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- Evaluation of wind turbine concepts
For a possible investor planning to invest money into the wind industry,
the evaluation of the related technology in order to find a basis for a
decision is very important. The experience and contacts to specialists
and insiders worldwide helps WINDnovation's engineers to collect all
relevant reference data to set up a proper evaluation model.
- System Integration of wind turbine components
It is quite common in the wind industry that companies with different
technical background decide to join the wind industry which is one of
the fastest growing industries worldwide. Typically these companies
have a specific and detailed expertise on one or more components of a
wind turbine. Within the systems integration process the WINDnovation
engineers connect this specific knowledge with the latest knowledge of
the other components needed for a complete wind turbine.
Starting these jobs in an early design stage can help to avoid decisions
that can endanger the success of the total wind turbine project.
WINDnovation's engineers perform this process in very close relation
to their customers and in the end this service can bridge the gap to
the big players in the wind industry that have the competence for all
components in-house.
- Control Strategies for wind turbines
Since the rotor blades are the dominant means for catching the wind,
the first approach discussed in order to optimize a wind turbine is an
optimization of the rotor aerodynamics. But recent achievements in airfoil
design lead to quite high performance rotor blades close to the BETZ limit.
There is still limited potential for further optimization but with comparatively
high effort and at high cost. WINDnovation's engineers learned that the
optimization of the turbine control regime offers the same or even bigger
potential for optimizing the annual energy output at much lower cost. Due to
shrinking prices for hardware, the cost for the additional engineering for
setting up and optimizing the control programs does not lead to a significant
increase in turbine cost. On the contrary, cost reductions can be achieved for
example by:
· programming load minimizing shutdown procedures leading to lighter
and cheaper components or by
· actively damping possible vibrations in the turbine system by suitable
sensor, program and actuator systems.
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