POWDERBLADE aims to gain market acceptance and rapid market take up of an innovative materials technology involving carbon/glass fibres in powder epoxy to be commercialised initially in the production of larger wind turbine blades (60 metre +). The immediate impact of this disruptive materials technology in the wind energy sector will be reduced wind turbine cost (-20%). This in turn will lead to increased productivity of low-carbon energy from more rapid market deployment of large turbines. The reduction in costs and increase in productivity will reduce the Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for the European citizen – the ultimate beneficiary of this innovation. This ambitious project is led by Éire Composites, an established industry player in composites manufacturing for the Aerospace and Renewable sectors and an experienced FP7/Horizon 2020 participant.In the year after project end, ÉireComposites will generate over €7m in revenue from direct sales of larger blade components using the new materials, increasing to €39m by 2021. The longer term commercial strategy is to focus on recurring revenues from the supply of advanced materials directly to manufacturers to produce blades and other products under license. This revenue stream will generate €60m by 2021. ÉireComposites will employ an additional 78 staff in direct production at project end increasing to 489 employees over both revenue streams three years later. Suzlon, a large wind OEM and end user, is the second industry partner. Their involvement demonstrates early market acceptance of the new technology. Suzlon are committed to investing substantial funds in the commercialisation of this technology in return for the opportunity to gain significantly as the first large industry player to market with light, cost-effective carbon-glass hybrid blades. Technology partner (University of Edinburgh) and innovation specialists (WestBIC) will support the industry partners in achieving the goals of POWDERBLADE.

Advanced composite manufacturing is becoming crucial in the global sustainable drive for a climate-neutral future as enabler of light-weight structures in, for example, the aerospace and wind energy sector. Their increased relevance has raised the importance of damage tolerance and durability of composite structures, currently dealt with time-consuming and inaccurate techniques. Hence the objective of D-STANDART is to develop fast and efficient methods to model the durability of large-scale composite structures with arbitrary lay-ups under realistic conditions (loads, environment). New test methodologies will be developed using generic specimens to correctly quantify material parameters that determine the durability of composites under cyclical loading. Material characterisation will be used in high-fidelity models to simulate defect growth in various lay-ups and at various scales as a function of cyclical loading and rate. To apply these models in an industrial design environment, D-STANDART will make use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) surrogate models, trained using test data from the project and historical test data to easily adapt to different design parameters and complex lay-ups, thereby accelerating the development, uptake, and commercialisation of advanced components. Two use cases have been selected to validate the modelled durability performance both in the aerospace and renewable energy sectors. Furthermore, circularity and sustainability will be assessed via dedicated life-cycle assessment, life cycle costing and cost-benefit analysis. This 36-month €5.6M valued action involves, 9 partners (3 universities, 2 RTOs, 2 industry, and 2 SMEs) from four countries (United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany, and France). The consortium will be supported by an Advisory Board formed of 6 End users embracing the value chain to validate requirements, guide on relevant approach to certification, and finally support results uptake, in tight alignment with EMCC.