Welding and Fabricating 101

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Although the U.S. wind energy industry seems forever changing, one of its constant goals is to lower costs by mounting turbines in windier areas, which means offshore and higher up. To take advantage of the stronger and steadier winds in both places, tower manufacturers are looking for ways to reduc …

Machining and Metal Cutting 101

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: A speaker at a supply-chain conference remarked that power from a wind turbines will have to compete power from natural gas. Hence, costs will have to come out of components. One way to lower turbine costs is with new manufacturing ideas and equipment. In the machine tool industry, manufacturers hav …

Turbine Manufacturers 101

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Original equipment manufacturers are the brand-name turbine producers. They do most of the turbine research although often with the assistance of government labs such as Risø in Denmark and the NREL in the U.S. These companies are responsible for most of what goes into the nacelle. Although they ma …

Towers 101

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Turbines erected in the 1970s and 1980s may have been perched on lattice towers, a design that can scale to 200 ft and more. However, for the protection of the techs who must climb the towers, it make more sense to build them from rolled steel. These protect the technician in long climbs, and better …

Wind Measurement Systems 101

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Wind measurement systems: Measuring wind speed and direction is now done at least three ways: mechanically (cup anemometer with a vane), with ultrasonics, or with laser-based devices. There are variations to each. Mechanical sensors, for instance, use moving parts and can connect to data recording d …

Site Assessment 101

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: A first step in the development of a wind farm is to identify land with sufficient wind to support a commercial project. This calls for a series of studies, one of which is the wind-study assessment that looks at historical wind data. There may be a meteorological or met tower in the area that has a …

Owners & Developers 101

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Owners and developers of wind projects play a crucial role in the industry, but it’s often unclear who does what. Developers are contracted by the project owner to plan and develop a project, often from the beginning stages of site assessment through the final stage of commissioning. Developers wi …

Tools 101

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: One of the great efforts of wind-turbine OEMs is to take cost out their products without lowering quality. One way to do so is in manufacturing with special tools. For instance, a particular profile on a turbine hub often required several tools and machining techniques to impart required features. I …

Operations & Maintenance 101

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Maintenance crews acknowledge that frequent lubrications with small amounts of grease extend the working life of bearings and seals. But long hours of hub crawling is physically and mentally demanding work. To minimize that work, centralized and automated lubrication systems are useful. One version …

Logistics 101

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: The growth in the size of wind turbines and their components have negatively affected America’s transportation industry. The wind industry has pushed high-load permits to high numbers. Four to five truck loads are needed for each turbine. By one count in 2009, 22,000 truck loads were needed to shi …