Wind turbines are complex systems that convert the low speed, low kinetic energy of wind into electricity. The current state of the art involves using very large propellers turning at around 20 rpm to turn a 60 times gear increaser and spin a generator at 1200 RPM. From a purely mechatronic standpoint, this is a very difficult approach because there is a huge mechanical disadvantage due to the inertia mass of the generator. The generator resistance to turning is amplified by the gear box as the square of the ratio; 3600 times. So its going to take some really big propeller blades to spin that thing.
This leads to a whole host of other problems. Notwithstanding, there is a multi-billion dollar industry around building and installing these things called horizontal wind turbines. And it doesn’t look like things are going to slow down any time soon. So let’s accept for the moment we are dealing with a technology that has some potential problems and look at recent history.
60 miles north of Germany, in the North Sea, one of the largest wind turbine projects in the world has recently been completed. The history of the project is plagued with delays and problems that are, of course, in proportion to its enormous size.
The Bard 1 project is 80 – 5 MW Bard turbines, a 400MW total nameplate capacity. The power reaches the German power grid through a high voltage transmission line.
Filed Under: Mechatronic Tips