GE buys more than a 3.5-MW turbine manufacturer
October 5, 2009 by Paul Dvorak
Filed under Turbine Design, Wind Power Projects
GE says it has acquired ScanWind, a developer of advanced gearbox-free drive trains aimed at offshore deployment. The company manufacturers and markets direct-drive wind turbines from its headquarters in Trondheim, Norway and a design-engineering center in Karlstad, Sweden. Direct drives connect the rotor to a generator that operates at low rotational speeds creating a simpler and more reliable drive train. The company has 11 of the turbines operating on the Norwegian coast.
ScanWind also comes with a clever tower and nacelle-lifting equipment tailored to erecting of large turbines in complex terrain. The design erects two lattice towers on either side of a site to lift the tower and nacelle into place. The company says the lifting towers work in winds up to 15 m/s winds frequent on coasts, and works well for wind class IEC 1. What’s more, its small footprint minimizes its environmental impact.
Earlier in 2009, ScanWind described development of its SW-100-4000 (a 4-MW) offshore unit based on the existing SW-90-3500 design. First offshore prototypes are slated for installation in 2011.
In a conventional turbine, the rotor drives a gearbox and that turns the generator. Turbines with greater electrical outputs, such as offshore turbines, generate greater loads, making gearbox reliability a challenge.
Windpower Engineering Editor Paul Dvorak is an experienced mechanical engineer. Paul has seven years of hands on mechanical engineering experience and 23 years of technical writing. Paul is constantly in correspondence with wind turbine manufacturers and wind power researchers. Thanks to this correspondence, he is able to write about wind engineering topics before any other editor in the wind space.
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