Senior Director, Innovation & Technology TPI Composites, Inc. Warren, Rhode Island 02885
Composite Wind Blade Engineering and Manufacturing
The expansion of wind generated electrical power has a tremendous positive impact on important geo-political, economic and environmental issues. However, continued growth and the attainment of national goals for the generation of 20% of the nation’s electrical power derived from wind generated sources will depend on important technological advancements to drive the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) lower. The rotor, made up of highly engineered composite blades is a one of the more significant components of this quest. Affecting both the energy produced (AEP) and total capital cost, opportunities abound for improvements in blade design, manufacturing and operations. Today’s presentation will focus on those opportunities and discuss the challenges of manufacturing multi-megawatt scale wind turbine blades.
The informal and open discussion will shed light on all aspects of electric power generation from wind and encourages participation from the student and faculty in attendance. Material, characterization, embedded sensor technologies and automation are discussed in abundance.
Short Biography
Steve Nolet is Senior Director, Innovation & Technology and Principal Engineer at TPI Composites in Warren, Rhode Island. He manages technical activities in the development of low-cost composite structures for the company’s three primary business units: Wind Energy, Military Ground Vehicles, and Transportation Systems. Mr. Nolet also manages the activities of TPI Composite’s Physical Sciences Laboratory and is responsible for the characterization and qualification of resins, reinforcements and their composites used in the development and production of composite products across the organization. Prior to joining TPI, Mr. Nolet was Vice President of Engineering for Fiberspar Corporation where he directed the development of spoolable composite tubulars for the oil and gas industry. Previous positions include Director of Engineering at American Composite Technology and Senior Engineer in the US Air Force Advanced Composite Program Office in Sacramento, California.
Steve received his B.S. degree in aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in June of 1982 and completed his Masters of Science from MIT in the same field in January of 1984. His discipline and course of study focused on application of advanced materials in structural design at both the undergraduate and graduate level.Mr. Nolet’s activities have lead to the issue of more than 27 US Patents on which he is named as inventor.
Dessert speaker:
Rachel Koh University of Massachusetts, Amherst "Bio-based Composites for Large Wind Turbine Blades"
