Wind turbine design



Wind turbines are designed to exploit the wind energy that exists at a location. Aerodynamic modelling is used to determine the optimum tower height, control systems, number of blades, and blade shape.

Horizontal-axis wind turbine aerodynamics
The aerodynamics of a horizontal-axis wind turbine are not straightforward. The air flow at the blades is not the same as the airflow far away from the turbine. The very nature of the way in which energy is extracted from the air also causes air to be deflected by the turbine. In addition the aerodynamics of a wind turbine at the rotor surface exhibit phenomena that are rarely seen in other aerodynamic fields.

Axial momentum and the Betz limit
Energy in fluid is contained in four different forms: gravitational potential energy, thermodynamic pressure, kinetic energy from the velocity and finally thermal energy. Gravitational and thermal energy have a negligible effect on the energy extraction process. From a macroscopic point of view, the air flow about the wind turbine is at atmospheric pressure. If pressure is constant then only kinetic energy is extracted. However up close near the rotor itself the air velocity is constant as it passes through the rotor plane. This is because of conservation of mass. The air that passes through the rotor cannot slow down because it needs to stay out of the way of the air behind it. So at the rotor the energy is extracted by a pressure drop. The air directly behind the wind turbine is at sub-atmospheric pressure; the air in front is under greater than atmospheric pressure. It is this high pressure in front of the wind turbine that deflects some of the upstream air around the turbine.

Albert Betz was together with Lancaster the first to study this phenomenon. He notably determined the maximum limit to wind turbine performance. The limit is now referred to as the Betz limit. This is derived by looking at the axial momentum of the air passing through the wind turbine. As stated above some of the air is deflected away from the turbine. This causes the air passing through the rotor plane to have a smaller velocity than the free stream velocity. The ratio of this reduction to that of the air velocity far away from the wind turbine is called the axial induction factor. It is defined as below.

"$a\equiv\frac{U_1-U_2}{U_1}$"

a is the axial induction factor. U1 is the wind speed far away from the rotor. U2 is the wind speed at the rotor.

The first step to deriving the Betz limit is applying conservation of axial momentum. As stated above the wind loses speed after the wind turbine compared to the speed far away from the turbine. This would violate the conservation of momentum if the wind turbine was not applying a thrust force on the flow. This thrust force manifests itself through the pressure drop across the rotor. The front operates at high pressure while the back operates at low pressure. The pressure difference from the front to back causes the thrust force. The momentum lost in the turbine is balanced by the thrust force. Another equation is needed to relate the pressure difference to the velocity of the flow near the turbine. Here the Bernoulli equation is used between the field flow and the flow near the wind turbine. There is one limitation to the Bernoulli equation: the equation cannot be applied to fluid passing through the wind turbine. Instead conservation of mass is used to relate the incoming air to the outlet air. Betz used these equations and managed to solve the velocities of the flow in the far wake and near the wind turbine in terms of the far field flow and the axial induction factor. The velocities are given below.

$$U_2=U_1(1-a)$$ $$U_4=U_1(1-2a)$$

U4 is introduced here as the wind velocity in the far wake. This is important because the power extracted from the turbine is defined by the following equation. However the Betz limit is given in terms of the coefficient of power. The coefficient of power is similar to efficiency but not the same. The formula for the coefficient of power is given beneath the formula for power.

$$P=0.5\rho AU_2(U_1^2-U_4^2)$$ $$C_p\equiv\frac{P}{0.5\rho AU_1^3}$$

Betz was able to develop an expression for Cp in terms of the induction factors. This is done by the velocity relations being substituted into power and power is substituted into the coefficient of power definition. The relationship Betz developed is given below.

"$C_p=4a(1-a)^2$"

The Betz limit is defined by the maximum value that can be given by the above formula. This is found by taking the derivative with respect to the axial induction factor, setting it to zero and solving for the axial induction factor. Betz was able to show that the optimum axial induction factor is one third. The optimum axial induction factor was then used to find the maximum coefficient of power. This maximum coefficient is the Betz limit. Betz was able to show that the maximum coefficient of power of a wind turbine is 16/27. Airflow operating at higher thrust will cause the axial induction factor to rise above the optimum value. Higher thrust cause more air to be deflected away from the turbine. When the axial induction factor falls below the optimum value the wind turbine is not extracting all the energy it can. This reduces pressure around the turbine and allows more air to pass through the turbine, but not enough to account for lack of energy being extracted.

