Wind energy turns to bamboo

Abstract All the blades which power the world's growing number of wind turbines are made of composite materials. However, from the beginning, the best blades have used wood – a naturally growing fibre reinforced composite material – as the primary structural material, comprising some 70% of the weight of the blade. This has been done because wood has superb fatigue behaviour and an unbeatable strength/cost ratio, and it is also a low energy input material. Over 20 years the wood used has progressed from khaya (African mahogany) to poplar to Finnish birch, birch being the best wood available for this usage in the Western world. The only wood available which has better properties than birch is bamboo and a supply route is now being developed for this material.