IACMI’s Colorado Facility

Strengthening wind energy growth in the US energy market

Colorado is home to IACMI’s Wind Turbine Technology Area. Capitalizing on the long and productive history of collaboration between federal and state agencies and major wind industry Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), IACMI’s facility is developing, testing, and deploying transformational manufacturing methods, designs, and materials.

About CoMET

The Composites Manufacturing Education and Technology Facility (CoMET), the 10,000-ft2 wind energy facility, is housed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

State/academic partners have included the Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University, Iowa State University, the University of Colorado (Boulder), and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT).

CoMET opened its doors in 2017. The cutting-edge facility is the result of a funding partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Decarbonization Offices, IACMI, the State of Colorado, and NREL.

Building on its 30+-year history of collaboration with major wind turbine original equipment manufacturers and U.S. blade manufacturers, NREL leads the wind turbine technology area of IACMI.

IACMI began with a 5-year funding opportunity announcement through the Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Decarbonization Offices of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). NREL was on the winning team to lead IACMI’s wind turbine technology area. In this role, NREL works to drive down the cost of energy for wind power and achieve DOE and IACMI goals by providing comprehensive expertise and technical capabilities.

IACMI has three 5-year technical goals compared to benchmarks in 2015:

  1. 50% lower carbon fiber-reinforced polymer cost
  2. 75% reduction in carbon fiber-reinforced polymer embodied energy
  3. 95% composite recyclability into useful products.

Projects

IACMI projects are selected based on their likelihood to meet our goals. All projects must have strong leadership and support from industry. We focus on projects that intend to commercialize new technologies in support of the goals. In October 2020, the Advanced Thermoplastic Resins for Manufacturing Wind Turbine Blades project, a technology born out of CoMET, was honored with an R&D 100 Special Recognition Award for being a “market disruptor.”

Funded in part by DOE, a current 3-year project on manufacturing automation is underway as a collaboration between NREL, IACMI, and GE Vernova. Future projects for IACMI might include manufacturing innovations such as:

Designed to work in conjunction with NREL’s design, analysis, and structural validation capabilities, the facility expedites composites materials and manufacturing innovation and is open to industry partners and university researchers.

Partner With Us

NREL offers a variety of ways for organizations to gain access to NREL’s research expertise in wind and marine energy technologies:

Major wind energy OEMs involved with our Wind Turbine Technology Area have included GE, Siemens Gamesa, Vestas, TPI Composites and LM Windpower. Other key IACMI members include Arkema, DMS, Gates, Johns Manville, Lockheed Martin, Steelhead, and Vartega.

Research Features

Key Equipment and Technology: 

  • 3D printed blade tooling 
  • Composite material mixing equipment 
  • Novel materials for rapid prototyping 
  • Infusion, pultrusion, prepreg and RTM capabilities
  • Industrial robotic platform for automation research 
  • Composite recycling processing and material characterization 
  • Design and manufacturing modeling and simulation 
  • Structural property characterization

Technical Area Advisor

David Snowberg
Director, Wind Turbine Technologies Area David.Snowberg@nrel.gov