The derivation of the Betz limit shows a simple analysis of wind turbine aerodynamics. In reality there is a lot more. A more rigorous analysis would include wake rotation, the effect of variable geometry. The effect of air foils on the flow is a major component of wind turbine aerodynamics. Within airfoils alone, the wind turbine aerodynamicist has to consider the effect of surface roughness, dynamic stall tip losses, solidity, among other problems.

Angular momentum and wake rotation
The wind turbine described by Betz does not actually exist. It is merely an idealized wind turbine described as an actuator disk. Its a disk in space where fluid energy is simply extracted from the air. In the Betz turbine the energy extraction manifests itself through thrust. The equivalent turbine described by Betz would be a horizontal propeller type operating with infinite blades at infinite tip speed ratios and no losses. The tip speed ratio is ratio of the speed of the tip relative to the free stream flow. This turbine is not too far from actual wind turbines. Actual turbines are rotating blades. They typically operate at high tip speed ratios. At high tip speed ratios three blades are sufficient to interact with all the air passing through the rotor plane. Actual turbines still produce considerable thrust forces.

One key difference between actual turbines and the actuator disk, is that the energy is extracted through torque. The wind imparts a torque on the wind turbine, thrust is a necessary by-product of torque. Newtonian physics dictates that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If the wind imparts a torque on the blades then the blades must be imparting a torque on the wind. This torque would then cause the flow to rotate. Thus the flow in the wake has two components, axial and tangential. This tangential flow is referred to as wake rotation.

Torque is necessary for energy extraction. However wake rotation is considered a loss. Accelerating the flow in the tangential direction increases the absolute velocity. This in turn increases the amount of kinetic energy in the near wake. This rotational energy is not dissipated in any form that would allow for a greater pressure drop (Energy extraction). Thus any rotational energy in the wake is energy that is lost and unavailable.

This loss is minimized by allowing the rotor to rotate very quickly. To the observer it may seem like the rotor is not moving fast; however, it is common for the tips to be moving through the air at 6 times the speed of the free stream. Newtonian mechanics defines power as torque multiplied by the rotational speed. The same amount of power can be extracted by allowing the rotor to rotate faster and produce less torque. Less torque means that there is less wake rotation. Less wake rotation means there is more energy available to extract.

Blade Element and Momentum Theory
The simplest model for Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Aerodynamics is Blade Element Momentum (BEM) Theory. The theory is based on the assumption that the flow at a given annulus does not effect the flow at adjacent annuli. This allows the rotor blade to be analyzed in sections, where the resulting forces are summed over all sections to get the overall forces of the rotor. The theory uses both axial and angular momentum balances to determine the flow and the resulting forces at the blade.

The momentum equations for the far field flow dictate that the thrust and torque will induce a secondary flow in the approaching wind. This in-turn affects the flow geometry at the blade. The blade itself is the source of these thrust and torque forces. The force response of the blades is governed by the geometry of the flow, or better known as the angle of attack. Refer to the Airfoil article for more information on how airfoils create lift and drag forces at various angles of attack. This interplay between the far field momentum balances and the local blade forces requires one to solve the momentum equations and the airfoil equations simultaneously. Typically computers and numerical methods are employed to solve these models.

There is a lot of variation between different version of BEM theory. First, one can consider the effect of wake rotation or not. Second, one can go further and consider the pressure drop induced in wake rotation. Third, the tangential induction factors can be solved with a momentum equation, an energy balance or orthognal geometric constraint; the latter a result of Biot-Savart law in vortex methods. These all lead to different set of equations that need to be solved. The simplest and most widely used equations are those that consider wake rotation with the momentum equation but ignore the pressure drop from wake rotation. Those equations are given below. a is the axial component of the induced flow, a' is the tangential component of the induced flow. $$\sigma$$ is the solidity of the rotor, $$\phi$$ is the local inflow angle. $$C_n$$ and $$C_t$$ are the coefficient of normal force and the coefficient of tangential force respectively. Both these coefficients are defined with the resulting lift and drag coefficients of the airfoil.

$$a=\frac{1}{\frac{4\sin^2\phi}{C_n\sigma}+1}$$ $$a'=\frac{1}{\frac{4\sin\phi \cos\phi}{C_t\sigma}-1}$$

Corrections to Blade Element Momentum Theory
Blade Element Momentum (BEM) theory alone fails to accurately represent the true physics of real wind turbines. Two major shortcomings are the effect of discrete number of blades and far field effects when the turbine is heavily loaded. Secondary short-comings come from dealing with transient effects like dynamic stall, rotational effects like coriolis and centrifugal pumping, finally geometric effects that arise from coned and yawed rotors. The current state of the art in BEM uses corrections to deal with the major shortcoming. These corrections are discussed below. There is as yet no accepted treatment for the secondary shortcomings. These areas remain a highly active area of research in wind turbine aerodynamics.

