JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #132 - January/February 2020 - 46

FEATURE glass fibre
said: "Materials technology is a decisive parameter to design and manufacture this relatively
lightweight fiberglass blade for its length. We
had to push glass/polyester blade technology
to the next level to create a 73.5-metre blade
for offshore application without using carbon."
(WindPower Monthly, 2012)
From 2010 onwards, the industry continued
to drive innovation in the non-crimp fabric,
resin and core materials that enabled the
development of longer structures. The
industry witnessed significant adoption
of high modulus solutions in the spar of
many blades and the rapid increase of the
production of these glass solutions to support the global adoption of this technology.

Indicative laminate modulus for different
reinforcement structures from 2000 to 2020

This has enabled a rapid improvement of
the laminate modulus that can be achieved
with a composite structure from ~38GPa
to over ~50GPa enabling scaling and light
weighting of structures.
Continued innovation by the composite
industry in fabric technology - for example,
UltraBlade® G1, G2, G3 and HE - has enabled designers to extract more performance
and simultaneously lower the weight of
blades, which has significantly impacted the
LCOE of wind energy.
Challenging the notion of what's next:
more modulus and what else?
The scaling of these blades has placed a
further demand on the performance of
composite technologies. We have seen the
growth of carbon spars in the new mega
blades. This is prompting the glass industry
to develop higher modulus solutions (such
as UltraBlade® X fabric) and pushing into
higher modulus glasses to ensure that the

specific modulus/cost for glass remains
competitive and the absolute modulus of the
composite laminate continues to improve.
The manufacturing challenges associated
with these blades continues to grow. Filling
molds with 20+ tons of glass, bagging,
infusing and demolding in a cycle time that
allows an appropriate ROC from a mold is
becoming key and is raising challenges to the
composite industry around developing solutions to support the blade producers with
fundamental productivity (cf. UltraBlade®
HE fabric). [12]
We are also observing new challenges for the
industry with the question of repowering.
The early adopters of wind energy are
seeing early generation systems approaching
their end of life. The question is whether to
"extend the life" or "repower" i.e. remove the
turbine and replace with a significantly more
efficient/larger system to reduce the cost of
wind energy from the location. This offers
amazing opportunities to further drive down
the cost of wind but leaves the industry with
major questions around the recycling of
blades. Many initiatives are underway (see
WindEurope). [13] The development and
implementation of a full-scale solution will
be key for the future development of the
industry and will provide more reasons to
support the further growth of wind.
If you can dream, you can make it
We have witnessed immense change in our
industry over the last decade, and frankly
can only predict there's more to come in
a fraction of the time. With hypergrowth
being the new normal expectation, we
stand at the onset of a massive technology
transformation; traditional fabrics and processes are no longer enough, high modulus,
custom design and next generation materials
are needed to pace (and outperform) the
demands of the market. There's more
possibility today than ever before and we
couldn't be more optimistic at our ability to
bring it to life; every day we make a pledge to
make our world a better place to live, work
and play and together, we'll change how it is
powered.
More information:
www.owenscorning.com
References
[1] Goodmann Grf., F. R; Vachon W.A.;

jec composites magazine / N°132 January - February 2020

United States Electricity Utility Activities
in Wind Power, Fourth International
Symposium on Wind Energy Systems,
Stockholm, Sweden, Sept. 1-24, 1982;
Hydro-Quebec: Project Eole, 4-Mw Vertical
Axis Aerogenerator, Montreal, 1985.
[2] Ministry of Energy (Danish Energy
Agency): Wind Energy in Denmark, Research
and Technological Development, 1990.
[3] Friis, P.: Large Scale Wind Turbines,
Operating Hours and Energy Production,
Elsam Project A/S. Internal Report, 1993.
[4] All wind turbines are designed for a
maximum wind speed, called the survival
speed, above which they will be damaged.
The survival speed of commercial wind
turbines is in the range of 40 m/s (144
km/h, 89 MPH) to 72 m/s (259 km/h, 161
MPH). The most common survival speed
is 60 m/s (216 km/h, 134 MPH). Some
have been designed to survive 80 metres
per second (290 km/h, 180 mph); https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine_design
[5] Thomas Ackermann, Lennart Söder:
Wind energy technology and current status:
a review Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews, Volume 4, Issue 4, December
2000, Pages 315-374.
[6] C. Soutis: Fibre reinforced composites in
aircraft construction Progress in Aerospace
Sciences, Volume 41, Issue 2, February
2005, Pages 143-151.
[7] Isao Kimpara: Use of advanced composite materials in marine vehicles, Marine
Structures, Volume 4, Issue e: Fatigue of
composites for wind turbines, International
Journal of Fatigue, Volume 28, Issue 10,
October 2006, Pages 1363-1374.
[9] L.M. Wyatt: Materials for MW sized
aerogenerators Part 2.
Materials characteristics
Materials & Design, Volume 4, Issue 5,
October-November 1983, Pages 880-884.
[10] Data from internal analysis by Owens
Corning, 2010.
[11] Resins can be epoxy, vinyl ester or
polyester types.
[12] https://www.owenscorning.com/
composites/product/ultrabladehe
[13] https://windeurope.org/membership/
benefits/

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine_design http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine_design https://www.owenscorning.com/composites/product/ultrabladehe https://windeurope.org/membership/benefits/ http://www.owenscorning.com

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