ calculations predicted about a 40% savings in material costs for a spar cap, which is the main structural component of a wind turbine blade, made from the new carbon fibre compared to commercial carbon fibre.

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This technology recovers the glass fibre from reinforced polymer composites while limiting the mechanical degradation of the fibre during the reclamation process. In turn, this allows the recycled fibre to be reused in new composite applications such as vehicle light-weighting, other renewable energy systems components, and performance sports equipment.

Wind power is clean, economical, and readily available in the USA, but to make those giant blades, wind turbine manufacturers rely on advanced polymer composites. These materials can survive some of mother nature’s most brutal forces, but eventually, do wear out and end up in the landfill. As the wind industry grows and waste blade levels climb into the tens, hundreds of thousands of tons and beyond, a better end of life solution is needed.

While the US wind industry has made substantial contributions to America’s renewable energy portfolio, work continues to convert the industry to a more circular economy paradigm. Rather than simply downcycling the blades into aggregates, Researchers at the university are able to not only convert the blades’ organic components into useful petrochemicals for energy production but also able to extract the glass fibre reinforcement and use it to make higher-value recycled composites.

UT has partnered with Carbon Rivers LLC, a start-up company located in Knoxville and owned by alumnus Bowie Benson (’17), to further develop and commercialise the novel glass fibre recovery technology for the purpose of handling retired wind turbine blades.

“Having the opportunity to collaborate with the bright minds at UT, like Dr Ginder, and catalyse new solutions for our country’s plastics waste problem, is a Volunteer’s dream come true,” said Benson. “The year 2020 has been a challenging year all around for our community, but I remain hopeful for the future as long as we keep working together to take on the tough challenges, like making American energy more sustainable. I am especially optimistic for our project’s next phase, and its potential to improve the wind industry’s environmental footprint while creating new, much-needed jobs in East Tennessee.”

Over the next two years, the UT-Carbon Rivers team will collaborate with GE Renewable Energy, Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s MidAmerican Energy Company, and PacifiCorp utilities to develop a pilot scale glass fiber composite recycling system that will serve as the basis for eventual deployment of a full-scale commercial wind blade waste processing plant.

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Taller turbines can increase renewable energy production while lowering the cost of energy and optimising construction costs. The partners will produce a wind turbine prototype with a printed pedestal, and a production-ready printer and materials range to scale up production. The first prototype, a 10-meter high tower pedestal, was successfully printed in October 2019 in Copenhagen.

GE Renewable Energy will provide design, manufacture and commercialisation for the wind turbines, COBOD will focus on the robotics automation and 3D printing and LafargeHolcim will design the tailor-made concrete material, its processing and application.

Concrete 3D printing is a very promising technology for us, as its incredible design flexibility expands the realm of construction possibilities. Being both a user and promoter of clean energy, we are delighted to be putting our material and design expertise to work in this project.

Traditionally built in steel or precast concrete, wind turbine towers have typically been limited to a height of under 100 metres, as the width of the base cannot exceed the 4.5-meter diameter that can be transported by road, without excessive additional costs. Printing a variable height base directly on-site with 3D-printed concrete technology will enable the construction of towers up to 150 to 200 meters tall. Typically, a 5 MW turbine at 80 metres generates, yearly, 15.1 GWh. In comparison, the same turbine at 160 meters would generate 20.2 GWh, or more than 33% extra power.

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Wind turbines from the first generation back in the 1990s are reaching the end of their life expectancy and around two gigawatts worth of turbines are expected to be refitted between 2019 and 2020.

Up to 85 to 90% of wind turbines’ total mass can be recycled, but turbine blades represent a significant challenge. Made from composite materials to allow for lighter and more durable blades, they require specific processes for recycling.

Currently, the most popular process is through something called cement co-processing, where the mineral components are reused in the cement, and the organic fraction replaces coal as a fuel. Through that process, the CO2 output of the cement manufacturing process can be significantly reduced (up to 16 % reduction is possible if composites represent 75 % of cement raw materials). Cement coprocessing is commercially available for processing large volumes of waste albeit not in all locations.

Besides cement co-processing, alternative technologies like mechanical recycling, solvolysis and pyrolysis are being developed, ultimately providing the industry with additional solutions for end-of-life.

Investing in renewable energy production and circular solutions should be one of the key drivers of the post-COVID-19 economic recovery. I am very proud of the partnership we have built with the wind energy supply chain to come up with an effective solution to recycling wind blades. This shows that cross-industry and value chain alliances are a very powerful tool for speeding up innovation and scaling up cutting edge technologies.