The effect of the discrete number of blades is dealt with by applying the Prandtl tip loss factor. The most common form of this factor is given below where B is the number of blades, R is the outer radius and r is the local radius. The definition of F is based on actuator disk models and not directly applicable to BEM. However the most common application multiplies induced velocity term by F in the momentum equations. As in the momentum equation there are many variations for applying F, some argue that the mass flow should be corrected in either the axial equation, or both axial and tangential equations. Others have suggested a second tip loss term to account for the reduced blade forces at the tip. Below shows above momentum equations with the most common application of F.

$$F=\frac{2}{\pi}\cos^{-1}(e^{-(\frac{B*(R-r)}{2r\sin\phi})})$$ $$a=\frac{1}{\frac{4F\sin^2\phi}{C_n\sigma}+1}$$ $$a'=\frac{1}{\frac{4F\sin\phi \cos\phi}{C_t\sigma}-1}$$

The typical momentum theory applied in BEM is only effective for axial induction factors up to 0.4 (thrust coefficient of 0.96). Beyond this point the wake collapses and turbulent mixing occurs. This state is highly transient and largely unpredictable by theoretical means. Accordingly, several empirical relations have been developed. As the usual case there are several version, however a simple one that is commonly uses is a linear curve fit given below, with $$a_c=0.2$$. The turbulent wake function given excludes the tip loss function, however the tip loss is applied simply by multiplying the resulting axial induction by the tip loss function.

$$C_t=4(a_c^2+(1-2a_c)a)$$ when $$a>a_c$$

Other Methods of Aerodynamic Modelling
BEM is widely used due to its simplicity and overall accuracy. Limited success has been made with computational flow solvers based on Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) and other similar three-dimensional models. This is primarily due to the shear complexity modeling wind turbines. Wind turbine aerodynamics are dependent on far field conditions, several rotor diameters up and down stream, while at the same time being dependent on small scale flow conditions at the blade. Coupled with body motion, the need to have fine resolution and a large domain makes these models highly computationally intensive. For all practical purposes this approach is not worth it. As such these methods are relegated to research.

One method that is commonly applied is Biot-Savart law. The model assumes that the wind turbine rotor is shedding a continuous sheet of vortices at the tip, and sometimes the root or along the blade as in lifting line theory. Biot-Savart law is applied to determine how the circulation of these vortices induces a flow in the far field. These methods have largely confirmed much of the applicability of BEM and shed insight on the structure of wind turbine wakes. Vortex methods have limitations due to its grounding in potential flow theory, as such cannot model viscous behavior. These methods are still computationally intesive and still rely on blade element theory for the blade forces. Just like RANS vortex methods are found solely in research environments.

Tower height
The wind blows faster at higher altitudes because of the drag of the surface (sea or land) and the viscosity of the air. The variation in velocity with altitude, called wind shear, is most dramatic near the surface.

Typically, in daytime the variation follows the Wind profile power law, which predicts that wind speed rises proportionally to the seventh root of altitude. Doubling the altitude of a turbine, then, increases the expected wind speeds by 10% and the expected power by 34%. To avoid buckling, doubling the tower height generally requires doubling the diameter of the tower as well, increasing the amount of material by a factor of eight.

At night time, or when the atmosphere becomes stable, wind speed close to the ground usually subsides whereas at turbine hub altitude it does not decrease that much or may even increase. As a result the wind speed is higher and a turbine will produce more power than expected from the 1/7th power law: doubling the altitude may increase wind speed by 20% to 60%. A stable atmosphere is caused by radiative cooling of the surface and is common in a temperate climate: it usually occurs when there is a (partly) clear sky at night. When the (high altitude) wind is strong (a 10-meter (33 ft) wind speed higher than approximately 6 to 7 m/s (20-23 ft/s)) the stable atmosphere is disrupted because of friction turbulence and the atmosphere will turn neutral. A daytime atmosphere is either neutral (no net radiation; usually with strong winds and/or heavy clouding) or unstable (rising air because of ground heating — by the sun). Here again the 1/7th power law applies or is at least a good approximation of the wind profile. Indiana had been rated as having a wind capacity of 30 MW, but by raising the expected turbine height from 50 m to 70 m, the wind capacity estimate was raised to 40,000 MW, and could be double that at 100 m.

