Qiang Yan (John Yan), Super Turbine Inc., Shanghai, China, www.sawt.com.cn Conventional wind turbines are generally grouped into horizontal axis wind turbines which have their main shafts deployed horizontally, and vertical axis wind turbines which have their main shafts deployed vertically. Current horizontal axis wind turbines of different designs are manufactured separately so that parts for…
Vertical-axis wind turbines: what makes them better?
You may have seen this photo online recently of EDF’s floating offshore vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) called “Vertiwind.” It has a nameplate capacity of two megawatts. The Vertiwind will be part of EDF-EN’s offshore wind farm project called Inflow, which the European Commission is helping fund. The strange design piqued my curiosity about VAWTs. Why…
Thinking differently to hit 10 MW, and blades to get smarter
Sandia National Labs is a beehive of turbine activity. The last issue of this magazine reported on an array of test turbines going up in Texas and a concept 100m blade. Here we report on the Lab’s work on a possible 10 MW vertical-axis turbine and active blade-control surfaces. Knocking on the 10-MW door Although…