At the Holland High Tech Event 2021, the winners of the HiTMaT competition 2021 have been announced. We are pleased to report that the HiTMaT proposal Innovating sustainable materials and processes for the wind energy Transition has been awarded.
With this project, TU Delft, Suzlon and M2i will develop next-generation composite materials and processes for wind turbine blades, designed to be fully circular. Considering bio-based, self-healing, self-regenerating, and repairable materials, we address both composite material manufacturing and recycling. The scientific challenge will be to design and create a material system that can survive operation in harsh wind turbine conditions with minimum maintenance for 20+ years, and that can be recycled at the end of life using environmentally friendly approaches; retrieving virgin material with the same quality as the original.