Wind Power Limited, a British company, has unveiled the new embodiment of its innovative Aerogenerator X project twice the power and half the weight of Wind Power’s original design.
Images credit: Wind Power Limited
According to the company, Aerogenerator X, visualised by leading international architects Grimshaw, is considered one of the only real alternative solutions available to help deliver the UK’s offshore wind power in a reliable and cost effective manner.
This new design is half the height of an equivalent horizontal‐axis turbine, the blades do not suffer weight induced fatigue and its weight is concentrated at the base of the structure.
Professor Feargal Brennan, Head of Offshore, Process and Energy Engineering at Cranfield University, said: ‘Upsizing conventional onshore wind turbine technology to overcome cost barriers has significant challenges, not least the weight of the blades, which experience a fully reversed fatigue cycle on each rotation. As the blades turn, their weight always pulls downwards, putting a changing stress on the structure, in a cycle that repeats with every rotation – up to 20 times a minute.
‘In order to reduce the fatigue stress, the blade sections and thicknesses are increased which further increases the blade self‐weight. These issues continue throughout the device. Drive‐train mountings must be stiff enough to support the heavier components inside the nacelle on top of the tower, otherwise the systems can become misaligned and the support structure is also exposed to extremely large dynamic thrust and bending stresses, which are amplified significantly with any increase in water depth.’
via inhabitat
source Wind Power Limited
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