Covestro Receives Chinese Certification for Polyurethane Blade Resin

DNV GL is a leading international industry standard for the safety, reliability and performance of wind turbines, and is also the market entry permit to the wind energy industry in China. Covestro says it was the first company to receive the polyurethane DNV GL certification in 2016.

”Now we obtained the second certification for serving Chinese wind blade manufacturers,” says Kim Klausen, global head of Covestro's wind energy programme. “This brings us a big step closer to our goal of increasing the efficiency of wind power generation.”

Covestro has developed a technology for manufacturing blades using polyurethane resin and glass fibre fabric. Taking advantage of the excellent mechanical properties of the polyurethane resin system, wind blades can be made lighter and longer through optimised blade design, the company reports. Polyurethane offers faster curing and improved processing properties compared with epoxy resins, and so productivity can be significantly increased.

With the highest total capacity installed worldwide, China represented around 43% of new installations in the global wind energy industry in 2016.