Improving wind-farm reliability with small cable materials and standards

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Wind power repairs and downtime are more expensive than in conventional utility-grid systems. This makes reliable equipment especially important. Improving wind-power reliability is all about planning. Each system component is considered in terms of its total life-cycle cost–not just the price to …

2nd International Conference E/E Systems for Wind Turbines

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: The 2nd International Conference E/E Systems for Wind Turbines will take place May 21-23, 2012 at the Swissôtel Bremen/Germany. This year, the agenda has been expanded to include the region’s leading utilities, who will speak about their expectations and future vision.  Also, OEMs will present t …

Clever MW-sized generator uses printed circuit-board stator and PM-rotor

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: A Colorado-based company claims its axial gap, permanent magnet, direct-drive generator can produce the same torque with less than half the mass of comparably rated iron-core, direct-drive versions. The proprietary air-core stator, developed by Boulder Wind Power (boulderwindpower.com), contains …

U.S. grid energy-storage market strong and poised for exponential growth

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: A vigorous U.S. energy storage market offers good potential for growth over the next five years, according to a study sponsored by the Copper Development Association (CDA) and conducted by KEMA, Inc. The study, Market Evaluation for Energy Storage in the United States. determines the current mar …

U.S. tech firm wins appeal in European Patent Office

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Valence Technology Inc., a U.S.-based global manufacturer of advanced energy storage solutions for commercial applications, has prevailed in seeking the dismissal of an appeal by Hydro-Quebec (HQ) of a decision of the European Patent Office revoking a HQ European patent. The EPO Patent correspon …

Whitepaper: Encoders shouldn’t fail, but what to do when they do

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: It should be obvious that the “heartbeat” of a process shouldn’t stop, leaving a machine without speed or distance feedback. But outputs occasionally do stop working for many OEM and industrial machines, leaving them with a complex troubleshooting question: Where did their encoder feedback …

Improving condition monitoring

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Bachmann is increasing the efficiency of condition monitoring by integrating it into plant control. Condition-monitoring systems (CMS) allow increasing the availability and efficiency of wind turbines. Bachmann Monitoring combines signals from CMS-sensor unit with the operating status, leading t …

Energy storage company readies for more growth

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Xtreme Power Inc., developer and manufacturer of Dynamic Power Resource digital power management and energy storage equipment has promoted Alan J. Gotcher, Ph.D., to president, CEO, and a member of Xtreme Power’s board of directors. Company co-founder and former CEO Carlos Coe, Ph.D., will now ser …

Nonmetalic conduit cuts installation time

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Carlon Flex-Plus Electrical Nonmetallic Tubing (ENT) and accessories require less time to install than traditional conduit which saves labor and cost. Available in Carlon Blue, the non-metallic flexible raceway is for use in walls, floor and non-plenum ceilings. The lightweight conduit can be fl …

Non-magnetic encoders for high-magnetic fields

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: A company known for long-lasting miniature scales and small profile scanning units now manufactures a line of encoders that are non-magnetic. These linear and rotary encoders have been tested in environments up to six Tesla and have no influence on the machine environment. The encoders can also …