Turbine OEM wins “cool building” certification

Siemens Energy has been awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certification for its recently opened wind-turbine-nacelle assembly plant in Hutchinson, Kansas, for its environmentally responsible design and efficient operations. The 300,000-square-foot facility is Siemens’ first LEED Gold certified production facility in the U.S. It also holds the distinction of being the first LEED Gold new construction/industrial site in the state of Kansas. The certification program is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance, green buildings.

Siemens Real Estate facilitated the project and Gray Construction built the facility. The plant opened in December 2010 and produces nacelles for the company’s 2.3-MW and 3.0-MW wind turbines. The factory achieved Gold certification for energy use, lighting, water, and material use, as well as incorporating a variety of other sustainable strategies.

Highlights:

• Insulation resulting in minimal heat loss in the winter and minimal air conditioning (AC) losses in the summer
• No CFC or HCFC (Hydro chlorofluorocarbons) refrigerants used in AC systems
• Intelligent water management, 48.7% better than Energy Policy Act baseline
• Daylight provided through skylights (75% of all regular occupied areas)
• “Sage Glass” system controls solar heat gain (reducing energy consumption), blocks glare, and increases day lighting potential
• Use of low-emitting materials in sealants, adhesives, paints, carpet, wood and finishes
• During construction avoided 50% of construction waste from disposal; use of recycled and regional materials

Siemens
www.siemens.com/energy

Turbine OEM prefers this synthetic lubricant

Turbine OEM Siemens Wind Power has signed a purchase agreement with lubricant manufacturer  Castrol Industrial  for its gear oil, Castrol Optigear Synthetic X 320. Castrol Industrial says it will be the exclusive supplier of gearbox lubricants for the OEM. The lubricant company says it also supplies complementary products to the OEM, such as hydraulic fluids and greases.

Because of the agreement, Castrol has begun production of the gear oil at its manufacturing plant in Warminster, Pennsylvania, to help the company better serve Siemens operations in Hutchinson, Kansas, and supply locally-produced lubricants to other customers in the U.S. and surrounding markets.

Sven Thiesen, Key Account Manager Wind Energy, Castrol Industrial, says: “The deal is the latest in a long-standing working relationship with Siemens, which recognizes the importance of working with partners to ensure consistency and quality in all markets.”

The company says its Optigear Synthetic X 320 can offer a significantly greater resistance to micropitting, providing gearbox protection under high loads, and preserving turbine components longer. It also creates a 5 to 10% thicker oil film to improve gearbox protection and cut wear, while smoothing surfaces resulting in minimal wear or damage.

While Castrol Industrial ships its oil from Europe to serve the Chinese market, the company says it continues evaluating the option of manufacturing at its Taichang plant in China to meet the growing demand in the region, which represents significant future potential.

Castrol Industrial
www.castrolindustrial.com/WindEnergy

Talbot Wind project adds 99 MW to Ontario grid

Enbridge Inc. and Renewable Energy Systems Canada Inc. have completed Enbridge’s 99-MW Talbot Wind Project. “We are pleased to introduce the Talbot Wind Project to the Chatham-Kent community,” said Don Thompson, Vice President, Green Energy.

Enbridge owns the project and RES Canada developed and constructed it.

“Through the support of the community and by working with Enbridge, the Ontario Power Authority, Hydro One, Siemens, and local contractors, the project was completed on time and within budget. RES Canada looks forward to bringin clean and sustainable renewable energy to Ontario and other Canadian provinces,” says RES Canada CEO Susan Reilly.

“Our investment of up to $30 million from the ecoENERGY for Renewable Power program in the Talbot Wind Farm demonstrates the Government of Canada’s commitment to increasing the supply of clean, renewable energy to Canadians,” said the Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources.

To celebrate the Talbot Wind Project’s completion, Enbridge and RES Canada announced two community investments: $10,000 toward new windows for the Palmyra Community Hall, and $35,000/year for five years to the University of Guelph’s Centre for Agricultural Renewable Energy and Sustainability at its Ridgetown Campus. The Center is a hub for applied and adaptive research, training and education in bio-energy and the bio-economy. The investment will support research into the impacts and benefits that this energy has on the community.

The Project helps advance Enbridge’s commitment to achieving an environmentally neutral footprint by 2015 and a significant step forward in Enbridge’s commitment to generate a kilowatt of renewable energy for every kilowatt consumed by the company’s operations.

The project created about 300 construction jobs and 10 full-time local jobs. It generated revenue for local businesses through almost C$60 million in capital expenditures, and will continue to generate local revenue through about C$7 million in annual operating expenditures. The municipality will receive annual tax payments of about C$280,000.

