The lower energy consumption is a fringe benefit. The main benefit they're pursuing is drastically reduced equipment size/cost: “If you’re making a primary str

The lower energy consumption is a fringe benefit. The main benefit they're pursuing is drastically reduced equipment size/cost: “If you’re making a primary structure like a fuselage or wing, you need to build a pressure vessel, or autoclave, the size of a two- or three-story building, which itself requires time and money to pressurize,” says Brian Wardle, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. “These things are massive pieces of infrastructure. Now we can make primary structure materials without autoclave pressure, so we can get rid of all that infrastructure.”