2010-The Next Generation of Large Offshore Wind Turbines: Opportunities and Challenges for Renewable Materials

The Next Generation of Large Offshore Wind Turbines: Opportunities and Challenges for Renewable Materials

Michael J. Drews, Clemson Conservation Center


Introduction

In November of 2009, the Clemson University Restoration Institute (CURI) was awarded
a 45 million dollar grant from the US Department of Energy as part of the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The project objective is to engineer, construct and operate a state-of-the-art Wind Turbine Drivetrain Test Facility for the highly accelerated lifetime testing (HALT) of drive trains for offshore wind turbines in the range of 7MW-15MW.
Wind turbines of this size will require new materials because of increases in rotor diameters as well as tower and drive trains loads. This presentation will present an overview of some of the challenges related to the development of large offshore wind turbines and specifically focus on those that relate to the blade structures and components.