The project delivers energy to the Ontario Power Authority under a 20-year Renewable Energy Supply III agreement. It is also receiving a C$0.01/kWh energy production incentive over the next ten years from Natural Resources Canada’s ecoENERGY for Renewable Power program. A few project details include:

• Capacity peak: About 98,900 kW
• Turbines: 43 Siemens 2.3-megawatt wind turbines
• Area: 11,500 hectares
• Annual yield: about 300,000 MWh
• Total cost:  C$285 million

RES Canada
http://www.talbotwindfarm.com/

Renewable-energy OEM splits its units

 

As of October 1, 2011, Siemens will realign its renewables business into two independent units, says the Germany-based company. The existing Renewable Energy Division shall be divided into two divisions, Wind Power and Solar & Hydro. The company intends to bundle its solar and hydro power business activities in a new division Solar & Hydro. “We’re separating solar and wind power because these two markets are at different stages of development,” says Siemens Energy Sector CEO Michael Seuss. “In the Solar & Hydro unit, we’ll move forward with research and development. In the established wind power business, we’ll forge ahead with industrialisation and internationalisation. Germany, the rest of Europe and the whole world need power-storage systems to work with renewables. Our Solar & Hydro Division will also be handling the strategic issue of power storage,” Suess added.

“We’ve got a wind order backlog of almost €11 billion, and we’re world market leader in offshore wind farms, the market sector posting fastest growth. We also want to forge ahead with onshore wind turbines.” To further reduce wind-based power generating costs the company will focus on new products and industrialised manufacturing and logistics. For example, nacelles are now produced in a continuous-flow manufacturing process with the automation of rotor-blade production to follow. The company recently installed a prototype of its new 6 MW direct drive wind turbine and announced investments of €150 million in two new R&D locations in Denmark. In addition, the internationalisation of the manufacturing and marketing & sales network will play a key role in Siemens strategy. Following the opening of two new factories in the US and China in late-2010, the company is planning further production facilities in Canada, the UK, India, and Russia, and now in Brazil.

Siemens wants to expand its market share in emerging countries with local value, and development of wind turbines for China and India. Siemens will bundle its activities in the fields of solar and hydro power in the Solar & Hydro Division. In this field Siemens acts as general contractor for large-area photovoltaic installations in the megawatt-capacity range. The company recently acquired a minority stake in Semprius, a developer of concentrating PV modules. In the field of solar-thermal power, the range of products offered extends from components, such as solar receivers and solar fields, to complete solar thermal power plants. In addition to business with small hydro power plants the new Division will also encompass the Siemens stakes in Voith Hydro (35%), a vendor in the hydro sector, and in Marine Current Turbines (about 10%), a pioneer in tidal current energy turbines. The new unit will also be a centre of competence for the development of power storage technologies.

Siemens
www.siemens.com

Bummer: China slows PM materials so OEMs looking elsewhere

Here’s a fly in the direct-drive ointment. China has been the world’s largest supplier of rare-earth materials, those used in high flux permanent magnets needed for direct-drive generators. The nation recently curbed production of the materials, most likely for its own use. China had supplied more than 90% of global rare earths, a group of 17 elements used in electronic technologies from electric motors to sonar systems. The country imposed controls on mining and exports after more than a decade of extraction depleted the resources and harmed its environment.

Turbine OEM Siemens, however, would like to develop supplies for rare earths in Australia, Russia, Greenland, and California to limit price increases and keep materials flowing to their products. Siemens Wind CTO Henrik Stiesdal says his company is developing a variant that uses no rare earth magnets at all. Siemens recently installed a 6-MW prototype direct-drive machine. According to Stiesdal, the company will offer geared turbines through 2015 as it transitions its products to all direct-drive technology.

In contrast, Vestas makes geared wind turbines with generators that the require only 10% of the material used in other direct-drive machines. So the generators do not depend heavily on the rare earths from China, according to the head of Vestas R&D Finn Stroem Madsen. “We will not deliver a technology that depends on a strategic raw material, such as the rare earths,” he says.

Vestas
www.vestas.com

6-MW direct-drive turbines the new norm for offshore

In two separate developments regarding direct drives, two companies say they are aiming at 6-MW ratings for offshore designs. In one, France-based turbine manufacturer Alstom and EDF Energies Nouvelles agreed to bid jointly on 3 GW of offshore construction. The consortium says it hopes to win tenders to build a third of the 3 GW with Alstom’s 6-MW turbines.  The company also says a partnership with French generator manufacturer Converteam will bring the company’s direct drive, permanent-magnet generator to Alstom’s under-development offshore wind turbine.

Under the terms of the alliance, Converteam will supply its Advanced High Density direct-drive PMG.  “The generator will have the largest torque of any PMG built to date,” says Converteam CEO Pierre Bastid. “This project lets us take a big step in commercializing large direct-drive wind generators.” The first two units are scheduled for installation off the coast of Belgium during the winter of 2011-2012, in collaboration with developers Belwind as part of a roughly 40-MW demonstrator project.

Alstom’s turbine, which boasts a 150-m rotor, is under development in Barcelona, Spain. It will be “simple, reliable, and effective,” says company VP of Offshore Frédéric Hendrick. Engineers will begin two prototypes in July, which will be tested on land in 2011. They are scheduled to launch next year at Belgium’s Belwind project. “We are consulting on the ports’ capacity to accommodate an industrial cluster,” says Hendrick. The factory would also produce turbines for Germany and Belgium. The first production run of a dozen machines is planned for mid-2013, with full production slated for 2014.

