Blowing in the Wind: Gateway to the Carbon-Neutral Energy Sector
The wind power industry is rapidly advancing and innovating to meet demand
According to a report by the International Energy Agency, renewables are set to overtake coal to become the largest source of global electricity by early 2025. Wind energy will be one of two key players—solar being the other—responsible for global renewable generation growth, supplying nearly 40 percent of the planet’s electricity in 2027. Here, we examine the current state of the wind energy industry and explore what technological advances are in the works to help drive this rapid growth.
The benefits and challenges of wind energy
The wind power industry is on an upward journey as one of the fastest-growing energy sources in the world. What key factors make wind energy such an appealing source of electricity? Wind is an abundant, inexhaustible, and clean (emissions-free) source of energy. Due to the large size (over 320 feet tall) and high efficiency (20-40 percent) of wind power installations, wind is one of the most cost-effective sources of electricity, albeit not without challenges.
Wind is intermittent and weather-dependent, and wind turbines can be noisy, alter the visual landscape, adversely impact wildlife, and require large upfront investments. This high cost might be why this industry, especially in the US, has been strongly driven by green tax credits and incentives and is sometimes called “boom or bust” by energy experts.
Advancements in the wind energy industry
To tackle challenges and promote benefits at affordable cost, the wind power community continuously innovates in the areas of design and manufacturing, performance, and deployment.
Design and manufacturing advancements
Wind turbines have a complex, time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly manufacturing process, although ongoing innovation in their design and fabrication challenges this status quo. For example, the Department of Energy (DOE) researchers are revolutionizing the fabrication process by 3D printing a blade mold and eliminating the laborious step of making a plug, which is a full-size mock-up of a blade used to make a mold.
Another path to reducing the costly manufacturing process is to lean into the circular economy for wind energy. In this regard, advancements are directed toward extending the life cycle, reducing waste, and enhancing the recycling of wind turbine materials. Approximately 85-90 percent of the mass of a wind turbine is made of metals, including aluminum, steel, copper, and iron, that can already be easily recycled. Organic polymer/glass fiber composites found in blades are more difficult to recycle. Carbon Rivers, a Knoxville, Tennessee–based advanced materials company, designed and implemented a 1 ton/day pilot scale production line to recycle organic polymer/glass fiber composites from retired wind turbine blades using pyrolysis. The proprietary pyrolysis process uses the absence of oxygen and intense heat above 300°C to break the organic polymer and recover clean and intact glass fiber. It can be reused in the automotive, marine, and construction industries. In May 2023, the company received a $1.1 million government award to scale their technology further. The efforts will concentrate on building the first US-based glass-fiber recycling facility that could recycle up to 5,000 blades annually by 2025.
Performance advancements
To meet the rapid rate of growth, the wind power industry had to quickly improve reliability and performance, including the development of longer, lighter rotor blades and taller towers. Two decades ago, the wind turbines were, on average, 190 feet tall with a capacity of 0.9 MW, while wind turbines installed in 2022 are over 320 feet tall—slightly taller than the Statue of Liberty at 305 ft—and have more than tripled their capacity to 3.2 MW.
With this tall order comes an altered visual landscape. To tackle this issue, the wind energy community had to look at completely settings to install wind turbines—a place that won’t clutter the backyard view, like the sea. Major advantages of offshore wind include higher efficiencies and reliability due to steadier and higher wind speeds. Offshore wind is one of the major future growth areas for the industry, gathering a lot of research momentum, especially in the areas of efficiency, operation, and safety. A highlight in offshore research momentum is the development of floating turbines that will help harness about two-thirds of US offshore wind energy potential—located in deep waters and beyond the ability of current structures. A major milestone occurred in 2021 when the first commercial offshore wind project of 800 MW was approved 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts. It is set to be completed by mid-2024, powering 400,000 homes.
Deployment advancements
To tackle the intermittent nature of wind, energy storage and alternative energy solutions need to go hand-in-hand to provide a stable power supply. Solar and wind can be a great team to provide a stable supply of clean energy. Wind can address the land constraints of solar and provide power when the sun sets and the electricity demand peaks. In return, solar can be a backup in the absence of wind. Additionally, grid-scale storage technologies, including pumped-storage hydropower and batteries, are essential to support a stable and reliable clean energy grid.
With the deployment of wind turbines also comes the need to mitigate their environmental impacts, including lowering noise emissions and fatalities of bats, birds and marine life. Innovations in blade designs, smart sighting, and layout optimization of wind farms have reduced noise pollution. In the latter case, millions of dollars have been dedicated to monitoring and mapping the behavior of marine life, birds, and bats near wind turbines onshore and offshore. Promising findings include using ultrasonic acoustic deterrents to cut fatalities of a limited range of bat species by half to almost 80 percent.
Outlook on the future of the wind power industry
As it is imperative to meet our net-zero targets, the wind power industry will continue to grow. This growth has been actively supported by the development of the next generation of wind power technologies by improving design and manufacturing, enhancing performance, and accelerating the deployment of offshore wind—all at affordable cost and with minimum environmental impacts.
