AMSC, a global solutions provider serving the wind and power industries, announced several agreements with Inox, which strengthens the collaboration between the two companies. Inox manufactures key components of wind-turbine generators, and offers complete end-to-end wind solutions from concept to commissioning. The companies have entered into a long-term supply contract, wherein AMSC will provide Inox with electrical…
Using permanent-magnet machines to make wind power more efficient
Editor’s note: This blog posting on wind-energy efficiency is written by The Switch’s Corporate Business Development Director, Carlo Cecchi. The Switch is a supplier of megawatt-scale electrical drives for wind energy, including permanent-magnet generators. Propelled by a strong gust of subsidies, the Chinese wind-power industry accounts for half of the global wind power market. Yet it remains…
Suspendem brings UpWind’s vortex generator technology to the Canadian wind market
UpWind Solutions, a North American full-service provider for the wind industry, and Suspendem Inc., a Canadian turbine O&M provider, have recently teamed up to form a strategic relationship. As part of the partnership, Suspendem will offer UpWind’s Vortex Generator (VG) Solution to the Canadian wind market for the first time. UpWind has already partnered with…
Siemens to supply turbines to three Italian wind farms in a single year
Siemens has received orders for three wind power plants with a total capacity of 130 MW within a period of only 12 months. The company will equip these plants with its direct-drive D3 wind turbines by the end of 2016. The SWT-3.0-113 and SWT-3.2-113 wind-turbine models have proven to be the most efficient technology solution…
Evaluating wind-turbine generators through electrical signature analysis
By Howard W Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP President | MotorDoc LLC Properly assessing an operating turbine’s electrical and mechanical systems is no easy task. An electrical signature analysis or ESA is independent of load or speed, so the test is often applied to analyze generators and electric equipment. Still, a challenge is to ensure loading stays constant…
Availon wins 78-MW of wind-turbine servicing contracts
Availon, a cross-brand provider of wind-turbine generator services, has signed new contracts for the servicing of 48 wind turbine generators at the recent Husum Wind trade in Germany. The contracts represent an additional 78 MW of capacity placed under the care of Availon. The turbines involved include Vestas V80 and V90, Gamesa G80 and G58, GE 1.5,…
Molycorp chosen to supply rare earths for use in high-efficiency Siemens wind turbine generators
Siemens AG has selected Molycorp, Inc. to supply rare earth materials over the next 10 years from its Mountain Pass, California facility for incorporation into Siemens’ high-efficiency, direct-drive wind turbine generators. Molycorp will supply rare earth materials to Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., which will produce the rare earth magnets Siemens intends to utilize in its wind…
Office of Naval Research: Second gen high-temp superconducting generator program
Editor’s note: If you did not pay close attention to developments in superconductivity, you might think it’s all just research. Actually, a few superconducting products are slowly coming to commercialization. The program review here provides a peek into generator design from the Navy’s perspective. Success for the Navy means more efficient wind turbines. The review…
Top 7 recent Windpower Engineering & Development search areas
Google analytics keeps its all-seeing eye on what people search for. On the Windpowerengineering.com, the inquisitive search most often on these topic areas. To save a little time, we relocated several promising articles in each area. So in reverse order of demand, here what the collective (you) found most interesting: 7 Suppliers https://www.windpowerengineering.com/suppliers/ 6…
Generator manufacturer adds a 7-MW offshore PM unit
A manufacturer of permanent magnet (PM) generators and power converters for the wind energy market, says it will be expanding its portfolio with the addition of large PM generators for low- to medium-speed applications primarily intended to meet the growing market for offshore wind turbines with rated outputs within the range of 6 to…
Customizable generators come with standard base
Recent wind power generators from ABB combine a standard-base construction with customized interface connections to lower costs for turbine manufacturers and shorten delivery times. “It all began when our market intelligence revealed big changes taking place in the wind turbine industry,” says ABB R&D Manager for Wind Power Generators Raimo Sakki. “Previously, such generators had…
Wind turbine generators: How do they work?
A wind electric generator uses induction and permanent-magnet designs. There are many variations of these two, but in general terms, the induction generator must be spun at about 1,000 rpm or more to produce useful power. It produces current by first generating an electric field by passing alternating current (ac) through a coil. A series…
Report tells of global wind-turbine generators
A 134-page report gives an in-depth analysis of the Global Wind Turbine Generator market and provides forecasts up to 2020. This alternative energy research is said to give historical and forecast statistics for the period 2001 to 2020 for market size of the generators in $million and unit volumes. This research is also said to…
Low speed wind power generator could take weight out of the nacelle
The weight of wind turbine generators is a significant issue because weight translates to costs. The structural weight of a direct-drive generator, for example, can exceed 80% of the total weight on the tower. The structure is needed to overcome the force of magnetic attraction between stationary and moving parts. The attraction force, a result…
Novel magnetic-field manipulation leads to unusual generator
One way to wring cost out of a wind turbine is to eliminate the gearbox and at the same time, increase the power density of the generator which would allow reducing its size and weight. Advanced Magnet Lab, Palm Bay, Fla., says it has a generator design that may allow doing so. It uses the…
Generators and services for wind turbines
Electrical design firm Potencia developed a 5 kW wind turbine in 1975 but has evolved as a designer and supplier of generators for the wind-turbine industry. The company has since developed 500 kW induction generators, and 750 kW doubly-fed wound-rotor generators in the 90’s. More recently, the Mexico-based company has developed permanent-magnet generators for multi-megawatt…