Power Engineering - New 12X stronger than steel technology earns $100,000 federal grant for wind application

Giant wind turbine towers two football fields tall to be developed generating lower cost electricity from renewable wind power source

SALT LAKE CITY, June 18, 2002 -- Utah based PYRAmatrix Structures Inc. announced the receipt of an SBIR Phase 1 award from the Department of Energy (DOE) for the development of much taller, lighter weight and lower cost wind turbine towers to generate electricity using PYRAmatrix(TM) technology.

"PYRAmatrix is the world's first advanced composite structure configured in a lattice geometry for superior strength. This makes PYRAmatrix the lightest, strongest, most efficient structure available...91% lighter than steel and 76% lighter than aluminum" said Jerral R. Pulley, Chairman of PYRAmatrix.

PYRAmatrix, made from carbon fiber, fiberglass or a combination, utilizes unique geometric technology that optimizes the inherent strength of reinforcing pyramids and triangles, thereby requiring less high-cost fiber material.

A 47-foot long PYRamatrix cylinder, 18 inches in diameter and weighing just 23 pounds can support almost 4 tons...or 350 times its own weight. To support the same weight, a steel cylinder in the same dimensions would weigh 1875 pounds and support only 4.3 times its own weight.

Tracy Livingston, the PYRAmatrix Chief Technology Officer, commented, "PYRAmatrix' vastly lighter weight and ease of modular transport and assembly provides the ideal lower cost solution to the problem of erecting taller, greater capacity and more efficient wind turbine towers. Towers of 5.0 megawatt (MW) capacity built with PYRAmatix technology can reduce total tower costs by 53% vs. a steel tower of the same size and capacity. This large reduction in tower cost decreases the cost of energy vs. conventional steel towers. In fact, the energy cost from large wind turbines using PYRAmatrix technology approaches that from environmentally dirty non-renewable coal-fired power plants."

"Wind turbine tower costs rise exponentially with tower height due to the extremely high costs of transportation and installation. For example, a 282 foot 1.5 MW tubular steel tower costs about $382,000 whereas a 511 foot 5.0 MW tower exceeds $3 million. This precludes steel as the solution for the taller and higher MW capacity towers needed to 1) access stronger winds at greater heights and 2) accommodate the much longer rotor blade lengths of these larger turbines," Livingston continued.

Interestingly, steel towers to support 5.0 MW capacity installations weigh over one million pounds. These towers are so large and heavy as to be impractical and uneconomical for land transport, relegating them to offshore barge transported locations. In contrast, the 5.0 MW capacity PYRAmatix tower would weigh only 30,000-pounds and, due to its Tinker Toy(r) like modularity, be infinitely easier and cheaper to transport

New 12X Stronger Than Steel Technology Earns $100,000 Federal Grant continued
and assemble. By using a PYRAmatrix tower, wind operators can now place these larger, more efficient wind turbines on land near the communities where the power is needed most.

The grant will initially focus on the development of 1.5MW towers before proceeding with work on 5MW systems. According to an initial company study and data obtained from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the WindPACT study, the transportation, assembly, and manufacturing costs for 1.5 MW towers will be reduced 37% from an average of $382,000 down to $240,000 with a resulting weight savings greater than 96%.

PYRAmatrix also has design flexibility and can be made from virtually any combination of off-the shelf fiber and resin materials (including fibers with extremely high temperature tolerance), in products from 3 inches to more than 20 feet in diameter and in lengths over 300 feet. Configuration options include round, oval, tapered or box.

This lighter weight strength technology was developed by Professor David Jensen at Brigham Young University over a period of seven years using nearly $3 million in funding from NASA, the National Science Foundation, the State of Utah plus BYU and is now being commercialized by PYRAmatrix Structures, Inc.

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