DNV GL has certified a new technology for manufacturing wind turbine rotor blades in a special process from a polyurethane resin and a glass fiber fabric, developed by Covestro, a supplier of high-tech polymer materials headquartered in Germany.
According to Covestro, its system is the world’s first polyurethane resin to receive this certification.
“This brings us a big step closer to our goal of increasing the efficiency of wind power generation,” said Kim Klausen , global head of Covestro’s wind energy program.
The resin was developed in cooperation between the Covestro Wind Competence Center in Denmark and the Polyurethane Research Center in Leverkusen. “ After epoxy resins mainly were used in the industry in the past, the time has come to establish the high performance and cost advantages of polyurethane in wind power generation,” Klausen said.
Covestro tested the polyurethane resin on an industrial scale together with SAERTEX®, a manufacturer of glass fiber and carbon fiber fabrics, and HÜBERS, a specialist in process engineering. A prototype of a 45-meter-long spar cap was recently fabricated at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Stade.
“As the blades grow in size, they need to fulfill new technical requirements. This has a direct impact on the reinforcements, on the infusion materials, on the matrix. So there is a strong need to optimize the interaction of those materials,” said Marc Schrief , director of global sales and marketing at SAERTEX.