Concrete wind turbines

    By building wind turbine towers from concrete instead of steel, the top height of a turbine column could be increased by 20 meters.
    To determine if concrete would be a viable replacement for steel, hydraulic equipment was used to test the load-bearing capabilities of three column-and-panel segments connected in different ways. All three versions were able to withstand 150,000 pounds of lateral load, with is 20 percent more than the maximum load of current turbine columns of the same height.
    It is believed that using concrete instead of steel will extend the longevity of wind turbines, make transportation easier due to the smaller parts, and allow for longer wind turbine blades.