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- Category: Articles
Making Inspection More Cost-Effective
In this article, Marcel Bruins explains how rotor blades can be inspected using drones. The idea of performing rotor blade inspections in a safer and more cost-effective way was conceived a few years ago, when he was still working for a rotor blade repair and maintenance company (previously Aerpac in Almelo, The Netherlands, which was later taken over by GE Wind Energy). Marcel currently works as a project manager for the International Business Support department, at Availon GmbH, the largest independent service provider in Europe.
By Marcel Bruins, International Project Manager, Availon, Germany
In this article, Marcel Bruins explains how rotor blades can be inspected using drones. The idea of performing rotor blade inspections in a safer and more cost-effective way was conceived a few years ago, when he was still working for a rotor blade repair and maintenance company (previously Aerpac in Almelo, The Netherlands, which was later taken over by GE Wind Energy). Marcel currently works as a project manager for the International Business Support department, at Availon GmbH, the largest independent service provider in Europe.By Marcel Bruins, International Project Manager, Availon, Germany
- Category: Articles
The New Control Platform
kk-electronic has been an active participant in the wind power industry since its early days and we have been able to influence the development of the industry with our products and innovations. Our first control system (in 1978) gave the ability to connect to the grid, and since then five generations of products have refined and optimised the performance of control systems and wind turbines. The newest solution from kk-electronic – the ‘C’ control platform – was introduced in April 2012. This new control platform breaks with traditional thinking about control systems, since it adds several new dimensions to the product category.
By Erik Gammelgaard, Marketing Manager, kk-electronic, Denmark
kk-electronic has been an active participant in the wind power industry since its early days and we have been able to influence the development of the industry with our products and innovations. Our first control system (in 1978) gave the ability to connect to the grid, and since then five generations of products have refined and optimised the performance of control systems and wind turbines. The newest solution from kk-electronic – the ‘C’ control platform – was introduced in April 2012. This new control platform breaks with traditional thinking about control systems, since it adds several new dimensions to the product category.By Erik Gammelgaard, Marketing Manager, kk-electronic, Denmark
- Category: Articles
Potential and Limitations
During the last two decades of commercial wind turbine development one of the most obvious trends has been the growth in the size of turbines and the rotor blades to drive them. Along with this the average rotor power loading has decreased to values about half those of ten years ago. Some of the recent turbines are new models especially designed for low wind speed regimes, but most of them are existing wind turbines equipped with larger and larger rotor blades. The following article gives some insight into the possibilities and limitations of such turbine derivatives and will pay particular attention to the need to alter other turbine components as a result of the increase in the rotor diameter.
By Albrecht Kantelberg and Roland Stoer, Managing Directors, WINDnovation Engineering Solutions, Berlin, Germany
During the last two decades of commercial wind turbine development one of the most obvious trends has been the growth in the size of turbines and the rotor blades to drive them. Along with this the average rotor power loading has decreased to values about half those of ten years ago. Some of the recent turbines are new models especially designed for low wind speed regimes, but most of them are existing wind turbines equipped with larger and larger rotor blades. The following article gives some insight into the possibilities and limitations of such turbine derivatives and will pay particular attention to the need to alter other turbine components as a result of the increase in the rotor diameter.By Albrecht Kantelberg and Roland Stoer, Managing Directors, WINDnovation Engineering Solutions, Berlin, Germany
- Category: Articles
Load Comparisons between a Partial Pitch Two-Bladed Turbine and a Three-Bladed Turbine
This article shows the potential for reducing extreme loads with an innovative design of wind turbine, a partial pitch two-bladed concept turbine. The most extreme conditions to test a turbine are considered to be stand-still combined with a grid failure in which the wind comes from all directions from 0 to 360 degrees. All aeroelastic load simulations are done by using the aeroelastic code HAWC2. From the load comparisons between the partial pitch two-bladed turbine and a conventional three-bladed turbine it is observed that the partial pitch two-bladed turbine can reduce the extreme tower bottom bending moment by approximately 33% compared to the three-bladed turbine.
