Trend: Technological innovations aimed at the energy marketplace are starting to appear and could have a significant impact on US energy consumption.
Clean Edge News reports that Owens Corning is introducing a new single-end roving and knitted fabric which could enable lower costs and higher performance for wind turbines.
Link: Clean Edge - The Clean-Tech Market Authority - News
Owens Corning is introducing a new single-end roving and knitted fabric, WindStrand, which could enable lower costs and higher performance for wind turbines, says the company. The product could allow turbine manufacturers to increase blade lengths by as much as six percent and deliver up to 12 percent more power -- for up to 20 percent less cost than any competing carbon-glass hybrid solution currently on the market.
The product, which is targeted to be commercially available in late 2006, is the first application using the new Owens Corning high- performance reinforcement platform, HiPer-tex, which is the result of new advances in glass melting, fiberizing and sizing technology. The performance statistics for WindStrand are based on beta testing in the field by the company, and design blade optimization by an independent research establishment based in the Netherlands, Composite Technology Centre (CTC). CTC studied the effects of replacing traditional E-glass with WindStrand for several components in a 44-meter long rotor or blade, suitable for a 2.5 MW wind turbine.
Disclosure: I own shares of Owens Corning.
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