JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #90 - June/July 2014 - 3

Blades and wings...
for the environment

51th year
President and CEO/Publisher:
Frédérique Mutel
mutel@jeccomposites.com

Media director & Editor-in-chief:
Frédéric Reux
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 11
reux@jeccomposites.com
Franck Glowacz
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 04
glowacz@jeccomposites.com

Writer & Conference manager:
Cécile Lagoutte
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15.13
lagoutte@jeccomposites.com

Deputy-editor & Graphic designer:
Antoine Morel
morel@jeccomposites.com

Technical & Business manager:
Thierry Saint-Martin
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 73
saintmartin@jeccomposites.com

Technical & Business developer:
Kim -Oanh Truong
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 74
kim@jeccomposites.com

Marketing/Circulation:
presse@jeccomposites.com
Sandrine Dumarquez
dumarquez@jeccomposites.com

Subscriptions:
www.jeccomposites.com/magazine-subscription/

Printing: Chirat, Saint-Just-la-Pendue (42), France
Legal registration:
ISSN 1639-965X
Dépôt légal : 3eme trimestre 2014

Photos & illustrations:
All right reserved, unless mentionned.

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Fax: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 14
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Total Qualified
Circulation:
33,396 copies
BPA December statement 2013 (Print circulation
of 21,898 and electronic circulation of 11,498)

Frédéric Reux

Editor-in-chief
reux@jeccomposites.com

Despite the current political and economic vicissitudes, the wind energy sector
is continuing to develop at a sustained
rate worldwide. We should not, however,
underestimate the loss of momentum in
certain countries. Beyond the volumes of
composite materials that this represents,
it should be emphasized that significant
progress made was in two areas in particular; two areas that offer major growth
prospects for composite materials over the
mid-term: small wind turbines and offshore
applications.
Overall 2013 was marked by a significant reduction in the installed capacities
worldwide: 35,289 MW compared to
45,169 MW in 2012. The good news, with
Europe treading water and North America
slumping to 3,063 MW installed capacity,
is that Asia - driven by China - has shown
a new upturn after a decline in 2012. Over
16.1 GW were installed in China in 2013
- out of a total of 18.21 GW for Asia as a
whole - compared to 12.96 GW in 2012: a
significant and promising upturn.
The small wind turbines sector is not making major headlines, yet it does offer strong
potential. The aggregate installed capacity
is approximately 200 MW in 2014, but the
forecasts point to some 2,500 MW by 2020,
in other words, tomorrow. In quantity, this
represents more than 800,000 installed
units worldwide, and this number is set
to rise rapidly. Three countries stand out:
China, the USA and the UK. Yet it is easy to
imagine that India, Africa and the Middle
East, among others, will be coming to the
fore, such being the worldwide demand
for electricity. Small wind turbines are
particularly suited to individual installations
(although not exclusively), and to zones that

are remote from all infrastructures. Along
with custom solar power, a sector in which
composites also have a part to play, SWTs
offers auxiliary access to energy. Notwithstanding the fact that it is the dream of
so many in the advanced economies to be
energy-independent.
In the field of offshore applications, two
facts need to be underlined, at least as far as
Europe is concerned. Wind turbine power
just keeps on growing. In the space of barely
10 years, the capacity of wind turbines has
increased on average from 2 MW to 4 MW
and, simultaneously, the average size of
offshore wind projects has also significantly
increased: 482 MW in 2013 compared to
286 MW in 2012. In this context, the installed power capacity now amounts to 6,562
MW produced by 2,080 wind turbines
distributed over 69 wind farms. Also worthy
of note is the extensive testing being carried
out on floating structures, which will ultimately generate a vast market.
In another field, but one which is ultimately
not unrelated since it also involves clean
energy, Solar Impulse 2 has had its maiden
flight. We were discussing this in our last
editorial. On June 2, toward the end of the
day, at the Payerne airbase in Switzerland,
Solar Impulse 2 took off for the first time,
on a flight that lasted 2h15, i.e. 30 minutes
more than anticipated. The test campaign
will last several months, but the project
relevance has already been proven, as has
the immense contribution of composite
materials to the construction of this solarpowered aircraft, weighing in at a mere
2,300 kg for a total wingspan of 72 m. This
maiden flight is just the start of a great
adventure, promising hope in our search
for clean modes of transport. The aircraft
should fly around the world in 2015.

No90 June - July 2014 /

Conference & Technical editor:

jec composites magazine 3

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JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #90 - June/July 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #90 - June/July 2014