SAB North America’s tray cables and flexible motor supply cables achieve UL WTTC approval

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Excerpt: SAB North America’s TR 600 Cable Tray Cables and Flexible Motor Supply Cables have achieved key UL WTTC standard for use in the design of Wind Turbines. The TR 600 series cable earned approval in accordance with UL subject 2277. SAB North America announced that its full line of tray cables and …

NREL and Great Lakes WIND target midsized turbine designers and manufacturers

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Excerpt: The U.S. DOE and NREL have launched the Midsize Wind Turbine Development Project to help close the existing technology gap and facilitate development and commercialization of midsize wind turbines. The Laboratory is sponsoring workshops in Ohio and Oklahoma, facilitated by Cleveland-based Great Lake …

Quick-locking pin speeds assembly work

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Excerpt: The design features a solid, spring loaded “wedge-shaped plunger” that combines ease of use with secure fastening. The wedge-shaped plunger easily retracts when inserting the pin into a hole. The angled, ramp-like face of the wedge ensures smooth insertion. Once fully inserted, the plunger sprin …

Overview of wind power storage media

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Excerpt: Wind power storage development is essential for renewable energy technologies to become economically feasible. There are many different ways in which one can store electrical energy, the following outlines the various media used to store grid-ready energy produced by wind turbines. For more on appli …

Solving the use-it-or-lose-it wind energy problem

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Excerpt: Examine a utility’s load curve over the course of a week and the trace looks like a roller-coaster. Demand for electric power peaks about 5 pm each day and declines to a low at about 2 am. Look closer and you see demand changing almost by the second. So there are two problems here that befuddle el …

Rotor blades will deflect this much-says simulation software

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Excerpt: To bring costs down, wind-energy firms are recognizing the design benefits of numerical simulation. Transitioning to a simulation-based design process lets OEMs optimize performance and increase a turbine’s power output. A valuable tool in this process is Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) …

A better coating for wind power bolts

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Excerpt: Andrew R. Pfeifer, Metal Coatings International Inc., Chardon, Ohio, metal-coatings.com Since the 1970s, users of high strength ASTM A490 bolts were prohibited from using metallic coatings. The main reason for this restriction was the possibility of early fracture due to hydrogen embrittlement. F …

Low speed wind power generator could take weight out of the nacelle

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Excerpt: The weight of wind turbine generators is a significant issue because weight translates to costs. The structural weight of a direct-drive generator, for example, can exceed 80% of the total weight on the tower. The structure is needed to overcome the force of magnetic attraction between stationary an …

Pump-power calculation? There’s an app for that

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Excerpt: The $avings Predictor application, now available on Apple iTunes for iPhone (OS 3.1.2 or later) and iPod touch, provides estimates of energy savings when using a variable frequency drive instead of conventional volume control methods. The application comes from Yaskawa Electric America, Waukegan …

Developer says 20% blade weight reduction possible

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Excerpt: Increasing rotor blade length increases its swept area, thereby increasing the amount of captured energy. But larger blades add significant weight to a turbine. So reducing wind-structure weights through composite materials is essential to improving overall efficiency. HyperSizer Structural Sizi …