Renewable energy is at the forefront of all major economies’ energy policies. It not only helps to minimize reliance on fossil fuels, but it also helps to lessen negative environmental and economic impacts.
Carbon dioxide, which is pumped into the atmosphere by companies, particularly the power industry, accounts for a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The combustion of fossil fuels in the creation of power and heat in many sectors are major producers of carbon dioxide gas.
The emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide is a key contribution to climate change. Power generation emits a considerable quantity of carbon dioxide, which totaled 33.3 billion tones in 2019. Despite the large number, there was not an increase above power generating emissions in 2018, which broke the prior rising trend in emissions.
The global expansion in renewable energy transitions was primarily responsible for the emissions stability. With this in mind, if we are to limit climate change, we must continue to boost worldwide renewable energy use.
Composite materials are made up of two or more constituent materials that have been mixed to form a material that is chemically and physically distinct from its constituents. Variations of fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs), carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs), and glass-fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP) are leaders in the ever-advancing materials engineering industries and are particularly notable for renewable energy architecture.
Reinforced polymers are manufactured using a fibre matrix comprising glass, carbon, natural, or other fibers infused into a polymer matrix such as epoxy or polyester. Our world is surrounded by composite goods, and many significant breakthroughs in the ballistic armour, aerospace, marine, automotive, and construction industries would not have been feasible without advanced composites.
Composites for Wind Energy
The lightweight and complex airfoil form of wind turbine blades has made composites a pioneer in this industry, with molds designed to produce blades with the least amount of work. At the moment, research and development efforts are focused on meeting the increasing size requirements for turbine and rotor blades in both land-based and off-shore systems.
Composite materials are a natural fit for wind turbine applications due to their sheer size and demand. A wind turbine blade with a 50-meter span may weigh up to 40,000 pounds! Any attempt to minimize weight not only eases the burden on manufacturers, but also makes the turbine run more smoothly after it’s installed. Carbon fiber and glass-reinforced materials are used to achieve this reduced weight without jeopardizing the blades’ structural integrity.
Components must have great fatigue strength, be resistant to random loads and corrosion, be low-maintenance, and last for 30 years or more. The use of composite materials, on which manufacturing is now almost exclusively based, has alleviated concerns majority of these concerns. The major components are the blades, which are mostly made of glass-fiber, and their efficiency determines the turbine’s performance at the end. Because the turbines are made of lighter FRP materials, they may produce more power per unit volume, reducing their environmental effect.
With over 340,000 wind turbines on the earth and a total power capacity of 597 GW, wind power has become a globally popular renewable energy source. Wind power has a number of advantages over other renewable energy sources, including the fact that it does not require water and takes up very little lateral area. However, producing and transmitting energy resources that are both strong and environmentally friendly need an equally good material choice.
Composites that substitute some of the glass with carbon-fiber reinforcements can create the same blade with less fiber and resin than traditional all-glass designs, while enhancing blade stiffness, improving aerodynamics, and reducing the pressures imposed by the blades on the tower and hub. A carbon-fiber-based design can help improve the predictability of power input from the blades.
Composites for Solar Energy
We’ve reached a plateau in the history of solar panel design, which has seen many peaks and troughs. The development of photoelectric cells has slowed significantly. It’s an excellent example of technology that must wait for future advancements before moving forward. Consumer demand has been fueled by the availability of plug-and-play solar panels. This, in turn, fuels advancements in other fields, particularly panel design.
Glass and ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) underlayment film are used in traditional panels. Today, composite materials are at the forefront of research into how to lower the cost of panels while increasing their efficacy. More panels per array and more effective light collecting are possible with lighter panels arranged in honeycomb patterns. Composite prototypes are up to 40% lighter and ten times more efficient than traditional materials. At scale, they could be a fraction of the cost to consumers as well.
As per IEA, 114.9 GW of new solar power installations happened globally in 2019. The year 2019 shows a 12% growth over 2018 in terms of new installations. The solar energy constitutes around 3% of global electricity demand in 2019.
According to IEA, the new solar installations are expected to decline by 12% in 2020 as compared to 2019 installations, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The solar installations are estimated to rebound as majority of the projects in pipeline are financed and can start construction as the pandemic situation gets normal.
As PV, Solar Thermoelectric Generators (STEG), PV/T, and concentrated or conventional PV systems integrated with STEG, STC, and energy storage can lead to an increase in the electrical and thermal energy generated and in system lifetime. Hence PV-based configurations and hybrid systems demand increased.
Due to the new advancements, solar technology is set to become lighter, more flexible, and applicable everywhere. These advances include:
- Floating solar farms
- BIPV solar technology
- Solar skins
- Solar fabric, and
- Photovoltaic solar noise barriers (PVNB)
In 2020, innovative residential solar technologies are in development stage, such as perovskite solar cells, which could soon be used to create solar paint.
Polymer materials have made significant progress in the solar PV Cells market. Polymer material are used in various applications in solar energy sector, such as:
- PV cells are encapsulated with polymer materials
- Solar panels are coated with UV coatings, and
- Anti-reflective coatings among other application
This polymeric encapsulation holds the solar cells together and provides protection against humidity, dust, corrosion. The ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) polymer material holds the largest share in PV cell encapsulation.
Composites for Fuel Cells
Composite materials are anticipated to be the materials of choice for bipolar plates, end plates, fuel tanks, and other fuel cell system components in the future. In automotive and stationary power systems, fuel cell technologies of various sorts provide a “clean” (near-zero VOC) way to convert hydrogen to electrical power. Vinyl-ester-based bulk molding compounds (BMCs) with carbon-fiber reinforcement have previously been used in at least one commercially available stationary unit due to its conductivity, corrosion resistance, dimensional stability, and flame retardancy.
Composites for Power Transmission
When glass-fiber composites initially replaced wood and metal in 1959, they revolutionized the handling of electricity as natural insulators with excellent dielectric strength. Today, utility companies are collaborating with composite suppliers to use composites for power transmission towers and distribution poles, cables, cross-arms, and the aluminum conductor cables they support, which were historically made of wood and steel. Electric power providers have begun to overcome customer reluctance to pultruded and filament-wound composite utility poles and cross-arms, which are typically used to replace old wood poles in remote and/or severely humid places. CRAC replaces standard steel-strength components in cables with a pultruded continuous-fiber core, which is projected to reduce weight and boost power-transmission efficiency by an estimated 200 percent.
Therefore, its’s safe to say that composite materials have a major role to play in the industrialization and the application of green & renewable energy. We at Midwest Composites are constantly looking for ways to make green & renewable energy application accessible and most importantly, environmentally and cost friendly.
Let us know your thoughts and feedback about the topic in hand today. We would love to hear about your opinion on the development and application of green & renewable energy. There are other sources of green & renewable energy out there that we didn’t cover in today’s article, so please do let us know which are the ones you feel have the highest chance of succeeding and replacing fossil fuel energy in the years to come.
Also, we would be eternally grateful if you checked out our socials (LinkedIn, Facebook) and please leave a follow if you enjoy our content and would like to see more. New content up every week!