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So what percentage of items constructed from epoxy composites are wind turbine blades? How can this be more than a rounding error compared to sailboats, sports

by mhb 4y ago

So what percentage of items constructed from epoxy composites are wind turbine blades? How can this be more than a rounding error compared to sailboats, sports equipment and whatever else?

HPsquared 4y ago
I think the sailboats are the rounding error.
bombcar 4y ago
> 14,158 total sailboats manufactured in North America per year > The number of turbines installed in the U.S. each year varies based on a number of factors, but on average 3,000 turbines have been built in the U.S. each year since 2005. Assuming one blade is about one boat and each turbine has three, very similar numbers. Too bad the blades can’t be reused as boats.
- bluGill 4y ago
  A lot of those sailboats are smaller boats as well. There are a lot of one-two person sale boats that you can tow behind your car. There are of course a few large yachts, but even then I'm not sure they are larger than a turbine blade (have you ever seen one up close? They go by my house often and each is much longer than any other truck that is legal)
- mhb 4y ago
  Surprising. Thanks.
- HPsquared 4y ago
  Blades are 170-350 feet long, very slender and high-speed (i.e. it's probably quite thick and heavily-reinforced). That's probably 10-100 sailboats per blade.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    What I'm hearing is we need to build turbines with blades that can be repurposed as majorly long sailboats.
kasperni 4y ago
Difficult to find specific numbers but looks like more money is spent on epoxy for wind turbines than all other composites combined [1]. In any case it is not a rounding error. [1] https://www.grandviewresearch.com/static/img/research/global-epoxy-resin-market.png https://www.grandviewresearch.com/static/img/research/global... [2] https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/epoxy-resins-market https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/epoxy-re...
- gameshot911 4y ago
  Props for researching the actual stats
sandworm101 4y ago
Take a look at the big blades up close. I'd hazard that a single blade might have the equivalent mass of a hundred boat hulls or a hundred-thousand hockey sticks.
RugnirViking 4y ago
I can't quite convey just how mind bogglingly enormous the wind turbines we are talking about are. One illustrative point that might help: inside of the head (very small compared to the turbines) they often build a fully functioning workshop inside, because its less work than transporting the machinery down to fix. They build hundreds of these things in offshore farms.

by mhb 4y ago

So what percentage of items constructed from epoxy composites are wind turbine blades? How can this be more than a rounding error compared to sailboats, sports equipment and whatever else?

HPsquared 4y ago

I think the sailboats are the rounding error.

bombcar 4y ago

> 14,158 total sailboats manufactured in North America per year > The number of turbines installed in the U.S. each year varies based on a number of factors, but on average 3,000 turbines have been built in the U.S. each year since 2005. Assuming one blade is about one boat and each turbine has three, very similar numbers. Too bad the blades can’t be reused as boats.

bluGill 4y ago
A lot of those sailboats are smaller boats as well. There are a lot of one-two person sale boats that you can tow behind your car. There are of course a few large yachts, but even then I'm not sure they are larger than a turbine blade (have you ever seen one up close? They go by my house often and each is much longer than any other truck that is legal)
mhb 4y ago
Surprising. Thanks.
HPsquared 4y ago
Blades are 170-350 feet long, very slender and high-speed (i.e. it's probably quite thick and heavily-reinforced). That's probably 10-100 sailboats per blade.
- bombcar 4y ago
  What I'm hearing is we need to build turbines with blades that can be repurposed as majorly long sailboats.

kasperni 4y ago

Difficult to find specific numbers but looks like more money is spent on epoxy for wind turbines than all other composites combined [1]. In any case it is not a rounding error. [1] https://www.grandviewresearch.com/static/img/research/global-epoxy-resin-market.png https://www.grandviewresearch.com/static/img/research/global... [2] https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/epoxy-resins-market https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/epoxy-re...

gameshot911 4y ago
Props for researching the actual stats

sandworm101 4y ago

Take a look at the big blades up close. I'd hazard that a single blade might have the equivalent mass of a hundred boat hulls or a hundred-thousand hockey sticks.

RugnirViking 4y ago

I can't quite convey just how mind bogglingly enormous the wind turbines we are talking about are. One illustrative point that might help: inside of the head (very small compared to the turbines) they often build a fully functioning workshop inside, because its less work than transporting the machinery down to fix. They build hundreds of these things in offshore farms.