Carbon fiber has changed the high-cold image used in aerospace in the past and has gradually entered the homes of ordinary people. Carbon fiber is particularly popular in recent years, but its development is limited because of its high price and complex process.
However, in recent years, the application of carbon fiber in the field of wind power has emerged. In 2016, the amount of carbon fiber exceeded aerospace for the first time, and it became the largest field of use.
Why is this?
To analyze, first of all, the wind power industry has developed rapidly in the past few years. It is reported that 2013 has already been the third largest source of electricity. 2016 data show that the installed capacity of thermal power is 105.388 million kilowatts, hydropower is 33.11 million kilowatts, and wind power is 14,864 kilowatts. In recent years, the installed capacity of wind power has maintained rapid growth, both internationally and domestically.
Of course, the growth of the industry does not mean that the use of carbon fiber will increase rapidly. For example, the automotive industry is growing fast enough, but the application of carbon fiber in the automotive industry is growing slowly. The more important one is that the automotive industry is the most widely used and more mature is steel or other metals (carbon fiber and composite materials are currently not easy to compare with plastics). There are some problems in studying carbon fiber with metal thinking. The wind power industry is different.
Wind power has long been a relatively large area for composite materials, and the proportion of composite materials used in wind power is very large! The main components, including blades, nacelle covers, and towers, are made of composite materials. Therefore, those skilled in the field of wind power are familiar with composite materials, and the application of carbon fibers must basically be made into composite materials.
There have been many recent articles about the limitations of carbon fiber applications, and one of the reasons is design. For example, the latest article "Top Ten Problems in the Application of Carbon Fiber", the fourth is that the design link is weak and the problem is outstanding. Another article talked about the four-in-one in the research and development of composite materials, that is, design is the guide, materials are the foundation, technology is the key, and experiment is the guarantee.
The application of carbon fiber in wind power fully reflects the principle that design is "leading, materials are foundation, technology is key, and experiment is guarantee". The traditional methods are prepreg process and carbon cloth vacuum infusion process, which have high cost and low efficiency. Vestas adopts a new blade design and uses pultruded carbon plates to prepare the blade girders. The pultrusion process is the most efficient, lowest cost and most stable quality process in the composite material process, and the product has a high fiber content, which fully reflects the fiber performance. It is used to manufacture blades, which reduces weight by 40%, the cost increase is small, the efficiency is doubled, and the advantages are very obvious. In recent years, Vestas was on the verge of bankruptcy and was almost acquired by Chinese companies. After the process was successful, it quickly opened the market. Vestas is now the world's wind power leader. The use of carbon fiber in wind power has also increased rapidly. In 2018, the amount of carbon fiber used in the wind power sector exceeded 20,000 tons, and the main contribution was the use of Vestas.
At present, the wind power sector is a key area where the amount of carbon fiber is growing rapidly. As the application technology matures, its amount will increase a lot. It is also hoped that it can provide reference for other fields.