Talking Point
the evolution & development of medium voltage switchgear designed for special wind farm applications
A worldwide increase in energy demands and supportive renewable energy policies have been key factors in the growth of renewables over the last decade. Between 1998 and 2007, wind power's installed capacity has grown by 30.4 per cent each year, and international organisations are expecting similar figures until the year 2030.
The expected expansion of wind power, along with the development of bigger turbines, has allowed us to build wind power farms not only on land, but now also out at sea. In such cases, requirements of medium voltage (MV) equipment are even higher. As access is more limited in water, turbine reliability and its safety features become more vital to operation. Guaranteeing maximum and continuous supply during operation and personnel safety whe
Wind farms pose maintenance challenge for operators
With many wind farms now well established, operators must consider the provision of maintenance and examine the latest component technology available to protect their investment and ensure continued reliability, warns industry expert Phil Burge...
Clean power
With the attraction of clean, free renewable energy, wind power is one of the fastest growing energy sources and today one of the most economical solutions for electricity generation. This is offset in part due to the increasing costs of retrieving fast depleting non-renewable fossil fuel sources and the possible health risks and external costs of nuclear power, as highlighted by recent incidents at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
With rising costs in energy produ
Upscaling with UpWind
20 Megawatt wind turbines are feasible, according to a new report from the EU-funded UpWind project. The group explored the design limits of upscaling wind turbines to 20 Megawatt (MW) and found that they would have rotor diameters of around 200 metres, compared to some 120 metres on today's five MW turbines. PES presents an exclusive look at the findings.
The need for the UpWind project: exploring the design limits of upscaling
The key objective of the European wind industry‘s research and development strategy for the next ten years is to become the most competitive energy source by 2020 onshore and offshore by 2030, without accounting for external costs.
In October 2009, the European Commission published its C
Addressing every aspect of offshore
Words: Jan-Hein Reeringh, Damen Shipyards Group
As Europe strives to reach its ambitious 2020 renewable energy targets and with the trend for offshore wind farms to move into deeper and more challenging waters further from the shore - using bigger turbines and foundations - Damen Shipyards is making sure it is developing innovative solutions to serve the needs of the industry - both now and for the future.
Anyone involved in the offshore wind industry knows the pressure to get the costs down. There are various trends in the market that will play a big role in influencing the so-called Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) and Damen is proactive in seeing where it can contribute to making the indust
The case for a ‘safety critical’ culture
Alexander Hill, Energy Business Development Manager at Critical Software Technologies, discusses the importance of a standards-led, safety critical culture within the wind industry.
Safety critical systems are entrusted to perform crucial tasks, ones that cannot be allowed to fail. They are systems that are essential to our modern life yet rarely contemplated by the people that depend upon them the most. Examples include the control system for aircraft landing gear, a nuclear reactor control system or even the controller for traffic lights at a junction. They are a far cry from a desktop computer, for which, as any office worker will concede, the failure rate of can often be measured in hours (sometimes less).
In theory the failure rate of a
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