Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

8:44 PM 3 Comments

Power targets the rapidly maturing offshore wind sector by eliminating current deep-water limitations with an innovative and economic solution.
WindFloat is a floating support structure for offshore wind turbines with a simple, economic and patented design. The innovative features of the WindFloat dampen wave and turbine induced motion, enabling wind turbines to be sited in previously inaccessible locations where water depth exceeds 50 m and wind resources are superior. Further, economic efficiency is maximized by reducing the need for offshore heavy-lift operations during final assembly deployment and commissioning. Multiple projects are in development for the installation of commercial Windfloat units in both European and US offshore wind farms.

Advantages: There are three advantages to the WindFloat foundation: first, its static and dynamic stability provides sufficiently low pitch performance enabling use of commercial offshore wind turbines; second, its design and size allow for onshore assembly; third, its shallow draft allows for depth independent siting and wet tow (fully assembled and commissioned) to sites not visible from shore. Primary markets are transitional (30-60 m) and deep ( greater than 60 m) water offshore wind sites in the US and Europe, previously inaccessible, and estimated to have greater than 2 Terawatts (TW) of resource potential. Secondary markets include sites in Asia and other Oceanic countries.

Floating offshore wind turbine 

Stability: The WindFloat is fitted with patented water entrapment (heave) plates at the base of each column. The plates improve the motion performance of the system significantly due to damping and entrained water effects. This stability performance allows for the use of existing commercial wind turbine technology. In addition, WindFloat's closed-loop hull trim system mitigates mean wind-induced thrust forces. This secondary system ensures optimal energy conversion efficiency following changes in wind velocity and direction.

Windfloat

Design: The design of the WindFloat enables the structure to be fully assembled onshore and towed to its final location. All fabrication and qualification is completed at quayside in a controlled environment. Deployment cost savings are significant when compared with monopile/jacket support structures which require offshore heavy-lift operations.
Mooring SystemThe mooring system employs conventional components such as chain and polyester lines to minimize cost and complexity. Through the use of pre-laid drag embedded anchors, site preparation and impact is minimized.

Vestas offshore wind turbine 

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Wind Cube-Wind Turbine for Wall

10:22 PM 4 Comments

What a creative wind turbine design !! ''Wind cube'' is a modularized wind power system designed for the lifestyle in cities. The concept is to use 3D wind fields to make up the insufficiency of 2D ones. At that point, this new wind cube design differs from the other ones.

Wind cube

The part which is called as nacelle is rotating also to wind direction. The modern turbines has only one certain position for wind(tilt and cones angle), that's why the new design can capture much more power in a sufficient way.

Wind turbine for wall

Through the modularized design, each unit of the '' Wind Cube'' can automatically create a circuit with the power generated by itself. The power can be directly provided to families for the purpose of saving energy and reducing carbon.

Wind Cube

Considerate design for users, ''Wind Cube'' is an All-in-One design which make greenization easy. With only 3 small steps, one can start green energy. Modularized design has honeycomb Structure. The telescopic blades can be activated when there is gentle breeze. In case bad wind conditions, '' Wind Cube '' can retract the blades to avoid possible damage.

Wind cube protection

Wind Cube has 100 Watt generator and each generator has ability to produce 21.6 kWh per month. 15 Wind Cubes can provide the electricity needed by a household(4 person) per month. What's more with more Wind Cubes one can save more energy and sell it to grid companies.

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Bladeless Wind Turbine

9:42 PM No Comments

The new wind turbine concept provides cheaper and more efficient wind energy. This is called bladeless wind turbine which is more economic and environmentally friendly than existing wind turbines which produce lots of noise and kills birds.

Bladeless wind turbine 

Instead of rotating blades, the Saphonian's sail-shaped body collects the kinetic energy of the wind, told by Saphonian's inventor.
How bladeless wind turbine works ?
Inventor explained that the resulting mechanical energy moves pistons which generate hydraulic pressure that can be stored in a hydraulic accumulator or converted into electricity.

Environmentally friendly wind turbine 

Due to Betz Law classical wind turbines can capture 40-50 % of kinetic energy from wind. The new concept has ability to capture up to 80 % of kinetic energy from the wind. What's more it reduces the aerodynamic and mechanical losses associated with rotating blades.
It is claimed that the new bladeless prototype is 2.3 times more efficient and costs half price of conventional wind turbines. Because new bladeless concept has not gearbox, blades and hub.

It is estimated that it would take up to two years until the commercial product reaches the market. However it is also added that the manufacturing step is also important as it will determine how the market will accept it.

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Windspiral Wind Turbines

8:13 PM No Comments

Day by day the number of vertical axis wind turbines growing. Because they are more efficient, easy to install, smaller, and most important one cheaper to build than the common wind turbine designs.

Windspiral Turbine

One of these interesting design is Windspiral turbine which is roughly 10 meters long ant 1 meter width. As the others it is also used for converting wind energy into measurable electrical energy. It has same working principle with vertical axis wind turbines. And it is remote controllable. The owner of that design can track it from computer thanks to wireless modem.

