New Ideas for Tall Composite Wind Turbine Towers-Adapting to a Sustainable Future

Placing a wind turbine on a short tower is akin to positioning a solar panel in the shade. Currently, most towers are monopoles constructed primarily from steel or concrete, or both. However, as wind turbine towers grow taller, they encounter significant challenges related to transporting the more massive tower components. Moreover, the concrete tower foundation constitutes a substantial portion—75%—of the entire onshore wind turbine’s weight, thereby contributing significantly to global CO2 pollution, which should be included into the decarbonization algebra. While offshore towers are more transport-friendly, they still require massive steel substructures, with a substantial part of the associated technology remaining untested for deep waters. This paper aims to resurrect a 130-year-old steel tower construction technology pioneered by the legendary Ukrainian genius Shukov (1858-1939). Specifically, it focuses on hyperboloid-type towers, many of which were installed in the former Soviet Union as water towers and electrical transmission towers. These towers demanded a skilled labor force for installation but never gained popularity in the West. The West favored structurally heavier and more buckling prone steel lattice towers, which had fewer skill requirements. Revisiting and adapting hyperboloid tower technology for composites has revealed new and significant advantages in construction, ease of assembly, and greatly reduced foundation requirements for both onshore and offshore wind turbines. The type of advanced composites construction that is elucidated in this paper goes a long way to meet the performance and sustainability criteria that are called for in the DOE Earthshots and Windshots programs.