Wind Energy: Innovative Blade Manufacturing Techniques and Materials

INNOVATIVE BLADE MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUES AND MATERIALS
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Introduction
As the world moves towards renewable energy, some issues have stifled progress. Wind energy is one of the main sources of energy that has shown the potential to provide electric power. The wind has some advantages over other renewable energy sources, i.e., solar, which can only be generated during the day. Unlike solar, current can be generated at any time. However, wind energy adoption has been slow owing to pertinent issues that have not been eradicated. One of the main issues is their structural composition. A significant piece of the materials that make up a wind turbine is not recyclable, and hence they end up in landfills. This is increasingly becoming a problem as the oldest wind turbines with an average of 20-25 years are nearing the end of their lives and decommissioned. The main part of the wind turbine that needs recycling is the blades which make up 11-16% of the total mass of the wind turbine CITATION USG \l 1033 (USGS, n.d.). Blades are mainly made of fiberglass and resin, which makes them hard to recycle. Newer technologies that make stronger blades with a longer life span and do not end up in a landfill will be imperative in making the cost of building wind farms lower and have higher returns.
Why new materials are needed
For better blade design. Blade design influences the size of the wind turbine. Some blade designs can capture more wind energy with a relatively shorter blade design than others. Reducing the blade swept area helps increase the efficiency of the wind turbine and makes the shole structure smaller. They can be installed in tighter spaces, i.e. urban areas, without compromising the aesthetic nature of the surrounding. Smaller wind turbines are also better for the environment because they have a smaller swept area.
Secondly, the current generation of wind turbines entails a long and tedious process to develop. The blades need to be designed, overlaid with fiberglass and or carbon fiber and then thermo-pressed with resin. With such a long process, only a few blades roll out of factories every day, slowing the technology’s adoption.
Thirdly, new materials are becoming environmental pollutants. There is no energy-efficient way of recycling composite materials made of fiberglass and resin. Coupling this problem with the relatively short life span of the wind turbine blade poses a challenge of safe disposal, especially when the blades come to the end of their service.
Wind energy generation technology needs to be cheaper than other sources of energy to aid the adoption of the technology. In energy generation, the cost of producing one kilowatt-hour of electricity is an important metric to determine how the limited resources for energy generation ought to be shared. Though fossil fuels are not environmentally friendly, they have the lowest cost per kWh. New technologies seeking to replace nonrenewable energy sources need to be relatively cheaper to produce the same amount of electricity. Therefore, there is a need for strong, light and recyclable and easy to manufacture (recycle) materials to bring the cost of increasing wind energy output into the national grid.
The New technologies in Blade manufacturing Materials
Most of the materials used to manufacture wind turbine blades ended up in landfills. Wind turbine blades have a 20–30-year lifespan and lately, the decommissioning of wind turbines installed at the turn of the century has increased (Ziegler et al., 2018). When the wind turbines were being installed, the technology was experimental at best and there was no concrete plan to plan on the decommissioning of the earlier wind farms. This problem has highlighted the need for newer turbines to have a longer service life and have recyclable or easily repairable materials. Most of the materials used in the older generation of wind turbine blades were made of composite materials, mainly resin reinforced with fiberglass or carbon fiber. They also had other secondary materials like glue, paints, and metals. The nature of carbon and glass fibers cured with resin makes recycling difficult (Rani et al., 2021).
Polyurethane helps produce lighter, stronger and longer blades which helps harness more wind energy compared to traditional epoxy-based made blades (Watson et al., 2019). New technology using polyurethane creates more fracture tolerance by a factor of 2 compared to epoxy blades (Watson et al., 2019). New blades made from these materials will be stronger, easier to manufacture and repair, and recyclable. On a large scale, they will greatly reduce the cost of blade manufacturing.
Secondly, nanoengineered polymers and composites have also been shown huge potential in revolutionizing wind turbine blade design and manufacture. When nanoengineered polymers are added to the composites. By adding 0.5% of the weight of the blade, nanoengineered polymers increase the resistance, shear, compressive strength, and fracture tolerance to 30-80% (Leon Mishnaevsky et al., 2017). Additionally, nanoengineered carbon tubes (CNTs) increase the blade’s lifetime by 1500% (Leon Mishnaevsky et al., 2017). Strengthening of the blade enables manufacturers to cut on the material used up to 20% and increases the blade’s lifespan (Leon Mishnaevsky et al., 2017). Cumulatively,
Advantages of the new Blade Manufacturing Materials
One of the major advantages of thermoplastics over epoxy-based wind turbines is their high strength and stiffness to weight (Cao et al., 2021). Thermoplastics can help create stronger and lighter blades. This can make blades to be longer and hence capture more wind energy. Additionally, the blades can be shaped differently for more strength and more efficient designs, i.e. aircraft wings. A lighter and stronger wind blade can easily adapt to active pitch control...