Marco Mensink, Cefic director general.

The report, which can be downloaded here strongly supports increasing and improving composite waste recycling through the development of alternative technologies and are calling on the EU to prioritise R&I funding to diversify and scale up recycling technologies and to develop new, high-performance materials for blades with enhanced circularity as part of the next R&I framework programme called Horizon Europe.

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An estimated 11.2 billion tonnes of solid waste is collected every year, posing a serious risk to resource depletion, air pollution and water and soil contamination. With the global wind energy market set to grow by an average of 3 per cent per year in the coming decade, Vestas is mitigating its environmental impact by committing to eliminate waste across its value chain. Today, Vestas wind turbines are on average 85 per cent recyclable, however, wind turbine blades are currently comprised of non-recyclable composite materials.

Wind energy will continue to grow rapidly, therefore the time for a conservative approach is behind us. I am proud to be part of an organisation that is making sustainability an integral component in all business operations Vestas interim Chief Operations Officer, Tommy Rahbek Nielsen

The company will consider all aspects of the turbine lifecycle, aimed at improving the recyclability rate of blades and nacelles. As a first step, Vestas will be focusing on improving the recyclability of all wind turbine blades. Incremental targets will be introduced to increase the recyclability rate of blades from 44 per cent today, to 50 per cent by 2025, and to 55 per cent by 2030.

Several initiatives designed to address the handling of existing blades after decommissioning will be set in motion. These will cover new recycling technologies that are optimal for composite waste, such as glass fibre recycling and plastic parts recovery. Vestas will also be implementing a new process around blade decommissioning, providing support to customers on how to decrease the amount of waste material being sent to landfill.

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The deal, which is expected to be worth $1.65 billion will improve GE’s ability to increase its energy output and create value for onshore and offshore customers. Since 2001, LM Wind Power has been owned by Doughty Hanson, a London-based private equity firm.

The acquisition is valued at 8.3 times pro forma earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) (2016 estimate). The transaction is subject to customary regulatory and governmental approvals and GE expects to close the transaction in the first half of 2017. GE expects the acquisition to be accretive to earnings in 2018.

As the cost of electricity from renewable sources continues to decline and nations pursue low-carbon forms of energy, renewable sources are gaining share in power generation capacity. In 2015, approximately 50% of all new electricity capacity additions were renewable energy sources, with wind representing 35% of that growth.

Following the closing of the deal, GE intends to operate LM Wind Power as a standalone unit within GE Renewable Energy and will continue to fully support all industry customers with the aim of expanding these relationships. GE will also retain the ability to source blades from other suppliers. LM Wind Power will continue to be led by its existing management team and be headquartered in Denmark, where it also maintains a global technology centre.

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Offshore wind turbines are becoming ever larger, and the transportation, installation, disassembly and disposal of their gigantic rotor blades are presenting operators with new challenges.

The trend toward ever larger offshore wind farms continues with some rotor blades measuring up to 80 metres in length with rotor diameters of over 160 metres. Since the length of the blades is limited by their weight, it is essential to develop lightweight systems with high material strength.

The lower weight makes the wind turbines easier to assemble and disassemble, and also improves their stability at sea. In the EU’s WALiD (Wind Blade Using Cost-Effective Advanced Lightweight Design) project, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT in Pfinztal are working closely with ten industry and research partners on the lightweight design of rotor blades. By improving the design and materials used, they hope to reduce the weight of the blades and thus increase their service life.

These days, rotor blades for wind turbines are largely made by hand from thermosetting resin systems. These, however, don’t permit melting, and they aren’t suitable for material recycling. At best, granulated thermoset plastic waste is recycled as filler in simple applications.

Florian Rapp, the project coordinator at Fraunhofer ICT said;

In the WALiD project, we’re pursuing a completely new blade design. We’re switching the material class and using thermoplastics in rotor blades for the first time. These are meltable plastics that we can process efficiently in automated production facilities.

For the outer shell of the rotor blade, as well as for segments of the inner supporting structure, the project partners use sandwich materials made from thermoplastic foams and fibre-reinforced plastics. In general, carbon-fibre-reinforced thermoplastics are used for the areas of the rotor blade that bear the greatest load, while glass fibres reinforce the less stressed areas. For the sandwich core, Rapp and his team are developing thermoplastic foams that are bonded with cover layers made of fibre-reinforced thermoplastics in sandwich design. This combination improves the mechanical strength, efficiency, durability and longevity of the rotor blade.

