Adwen and Winergy collaborated closely to create the gearbox for Adwen’s AD 8-180 offshore wind turbine. It is the world’s largest wind turbine gearbox, with an input torque of close to 10,000 kilonewton-meters (kNm) and a weight of 86 tonnes.
The gearbox from Winergy was created specifically for the AD 8-180 wind turbine. It’s part of a medium-speed drive train design that’ll enable Adwen’s new offshore turbine’s levelized cost of energy (LCOE) drop significantly. The AD 8-180 has the world’s largest rotor diameter at 180 meters. The gearbox achieves an input torque of close to 10,000 kNm when combined with an 8 MW nominal electrical power – a value never previously achieved.
When compared to other gears utilized in offshore wind turbines greater than 6 MW, this 70 percent increase in torque capability was achieved with only a 20 percent weight increase. A flange connection connects the two-stage planetary gearbox directly to a medium-speed generator. Adwen and Winergy can successfully maximize the efficiency of the drive train while decreasing the cost of the components by using a medium-speed gearbox architecture and leveraging proven technology. The gearbox achieves an efficiency of well over 98 percent in tests. Furthermore, by lowering the number of built-in components, the system’s reliability improves.
Winergy built four gearboxes for Adwen, with the purpose of thoroughly validating them in three steps. The first takes place at Winergy on a modified test bench that is being used to test two identical gearboxes back-to-back with up to 125 percent overload. These tests are required by Adwen’s demanding validation process to ensure maximum reliability of such a key component. The gearbox is put through its paces in the Fraunhofer IWES Test Center’s Dynamic Nacelle Testing Laboratory, where it is put through its paces in a combination of full drivetrain and nacelle tests. The AD 8-180 prototype was installed at Bremerhaven, Germany, as part of the final phase of testing.
“With our AD 8-180, we’re continuing to push the industry’s boundaries, this time with the world’s largest gearbox.” This critical component performed admirably during the rigorous validation process, giving us confidence that the turbine’s first prototype will meet, if not surpass, our performance and reliability objectives once installed. Furthermore, like the rest of the primary components, it has been designed for scalability, allowing the platform to evolve in the future,” said Luis Alvarez, Adwen’s CEO.
“Particularly in the offshore business, reliability is vital,” says Winergy CEO Aarnout Kant. We demonstrate our technological competence and imaginative strength with our medium-speed gearbox idea. Not only is the integrated driving system small and economical, but it is also incredibly reliable. We’re honored to be Adwen’s collaborator on this showcase project.”
What is the weight of a wind turbine hub?
A 1.5-megawatt (MW) wind turbine with a tower 80 meters (260 feet) tall is common in the United States. The total weight of the rotor assembly (blades and hub) is 22,000 kg (48,000 lb). The generator is housed in a nacelle that weighs 52,000 kilos (115,000 lb). The tower’s concrete base is made up of 190 cubic meters (250 cu yd) of concrete and weighs 26,000 kilograms (58,000 lb) of reinforcing steel. The base has a diameter of 15 meters (50 feet) and is 2.4 meters (8 feet) thick at the middle.
What is the weight of a wind turbine shaft?
Casting or forging is used to make the main shaft for wind power generators, which is the largest part of the nacelle. The mass impact in cooling is strongly affected by the weight of the main shaft, which ranges from 10 to 20 tons depending on the design.
How much does a wind turbine’s foundation weigh?
Many people visualize little machines behind someone’s house when they think about wind turbines. According to National Wind Watch, industrial wind turbines are gigantic pieces of technology with blades that can easily stretch hundreds of feet.
Wind turbines generate energy at a lower cost due to economies of scale, therefore larger turbines can generate more electricity.
Components for wind turbines are frequently carried by road.
Turbines are secured in steel and rebar platforms that easily exceed 1,000 tons in weight and rest 6 to 30 feet in the ground once they are built. Turbines must then be outfitted with lights so that they can be seen. On average, per megawatt, they take up around 50 acres of land.
Wind turbines generate energy at a lower cost due to economies of scale, therefore larger turbines can generate more electricity. Furthermore, larger turbines are more efficient and therefore better suited for use offshore. Smaller turbines, on the other hand, are quicker to construct and produce less energy fluctuation.
