Covestro delivers first ever order of polyurethane resin for wind blades

Covestro has delivered its first commercial order of polyurethane raw materials for wind blades to China.

China is the world’s largest wind power market with 221 GW of installed capacity at the end of 2018, according to the World Wind Energy Association.

The blades, produced by Zhuzhou Tomes New Material Technology (TMT), one of the largest manufacturers of wind blades in China, have been delivered to Envision, a leading global wind turbine technology company.

They are scheduled to be installed in a wind farm in East China in July 2019.

Covestro delivered PU resin to TMT for the production of 18 PU wind blades of the 59.5 metre length, as well as the spar caps and shear webs.

The blades were delivered to Envision, heralding the successful deployment of Covestro’s innovative PU resin in blades for commercial wind farm projects.

To ensure successful deployment, the Covestro wind power team produced a prototype of the wind blades which has passed static and fatigue tests.

The prototype was put into trial operation at a wind farm in central China in 2018.

Ulrich Liman, Global Head of R&D, Business Unit Polyurethanes at Covestro, said: “We are very excited to be working with Envision and TMT on this first sales order of PU wind blades in China.”

“Polyurethane resin is the production of wind blades, is a game-changing innovation delivered by Covestro teams around the world. We remain committed to our vision of creating products that benefit society and improve people’s live all of the world.”

Zilu Liang, Deputy Chief Engineer for Wind Power Products at TMT, said: “As an innovative material, polyurethane, compared to epoxy resin, has advantages in costs and in the production process.”

“We have cooperated with Covestro since 2016, and now we have achieved continuous production. We hope to further collaborate with Covestro to explore large-scale wind blades and wind blades completely made of polyurethane.”

Irene Li, Head of PU Application Development Asia Pacific at Covestro, said: “This is the first step to realising the industrialisation of polyurethane resin in the wind industry, opening up a new chapter in polyurethane chemistry.”

“We believe that our polyurethane solution delivers significant advantages in wind blade production and along the value chain.”