For HAWTs, tower heights approximately two to three times the blade length have been found to balance material costs of the tower against better utilisation of the more expensive active components.

Blade count
The determination of the number of blades involves design considerations of aerodynamic efficiency, component costs, system reliability, and aesthetics. Noise emissions are affected by the location of the blades upwind or downwind of the tower and the speed of the rotor. Typically one bladed rotors will operate at higher tip speed ratios. Given that the noise emissions vary by the 7th power of blade speed, a small increase in speed can make a big difference.

Wind turbines developed over the last 50 years have almost universally used either two or three blades. Aerodynamic efficiency increases with number of blades but with diminishing return. Increasing the number of blades from one to two yields a six percent increase in aerodynamic efficiency, whereas increasing the blade count from two to three yields only an additional three percent in efficiency. Further increasing the blade count yields minimal improvements in aerodynamic efficiency and sacrifices too much in blade stiffness as the blades become thinner.

Component costs that are affected by blade count are primarily for materials and manufacturing of the turbine rotor and drive train. Generally, the fewer the number of blades, the lower the material and manufacturing costs will be. In addition, the fewer the number of blades, the higher the rotational speed will be. This is because blade stiffness requirements to avoid interference with the tower limit how thin the blades can be. Fewer blades with higher rotational speeds reduce peak torques in the drive train, resulting in lower gearbox and generator costs.

System reliability is affected by blade count primarily through the dynamic loading of the rotor into the drive train and tower systems. While aligning the wind turbine to changes in wind direction (yawing), each blade experiences a cyclic load at its root end depending on blade position. This is true of one, two, three blades or more. However, these cyclic loads when combined together at the drive train shaft are symmetrically balanced for three blades, yielding smoother operation during turbine yaw. Turbines with one or two blades can use a pivoting teetered hub to also nearly eliminate the cyclic loads into the drive shaft and system during yawing.

Finally, aesthetics can be considered a factor in that some people find that the three-bladed rotor is more pleasing to look at than a one- or two-bladed rotor.

Rotation control

 * Tip speed ratio : The ratio between the speed of the wind and the speed of the tips of the blades of a wind turbine. High efficiency 3-blade-turbines have tip speed/wind speed ratios of 6 to 7.

Modern wind turbines are designed to spin at varying speeds (a consequence of their generator design, see below). Use of aluminum and composites in their blades has contributed to low rotational inertia, which means that newer wind turbines can accelerate quickly if the winds pick up, keeping the tip speed ratio more nearly constant. Operating closer to their optimal tip speed ratio during energetic gusts of wind allows wind turbines to improve energy capture from sudden gusts that are typical in urban settings.

In contrast, older style wind turbines were designed with heavier steel blades, which have higher inertia, and rotated at speeds governed by the AC frequency of the power lines. The high inertia buffered the changes in rotation speed and thus made power output more stable.

The speed and torque at which a wind turbine rotates must be controlled for several reasons:


 * To optimize the aerodynamic efficiency of the rotor in light winds.
 * To keep the generator within its speed and torque limits.
 * To keep the rotor and hub within their centripetal force limits. The centripetal force from the spinning rotors increases as the square of the rotation speed, which makes this structure sensitive to overspeed.
 * To keep the rotor and tower within their strength limits. Because the power of the wind increases as the cube of the wind speed, turbines have to be built to survive much higher wind loads (such as gusts of wind) than those from which they can practically generate power. Since the blades generate more downwind force (and thus put far greater stress on the tower) when they are producing torque, most wind turbines have ways of reducing torque in high winds.
 * To enable maintenance; because it is dangerous to have people working on a wind turbine while it is active, it is sometimes necessary to bring a turbine to a full stop.
 * To reduce noise; As a rule of thumb, the noise from a wind turbine increases with the fifth power of the relative wind speed (as seen from the moving tip of the blades). In noise-sensitive environments, the tip speed can be limited to approximately 60 m/s (200 ft/s).

Overspeed control is exerted in two main ways: aerodynamic stalling or furling, and mechanical braking. Furling is the preferred method of slowing wind turbines.