Wind turbines, regardless of their size, are a striking addition to the environment. The rotor diameter of a wind turbine with a 600-kW generator is typically around 144 feet. You may acquire four times the power by doubling the diameter. Machines are frequently modified to cater for local wind conditions. Many extant models reach heights of over 400 feet, with extra-long towers and larger and longer blades.
Vestas, Gamesa, and General Electric are the most prevalent turbine manufacturers in the United States, however some older facilities still use NEG Micon and Zond turbines. The GE 1.5-megawatt model, for example, has 116-foot blades on a 212-foot tower, but the Vestas V90 has 148-foot blades on a 262-foot tower. The GE 1.5-megawatt variant is almost 164 tons in weight, with the tower alone weighing roughly 71 tons. The Vestas V90 has a total weight of around 267 tons.
Continue reading for a list of the most common wind turbines now in production or set to start soon, as well as their sizes.
A wind turbine has how many tons of steel?
This isn’t a joke, believe it or not. It’s a crucial topic that isn’t asked nearly enough, since it demonstrates how green energy may benefit some of the country’s older, faltering businesses as well.
According to the American Wind Energy Association, a single wind turbine requires between 200 and 230 tons of steel. Of course, it takes a lot more turbines to make a wind farm, and a lot of wind farms to get wind power to the point where it can contribute meaningfully to the country’s energy demands. When you do the arithmetic, it’s a substantial sum for a sector that was once a symbol of American industrial might but now needs some support.
Indeed, some of the country’s most active wind power firms and turbine manufacturers are leveraging this synergy in both practical and symbolic ways. Steel Winds is constructing a massive wind farm on the site of a former Bethlehem Steel plant in New York, with the goal of transforming the country’s rust belt into a “wind belt.” And, as this piece points out, several newly laid-off steel workers have already found new work making wind turbines using their talents.
It’s not only that wind power requires steel, or that some workers’ skills appear to be fairly transferrable from one old industry to another that is on the rise. On a larger scale, once you realize how massive those wind turbines towering gracefully in the sky are, you realize how erroneous much of the debate over conventional vs. new industry, or electricity sources is. When a country decides to invest in new energy sources, it does not have to mean that traditional energy sources will be abandoned.
Although so-called green energy sources generate electricity in novel ways, they are nonetheless reliant on typical industrial products like steel, which are also employed in the country’s oil refineries and production facilities. In terms of power, CEA has long advocated for a holistic approach that considers all of the many sources that are required to build a robust domestic energy economy.
We should not be misled by distinctions between old and new, green and traditional, at a time when the country is struggling to reestablish its manufacturing base. Many of these industries, from steel to wind, have a lot more in common than you may imagine.
What is the weight of a 2 MW wind turbine?
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Customized blades with different root diameters, lengths, and geometries are available from LM Wind Power, which ensures a quick debut on the global market thanks to economies of scale and competitiveness. Your requirement for a 2 MW 115/116 turbine will be addressed by LM Wind Power’s latest blade design, the LM 56.8 P with changeable root bolt circle diameter. The blade is extremely light, weighing only 11.3 tonnes, making it ideal for a wide range of turbine designs. The newly designed aerodynamic profile of the LM 56.8 P provides the best optimal performance and demonstrates the validity of LM Wind Power’s blade design philosophy by lowering total cost of energy.
When it comes to wind turbine gearboxes, how long do they last?
Francesco Cornacchia believes that learning more about your wind farm can help you extend the life of your gearboxes from 20 to 25 years and maximize your investment returns.
Many wind turbine gearboxes are reported to have a design life of 20 years.
However, it is commonly known that many gearboxes do not endure the whole 20 years and fail early. What’s the deal with the discrepancy?
The solution resides in the definitions of gear and bearing lives. We can’t anticipate when a component will break, but we may estimate the likelihood that it will last for a certain amount of time.
A simple calculation demonstrates that if the projected life of each bearing in a drivetrain is added together to produce a “system level” life, the probability of one or more bearings breaking within 20 years is up to 93 percent. As a result, practically every gearbox in a wind farm is likely to break over the next 20 years. It may appear alarming, yet it isn’t far from the truth.
This result is based on a simplified calculation and is meant to represent the overall trend. We utilize more advanced versions of these technologies in our business to analyze and forecast failure rates. We can provide very precise predictions of drivetrain failures using design standards and simulations, as well as a large quantity of operational data and historical failure rates.
