Downwind: Innovations in offshore wind transportation

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Offshore wind development is taking off around the world. The wind projects, however, pose logistic challenges that call for solutions from new ideas. For example, the UK has opened new areas for offshore wind development. However, these locations are farther from shore and in rougher water than …

Wind Innovator 2012: Fermin Catalán, Chief Engineer of the G11X offshore turbine

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Pamplona, Spain is a good place to grow up and get hooked on engineering and renewable energy. The region has lots of renewable-energy companies, turbine manufacturers, and their suppliers, says Gamesa’s Fermin Catalán. He’s Chief Engineer for the company’s new G11X offshore turbine, a 5-MW p …

The evolution of wind power: kites

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Developer for SkySails Power, a kite-based wind generator system, says it consists of five main components: a free flying kite with rope, a launch and recosystem, an automated control system, a generator for producing electrical power and a support platform. SkySails Power operates at altitud …

NREL supercomputer reveals invisible rotor wakes

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: A supercomputer that quickly runs complex airflow models promises to provide insight into harnessing energy from the wind, sun, and other renewable sources. Red Mesa, a 180-teraflop computer (180 trillion floating-point operations/sec) is operating at Sandia National Laboratories in …

Wind innovations of the future

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: I found this article on the future of wind on Treehugger.com. It features nine designs for wind turbines of the future. The designs include airborne turbines, turbines for low wind-speed sites, bladeless wind power (we've featured this Windstalk before!), wind turbine lenses, vertical axis turbines …

Assessing sites offshore

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Gathering the geotechnical data needed to determine foundational engineering parameters is a painstaking component of any wind project, and further complicated when that project is offshore. Marine geotechnical studies, which involve the physical sampling and testing of seabed soil to determine its …

U.K. research center to support offshore wind industry

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt:   The UK wind industry is planning large offshore wind farms, some at considerable distance from shore and in deeper water. Round 3 sites are from 13 to 195 km from shore compared with 12 km for the most distant existing offshore wind farms. There is an urgent need to ensure that offshor …

Mobilizing for offshore wind in Normandy

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: GDF SUEZ Chairman and CEO Gérard Mestrallet, VINCI CEO Xavier Huillard, CDC Infrastructure CEO Jean Bensaïd and AREVA CEO Luc Oursel highlighted their energy, economic and social plan connected with the call for bids to site 3,000-MW of wind power off France’s coasts starting in 2015. AREVA, …

73-m blades on this offshore baby

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: LM Wind Power’s 73.5-m blades became the first of such size to be installed when Alstom inaugurated the largest offshore wind turbine in the world on March 19 at Carnet in the Loire-Atlantique region of France. The impressive composite structures have been developed specifically for Alstom’s …

Understanding costs for large wind-turbine drivetrains

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: After identifying cost drivers for wind-turbine equipment, engineering teams and designers can focus their talents on controlling them. By:  Dr. John Coultate, R&D and Consultancy Dept. Leader, Romax Technology Ltd, UK, www.romaxtech.com Wind-turbine manufacturers offer a variety …