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- Category: Windtech Future
When talking about wind turbines and the cost of wind energy, the scenario that comes to mind is an onshore or offshore wind farm that captures power from wind and injects it into a grid. That is, wind power is used according to:
Scenario 1: Wind energy is generated at point A and transmitted via a high-voltage line to point B.
The costs involved in this scenario are those of the wind farm development and accessing the high-voltage line, the cost of which is not often a part of the associated expenditure.
By Ahmad Hemami, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Category: Windtech Future
I am always curious to know how much the cost of generating electricity with a wind turbine is, how much revenue it generates and how the financial balance works out. It is very interesting to know, and to compare the numbers for electricity from wind with those from other sources. After all, if the numbers work out right, then the direction to go is more evident. It seems, however, that there is never a reasonable answer to these questions.By Ahmad Hemami, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Category: Windtech Future
For several years now, I have taught a university course in wind energy. Every year I update the contents of the course to include the progress of technology and the new turbines coming to market. One of the topics is the breakdown of the cost of a wind turbine or a wind farm. One needs to know the percentage cost for different components of a turbine and for various tasks in developing a wind farm. Finding the answer to this question takes a lot of time, without any result. The difficulty stems from the fact that data is not readily available, the numbers are more likely case related, and one can only consider an average even with access to some data. Such information is useful in determining the areas where costs can be reduced by an alternative action or process.By Ahmad Hemami, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Category: Windtech Future
A wake-up call from scientists has given rise to agreements between responsible governments to make the effort to prevent a possible catastrophe by setting up plans and standards for emission control and decarbonisation in the form of net-zero target mandates and sustainable energy programmes. Considering the rather short window of time, a crucial question is ‘Is it possible?’By Ahmad Hemami, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Category: Windtech Future
Going back 50 to 55 years, when more attention was focused on wind energy, both vertical axis and horizontal axis turbines were made and their practical potential for large-scale commercial energy production evaluated. The winner came out to be the horizontal axis propeller type wind turbine. At the time, parallel with extensive research on the propeller turbine, many Darrieus turbines were built at both research and commercial scale. The largest was 96 metres in height and 64 metres in diameter and it was in operation for 5 years before it stopped working due to damage in the gearbox, which was too expensive to repair. A great number of smaller units were also commercially built and operated (especially in California) in the 1980s.By Ahmad Hemami, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Category: Windtech Future
Direct-drive wind turbines using a permanent magnet synchronous generator have been developed after observing the problems with the gearbox. Nonetheless, nothing is 100% perfect. Obviously, during recent decades there have been efforts to advance the technology, in all directions. That includes improving the performance of the gearbox. One advantage in removing the gearbox from the loop is a reduction in the tower top weight, but this is not always possible. In a recent article by van de Kaa et al. (2020), the subject of the comparison of direct-drive turbines and geared turbines has been systematically studied to determine which technology will become the dominant one in the future. This implies that in the future the other technology needs to switch. The final conclusion of this study is that cost of energy and reliability are the two most important factors, and both technologies still have equal chance of success.By Ahmad Hemami, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
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- Time to Start Manufacturing Commercial Vertical Axis Wind Turbines
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- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly About Wind Turbines
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- Wind Turbines in 2100
- Drones or Robots for Blade Repair?
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- The Race for Bigger Turbines Continues
- Why We Need More Green Hydrogen for the Global Energy Transition
- Global Gearbox Supply Chain Market Set to Grow to 59.1GW in 2020
- A New Generation of Offshore Wind Turbine Drive-trains Promises Power Ratings up to 16MW
- Renewable Energy Digital Services Benefits Are Not Fully Recognised
- Wind Energy Industry Has Lost US$ 5.2 billion Through Avoidable IP Infringements and Trade Secret Theft
- Wind Energy Industry Research and Development Spending to Top US$ 36.9 billion by 2028
- Feed-in Tariff Turmoil in Taiwan Will Likely Cause the Offshore Wind Industry to Shift Focus to Nearby South Korea
- OEMs are Shifting Towards Global Supply Chain Cost Optimisation at the Expense of Optimal Turbine Levelised Cost of Energy
- With +10MW Offshore Turbines as the New Normal in Europe, Where Do the Chinese OEMs Go Next?
- Wind LCOE Set to Drop Further Thanks to the Expiration of Seminal Patents
- The Right Product Mix and a Modular Architecture Can Protect OEM Profits in the Age of Tenders
- Renewable Energy Digitalisation Growth Poised to Reap Benefits for the Data Rich
- Turbine OEMs with Product Portfolio Diversity are Most Successful in US Wind Market
- Enercon Acquisition of Lagerwey Enables Competitive Product Evolution with PMG Technology
- Commercial Value of Data Has Increased Thanks to Digitalisation
- Onshore Wind Turbine Tech to Top Out in Ten Years
- Hybrid Materials and 3D Printing Enabling SciFi Wind Turbine Structures
- Can Wireless Mesh Networks Kill Slip-Rings?
- Offshore Wind Yet to See Meaningful Digital Services Deployment
- Focus on TLPs, Predictive Maintenance and AEP Optimisation to Further Reduce Offshore LCOE
- Renewable energy Internet of Things to hit US$ 5.3 billion annually by 2030
- Onerous Mandates on Performance Impact or Reliability are Stifling RE Innovation
- Emergence of Digital Services Highlights Need for Content Licensing Business Model
- Digitalisation Necessitates New Thinking and New Business Models
- How Common Platform Wind Turbine Architecture Unlocks Export Markets
- Closing the Product Competitiveness Gap
- Offshore Innovation Seeing Lift-off
- Consolidation Spurs Wind Innovation Revival
- The future of technology – Services
- Power plant control
- The Rise of Asian Innovation
- The future of technology – Manufacturing
- The future of technology – Materials
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| #51 Senvion MM92 wind turbine installed in Serra do Caramulo, Portugal (courtesy Pedro Matos) |
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