Sandia’s Jose Zayas on Wind Energy: Background, opportunities and materials challenges

Wind energy expert Jose Zayas earlier this year gave a detailed
presentation about the evolution, physics, siting considerations,
commercial risks and current engineering challenges facing medium- and
large-scale wind turbine efforts in the United States. This presentation
occurred at the Materials Challenges for Alternative and Renewable Energy

Zayas, project manager for Sandia National Lab’s Wind and Water
Technologies, provides valuable information about the tradeoffs being
made among size, speed and materials costs and discusses some of the
innovations arising from collaborations between national labs and
private industry that are bring about new carbon, fiberglass and
carbon–fiberglass systems that are providing greater efficiencies and
durability, but are also presenting major new manufacturing challenges.
Zayas also discusses the enormous appetite wind turbine construction has
for materials, such as fiberglass, and notes that competition for
fiberglass with aerospace manufacturing has created a shortage among
suppliers. (Note: for glass companies, such as PPG Industries, the
demand for fiberglass for wind applications, is allowing the reopening of mothballed factories.)

45 minutes.