In this article, Joanne explores the rapid evolution of wind power and reflects on advances in turbine technology and blade materials, highlighting how innovation has driven massive gains in efficiency since the 1850s.
I live on the south coast of England and enjoy watching the graceful wind turbines of the Rampion wind farm on peaceful strolls along the boardwalk. The Rampion wind farm was officially opened in 2018 and is made up of 116 wind turbines1 with an installed capacity of 400 MW2. I was excited to hear that the UK government approved planning permission for the extension (Rampion 2) of this wind farm off the Sussex coast earlier this month. Rampion 2 is planned to provide 90 wind turbines with an installed capacity of 1.2 GW3.
From a technological development perspective, it does seem quite staggering that such a huge increase in wind turbine capacity has been achieved over the relatively short period of time between the installation of Rampion and Rampion 2.
A large amount of my work at HLK is in the field of fabrics for wind turbine blades, so it’s great to see the real-world results of the research and development that goes into producing novel fabrics which allow for the production of larger wind turbine blades and in turn more efficient wind turbines.
As it’s HLK’s 175th birthday this year, I decided to have a look into the developments in harnessing wind power since 1850.
Wind has been used as a source of power for millennia, from propelling boats to windmills for grinding grains.
Harnessing the power of wind – Image of Jo windsurfing off the Sussex coast
The first wind engine patents appear to have been filed in the early 1850s, just after our legacy firm Haseltine, Lake & Co. began operating. The Hallady Windmill4 was designed to automatically turn to face changing wind directions and speed controlled by changing the angle of the sails.
Figure from US11629A
In the 1890s steel blades were invented for windmills and wind power was used in North America to pump water and windmills were used to generate electricity for homes and small businesses5.
The development of glass fiber fabrics over the 20th century allowed for the production of lighter and larger structurally robust composite wind turbine blades. It wasn’t until 1991 that the Delabole wind farm in Cornwall was created as the first commercial wind farm in the UK6 made up of 10 turbines with a total capacity of around 4MW7. In the same year, the world’s first offshore wind farm, Vindeby, with a total installed capacity of 5MW was built in Denmark8.
The power output of a wind turbine is dependent on the length of the wind turbine blades, so a 50% increase in tip height more than doubles the power output of a wind turbine9. Developments in the fabrics and processes used to provide composite wind turbine blades have allowed the production of much longer wind turbine blades over the last 20 years. This explains the close to 10-fold increase in installed capacity provided by the wind turbines of the Rampion wind farm installed in 2018, which consists of wind turbines having a blade length of 55m and an output of 3.45MW per wind turbine10, compared to the wind turbines of the first offshore wind farm in the 1990s. The wind turbines of the Rampion 2 wind farm will contain wind turbines each capable of providing an output over three times those of the Rampion wind farm built just seven years ago!
This is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Should you require advice on this or any other topic then please contact hlk@hlk-ip.com or your usual HLK advisor.
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