The 1000P’s portable control box, weighing only 8.5 lbs, is easy to set up – just click, plug, and climb.

Power Climber Wind has completed installation of 66 IBEX 1000P climb assist systems at Erie Shore Wind Farm near Port Burwell, Ontario, Canada. The wind farm is one of the largest wind power facilities in Canada, owned by Capstone Infrastructure, representing about 2.2% of installed wind capacity. Each 1.5 MW wind turbine is 80-m tall.

“After considering the costs associated with finding, training, and retaining a crew of top quality technicians, as well as the physical requirements involved with climbing an 80m turbine on a regular basis, the IBEX 1000P was an obvious choice”, said John Kirby, Plant Manager for Erie Shores Wind Farm. “This system has provided a substantial increase in our productivity and employee morale. The installation was seamless and has proven to be invaluable to operations.”

The recently released IBEX 1000P climb assist system sets new standards for portability and durability and offers the same market leading IBEX performance that owners have come to expect. The 1000P’s portable control box, weighing only 8.5 lbs (4 kgs) is easy to set up – just click, plug, and climb. The durable robust design is thoroughly life-cycle tested and approved by wind-turbine technicians. With the EasyClimb Controller, users customize assistance from 50 to 125 lbs (25 to 55 kgs), and enjoys constant load support regardless of climbing speed in up and down directions. The system installs in any wind turbine tower and significantly improves employee health and safety as well as productivity.

The 1000P system provides a portable control box that eliminates lugging heavier controls from tower to tower thereby improving employee morale. Click here for an IBEX 1000P video
Power Climber Wind
www.powerclimberwind.co

Windpower Engineering & Development

The data, collected by renewable energy assessment and forecasting company 3TIER,  shows departures from long-term mean wind speed with above normal areas in red and below normal areas in blue and provides an indication of how wind projects should have performed relative to their long-term production average based on their location. This type of analysis enables financiers and operators to perform portfolio analysis across regions and quickly view the effects of weather anomalies on both existing and proposed investments.

In 2011 wind speeds across Europe varied considerably from region to region. In the UK, Scandinavia, and around the Baltic Sea wind speeds trended roughly 5-10% above normal. Meanwhile southern Europe experienced wind speeds up to 10% below normal except for a few isolated areas along the Mediterranean coast. The 2011 annual map is based on total variance from average for the full year and does not depict the significant wind speed variability that occurred from month to month and quarter to quarter. This is shown in the 2011 quarterly maps, which illustrate departures from average ranging from -20% to +20%.

2011 began with substantially below normal wind speeds across a majority of Europe due to a high-pressure ridge known as a Greenland High. This structure was hovering over the western Atlantic Ocean late in 2010 and began to shift eastward toward the northern Atlantic in early 2011. This created a blocking effect above the UK, causing severe deformation to the storm track as well as warm temperatures and substantially low wind speeds in the UK, France, and Germany in the second half of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, this ridge started to break down resulting in numerous storms and anomalously high wind speeds over a broad swath of northern Europe. During this period, below normal wind speeds were primarily constrained to Spain, France, northern Italy, and areas of Ukraine and Russia. The third quarter featured milder anomalies, though an area from the UK to the Baltic Sea remained above normal. Finally, the fourth quarter enhanced this pattern, with substantial positive deviations across northern Europe, and negative deviations highlighted in Spain and a broad land area between the Adriatic and Black Seas.

The wind performance maps were created by comparing hourly data for 2011 with hourly wind conditions averaged over the period 1981-2010 from 3TIER’s continually updated European meteorological dataset. When comparing 2011 with over 30 years of hourly wind speed data, the most similar year to 2011 in its anomaly pattern is perhaps 1990. That year, however, saw much more dramatic departures from normal than this past year. Final wind speed values for the 2011 analysis were computed using a numerical weather prediction (NWP) model run at a 15 km resolution and adjusted using available observations. The underlying datasets for 3TIER’s wind performance maps provide clients with operational intelligence for every location within a region and are available in nearly all regions worldwide.

Windpower Engineering & Development

-Tindall

Taller towers for wind turbines make sense. For instance, an 80-m tower can let 2 to 3-MW wind turbines produce more power, and enough to justify the additional cost of 20-m more, than if installed at 60 m. Taller towers will also let larger turbines enter the market. Taller towers allow putting turbines in less turbulent winds, thereby decreasing wear and fatigue.

