Issues: Environment, Community Development, Natural Resource Management, Energy
Stakeholders: Employees, Customers, Communities
Region: Europe
Novelis Nachterstedt supplies aluminum sheet to customer ENERCON for the fabrication of its highly-efficient E82 wind turbine. In recent years, wind energy has increased in popularity and has considerable future growth potential as the benefits of using renewable energy sources as part of an energy mix are realized.
However, a key challenge to producers of wind turbines is to increase their efficiency. ENERCON has achieved this through a variety of design features, including a smaller casing at the top of the tower, behind the rotor blades. Making the casing from Novelis aluminum sheet, rather than fibre glass composites, reduces the weight of this component and further improves the efficiency of the turbine. Aluminum also has the advantage of being a good conductor of heat, providing better lightning protection as a noncombustible material, and being fully recyclable at the end of the turbine’s life.
Today, Novelis and ENERCON are partnering to make the turbines even more efficient. Along with supplying sheet in a traditional format, Novelis is working to add some of the customer’s requirement in a special laser-cut form to help ENERCON reduce scrap. In turn, labor and material costs associated with the unused scrap will be reduced, increasing the overall sustainability of the wind turbines.
