Carbon composites are commonly used in the energy sector to meet the current socio-economic challenges of the industry.

The use of power cables based on carbon composite cores for the design of high-voltage overhead lines offers unbeatable benefits to overcome various challenges:

• on existing networks, increase in the transmission capacity (up to twice as much) with no structural modifications,
• on new lines, increase in the distance between pylons leading to landscape protection and an economic benefit
• reduction in the number of support cables.

Toray Carbon Fibers Europe has built up a strong expertise in the development and qualification of carbon cores for power cables and meets the requirements and constraints of the sector: qualification steps, service life (40 years), product traceability, supply chain security thanks to a vertically integrated supply chain scheme, and a worldwide presence of the Toray Group to support our partners in each geographic area.

Renewable sources of energy such as wind also bring application opportunities for composites.

Offshore wind farms offer a potential development for composites thanks to:

• better social acceptance,
• fatigue resistance leading to reduced maintenance time and cost,
• resistance to the marine environment conditions.