NEW GLASS FOR NEW CHALLENGES

NEW GLASS FOR NEW CHALLENGES??

From pushing sailing ships across the oceans to equalising the atmosphere, humanity has found that the wind is crucial to life moving forward on Earth. Change and progress seem to always be connected with its power. Nevertheless, there is one thing that the wind can help us settle: global warming – and this decade is critical for action.??

Lighter, longer blades; beyond a challenge, a calling??

While there is a huge community of scientists imagining and designing solutions toward a world where global warming is limited to 1.5°C pre-industrial levels, we know that a big part of the answer lays in how we produce and use energy.??

Because of its potential, wind energy is growing at a fast pace. However, it is said that we need to be installing 390 GW of new wind energy capacity every year to reach carbon neutrality within the next decades – 3 to 4 times more than current forecasts. Yes, we must solve this problem, and that’s why we are here: to work together to create novel solutions through material science.??

Short answer to a big challenge: A = πr2??

When the first large-scale commercial wind farms began operation, turbines were rated at 1 MW or less and had wind blades that ranged from 10 to 15 metres in length. Since then, the one thing that OEMs have done for years is to increase the diameter of wind turbines.??

Simply put, (A = πr2): the larger the radius (r), the more energy is generated (it follows the square area of the rotor).??

Sounds like something simple, but larger turbines mean longer wind blades, and here lies one of the biggest challenges blade designers face periodically: if they merely use the same materials to bring a longer wind blade to life, more length will consequently mean more weight, which is unacceptable as being lightweight is key for the turbine efficiency.??

In the last years, this challenge led to the search for different higher-performance materials, such as carbon fibre. While it is an answer to the performance + light weight equation, carbon fibre brings its own challenges as it is more expensive, has a more limited supply chain, and has a far higher carbon footprint: ~19-43 kg CO2e per kg of product, compared with ~2-5 kg CO2e (glass).??

All right, so if existing high-performance materials cannot entirely tackle this challenge, then what will???

In JEC Composites Magazine No. 146, Tom Wassenberg, Platform Director Wind, Owens Corning, outlines three steps to increase wind blade lengths more cost-effectively. Read the article New Glass for Meeting New Challenges here: link to p36 of JCM 146?