Vestas has upgraded the company’s 3-MW turbine platform to enhance performance and meet customer requirements. The upgrade will increase power production and lower the cost of energy. It also serves to boost performance in all Vestas’ wind classes and will increase annual energy production by up to 12% depending on site-specific conditions. The upgrade’s most significant changes include: Larger…
ACCIONA Windpower installs more than 1,000-MW of wind-power capacity using concrete-tower technology
ACCIONA Windpower (AWP), the ACCIONA Group subsidiary dedicated to the design, manufacture, and commercialization of wind turbines, has hit a new milestone in the wind industry. The company has installed more than 1,000 MW (1 GW) of wind-power capacity using concrete-tower technology. ACCIONA Windpower’s unique concrete-tower technology enables higher hub heights for better energy production, and…
Domed rotor holds promise of 3% more wind power
Some have likened it to a UFO stuck atop a utility tower and others simply call it “big nose.” Granted, it’s not your usual wind turbine but GE, the engineers behind a unique new design, are more concerned about efficiency than aesthetics. The design started out with a styrofoam ball and a toothpick when GE scientists…
Innovative components pave the way to cheaper wind turbines
Wind turbines began cropping up across the landscapes of Spain and Germany in the 1990s. These two countries have the highest wind energy production in the EU. But according to the Global Wind Energy Council, the global installed power capacity in Europe — which is 134,007 MW — has been surpassed by Asia with 141,964…
Generating eco-friendly power with metal rotor blades
Wind turbines deliver environmentally friendly electricity. Yet the fiber-reinforced plastics often used in very large rotor blades are almost impossible to recycle. Not so with steel blades: since these are composed of steel, their re-cyclability exceeds 90%. Plus they cost significantly less than comparable plastic blades. Wind turbines feed eco-friendly power into the grid. To…
Iowa State engineers study benefits of adding a second, smaller rotor to wind turbines
Hui Hu picked up a 3-D printed model of a typical wind turbine and began explaining two problems with the big, tall, three-bladed machines. First, said the Iowa State University professor of aerospace engineering, check out the base of each blade. They’re big, round structural pieces. They’re not shaped like an airfoil. And so they…