Windspiral wind turbine

Windspiral wind turbines can produce 2 Megawatt hours per year in 5.5 meters per second average wind speed which is approximately half energy used by a regular house. One more advantage of this design is lower rotational speed. It means less noise and less loads on materials. It can be used easily in cities or gardens of houses. With some modifications it can produce more energy which is enough for a home. You can get an impression by watching following short video.

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Offshore Wind Turbine Installation

11:03 PM 3 Comments

Alstom build floating wind turbine platform in UK waters. The platform will feature a 6MW Alstom Haliade turbine. It has pretty high rated power (6 MW) with 73.5 meters LM blades that creates a swept area of 17.860 square meters. 

Alstom Offshore

Generally this type of offshore designs have a floating foundation which is fixed to the seabed using catenary cables. By positioning this floating platform in any place in water. Tanks to this property the turbine cane be moved to much more deeper waters which means less turbulent more strong wind which means less loads with high power efficiency.

Offshore transportation

On the other hand, it is a little bit hard to transport wind turbine stuffs from manufacturer to offshore area. As it seen in the following picture of nacelle, first land transportation then sea transportation is needed which costs extra money. And as a small note, it can be clearly identified with the dimensions of nacelle, direct drive wind generator technology is used. 

Alstom 6MW Nacelle

Sometimes it can cost serious amount moneys. That's why nowadays some of persons say production of off-shore wind turbines must be decreased. But some of companies which are so assertive are persistent with off-shore wind energy sector. 

Off-shore crane technology

If it is needed to compare with on-shore wind turbines, it is definitely clear that it is much much more easier to install on-shore wind turbines than the off-shore wind turbines. As it seen in the previous picture also, the crane technology must be designed in a clever way to be able to withstand with all forces during installation. 

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Wind Turbine Transportation

9:15 PM 3 Comments

Wind turbine blade transportation

The design is based on the 4.5 MW onshore platform in Canary Island. As it seen in the first figure also, transportation of the wind turbine stuffs can be also important point when it is designed.

Siemens blade transportation

Especially, blades and tower can make serious problems during transportation. That's why the place where turbine will be built must be also investigated before realizing the project. On the other hand transportation costs also can be so high, serious investigations must be done before whole project.

Tower transportation

Tower transportation can be achieved by dividing it to sections. It is pretty good advantage for towers. If not it would be also pretty hard to transport a tower from somewhere to somewhere.  Now one could ask, is it possible to divide blades ? For now answer is  no! Due to aerodynamic properties of the blade, it is not allowed to make sections on blade. 

Nacelle transportation

Nacelle transportation also can be problem sometimes because of its huge dimensions and weight. When it is designed, the place where it will be built must be investigated. As it seen in the previous figure, it is pretty hard to turn right or left with this huge transporter. 

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Dual Rotor Wind Turbines

11:34 AM 1 Comment

Twin-rotor turbine is generating 11 MW. Power is transmitting to several generators placed down of tower.( 2 units 500 kW  and 10 rated for 1 MW each). Hence weight of nacelle is lighter than the other type of turbines. Thanks to low top mass, tower can be designed in a cheaper way. 

After some aerodynamic investigations it is clarified 30° separation between two rotors and using high rotor speed for the aft rotor is most efficient way for this design.  

This twin-rotor turbine can produce 11 MW power with 48 m blade provided by NREL. It is possible to reach 16 MW power by increasing the diameter of the rotor. 
Power curve of this monster can also be seen in the following illustration. Cut in wind speed 4 m/s and rated wind speed is 16 m/s is a little high. But the power produced is also pretty high (11 MW).

It is headed to prototyping.  All manufacturers are in line and the tower guys are ready to go. It looks like we will see this monster 11 MW prototype in 2014 on the sky.  On the other hand this design can work with lower wind speeds due to 500 kW variable speed generator. And as the other type of wind turbines it can withstand high wind speeds. 

Small dual rotor

This design is not only for the big turbines. It can be also used for small wind turbines as it seen in the previous picture. This wind turbine can be used in cities, rural areas easily. The most important advantage of this turbine is cheaper than the other type of designs.  

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Maglev Wind Turbine

11:03 AM 175 Comments

The Maglev wind turbine is the one of the type has interesting design. Working principle of the turbine is a little differ from the other ones. Magnetic levitation differs this turbine from the other classical turbines. Why magnetic levitation ? Magnetic levitation is one of the most efficient system for the wind energy.

Maglev wind turbine

As it seen in the picture also, it is a vertical axis wind turbine. Vertically oriented blades of the turbine are rotating above the base of the machine. As a generator, full permanent magnet wind generator is used. Therefore it is not using electricity from the grid to run. The Maglev uses a magnetically levitated low-RPM high-torque power output turbine. As it known, because of the permanent magnets, there is no energy loss through friction. Hence the maintenance costs are automatically dropped when we compare with other classical wind turbines. 

Maglev prototype

Actually Maglev is not new technology. It has same phenomena with high speed trains in Europe and Asia. It is designed to capture winds from any direction. It means this turbine has not yawing issues. That's why we can say the Maglev turbines convert wind energy to electric energy in a extremely sufficient way.

Offshore maglev turbine

 If it is compared with other classical wind turbines, 
Maglev, 

• is producing 50% more power.
• construction is cheaper.
• has no noise.
• can produce with small and high wind speeds.
• Important components are on the ground level.

Vertical axis wind turbine

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