For years now, the U.S. Department of Energy has had one major roadblock to the streamlining of wind turbine installation: the sheer amount of work it takes to manufacture blades. Thanks to 3D printing, the DOE has a new approach that could dramatically change how quickly these lightweight blades are designed and built.
Rather than relying exclusively on the traditional process of creating a full-scale plug before manufacturing a blade mold, researchers are finding ways to use large 3D-printed molds to make manufacturing faster, more affordable, and more flexible in designing future blades. The best wind turbine blade design is currently the three-bladed horizontal-axis rotor, but that could change if experimental blades were more accessible.
This 3D printing effort is currently moving in various different directions, including the Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office and Advanced Manufacturing Office alongside national laboratories and various private-sector partners. Wind energy already supplies more than 10% of U.S. electricity and generates enough power for tens of millions of American homes. With these advances, the DOE could take the nation’s renewable energy infrastructure to new heights, and the U.S. is also home to many large wind turbine manufacturers.
