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- Category: Articles
Combining Precast Concrete Parts and Steel ElementsWind turbine performance is constantly improving. With this trend comes ever higher hub heights – a development that will also continue in the coming years. As turbine performance increases, political and economic demands regarding the profitability of wind turbines are likewise increasing. Turbines with capacities above 4MW will become the norm even for onshore sites. To effectively meet these challenges, innovative solutions from manufacturers are needed. Tower concepts such as the hybrid tower, which combines precast concrete parts and steel elements, are opening up new technical possibilities.
By Jürgen Joos, Chief Financial Officer, Max Bögl Wind, Germany
- Category: Articles
Investigating the Impacts of Dynamic Mechanical Stresses on Fatigue Life of Dynamic CablesFloating platform wind turbines will require cables to run through the water column from their platform base at the water surface to the touchdown point on the seabed. This trajectory exposes the cable to dynamic environmental forces, such as waves and currents. The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (ORE Catapult) and the Industrial Doctoral Centre for Offshore Renewable Energy (IDCORE) have been investigating the impact of this dynamic marine environment on a dynamic cable’s fatigue life, with the aim of reducing uncertainty and improving the reliability of dynamic cables. The aim of this project is to allow more effective planned maintenance offshore through the prediction of a failure of a dynamic cable.
By David Young, IDCORE and ORE Catapult, and Lars Johanning, University of Exeter, UK
- Category: Articles
Variability Analyses and Considerations About Uncertainty for Long-Term Prediction
The evolution of long-term wind resources is a key issue in the wind industry, especially in the context of energy yield assessments. Thus, analysing the evolution of the long-term wind trends in the past should allow a better appreciation of their variability and potentially the risk of experiencing periods with low wind resources in the future.By Marion Jude, Eoltech, France
- Category: Articles
Supply Chain Holistic Approach to Offshore Wind Levelised Cost of Electricity CompetitivenessZero-subsidy offshore wind projects awarded in Germany and the Netherlands in 2018 have raised expectations worldwide. However, although these are significant competitiveness milestones, they are still bound to the particular market characteristics that made them possible.
Javier San Miguel Armendariz, Global Sales Director Wind Energy, Ingeteam, Spain
- Category: Articles
The Optimal Choice Between Continued Operation, Repowering and DecommissioningMore and more players in the German wind energy sector are concerned with the question of how to deal with the ageing German wind fleet, as around 5,200 turbines will simultaneously reach the end of the feed-in-tariff funding period of the Renewable Energy Sources Act for the first time at the end of 2020. Around 8,000 wind turbines will follow by the end of 2025, as shown in Figure 1. Operators of affected wind turbines will then have the choice between (I) continuing to operate the old turbine within the framework of direct marketing on the European Power Exchange, (II) repowering the old turbine by a new and more efficient wind turbine at plant-specific feed-in premium levels tendered in the German renewable energy auctions or (III) decommissioning the respective plant.
By Jan-Hendrik Piel and Martin Westbomke, Germany
- Category: Articles
The Digital Threat to Wind FarmsA number of high-profile hacking cases have hit the headlines in recent years, highlighting the increasing rise in cybercrime and the devastating effects it can have on the targeted organisations. Mohamed Harrou, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) engineer at BayWa r.e., talks to Windtech International about the susceptibility of wind farms to cybercrime and why the time to act is now.
By Mohamed Harrou, SCADA Engineer, BayWa r.e., Germany
- Category: Articles
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After remotely monitoring several thousand wind turbines over the past 10 years, most of the wind turbine faults detected and diagnosed by the Brüel & Kjær Vibro Surveillance Centres have been related to the drive train. In this article, two case studies are given where the faults were detected and diagnosed in an entirely different but important component – the yaw bearing system. It is this system that bears the enormous static and dynamic loads of the nacelle and blades, and allows the nacelle to align itself into the wind.
By Mike Hastings, Senior Application Engineer, Brüel & Kjær Vibro, Denmark
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| #35 Vestas V80 2MW turbines installed in 2004 at Scroby Sands Offshore Windfarm, off the East coast of England at Great Yarmouth (courtesy David Goodfellow) |
| Every week on our website and in our email newsletter we want to show you that wind energy is more than just technology. We therefore invite you to send stunning pictures of wind turbines inspired by “light” (in the broadest sense of the word). After 52 submissions we will announce the winner of the year’s best picture! Email your photo to Include turbine model, location and name of photographer. (size of the published photo will be 336 px width x 280 px high). |
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