The ICT foams provide better properties than existing material systems, thus enabling completely new applications – for instance in the automotive, aviation and shipping industries. In vehicles, manufacturers have been using foam materials in visors and seating, for example, but not for load-bearing structures.

The current foams have some limitations, for instance with regard to temperature stability, so they can’t be installed as insulation near the engine. Meltable plastic foams, by contrast, are temperature stable and therefore suitable as insulation material in areas close to the engine. They can permanently withstand higher temperatures than, for example, expanded polystyrene foam (EPS) or expanded polypropylene (EPP). Their enhanced mechanical properties also make them conceivable for use in door modules or as stiffening elements in the sandwich composite.

Yet another advantage is that thermoplastic foams are more easily available than renewable sandwich core materials such as balsa wood. These innovative materials are manufactured in the institute’s own foam extrusion plant in Pfinztal.

The process involves melting the plastic granules, mix a blowing agent into the polymer melt and foam the material. The foamed, stabilised particles and semi-finished products can then be shaped and cut as desired. In the area of foamed polymers, the ICT foam technologies research group covers the entire thermoplastic foams production chain, from material development and manufacture of extrusion-foamed particles and semi-finished products to process media and finished components.

The researchers will be presenting a miniature wind turbine made from the new foams and composites at the K 2016 trade fair in Düsseldorf from October 19 to 26.

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Additionally Gamesa and Areva have entered into contractual agreements whereby Areva waives existing contractual restrictions in Gamesa’s and Areva’s offshore wind joint venture Adwen simplifying the merger between Gamesa and Siemens. As part of these agreements, Gamesa – in alignment with Siemens-grants Areva a put option for Areva’s 50% stake and a call option for Gamesa’s 50% stake in Adwen. Both options expire in three months. Alternatively, Areva can in this time divest 100% of Adwen to a third party via a drag-along right for Gamesa’s stake.

The new company, which will be consolidated in Siemens’ financial statements, is expected to have on a pro forma basis (last twelve months as of March 2016) a 69 GW installed base worldwide, an order backlog of around €20 billion, revenue of €9.3 billion and an adjusted EBIT of €839 million. The combined company will have its global headquarters in Spain and will remain listed in Spain. The onshore headquarters will be located in Spain, while the offshore headquarters will reside in Hamburg, Germany, and Vejle, Denmark.

The two businesses are highly complementary in terms of global footprint, existing product portfolios and technologies. The combined business will have a global reach across all important regions and manufacturing footprints in all continents. Siemens’ wind power business has a strong foothold in North America and Northern Europe, and Gamesa is well positioned in fast-growing emerging markets, such as India and Latin America, and in Southern Europe. Further, the transaction will result in a product offering covering all wind classes and addressing all key market segments to better serve customers’ needs.

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The 37.5 metre-long rotor blade, designed for wind turbines with an output of 1.5 megawatts was fabricated with a special polyurethane infusion resin using a vacuum pressure infusion system with continuous degassing.

Polyurethane resins have very good physical properties, an excellent flowability and it thoroughly wets the glass fibres. Furthermore the company went on to say that less thermal energy is released during its processing than with traditional epoxy resins.

The resin was developed in close collaboration between the Covestro Wind Competence Centre in Denmark and the Polymer Research Development Centre (PRDC) of Covestro in Shanghai. Covestro researcher Dr. Chenxi Zhang recently presented the new development at the China Summit Forum 2016 for International Wind Power Composite Materials in Zhejiang.

In the latest report on the Chinese government’s progress, Prime Minister Keqiang Li called for a higher percentage of clean energy, a move that would encourage the further expansion of wind power systems in China. In this year alone, China is expected to add more than 30 gigawatts to its installed wind power capacity.

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Vortex Bladeless was founded in 2013 as an R&D company, exclusively dedicated to the development and marketing of Vortex, a multi-patented bladeless electric wind generator. The project focuses on the development of generators able to capture the kinetic wind energy by ‘vortex shedding’ and transform it into electricity.

This new technology seeks to overcome issues related to traditional wind turbines such as maintenance, amortization, noise, environmental impact, logistics, and visual aspects. Currently, the company’s focus is on the development of small wind products, with mass power generation devices planned for the future.

The collaboration started with a technical project to simulate the aerodynamic behaviour of the device. For this the Altair engineers performed a fluid-structure interaction study. Following these new batch of tests engineers were able to predict the movement of the vortex bladeless device with different wind intensities.

With the final Vortex Bladeless product the engineers expect to reduce manufacturing costs by 53%, operating costs by 51%, and maintenance costs by as much as 80% compared to traditional wind turbines.

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