On-site 3D Concrete Printing for Next-Generation Low-Cost Wind Plants
Advancing on-site 3D concrete printed turbine towers to enable tall wind development.
RCAM Technologies
Recipient
Irvine, CA
Recipient Location
37th
Senate District
73rd
Assembly District
$2,940,269
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
The project team continued 3D printing and casting tower segments as part of the construction process of a tower specimen and conducted indoor and outdoor printing trials to assess the buildability of materials. The team completed a life cycle assessment of 3D concrete printed towers incorporating recycled products and showed this approach may significantly reduce the environmental impacts of ultra-tall turbine towers compared to conventional steel towers. The team is working towards completing fatigue testing of the tower assembly.
The Issue
The size of wind turbine towers is constrained by transportation size and weight, making conventional towers prohibitively expensive for larger next-generation turbines in California. Overhead traffic signals, road width, and weight regulations limit conventional steel tubular towers to sub-optimal diameters of 4.3 meters. The tallest wind turbine towers installed in California is is currently limited to 100 meters. The reinforced additive manufacturing technology has the potential to reduce capital costs for land-based tall towers by reducing installation time and logistics challenges, and increasing safety compared with conventional concrete construction methods.
Project Innovation
This agreement aims to manufacture, demonstrate, and test wind tower sections and offshore wind energy components using an onsite three-dimensional concrete printed (3DCP) manufacturing process and design. The advancement in scientific knowledge in 3DCP materials, manufacturing methods and large-scale structural performance will facilitate the deployment of large land-based and offshore wind technologies that use 3DCP components to increase the cost-competitiveness of the wind energy generation needed to meet California's statutory energy goals.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
Reinforced concrete additive manufacturing (RCAM)'s 3D printed (3DCP) towers will reduce tower capital costs by up to approximately 50% compared to 140-m steel tower for a 7.5-MW next generation turbine. RCAM is faster and safer than conventional concrete construction methods, while providing new transformative design possibilities that reduce cost and energy consumed by using less concrete than conventional construction and by eliminating concrete forms. The highly mobile 3DCP equipment and California's existing concrete supply chain can cost-effectively produce towers and foundations on-site in manufacturing lots of any size needed for California wind plants. The scope includes design, fabrication, pilot testing and demonstration of tower sections at up to 1:2 scale in laboratory and outdoor environments.
Consumer Appeal
The use of additive 3D manufacturing approaches facilitate the development of taller wind turbines that significantly reduce the number of wind turbines deployed on a site for a given wind plant capacity.
Affordability
This additive concrete 3D manufacturing technology targets are to manufacture a hybrid 140-m wind turbine tower on-site, at half the cost of conventional steel 140-m towers for a 7.5 MW next generation turbine.
Economic Development
Increasing the tower height from 80 m to 140 m may increase the potential wind capacity in California by more than 10 times (from 6 GW to 67 GW).
Environmental Sustainability
Wind deployments avoid substantial emissions of greenhouse gases compared to fossil fuel generated electricity. Wind generated electricity emits up to 120 times less carbon dioxide (CO2e) than natural gas generated electricity.
Reliability
As California moves toward a zero-carbon electricity mix in 2045, offshore wind can provide value to the grid by balancing solar generation.
Key Project Members
Jason Cotrell
Subrecipients
University of California, Irvine
Verdical Group
WSP
Fruanhofer Institute
Vertico
Match Partners
RCAM Technologies