Stalling and furling
Stalling works by increasing the angle at which the relative wind strikes the blades (angle of attack), and it reduces the induced drag (drag associated with lift). Stalling is simple because it can be made to happen passively (it increases automatically when the winds speed up), but it increases the cross-section of the blade face-on to the wind, and thus the ordinary drag. A fully stalled turbine blade, when stopped, has the flat side of the blade facing directly into the wind.

Furling works by decreasing the angle of attack, which reduces the induced drag from the lift of the rotor, as well as the cross-section. One major problem in designing wind turbines is getting the blades to stall or furl quickly enough should a gust of wind cause sudden acceleration. A fully furled turbine blade, when stopped, has the edge of the blade facing into the wind.

A fixed-speed HAWT inherently increases its angle of attack at higher wind speed as the blades speed up. A natural strategy, then, is to allow the blade to stall when the wind speed increases. This technique was successfully used on many early HAWTs. However, on some of these blade sets, it was observed that the degree of blade pitch tended to increase audible noise levels. Standard modern turbines all furl the blades in high winds. Since furling requires acting against the torque on the blade, it requires some form of pitch angle control. Many turbines use hydraulic systems. These systems are usually spring loaded, so that if hydraulic power fails, the blades automatically furl. Other turbines use an electric servomotor for every rotor blade. They have a small battery-reserve in case of an electric-grid breakdown. Small wind turbines (under 50 kW) with variable-pitching generally use systems operated by centrifugal force, either by flyweights or geometric design, and employ no electric or hydraulic controls.

The variable wind speed wind turbine uses furling as its main method of rotation control. The wind turbines have three modes of operation:


 * Below rated wind speed operation
 * Around rated wind speed operation
 * Above rated wind speed operation

At above rated wind speed the rotors furl at an angle to maintain the torque. This is also known as feathering.

Yawing
Modern large wind turbines are typically actively controlled to face the wind direction measured by a wind vane situated on the back of the nacelle. By minimizing the yaw angle, the misalignment between wind and turbine pointing direction, the power output is maximized and non-symmetrical loads minimized. However, since the wind direction varies quickly the turbine will not strictly follow the direction and will have a small yaw angle on average. The power output losses can simplified be approximated to fall with cos3(yaw angle).

Electrical braking


Braking of a small wind turbine can also be done by dumping energy from the generator into a resistor bank, converting the kinetic energy of the turbine rotation into heat. This method is useful if the kinetic load on the generator is suddenly reduced or is too small to keep the turbine speed within its allowed limit.

Cyclically braking causes the blades to slow down, which increases the stalling effect, reducing the efficiency of the blades. This way, the turbine's rotation can be kept at a safe speed in faster winds while maintaining (nominal) power output. This method is usually not applied on large grid-connected wind turbines.

Mechanical braking
A mechanical drum brake or disk brake is used to hold the turbine at rest for maintenance. Such brakes are usually applied only after blade furling and electromagnetic braking have reduced the turbine speed, as the mechanical brakes would wear quickly if used to stop the turbine from full speed. There can also be a stick brake.

Turbine size


For a given survivable wind speed, the mass of a turbine is approximately proportional to the cube of its blade-length. Wind power intercepted by the turbine is proportional to the square of its blade-length. The maximum blade-length of a turbine is limited by both the strength and stiffness of its material.

Labor and maintenance costs increase only gradually with increasing turbine size, so to minimize costs, wind farm turbines are basically limited by the strength of materials, and siting requirements.

Typical modern wind turbines have diameters of 40 to 90 meters (130-300 ft) and are rated between 500 KW and 2 MW. As of 2005 the most powerful turbine is rated at 6 MW.

Generating electricity
For large, commercial size horizontal-axis wind turbines, the generator is mounted in a nacelle at the top of a tower, behind the hub of the turbine rotor. Typically wind turbines generate electricity through asynchronous machines that are directly connected with the electricity grid. Usually the rotational speed of the wind turbine is slower than the equivalent rotation speed of the electrical network - typical rotation speeds for a wind generators are 5-20 rpm while a directly connected machine will have an electrical speed between 750-3600 rpm. Therefore, a gearbox is inserted between the rotor hub and the generator. This also reduces the generator cost and weight.

Commercial size generators have a rotor carrying a field winding so that a rotating magnetic field is produced inside a set of windings called the stator. While the rotating field winding consumes a fraction of a percent of the generator output, adjustment of the field current allows good control over the generator output voltage. Very small wind generators (a few watts to perhaps a kilowatt in output) may use permanent magnets but these are too costly to use in large machines and do not allow convenient regulation of the generator voltage.