As OEM designers configure taller conventional towers, their limitations become obvious. Tower designers are increasingly interested in:

• Reducing their cost because the tower cost portion of the overall wind turbine is increasing from 10% to 20% of system cost.
• Cutting tower transportation costs.
• The interaction between tower and turbine
• Focused on reducing weight

Several tower designs have been proposed for 100m and more. One uses prestressed, reinforced concrete in pyramidal sections cast. Conventional 80 to 100m towers could be placed atop the 31m tall concrete foundation for hub heights 111 to 131m. The wider than conventional base also allows using less concrete and rebar in the foundation. Hence, lower costs there too.

Another developer has shown detailed plans for tapered modular towers. The company says a continuous taper, or an increasing taper, is the most efficient way to handle wind-turbine loads. One design, for example, uses field-assembled steel panels to eliminate transportation restrictions. Shipping tower panels instead of assembled towers allows lower loads and lower load heights, which lead to shorter less restrictive routes, and hence, lower transport costs. Adding tower panels allows increasing tower diameters and heights.

Windpower Engineering & Development

A wind assessment along with transmission and environmental studies, can also tell if it is feasible to put together several land owners to commercially produce power. Landowners can try to put together a wind project on their own but it’s a complex process that often benefits greatly from the expertise of a community developer. There are several business structures that guide development of community wind.

Site assessments are actually not required by law, but certainly before permitting a wind farm, authorities ask for a lot detail about the wind regime that an assessment provides. Also, banks providing the financing will require not just one assessment, but more likely two or three. Different firms use different techniques. With such a big price tag on theses projects, its common sense to get several assessments. If the two or three are within reason, the banks feel better.

The assessment comes in different phases. The first is prospecting. It answers the questions: What is the potential of this area? What are the prospective wind speeds in the area, and what do state resource maps say about the wind in a certain local?

While the meteorological tower is collecting data, for example, other companies are planning tasks such as pinpointing the best wind resources in an area, looking for residences, roads, and set backs needed for historical sites, and microwave beams paths.

A site assessment ranges from $15,000 to $30,000 not including met towers. Those might add another $15,000 each. Software used in the assessment also helps establish a setback from homes for the wind farm. This is to make sure residents endure only minimal noise and shadow flicker. Such an event occurs on sunny days when the rotor’s shadow passes over a building. Flashing or flickering bothers some people. Simulation software now predicts the effect and helps avoid it.

Software also calculates the cumulative flickering during the year. There is no universal standard for the number of hours a person might tolerate, but a German standard has set a period of not more then 30 hours per year as a maximum exposure. This is a commonly accepted standard and all assessment groups try to mitigate shadow flicker exposure as much as possible.

Two additional studies (ecological and historical) are done by biologists and anthropologists who will walk the proposed site. Biologists look for evidence of wild life that might be harmed by construction activities while archeologists might dig a few holes and look for evidence of previous habitation and burial sites. In most cases, when sensitive archeological evidence turns up and its location coincides with a proposed turbine foundation or road, planners simply move the structure’s location 50 m one way or another.

Large facilities draw a lot of power from a grid so grid owners want to know how much and when they will need the power. A similar question is asked on the opposite side of the coin when a wind farm wants to inject power into the grid. Its owners want to know: How much and when? Of all things encountered in the world of power generation, regardless of source, permission to inject power is hardest to get, at least in the Midwest. To inject 100 MW might require waiting three to seven years for transmission and demand to catch up with the growing supply.

Windpower Engineering & Development

The wind forecast for Alberta at 80m up will include charts like this one.

MDA EarthSat Weather says its current wind-generation forecast product has now been expanded to include AESO (Alberta). Already providing accurate and reliable hourly forecasts for ERCOT, MISO, and BPA, PJM, CAISO and IESO, this web-based system uses state-of-the-art forecast methods to produce hourly forecasts for lead times of up to ten days. In the short-term forecast, statistical techniques learn from wind data and power variations and develop highly accurate predictive relationships between present wind and future conditions. In the day-ahead and longer term forecasts, method removes model biases, and weights models according to their skill, greatly improving forecast skill over single model technique.

In verifications, correlation coefficients are near 0.9 in the day-ahead market, with mean absolute errors of less than 10% of generation capacity. “We’re always on the lookout for improvements in our techniques that can squeeze every bit of predictive power from wind, wind-generation observations, and the dynamical forecast models. We’re especially excited by our improving skill in the 3 to 4 hour range, where a combination of dynamical and statistical modeling is required for an optimal forecast,” says Dr. Dan Kirk-Davidoff, Chief Scientist at MDA EarthSat.

MDA EarthSat Weather
www.mdainformationsystems.com

Windpower Engineering & Development

O&M costs for wind power are far higher than originally projected, particularly in the U.S., now the world’s largest wind power market, says Wind Energy Update. .

