SBIR-STTR Award

As the size of wind turbines has grown, fundamental engineering principles have caused the cost and weight of blades to increase faster than the energy output. This has reduced the extent to which the cost of energy from wind turbines can be reduced by increasing the size of the turbines. Unfortunately, the approaches that have been attempted to address this problem have not been compatible with the materials that are commonly used in wind turbine blades. This project will addressed this problem by incorporating carbon fibers into wind turbine blade designs, leading to a 10-to-20 percent reduction in the cost of energy from wind turbines. Phase I will determine the most appropriate means of incorporating carbon fiber into wind turbine blades to allow for a reduction in loads and increase in the blade length. Changes in the blade planform will be addressed as well as procedures for incorporating bend/twist coupling into the blade design.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
The wind turbine blade design should be suitable for sale to the international wind energy market,which exceeded $5 billion dollars in 2001. Of this, approximately $500 million was related to blades. The blade designs developed under this work are expected to be particularly well suited to larger diameter rotors for use in relatively low wind sites in the United States

The cost of wind energy has declined dramatically in the past 20 years and is now closely competitive with more conventional sources of electrical energy.  This project addresses the need to further reduce the cost of wind energy, by developing an innovative rotor design for commercially available, megawatt-scale wind turbines.  In order to reduce loads without increasing system costs, an adaptive blade will be designed to change pitch (twist) at the same time it bends in response to changes in wind speed.  This will be accomplished by making optimal use of carbon fiber.  Phase I examined a matrix of possible blade designs and identified several that offer significant energy reductions.  The study included updated and current carbon-fiber-material properties, manufacturing methods, and cost information to ensure that an optimized design can deliver at least a roughly 5% energy reduction.  Phase II will design, build, and test a megawatt-scale (30 m) blade that uses bend-twist coupling to reduce loads without increasing overall costs Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by awardee:  The potential market for blades of this type is over $500 million annually at today’s level of wind turbine sales.  The technology also should facilitate commercial acceptance of carbon fiber in wind turbine blades.