Wind Turbine Composites Market Size, Share | Forecast - 2027

The wind turbine composites market was valued at US$ 5,621.0 million in 2018 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.8% from 2019 to 2027 to reach US$ 9138.6 million by 2027.

Wind turbine composites are defined as the composites or components which are utilized in the production of wind turbine parts, such as blades and nacelles and others, which exhibits resilience and tensile strength. The use of composites helps in the production of lightweight components with excellent characteristics, low maintenance cost, resistance to corrosion and long life of products. The properties of these composites are entirely varies from those of the individual materials. The growing focus over renewable form of energy coupled with rising demand of wind turbine composites from various end use industries and positive government efforts to support wind energy projects are some factors which are expected to increase the demand for wind turbine composites in global market.

On the basis of geography, South America wind turbine composites market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR. An enormous amount of potential and growth opportunities is reserved in wind energy in South America. This is attributed to comparatively low population density coupled with vast distances and rising need for energy in remote places, which requires an appropriate setting to harness wind energy. For instance, at the end of 2017, the total capacity of wind energy installed in the region amounted to 22,000 MW which was mainly dominated by Brazil to approximately 13,000 MW. The growth of wind energy industry was reserved to substantial markets in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, and other developing market. Peru, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama also contribute to small but significant share, which are sufficient to provide growth opportunity for the market in the coming years. Costa Rica has a strong commitment to renewable energy, has installed the largest number of wind power turbines in South America. In the Southern part, Argentina and Chile are rapidly investing in wind power, and both countries are expected to overtake Mexico in terms of total installed capacity over the next ten years. These factors are projected to boost the wind turbine composites market in South America.

Lianyungang Zhongfu Lianzhong Composites Group Co.,Ltd, LM Wind Power, Suzlon Energy Limited, ENERCON GmbH are some of the major players of the region.

Global Wind Turbine Composites Market

Get more information on this report : Request Free Sample PDF

Market Insights

Wind energy is one of the renewable energy technologies which is growing at a rapid pace. The global installed capacity of wind energy has increased 75 times in the past two decades. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, it rose from 7.5 gigawatt in 1997 to ~564 gigawatt in 2018. The demand for wind turbine composites is dependent on factors such as new wind turbine installations and rising demand of flexible materials in applications such as blades, tower and others. The growing number of wind farms in China, Europe, and North America is expected to drive the market for wind turbine gear oil. According to the World Wind Energy Association, the global capacity of windmills reached 597 gigaWatt in 2018. The imperative to achieve the objectives of the Paris Climate Change agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals have accelerated government led investments in new wind farm projects. The decommissioning of coal-based and nuclear power plants, and the growing need for clean energy is expected to drive the need for installing wind farms. The expanding share of wind energy in the global energy sector is anticipated to drive the sales of wind turbines. Wind turbine composites are the materials which are utilized in the production of equipment parts and blades of wind turbine. These materials includes fiber and matrix which provides resilience and high tensile strength. The growing demand for wind turbine composites can be attributed to installations of new wind turbines in offshore and onshore projects due to increasing governmental focus towards renewable energy forms. The growing capacity of wind farms and surge in the number of wind farm projects globally are expected to drive the market for wind turbines, and consequently generate significant demand for wind turbine composites.

Type Insights

Wind turbine composites are increasingly used to manufacture wind turbine components such as blades and nacelles and others. Such composites possess excellent mechanical properties, reduces operating costs, and improves the lifespan of the components. Wind turbine composite market has been divided as fibre and resin type. The global wind turbine composites market based on fiber type has been segmented into glass fiber, carbon fiber, and others. Glass is regarded as the oldest and most familiar form of performance fibers which are being prominently used across various end use industries. Glass fibers are being increasingly used to manufacture wind turbine composites. The glass fiber under type E (electrical) is the most widely preferred for preparation of composites. Such fibers have diameters normally under the range of 10 to 20 µm and are manufactured from molten glass by pulling fibers from spinnerets into bundles of individual fibers. Carbon fiber is defined as a long thin strand of material which is made up of carbon atoms and has a diameter of about 0.005mm to 0.010mm. Such fibers provide high tensile strength along with high-temperature tolerance and durability.