A trend line suggests O&M costs actually go up over the time period of consideration, especially when considering new data as a result of this survey. This is also supported from anecdotal data suggesting an increasing trend in wind O&M costs. Scatter is also observed with the Lawrence Berkley National Lab data, confirming that the variability of the new O&M cost data is not new.

Additional survey data contained cost estimates for wind turbine O&M costs per MW installed per year. These values were $40,000 (€28,000) per MW per year, with a standard deviation from the mean of $12,000 (€8,500). Among the anecdotes pulled from interviews was the observation that in the 2002 to 2003 time frame O&M costs had been estimated at $15,000 to $20,000 per 1.5 MW unit, but instead the true cost average is $40,000 to $50,000 per unit per year, after warranty. Another source estimated O&M expenses at $40,000 per 2MW unit, with $1.5 million per unit being the worst-case scenario.

A summary of primary findings on O&M cost trends derived from a series of confidential interviews includes these observations:

• O&M costs for wind power are far higher than originally projected, particularly in the U.S., now the world’s largest wind power market.

• A particular turbine operating reliably in Germany at a less than 20% capacity factor may experience catastrophic failures in the U.S. operating at a 35% capacity factor, due to more rigorous wind resource regimes.

• The U.S. wind resource results in much higher power production at far lower end-use power costs, but at the expense of often unaccounted O&M costs, an issue that has been largely “under the radar” due to warranty coverage.

• Europe’s premium power prices allow for more preventative maintenance and, therefore, overall lower maintenance costs than the U.S. Also in the U.S., annual power production is down 2 to 5% if compared to European turbines when resource factors are accounted for.

The chart plots frequency of survey responses to $/kWh.

• The U.S. has, on average, lower availability than Europe. This fact appears to be a reflection of better O&M service arrangements in Europe, a theme explored further in the next report section.

• Problems with gearboxes and blades throughout the global wind-power industry peaked in 2007 to 2008, though major retrofits will be necessary in the coming years.

• O&M challenges with gearboxes, generators, drive trains and blades have been virtually universal across major brands – though there are a few exceptions with recent upgrades and success stories.

• New direct-drive turbines – the latest design fad – may provide a key O&M solution since they eliminate the gearbox. Hybrid direct-drive/gearbox systems could serve as a bridging technology, much like gas-electric hybrids transformed the auto market.

Component and Sub-Assembly: Data Results and Analysis

An accompanying chart summarizes data for annual failure frequency for various components and sub-assemblies. Annual failure frequency is the inverse of the mean-time between failures for various components and sub-systems.

Data suggests that electrical systems are still the most frequent component or sub-assembly to fail, which was largely confirmed by confidential interviews. These electrical systems consist of myriad components, including breakers, relays, and switching contacts.

Wind Energy Update
www.windenergyupdate.com

Windpower Engineering & Development

After these first two steps are satisfied, an environment study is conducted. Developers must ensure that constructing and operating the wind project will not adversely effect the environment. Studies concerning bird migration routes, bat flight patterns, animal nesting grounds, ancient burial sites, and more are conducted. If and when everything passes environmental studies, developers begin finalizing the project designs and obtaining permits for construction. After all permits have been acquired, construction begins. The developer is responsible for organizing contractors and subcontractors to design, build, erect, and commission the project.

Owners are those companies or individuals that carry the wind farm as an asset and profit from the sale of electricity. They are the one’s who will acquire financing, hire a developer, organize power purchase agreements with local utilities, and maintain overall responsibility for the profitability of the wind project.

Owners are also the people who decide which turbine supplier to use for their project. Many factors come into play when making this decision. First and foremost is the wind speed or wind class in the site. Every utility-scale wind turbine is best suited for a particular wind class or range of classes. After the developer has determined the wind resources for the site, the owner can start shopping. Other important considerations are standard hub height and how that correlates with the meteorological study, turbine output, expected availability, or maintenance downtime, and of course, price.

Windpower Engineering & Development

S Torque wrench by Aztec Bolting

Tooling engineers were presented with the challenge of improving the procedure and came up with a custom cutting head capable of completing the operations in one pass. The tool was the result of careful analysis that considered the material, the profile, and the power available to the machine selected for the operation.

Another significant tool, though less wind specific, promises to trim time of many milling jobs. This face milling cutter hold eight inserts, the octagon shaped discs that do the metal removal. The manufacturer says it is a versatile, economical, and productive tool that can be used for roughing and finishing. The inserts are positioned in pockets by hardened high-strength-steel pins. This simplifies indexing the inserts. Eight flats on both side of each insert give it 16 cutting edges. The tool works well on gearbox housings.

