Composite materials in wind energy: design, manufacturing, operation, and end-of-life

Abstract

Wind energy has consistently grown over recent decades and has grown in many aspects including in terms of installed capacities, turbine size, blade length, and grid penetration. Along with this, wind energy is one of the largest producers of composite structures, and as a result is one of the largest users of composite materials. For wind energy applications, composite materials require high reliability, low-cost, and near-term and future industry goals are to reuse or recycle composite materials. These requirements are quite challenging as wind energy faces a challenging operating environment, which puts great pressure on wind blade materials over their entire life cycle. This paper aims to examine the challenges of composite materials for wind energy applications, and to highlight a few research studies that offer potential new solutions and new insights across the entire life cycle of composites for wind energy systems ranging from the design phase, to manufacturing, to operation, and finally to the end-of-life phase.