HYDROFAN Mass production of high-performance, composite wind-turbine blades

The HYDROFAN project involves developing an innovative wind-turbine blade from composite material, produced using automated fibre placement and resin transfer methods. The exploitation of wind energy will ultimately require several tens of thousands of turbines to be installed worldwide and this means that wind-turbine suppliers must be capable of offering mass-produced, high-performance, low-cost products.

The HYDROFAN project needs to provide the technological breakthrough required to perfect automated draping processes, originally developed for aeronautical construction, and resin transfer impregnation in mass-production applications.

The object of the HYDROFAN project is therefore to successfully manufacture a wind-turbine blade demonstrator, which is suitable for mass production and is cheaper than those currently available, using an innovative manufacturing method. The results will provide the basis for deploying a tool for mass-producing wind-turbine blades.