{"id":13518,"date":"2013-05-22T11:02:19","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T08:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/add-energy.ro\/are-direct-drive-wind-turbines-the-future-of-wind-power\/"},"modified":"2013-05-22T11:02:19","modified_gmt":"2013-05-22T08:02:19","slug":"are-direct-drive-wind-turbines-the-future-of-wind-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/are-direct-drive-wind-turbines-the-future-of-wind-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Direct-Drive Wind Turbines The Future Of Wind Power ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t         Sandy Butterfield<\/a> was a researcher at NREL in Golden, CO. He noticed a funny thing: wind turbine gearboxes were supposed to last 20 years; but in 2010, he found they were only lasting 7–10 years. As a result, wind farm operators were facing huge potential costs to fix their turbines in the near future.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t         At NREL, Butterfield and a team of engineers began systematically breaking turbine gearboxes, looking for reasons why they were failing. “I think I’ve been breaking wind turbines for 35 years,” he said during a presentation at the University of Colorado Boulder.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"are<\/a>     <\/b>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t   <\/b>\"are<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t \n<\/p>\n

\n\t        After years of experiments and changes, the solution to the problem turned out to be remarkably simple: get rid of the gearbox. In other words, Butterfield and his peers were advocating a transition todirect-drive turbine designs<\/a>.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"Press<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t        That was initially easier said than done. Direct-drive turbines have a 1:1 connection between their rotor and generator. Because of the lower rotational speeds, the generator had to be much larger. However, technological and other design improvements have made direct-drive turbines smaller than they used to be and very appealing.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"Wind_direct_drive_3238\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t        Their simpler design makes them attractive, not just for land-based turbines looking to extend their working life while reducing operating costs, but especially for offshore wind farms where maintenance is particularly challenging.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"are<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t        In fact, recent years have seen increased offerings for direct-drive designs. Siemens recently unveiled several direct-drive turbines, including a 6 MW model optimized for offshore applications<\/a>. GE has done similar with a 4.1 MW turbine<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"are<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t          As for researcher Butterfield—who was a wind energy entrepreneur at a turbine manufacturing company prior to his 24-year stint with NREL—he’s returned to the world of wind entrepreneurism. Butterfield jumped ship at NREL and founded Boulder Wind Power to focus on turning hypothetical direct-drive technologies into reality.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t         The company now offers a 3 MW design<\/a> whose nacelle—the housing that contains the generating components, such as the generator and drive train—looks radically different from traditional wind turbine designs. BWP claims its design boasts a 30 percent improvement over the power output of comparable direct-drive systems in low-speed wind environments, superior partial load efficiency when operating across a range of power outputs, and a levelized cost of energy 20 percent below best-in-class direct-drive designs.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"are<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t         In the world of renewable energy, such bold claims are exciting but often accompanied by a dose of cautious optimism or even skepticism. The proof, as they say, will be in the pudding; show me some real world data. For BWP, that data is coming soon—the company is delivering and testing prototypes this year, and expects commercial availability sometime 2013–2014.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t        Meanwhile, wind power costs are expected to decline 20 to 30 percent in next two decades, according to NREL<\/a>. Technological advancements will be a part of that equation, through pathways such as increased reliability that will reduce operations expenditures and minimize turbine downtime. Direct-drive designs speak to those pathways, and just may play an integral role in the future landscape of wind energy.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t         By Rocky Mountain Institute<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t        —– source   evwind.es  —–<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t \n<\/p>\n

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\n\tTo register your Company as ADD ENERGY PARTNER , please access   <\/b>\"register_now_2\"<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFor other informations click to <\/b>\"Contact-Us\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

         Sandy Butterfield was a researcher at NREL in Golden, CO. He noticed a funny thing: wind turbine gearboxes were supposed to last 20 years; but in 2010, he found they were only lasting 7–10 years. As a result, wind farm operators were facing huge potential costs to fix their turbines in the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,349],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-informatii-din-presa-internationala","category-international-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}