Electrical generators inherently produce AC power. Older style wind generators rotate at a constant speed, to match power line frequency, which allowed the use of less costly induction generators. Newer wind turbines often turn at whatever speed generates electricity most efficiently. This can be solved using multiple technologies such as doubly fed induction generators or full-effect converters where the variable frequency current produced is converted to DC and then back to AC, matching the line frequency and voltage. Although such alternatives require costly equipment and cause power loss, the turbine can capture a significantly larger fraction of the wind energy. In some cases, especially when turbines are sited offshore, the DC energy will be transmitted from the turbine to a central (onshore) inverter for connection to the grid.

Blade Materials
New generation wind turbine designs are pushing power generation from the single megawatt range to upwards of 10 megawatts. The common trend of these larger capacity designs are larger and larger turbine blades. Covering a larger area effectively increases the tip-speed ratio of a turbine at a given wind speed, thus increasing the energy extraction capability of a turbine system.

Current production wind turbine blades are manufactured as large as 80 meters in diameter with prototypes in the range of 100 to 120 meters. In 2001, an estimated 50 million kilograms of fiberglass laminate were used in wind turbine blades. New materials and manufacturing methods provide the opportunity to improve wind turbine efficiency by allowing for larger, stronger blades.

One of the most important goals when designing larger blade systems is to keep blade weight under control. Since gravity scales as the cube of the turbine radius, loading due to gravity becomes a constraining design factor for systems with larger blades.

Current manufacturing methods for blades in the 40 to 50 meter range involve various proven fiberglass composite fabrication techniques. Manufactures such as Nordex and GE Wind use a hand lay-up, open-mold, wet process for blade manufacture. Other manufacturers use variations on this technique, some including carbon and wood with fiberglass in an epoxy matrix. Options also include prepreg fiberglass and vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding. Essentially each of these options are variations on the same theme: a glass-fiber reinforced polymer composite constructed through various means with differing complexity. Perhaps the largest issue with more simplistic, open-mold, wet systems are the emissions associated with the volatile organics released into the atmosphere. Preimpregnated materials and resin infusion techniques avoid the release of volatiles by containing all reaction gases. However, these contained processes have their own challenges, namely the production of thick laminates necessary for structural components becomes more difficult. As the perform resin permeability dictates the maximum laminate thickness, bleeding is required to eliminate voids and insure proper resin distribution. A unique solution to resin distribution is the use of a partially preimpregnated fiberglass. During evacuation, the dry fabric provides a path for airflow and, once heat and pressure are applied, resin may flow into the dry region resulting in a thoroughly impregnated laminate structure.

Epoxy based composites are of greatest interest to wind turbine manufacturers because they deliver a key combination of environmental, production, and cost advantages over other resin systems. Epoxies also improve wind turbine blade composite manufacture by allowing for shorter cure cycles, increased durability, and improved surface finish. Prepreg operations further improve cost-effective operations by reducing processing cycles, and therefore manufacturing time, over wet lay-up systems. As turbine blades are approaching 60 meters and greater, infusion techniques are becoming more prevalent as the traditional resin transfer moulding injection time is too long as compared to the resin set up time, thus limiting laminate thickness. Injection forces resin through a thicker ply stack, thus depositing the resin where in the laminate structure before gelatin occurs. Specialized epoxy resins have been developed to customize lifetimes and viscosity to tune resin performance in injection applications.

Carbon fiber reinforced load bearing spars have recently been identified as a cost-effective means for reducing weight and increasing stiffness. The use of carbon fibers in 60 meter turbine blades is estimated to result in a 38% reduction in total blade mass and a 14% decrease in cost as compared to a 100% fiberglass design. The use of carbon fibers has the added benefit of reducing the thickness of fiberglass laminate sections, further addressing the problems associated with resin wetting of thick lay-up sections. Wind turbine applications of carbon fiber may also benefit from the general trend of increasing use and decreasing cost of carbon fiber materials.

Smaller blades can be made from light metals such as aluminum. Wood and canvas sails were originally used on early windmills due to their low price, availability, and ease of manufacture. These materials, however, require frequent maintenance during their lifetime. Also, wood and canvas have a relatively high drag (low aerodynamic efficiency) as compared to the force they capture. For these reasons they have been mostly replaced by solid airfoils.