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- Category: Articles
Life-Cycle Analysis of Four Taller Wind Turbine Tower Options
Taller wind turbines are becoming desirable in the growing wind energy industry. This article takes a deeper look at four options for taller towers. Steel towers, concrete towers, hybrid towers and the recently developed ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) tower are all viable options for hosting 100-metre (328-ft) hub height turbines. However, the environmental impact of each of these towers varies significantly. In this article, a life-cycle analysis (LCA) is used to compare these tower options over both short-term and long-term periods to reveal the most sustainable tower option for these taller turbines.By Sarah Gustitus, environmental engineering student, University of Florida, USA
- Category: Articles
Potential, Challenges and Opportunities
Wind turbines installed throughout the USA in the 1980s and early 1990s are reaching the end of their useful lives; in fact, 1,500MW of wind capacity is older than 15 years. Wind turbine technology has evolved significantly over the past 20 years, making new turbines more powerful and better able to capture the wind power potential at these sites. At the same time, a number of challenges exist for the owner or developer considering repowering. This article discusses the repowering potential in the USA along with the drivers and barriers that shape the repowering decision and market.By Alicia Abrams, Consultant, DNV KEMA, USA
- Category: Articles
The '1000 Poles' Plan in the Netherlands
Self-supply of electricity, which aims to make sustainability possible and accessible for a greater number of people, is currently a much discussed topic. It is an old idea that was given new life 15 years agoby the ‘Windvogel’ (Wind Bird) cooperative in the Netherlands, an association that now has over 3,000 members. The cooperative has now launched the idea of creating a sustainable energy supply for all Dutch citizens using a thousand 7.5MW wind turbines. The wind turbines would be owned by the citizens, who would then be both the producers and users of renewable energy (i.e. ‘prosumers’).
Self-supply of electricity, which aims to make sustainability possible and accessible for a greater number of people, is currently a much discussed topic. It is an old idea that was given new life 15 years agoby the ‘Windvogel’ (Wind Bird) cooperative in the Netherlands, an association that now has over 3,000 members. The cooperative has now launched the idea of creating a sustainable energy supply for all Dutch citizens using a thousand 7.5MW wind turbines. The wind turbines would be owned by the citizens, who would then be both the producers and users of renewable energy (i.e. ‘prosumers’).By Frits Ogg, Renewable Energy Consultant, The Netherlands
- Category: Articles
Bright Strategic and Economic Perspectives for Onshore Wind in Medium to Low Wind Speed Areas
Commercial availability of the new IEC3A wind turbine models, which have been specifically designed for high productivity in low and light wind conditions, opens new opportunities for onshore wind power development worldwide. An open question is whether the price of electricity delivered from wind farms using this type of wind turbine will be competitive with the cost of kilowatt-hours (kWh) from conventional power plants and/or from electricity markets. The analysis proposed in this article by Bernard Chabot shows that there are good prospects for cost competitiveness; meaning that power produced in these low and light wind conditions will soon be one of the most competitive energy technologies able to deliver clean electricity in the vast majority of countries.By Bernard Chabot, Consultant & Trainer on Renewable Energy, BCCONSULT, France
- Category: Articles
Not so Harmonious?
This article describes an aspect of wind turbine operation related to control instability which may result in excessive harmonic currents injection from wind turbines, well above the typical level. This phenomenon and has been reported for a number of wind plants. The excessive harmonic currents were the result of the interactions between harmonic currents on the power systems and turbine controls under particular operating conditions. These conditions can be summarised as follows: (1) the presence of background harmonics and resonance conditions in the power system and (2) undampened turbine control response at frequencies coinciding with one or more of the harmonic currents in the power system. Both these conditions will be explained in this article, and the resulting control interaction will be clarified. Harmonic interaction is a known problem among power electronics engineers and control designers, and mitigating solutions are available.By Grazia Todeschini, EnerNex, USA
- Category: Articles
Engineering the Next-Generation Technology Together
According to Pertti Kurttila from The Switch, today’s businesses need to constantly build on uncertainty. They need to be ready and responsive to continual market changes. The customer and supplier need to create a tight-knit team, constantly taking small steps in the same direction in order to engineer tomorrow’s wind technology. In this article, Mr Kurttila explains ‘agile positioning’ and how The Switch has used this concept to refine its business model.By Pertti Kurttila, Vice President, Supply Chain, The Switch
- Category: Articles
A Radically New Turbine that Works in Wind and Water
The industry gold standard is the three-bladed, horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT), but one has to wonder why. As explained below, HAWTs come with many inherent problems. EverLiftWind Technologies have been investigating an alternative based on a fixed-wing type airfoil, and in this article Peter Keller describes the company’s new concept, the Looped Airfoil Wind Turbine or LAWT.By Peter R. Keller, Vice President for Marketing & Co-founder, EverLiftWind Technologies, USA
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| #13 GE Vernova 1.5MW wind turbines installed at Turkey Track wind farm in Nolan, Texas, USA (courtesy Rollin Wolf Koons) |
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