Project - Recyclable materials for wind turbine blades
Project start 03.2016. Project completion 03.2020.
The wind energy generation is growing, helping towards a more sustainable planet. To further aid this journey, the wind industry focuses on increased sustainability of the wind turbines to ensure that the energy will continue to be produced in the best possible way. The aim for the project Dreamwind is to develop new high strength composite materials for use in future blade production aiming at making it possible to disassemble the blades and reuse the components.
Increased sustainability of wind energy through the development of new materials
The ever-increasing energy consumption places high demands to the production cycle supplying sustainable energy. Thus, to ensure a continuous sustainable development, the focus by the industry is today on the composite materials used for blade production, posing the most substantial barrier for realization of entire recyclable wind turbine. The Dreamwind project (Designing REcyclable Advanced Materials for WIND energy) works towards solving this challenge through development of new materials for high strength composites. During the development work, the entire life cycle of the materials is under consideration.
Design of new high strength composite materials
Vestas Wind System, a Vestas material supplier, Aarhus University and Danish Technological Institute collaborate on the development of new composite materials for future use in wind turbine blades. The development is based partly on the production of stimuli-responsive materials, which can be disassembled after use, and partly on incorporating bio-based resources in the new materials.
The development of the new materials is viewed in a circular economy framework. By viewing material development in a wider context, the focus can be on developing a product, which is sustainable in relation to economy and resources. Furthermore, the newest knowledge within material development will be used to ensure that the product can match performance of state-of-the-art materials. Hereby, the material will create value far beyond end-of-life of the product and is beneficial for our environment and society, as new jobs will be generated through the lifecycle of the material.
Schematic illustration of circular applications of materials, which creates the framework for the development of high strength materials in the project Dreamwind. The materials are recycled and thus, have a decreased impact on the environment. Furthermore, the materials are kept as a high value resource either in their native resource chain or fed into another relevant resource chain feeding other industries.
Participants
- Vestas Wind Systems
- Aarhus University
- Danish Technological Institute
The project is funded by the Innovation Fund Denmark.
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