Other areas for improvement are the difficultto- access machining areas such as large complex monolithic workpieces and deep cavities. These call for long overhang tools which present challenge such as chatter, a condition that produces shallow gouges on surfaces. One solution comes in a tool holder with passive dynamic damping. The shell-mill holder is said to offer up to three times greater dynamic rigidity than equivalent solid holders. This allows machining cavities that are over five time their diameter deep, with optimal cutting conditions.

Furthermore, the vibration damping holder is said to significantly improve the dynamic rigidity of milling assemblies. This allows higher cutting speeds with quieter operation and improved stability. These results lead to increased productivity, improved surface finish, and longer tool and spindle life than previously possible. The tool’s manufacturer claims the holder can reduce machine time by up to 50%.

Windpower Engineering & Development

The company’s in-depth guide of product information includes key features, specifications, drawings, photographs, codes & regulations, and accessory lists. New features in this 320+ page reference guide include:

• New products
o A Wind Turbine Access section, highlighting new products available for wind turbine maintenance and repair, including blade and tower access platforms and our innovative, reconfigurable 360° blade access platform
o New rigging devices that add capabilities and save rigging time
o A new application of the LSR1 as a fall arrest anchorage

• New in-depth case studies to learn how Spider solves demanding access challenges

• Updated bilingual tear-out rental equipment guides to help customers visually identify items on site

Spider is celebrating its 65th anniversary in business this year and John Sotiroff, Vice President – Sales & Distribution says the company is preparing for its next 65 years. “Now more than ever, contractors and facility owners need safe, reliable solutions that lower the total cost of access in this age of tighter budgets,” he says. “With new products that deliver this efficiency and still more useful tools to wring the most value out of our solutions, Spider is proud to add this new desktop reference guide to our extensive tool box.”

Catalogs can be requested or downloaded online at www.spiderstaging.com, or by calling 877-774-3370.

Windpower Engineering & Development

Lux researchers positioned specialists in novel coating materials, manufacturing methods, and deposition processes on the innovation grid based on their technical value and business execution – companies strong on axes reach the “Dominant” quadrant.

Coatings to combat corrosion, friction, and fouling can offer big efficiency benefits, but need to offer strong balance between performance and cost, says Lux Research. The protective coatings market continues to be driven by extreme cost sensitivities and increasing environmental and regulatory considerations, even though its products have great potential to reduce inefficiency and degradation of industrial equipment caused by friction, corrosion, and fouling, according to a Lux Research report titled, “Fighting Corrosion, Friction, and Fouling: The Power of Protective Coatings.” To see which companies are best positioned to prosper in the current market, Lux Research applied its Innovation Grid to rate materials developers.

“Users must strike the right balance between performance concerns along with industry factors including cost tolerance, regulatory drivers, throughput, volume, and qualification timelines,” said Lux Research Analyst and lead author Ross Kozarsky. “While a variety of other approaches exist, using coatings to address these problems builds resistance into the equipment itself and can limit consumables, maintenance, and environmental impact.”

Lux researchers positioned specialists in novel coating materials, manufacturing methods, and deposition processes on the innovation grid based on their technical value and business execution – companies strong on axes reach the “Dominant” quadrant. Lux also assessed each company’s maturity. Among their conclusions:

• Modumetal joins Integran in making the electroplated metals space sizzle. With its nanolaminate approach, Modumetal has made significant headway to find a place in the “Dominant” quadrant. Over the past year, it has begun a joint venture with Steel Dynamics, added Siemens as a customer, and ramped up a full production line.
• MesoCoat rises as the chrome alternative option. MesoCoat’s technical potential — thermally sprayed nanocomposite ceramic-metallic (cermet) coatings and metal claddings as alternatives to toxic chrome – combined with its significant business progress over the past year, including a deal with Petrobras, has brought it to the threshold of the “Dominant” quadrant.
• Nanogate tops the polymer-coating developers. Sol-gel polymer coating developer Nanogate Technologies beats the competition on technical value and business execution. Its partnerships with Clariant, Dow Corning, Bosch and GEA Air Treatment have helped make it a formidable player.
• I-Tech is an intriguing “High-Potential” candidate. In the marine industry, there’s huge potential for anti-fouling coatings because of their ability to boost fuel efficiency. Sweden-based I-Tech is developing a new coating based on medetomidine (best known for its use as an animal sedative). It has 300 times the anti-fouling activity of incumbent cuprous oxide paints. Its business execution doesn’t yet match its high technical value score, placing it in the “High-Potential” quadrant.

The report, “Fighting Corrosion, Friction, and Fouling: The Power of Protective Coatings,” is part of the Lux Research Advanced Materials Intelligence service.

Lux Research
ww.luxresearchinc.com

Windpower Engineering & Development