By Taeseong Kim, Wind Energy Department, Technical University of Denmark Risø Campus, Denmark
This article shows the potential for reducing extreme loads with an innovative design of wind turbine, a partial pitch two-bladed concept turbine. The most extreme conditions to test a turbine are considered to be stand-still combined with a grid failure in which the wind comes from all directions from 0 to 360 degrees. All aeroelastic load simulations are done by using the aeroelastic code HAWC2. From the load comparisons between the partial pitch two-bladed turbine and a conventional three-bladed turbine it is observed that the partial pitch two-bladed turbine can reduce the extreme tower bottom bending moment by approximately 33% compared to the three-bladed turbine.By Taeseong Kim, Wind Energy Department, Technical University of Denmark Risø Campus, Denmark
- Category: Articles
A Description of the Main Flow Features
Forested areas often have considerable potential wind power available, and because they are sparsely populated they have the advantage that there are fewer people to object to any wind turbines. Also, these onshore sites are convenient because of the low maintenance costs when compared to offshore wind farms. However, it is generally recognised that the wind flow over a forest will be highly turbulent, leading to more severe fatigue loads on the wind turbine blades than those encountered on other flatter, more homogeneous sites. This article attempts to provide a description of the main characteristic wind flow features in forested areas, together with an overview of the current methods being used to evaluate the quality of a given forest site.
By Antonio Segalini, the Linné FLOW Centre of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden
Forested areas often have considerable potential wind power available, and because they are sparsely populated they have the advantage that there are fewer people to object to any wind turbines. Also, these onshore sites are convenient because of the low maintenance costs when compared to offshore wind farms. However, it is generally recognised that the wind flow over a forest will be highly turbulent, leading to more severe fatigue loads on the wind turbine blades than those encountered on other flatter, more homogeneous sites. This article attempts to provide a description of the main characteristic wind flow features in forested areas, together with an overview of the current methods being used to evaluate the quality of a given forest site.By Antonio Segalini, the Linné FLOW Centre of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden
- Category: Articles
How to Build Tomorrow's 12MW Turbine with Components Available Today
The 5 to 7MW range turbine is the upper end of what you can achieve by enlarging megawatt-scale architecture, but it is an awkward size range. The weights are high, the installation equipment is not commonly available and the cost of energy is not on a par with 1 to 3MW onshore installations. The question is how can we upscale beyond this awkward limit, and bring costs back down? The Nextwind Gaia architecture overcomes the barriers to upsizing existing wind turbine technologies, and aims to make possible large-scale offshore wind plants which will beat the initial cost, and cost of energy, of land-based wind farms.
By Rain Byars and William Miller, Nextwind, USA
The 5 to 7MW range turbine is the upper end of what you can achieve by enlarging megawatt-scale architecture, but it is an awkward size range. The weights are high, the installation equipment is not commonly available and the cost of energy is not on a par with 1 to 3MW onshore installations. The question is how can we upscale beyond this awkward limit, and bring costs back down? The Nextwind Gaia architecture overcomes the barriers to upsizing existing wind turbine technologies, and aims to make possible large-scale offshore wind plants which will beat the initial cost, and cost of energy, of land-based wind farms.By Rain Byars and William Miller, Nextwind, USA
- Category: Articles
Reducing the Cost of Energy by Reducing Overall Cost of the System
Researchers at Cleveland State University (CSU), an urban school in Cleveland, Ohio, have designed a wind tower system that is aligned with the small distributed wind energy systems initiative of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the US Department of Energy. The patented system is designed to facilitate the conversion of wind energy into useable electricity at locations where the wind speed is relatively low, and where conventional wind turbines do not yield significant amounts of electrical power. One of the goals of this research project at CSU is to reduce the cost for generating electricity via reducing the overall cost of the system. As a result of the unique modular attributes of the design the system can be scaled up along its vertical axis, while at the same time keeping its footprint and the size of its individual turbines unchanged for different targeted power ratings.
By Dr Majid Rashidi, Cleveland State University (CSU), USA
Researchers at Cleveland State University (CSU), an urban school in Cleveland, Ohio, have designed a wind tower system that is aligned with the small distributed wind energy systems initiative of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the US Department of Energy. The patented system is designed to facilitate the conversion of wind energy into useable electricity at locations where the wind speed is relatively low, and where conventional wind turbines do not yield significant amounts of electrical power. One of the goals of this research project at CSU is to reduce the cost for generating electricity via reducing the overall cost of the system. As a result of the unique modular attributes of the design the system can be scaled up along its vertical axis, while at the same time keeping its footprint and the size of its individual turbines unchanged for different targeted power ratings.By Dr Majid Rashidi, Cleveland State University (CSU), USA
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