Wind farm owners and investors can benefit from managing this risk by increasing the value of their projects and reducing downtime. How are they able to achieve this?
It’s critical to pick the proper technology early on in the development process: the turbine must be suitable for the site characteristics (wind speed, shear, turbulence, wind farm design) and have a track record.
Investors must determine how design is affected by manufacturing procedures, as this can lead to significant uncertainty about the reliability of gearboxes made or remanufactured by various suppliers.
Major component supply chains must be considered: components that can only be produced by a single supplier can have a financial impact in the event of serial errors, manufacturing difficulties, or simply longer lead times.
Investors should also think about the quality of the maintenance. Even the best design in the world won’t last if best practices aren’t followed: we’ve seen turbines with large chunks of the lubricating system removed due to excessive alerts. This means that numerous components were operating without lubrication, resulting in expensive breakdowns.
Some technologies have well-documented and well-known design flaws. Technology evaluation and analysis are available.
That can provide you a clear picture of an asset’s future potential and operating expenses.
These issues should and can be solved during the wind farm’s commissioning sign-off phase. In the case of a retrofit during the installation of new technology. Premature failures can be considerably reduced if proper transit, storage, and installation procedures are followed.
With existing assets, these may be the easiest to affect. Component attrition rates, associated O&M costs, and revenue loss due to downtime will all be affected by best practice O&M processes and regimes based on data-driven CMS, SCADA, oil analysis, and other methods.
An in-depth asset health assessment and detailed examination of the assets’ historical data, as well as a full technology review of turbines and their primary components, will provide essential information on future potential and operating costs to any prospective investor.
Overall, the term “design life” might be deceiving, with overwhelming evidence indicating that most gearboxes in use fail in less than 20 years. The solution for investors is to use improved ways for identifying significant financial risks and reliability issues, which can be aided by working with a well-established partner.
If you want to learn more, come see me at the Financing Wind 2016 conference in London on October 27th, and we can talk about how Romax InSight’s software, solutions, and services can help your company.
In wind turbines, what type of gearbox is used?
A one- or two-stage planetary gearing system, also known as an epicyclic gearing system, is used in the majority of wind turbine gearboxes in the 1.5 MW rated power range. Multiple exterior gears, or planets, revolve around a single center gear, the sun, in this design.
What is a wind turbine’s gearbox?
In a wind turbine, a gearbox is commonly employed to raise the rotating speed from a low-speed main shaft to a high-speed shaft connected to an electrical generator. Due to changing wind loads that are stochastic in nature, gears in wind turbine gearboxes are subjected to intense cyclic loading.
What are the materials that wind turbine shafts are constructed of?
Growing environmental concerns, such as greenhouse gas emissions, are driving the wind turbine shaft industry. Manufacturers are likewise attempting to reduce costs while improving the production of wind turbines. Furthermore, rising energy demand is a result of rising population and rapid industrialization.
To satisfy rising energy demand, governments around the world are stressing the use of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. This is projected to result in the construction of additional wind power projects, which will increase demand for wind turbine shafts.
The growing use of offshore wind energy generation as a clean source of energy in several countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, India, Taiwan, and the United States, is likely to open up new potential for the wind turbine shaft market. Harsh environmental conditions, on the other hand, necessitate greater technological innovation in terms of design and strength, resulting in a higher initial setup cost.
Improving economic conditions in numerous regions of the world, as well as lower per kWh wind energy generation costs, are leading to increased adoption of wind turbines around the world, which is likely to propel the worldwide wind turbine shaft market forward. However, the high capital and material costs of the turbine shaft may function as a market restraint.
Furthermore, solar panels are posing a threat to the wind turbine shaft business, as they compete with wind power generating. Manufacturers are focused on studying and designing the shaft with the ideal diameter and material to lower the cost of production in order to reduce the setup cost of wind turbines.
The shaft of a wind turbine can be composed of a variety of materials, including alloy steel, aluminum, and synthetic composites (like fiber glass). Fiber glass has gained popularity in recent years due to its light weight and strong tensile strength. Novel materials are being produced as a result of ongoing advancements and advances in the field of material science, and testing with new materials for wind turbine shafts is on the rise.