The future of wind power - for the offshore wind farm
At the conference held in Hamburg , Hamburg Offshore Wind 2009 European experts discussed the concept of wind power a new generation. The most promising are offshore wind farms - wind farm complexes in the sea off the coast, where wind power is higher than on land.
The construction of wind farms on the water is very expensive, so it pays only if the wind farm produces enough energy. Ways to improve the effectiveness of offshore parks and was dedicated to the conference held in Hamburg , Hamburg Offshore Wind 2009. It submitted the concept of a new generation of turbines.
"Today, we even can not imagine how an offshore wind farm will look like in ten years, - says engineer Peter Dalhof (Peter Dalhoff), an expert in the field of wind power in the company of Germanischer Lloyd. - Here, at the conference, we learned that in Britain , designed the installation of increased capacity to accommodate the high seas. In the coming years there will be new wind farms with total capacity of 25-30 GW. 25-30 GW - is the total capacity of 30-40 modern nuclear power or coal-fired power plants. To implement this project, you need to erect thousands of new wind power much more power than the existing ones. Today's most powerful wind generator produces approximately 2 MW of electricity. "In the very near future will be put into serial production plant of 6 MW, - says Peter Dalhof. - Finalized units with capacity from 6,5 to 10 MW. Designers are already discussing a project to create an installation capacity of 15 MW.
This increase capacity should be achieved primarily by increasing the height of the tower and the diameter of the propeller is already familiar horizontal-axis three-blade propeller wind generator. The most gigantic of them will be equipped with rotor blades that exceed the size of Cologne cathedral.
There are alternative ideas. "These include wind turbines on the basis of the so-called rotor Darya (Darrieus) with the vertical axis of rotation of the propeller, - says Peter Hunter (Peter Hunter), engineer-designer of the British engineering firm VertAx Wind in Guildford . - Describe the words such installation is difficult. Imagine spinning like a carousel, a chandelier with three candles, but instead of candles - the blade. They have the form of huge rectangular plates, whose height is many times greater than the width. The diameter of such a "chandelier" should reach 140 m elevation "candles" - 110 meters and a designed capacity of the installation - 10 MW.
"At such a facility has a number of very important benefits - explains Peter Hunter. - Classical horizontal axis turbine must constantly focus on the wind, that is, continuously monitor wind direction and rotate the rotor to meet him. And for the turbine in the vertical-axis performance of the wind direction does not matter. In addition, the horizontal axis installed automatically disabled when the wind force exceeds a certain maximum-allowed value and the rotor starts to rotate too quickly. And our machines can operate at any wind strength, even in a violent storm.
At the dignity of the rotor Darier not end there. It provides the same efficiency of using wind energy as the standard installation, low operating speed, and its flat rectangular blades easier to manufacture and at much lower loads during operation than the curved blade propeller turbines. Therefore, new vertical-axis wind turbines are likely to be cheaper and more durable than the current horizontal axis, said Peter Hunter. According to him, the prototype of this wind turbine will be ready after 3 years and, if tests prove successful, quickly conquered the market.