Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
GENERATION CAPACITY
Kamdin Shafiepour (4725077), Nidarshan Kumar (4735196), Prajwal Chitlure Prahallad (4735447)
Abstract - To construct towering wind turbines have become a matter of prestige in recent
years. And mega enterprises are taking this competition to a next level. In this paper, we
have tried to describe the technologies that are helping to achieve higher (MW) power
production from a single wind turbine. Though it may seem obvious that we can increase
the energy production by just upscaling the turbines, there are a lot of structural and
environmental concerns due to upscaling. Moreover, to do so, research must happen not
only in the field of wind turbine, but in all other interdisciplinary fields such as transport,
assembling and so on. With increase in power derived from wind, it is important to
upgrade the drive train capacity to maximize electricity generation. For this, control
strategies adapted and power electronic devices plays a major role. Overall this literature
survey consolidates the techniques implemented on drive train components (especially,
generator and control systems) in focus of improving power production from wind
turbine.
Introduction
The high energy demand is driving the big power industries to search for cost-effective solution
for energy production. Wind energy, being one of the most essential renewable sector, wind
technology enthusiasts and prominent power industries are motivated to improve the efficiency
and capacity of each wind turbine. Wind turbines rated 5-6 MW are most common these days.
Upscaling (increasing the production capacity) of these turbines yields in a cost-effective
solution for the higher power generations.
Upscaling to higher power production from each wind turbine also have many potential risks
involved. These risks are not just limited to the design and construction of the huge wind
turbines but are also involved in transport, installation and mitigation of the environmental
concerns due to upscaling. Overcoming them could lead to a higher energy generation for a
small increase in investment with a bit higher space consumption.
The main purpose of this paper is to identify the different setbacks in upscaling of wind turbines
to high MW rating and how could they be solved.
The paper is structured to start with a paragraph for discussing the importance of upscaling,
followed by the limiting factors for the upscaling, then we move on to discuss the various
technologies which aim at increasing the generation capacity and various control strategies
which support these technologies. Finally, a paragraph to debate on all introduced topic and
conclude the paper.
Limitations of Upscaling
Authors Nicolas Fichaux et al., in their upwind report have extrapolated the results of a 5MW
turbine to understand the feasibilities in production of a 20MW turbine [3].
Table 1: Extrapolated results for a 20MW turbine using a 5MW turbine [3].
The extrapolated results in Table 1 show that it is difficult to build a 20MW turbine.
The 20MW turbine is huge in dimensions, constituting of tower top mass of 880 Tones with a
blade length of 120m and a blade thickness of 30cm placed at 153m high. It almost seems
impossible to build such huge structure. To build, transport, install and operate such structures,
research and advancements must happen in all the relevant areas simultaneously. Further in
upwind report, authors have compared the different generators available in the market and
found that most of them are electromagnetically optimized and it would be difficult to reduce
the weight of the generators when we upscale them. Thus, adding up more weight of drive train
to the turbine [3]. With the great structures comes the great responsibility. Each part of the
turbine must have a fail proof design, capable of handling the system in emergency situations.
Lot of sensors, actuators and controls are required to ensure this, which constitutes to the
significant increase in total cost.
Looking in to the environmental point of view, though it may seem that wind turbine doesn’t
cause much harm to the nature and society, there are many concerns due to it. Some of them
even gets worse as the generation capacity is increased. The major concern which increases
with upscaling is noise due to the wind turbines. According to J. Helsen et al. [4], there are two
kinds of noises due to wind turbine, one structural noise and another airborne. And they claim
that the structural noise could be mitigated through proper mechanical design whereas it is
difficult to suppress the airborne noise from the wind turbine. We can see in the Figure 1 that
the airborne noise level increases proportionally with increase in the generation of the power.
Figure 1: Increase in airborne noise level with increase in generation capacity [4].
According to National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, a sound of above 85dB can cause hearing loss to a
human being [5]. Apart from causing hearing problems, the environment around the turbine
would also be noise polluted which disturbs the ecosystem. Thus, we can conclude that,
upscaling is not just limited by cost, research and feasibility, it is also limited by the
environmental threats due to upscaling.
Conclusion
Upscaling of Wind Energy systems has now become a promising technique after considering
most of the debatable pros and cons. Results from above discussions on namely Hydrodynamic
Transmission systems, High sensitive pitch controllers, Alternative DD’s and Magnetic pseudo
DD’s have shown confidence on upscaling.
From the literature review, we can conclude that there is no convergence on a unique best
wind generation system for increasing MW generation. Each wind gen-set manufacturer has
their own patented technology with dedicated control methods which are being upgraded to
present competition level. And every three years the cycle of superior technology toggles.
There is numerous hypothesis placed on table with years of analytical research. Yet it takes
courage for major industries to invest on them, as wind energy is one of the most expensive
technologies compared to other renewable sources.
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