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Windmill blades, always made of

composites

II International conference

«Composites without borders»

October 14-16, Open Innovation

Expo, Technopolis Moscow © 2014, Ashland

Tuula Mannermaa

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Content

• General about wind power capasity and growth

• Today’s requirements for the blades

• Ashland experiences and solutions for windmill

industry

- Gelcoats, resins and bonding pastes

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Renewable energy share in Global Electricity

Estimated Renewable Energy Share of Global Electricity Production, 2013

Source; REN21 Renewables 2014 Global Status Report

• Wind is fastest growing among renewables

excluding hydro; lowest cost, proven technology

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Global wind energy capacity

•Total worldwide wind

energy capacity is now

336 GW- expected to be

360 GW in the end of 2014

•Asia is now biggest area,

only China is almost 100

GW

•Russia has 16,8 MW

installed- plans for 2020 to

reach 3,6 GW

• Globally year 2014 in 6

months 17,6 GW installed

Source: WWEA 2014 HALF-YEAR REPORT

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Wind Turbines Today

• Average turbine size is close to 2 MW

• New 2 to 3 MW turbines:

- 40 – 55 m blades will continue to dominate 10 years out

• New 3+ MW:

- ≥60 m blades common with offshore development

• Existing 1.5 MW turbines: 34 – 45 m blades

- Large replacement or retrofit opportunity 10 to 20 years out

• 5000 MWh/y to 8000 MWh/y for one MW‐class unit

• 4000 MWh/y to 6000 MWh/y for two 500 kW-size units

Larger turbine

costs less long

term!

International Electro‐technical Commission (IEC) Wind Turbine

Class types:

40 m

80 m

130 m

190 m

Vestus V-90

GE Wnd 3.6

Enercon 126

Capacity: 1.8 MW 3.6 MW 7.0 MW

Rotor: 80 m 107 m 126 m

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Global segmentation of turbine blade

lengths, 2011-2015 estimate

Source MAKE Consulting, Global Wind Turbine trends 2012

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Blade requirement trends

Longer and lighter

• cost of blade down – cost of

€/MWh should go downwards

• cost of maintenance down

• cost of logistics and

installation down

• new materials

• off shore is fastest growing

area

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Blades:

• MaxguardTM and EnguardTM gelcoats

• UV resistance, colour stability

• Flexibility, fatigue resistance

• Lowest styrene emission,

(large moulds)

•DerakaneTM and AropolTM resins

• More than 20 year experience

• Fatigue resistance

• Cost efficient

• Enguard bonding pastes

• Based on modified epoxyvinylester

Nacelles

• Aropol resins

• Cost efficient, several

grades

• Enguard gelcoats

® Registered trademark, Ashland or its subsidiaries, registered in various countries

™ Trademark, Ashland or its subsidiaries, registered in various countries

* Trademark owned by a third party

Ashland has a long experience with windmill applications

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New very low styrene emission gelcoat

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Maxguard NT gelcoat developed for wind

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Maxguard NT gelcoat properties

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Maxguard NT gelcoat

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Maxguard NT - lowest styrene emission

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Resins for blades and nacelles

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Resins for infusion and hand lay-up

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High quality epoxy vinyl ester resin

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0.00

20.00

40.00

60.00

80.00

100.00

120.00

140.00

160.00

Tensile strength (MPa) Flexural Strength (MPa)

G300-GT200

D*601-200

Infusion Epoxy

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

Tensile Modulus (GPa) Flexural Modulus (GPa)

G300-GT200

D*601-200

Infusion Epoxy

GL Requirement UPR

GL Requirement EPOXY

All materials exceed Germanischer Lloyd (GL) requirements

AROPOLTM UPR

DERAKANETM EVER

Infusion Epoxy

Static Properties of the Resins - Castings

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• Design, process and materials need to work in concert

• Choice of materials impact blade design and process

To optimize – partnerships required

Suppliers Design

Fabricator

Cost

Performance

Productivity

RISK

Consider Interdependencies

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Example From Wind Industry

• Reduce raw material cost

• Reduce design to production time

• Higher productivity – reduce cycle time

• Maintain weight, performance and durability

• Experience with UPR and epoxy

Value Proposition to

customer

– reduce blade cost

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Ashland Wind Summary

The wind industry today is challenging

To drive material substitution you need strong products and a stronger business case

The industry is calling for lower cost materials that deliver the required performance

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Composite Towers – another opportunity in wind

Based on flue gas desulfurization stack liners

Serious effort to explore feasibility

Advantages in offshore

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Ashland can offer