Wind power, as the fastest growing segment of the energy sector, has become big business and how it thrives has a profound influence on the reinforced plastics industry. It continues to draw in large volumes of material, used for the rotor blades that drive the turbines, but there are questions over whether the graph can rise smoothly from now on. The major question is how quickly offshore development can take off. WindStrand will, the company claims, allow turbine manufacturers to increase blade lengths by 6 % and deliver up to 12 % more power, for up to 20 % less cost than competing carbon-glass hybrid solutions. The product is said to offer up to 35 % higher tensile strength and 17 % higher modulus than conventional e-glass reinforcement, along with enhanced fatigue, impact, ageing, corrosion, and thermal resistance characteristics. Scheduled to become commercially available later this year, it is the first application of Owen Corning's HiPertex high-performance reinforcement, resulting from advances in glass melting and sizing technology.
Wind energy - the offshore conundrum
Reinforced Plastics ; 50 , 4 ; 20-24
2006
5 Seiten, 4 Bilder
Article (Journal)
English
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