Further, by resin type the market is divided as epoxy, polyester, and vinyl easter. Epoxy compounds or glycidyl compounds includes glycidyl esters, diglycidyl esters and glycidyl amines as other types of epoxy compounds which are considered as reactive diluents and are added to basic resins so as to adjust performance features. Polyester resins are manufactured by the reaction between polyols such as glycol or ethylene glycol with dibasic acids such as phthalic acid or maleic acid. These unsaturated resins are combined with other chemicals sometimes called hardeners or catalysts. VE resins are manufactured by reacting products of epoxy resins with ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acids. Such thermoset resins are based upon epoxy and their properties are similar to those of the unsaturated polyester resins.

Global Wind Turbine Composites Market, by Fibre Type – 2018 & 2027

Get more information on this report : Request Free Sample PDF

Manufacturing Insights

Manufacturing of wind turbine composites requires adherence to the unique specifications along with optimizing performance, reliability and overall cost so as to meet out the requirements of customer. The global wind turbine composites market based on manufacturing process has been segmented into vacuum injection molding, prepreg and hand lay-up. The manufacturer can incorporate any given technique to manufacture wind turbine composites. The process vacuum-injection molding is extensively deployed in producing large thermoset composite wind rotor blades owing to their complex airfoil geometry, large sizes, and cost-effectiveness. The adoption of vacuum infusion technologies has helped in improving the quality of manufacturing of wind turbine composites. The resin infusion or vacuum injection molding method is quite different from traditional wet lay-up techniques which uses reinforcements laid into a mould dry rather than saturating the fibers. Prepreg production process is considered to be highly industrialized method as it bears optimum cost and quality. Under this process, partially cured resin and reinforcement are kept in a single-sided mold where they are exposed to heat to activate and cure the matrix material. Sometimes, the prepreg is used in bag molding methods under applied pressure loads. Hand lay-up is considered as a traditional method used in production of composite materials for wind turbine materials. Under this method, the fiber reinforcement is manually placed into a single-sided mold, and, thereafter, the resin is forced to move into the fibers with the help of hand rollers and squeegees. Further, it is allowed to cure and removed from the mold. The hand lay-up method is helps to make very large and complex parts of wind turbine such as blades at comparatively low cost.

Application Insights

A wind turbine composites is composed of several parts which includes blades, gearbox, generator, tower, hub generator and others. Amongst which, the blades and nacelles forms an important part of composite materials. The global wind turbine composites market based on application has been segmented into blades and nacelles. Wind turbine blades are defined as the airfoil-shaped blades which are involved in harnessing of wind energy and driving the rotor of a wind turbine. The airfoil-shaped-design applies a lift perpendicular to the direction of wind in the blades. Wind turbine blades are regarded as the most critical yet significant part of a wind turbines and are subjected to enormous amount of pressure and tight tolerances at the time of production. The word nacelle is derived from the Old French word, named as nacele, which is generally used in aviation methodology to cover the component which holds back the engines. A nacelle is regarded as a cover which comprises of wind turbine components including generator, gearbox, shaft, and other components. Generally, nacelles possess heavy weight which is about 300t. Therefore, the diameter and strength of the tower is strongly dependent upon the weight of the nacelle and expected amount of wind loads so as to defend the turbine components from strong wind speeds and extreme weather conditions. With an increase in size of turbine, the cover size of the nacelle has also increased generating issues such as transportation and high costs.

Strategic Insights

Strategy and business planning strategy is commonly adopted by companies to expand their footprint worldwide, which is further impacting the size of the wind turbine composite market. The players present in the wind turbine composite market adopt the strategy of expansion and investment in research and development to enlarge customer base and to gain significant market share across the world, which also permits the players to maintain their brand name globally.

Global Wind Turbine Composite Market – By Fibre Type

• Glass Fiber
• Carbon Fiber and Others

Global Wind turbine composite Market – By Resin Type

• Epoxy
• Polyester
• Vinyl Ester

Global Wind turbine composite Market – By Application

• Blades
• Nacelles

Company Profiles

• ENERCON GmbH
• Hexcel Corporation
• Lianyungang Zhongfu Lianzhong Composites Group Co.,Ltd
• LM Wind Power
• Molded Fiber Glass Companies
• Nordex SE
• Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, S.A
• Suzlon Energy Limited
• TPI Composites, Inc
• Vestas Wind Systems A/S