Wind farm BoP

Category: WTG Technology

  • Multirotor wind turbine: an update

    Some time ago I wrote a post about the interesting concept of multirotor wind turbines, including the full scale prototype built by Vestas with 4 refurbished V29-225kW (that is, with a 29 meters rotor diameter). It has been installed in a test site of the Technical University near Roskilde, in Denmark – I believe I’ve…

  • Serrations: how to reduce those noisy vortexes

    Every now and then a new technical solution appears in the wind energy business and it’s slowly implemented in the new wind turbines. A good example is the use of trailing edge serrations – not really a new idea (it has been around for several years) but a simple solution that it’s spreading and gaining acceptance…

  • Strength in Numbers: the multi rotor, 12 blades turbine concept

    The idea is not new: for instance around 1800 some “twin” mills have been used to pump water in Denmark and there are quite a few similar concepts and international patents dating the first half of 1900 – see for instance the drawing  below. What is interesting here is the size of the company testing…

  • Characteristics of wind turbine blades

    The most elegant element of the wind turbine is, at least for me, the blade. Blades are currently reaching incredible lengths (onshore we are almost at 70 meters, offshore they can be even bigger) and, as I discussed in this post, can be made of several materials. The cheap solution is fibreglass, more heavy, while…

  • Gearbox in wind turbines

    Why do you need a gearbox in a wind turbine? The short answer is that you don’t need one – if you are using a direct drive WTG. But even if the solution without gearbox is used by several manufacturers (e.g. the Goldwind 2.5 PMDD, Enercon models, etc.) the majority of makers decided to include…

  • Wind sector management – how to put more wind turbines in the same area

    In many project my colleagues from the wind and site department (the people who calculate the best wind turbine model and the optimal layout in a wind farm) are forced to put quite a lot of wind turbines in a reduced space. Each of these wind turbines generate a “wake effect” – basically, they create…

  • Wind turbine towers – the bigger the better

    It looks like the trend in the business is to go as high as possible. The places with the best wind conditions have been already used in the first 20 something years of the wind industry. Now it’s time to work with low wind sites – and probably, repower the older wind farms. I consider…

  • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Compliance for Temporary Wind Turbine Lighting

    I’ve been contacted by Mr Stewart Erwin who asked me to incorporate his article. I think it’s interesting (even if it’s focused only in the US market) and on topic. It was originally published on LinkedIn. Mr Erwin works for Carmanah – feel free to contact him for more info. (Beguinning guest post) There are…

  • Artificial vision systems for bird impact

    One of the problems of installing a wind farm in an area with a dense bird population is the possibility of impacts between the rotating blades and the animals. A standard solution used in the industry is the use of a (very expensive) bird radar, a quasi-military technology that can spot very small flying objects…

  • Relevant parameters in wind farm production

    After the connection of a Wind Farm to the grid several parameters are used to analyze the smooth operation of the installation. The more relevant are: Capacity Factor [latex size=”1″]CF=\left( \frac{E(kWh)}{P(kW) T(h)}\right )[/latex] Is a parameter used frequently in power producing  plant. A high capacity factor means that the plant is working almost continuously (for…