At the end of March, GE announced it had entered into a roughly $3.2 billion agreement to acquire some 90% of the equity in Converteam from a controlling shareholder group. GE’s announcement followed a similar move from American Superconductor Corp., which has agreed to acquire Finland-based The Switch Engineering Oy, a $265 million acquisition. AMSC said it expects The Switch’s background in advanced synchronous generators to help commercialize superconductor generators for its direct drive 10 MW SeaTitan turbine.

In a second development, Siemens has started testing its first 6-MW SWT-6.0-120 direct-drive wind turbine offshore in Høvsøre, Denmark. As a direct drive, it does not use a large gearbox, but rather directly turns the generator at the same speed as the rotor. The unit is expected to require less maintenance than a conventional turbine with a gearbox, making the direct-drive unit a good pick for offshore work. Although direct drive comes with a higher capital costs, the added reliability is expected to offset the extra cost.

This is the third direct-drive turbine Siemens has developed. The company says it has a power-to-weight ratio comparable to that of 2 and 3-MW models. This improvement means weight will affect installation less negatively than other 6-MW turbines. The high weight of wind turbines affects other costs as well because it makes transportation and installation difficult. The combined weight of the SWT-6.0-120′s nacelle and blades is 350 tons. Serial production begins in 2014.

Alstom
www.alstom.com

Converteam
www.converteam.com

 Siemens
www.siemens.com

 

Gearless wind turbines more often picked for the job

Siemens Energy has been awarded another order from Minnesota Power for 35, 3-MW SWT-3.0-101 direct drive wind turbines for its Bison 2 wind energy center near Center, North Dakota. The scope of supply for the wind-power plant includes transportation, erection, and commissioning of the 35 wind turbines, as well as a three-year service and maintenance agreement. Deliveries of the wind turbines will commence in August 2012, and the wind power plant is scheduled for commissioning by the end of 2012.

This order is the third for Siemens direct drive wind turbines in the U.S., including Minnesota Power’s Bison 1 North Dakota and Oklahoma Gas & Electric’s Crossroads Oklahoma wind power plants. “Our direct drive turbines have only half the parts required for a conventional geared wind turbine and a significantly smaller number of moving parts, allowing for increased output and improved maintainability,” says Jan Kjaersgaard, VP and general manager of Siemens’ Americas Wind Power business.

 The SWT-3.0-101 direct-drive wind turbine has a rated power output of 3 MW, a rotor diameter of 101 m, and an innovative permanent magnet generator. The first prototypes of the SWT-3.0-101 have been running for more than a year and are meeting all expectations in terms of reliability and performance, according to the company.

Siemens
http://www.siemens.com/energy

6-MW turbine gets GL certification

GL Renewables Certification (GL) has been chosen by Siemens Wind Power for the type certification of their 6-MW direct drive offshore wind turbine.

The Type Certification will be carried out according to the International Standard IEC 61400-22, and the “Guideline for the Certification of Wind Turbines”, Edition 2010, GL. In general the certification confirms that a wind turbine complies with the requirements of the respective standard for the Certification of Wind Turbines regarding design, prototype measurements and exemplary manufacturing evaluation.

A type certification is a must in many places worldwide and helps wind turbine manufacturers to apply for any wind farm tenders. The prototype certification of the 6-MW turbine has recently been carried out by GL to enable testing and demonstration activities of the wind turbine. Investing to further expand its renewable energy business, Siemens Wind Power developed this large-capacity machine for use at sea.

GL Group
www.gl-group.com

 

Smart grid innovation contest

OEM Siemens is holding a worldwide contest to identify five top sustainable business or technology proposals to help the world become a better place. The company will award $21,000 and a trip to Berlin, Germany to meet with Siemens Smart Grid experts to the five contestants with the best ideas. Siemens has also committed to providing more than over $1.5 million to translate the participants’ best ideas into reality.

The contest is accepting proposals through June 15, 2011. The ideas are posted online where people can review and comment openly. Proposals can cover any topic or aspect of energy use and management including creation, distribution, transmission, storage or utilization. Candidates get the opportunity to receive feedback and exposure from people all over the world.

Siemens www.smartgridcontest.com

 

Wind service and distribution center opens in Oklahoma

Need for new service distribution center is a sign of maturation of the U.S. wind power industry, says Siemens Windpower. With a continued focus on providing increased efficiency to its wind power customers, Siemens Energy announced plans to build a new wind service warehousing operation in Woodward, Oklahoma. Construction of two facilities will begin May 2011 and is expected to complete by year’s end. With a total of 64,000 ft², the combined main component, tooling and spare parts facilities will be Siemens’ largest wind power service distribution center to date in the U.S. The geographic location of the primary distribution complex will provide clients with reduced delivery time and greater parts availability, and serve as a hub for wind energy main components and parts, including wind turbine blades, drive assemblies and generators. Over the next five years, the company expects to create up to 40 “green-collar” jobs at the facility.

Siemens Windpower
www.siemens.com