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Wind has become the fastest growing sector of the renewable energy, and the cost of wind turbines is falling due to mass production and active technological innovation. One of our hopes to surpass global warming and today's energy crisis is in wind turbine technology.Designs vary significantly, and the possibilities of technological innovation are still immense. Wind turbines technology is much more than just the basic horizontal-axis three blades wind turbines, operating with the blades facing into the wind, with a power ranging from a few hundred kilowatts to several megawatts...
See for more details on the power of wind turbines:
Wind Generators: Power and Size Traditional wind turbines use constant speed control technology, but advanced electronics allow the adjustment of the blade pitch angle in order to achieve optimum rotational speed and higher levels of efficiency.
Constant speed rotors are designed to deflect high wind
gust loads, while variable wind turbine technology controls strong and gusty
winds, enabling the gust peaks to be converted to electric
power.
GE,
Suzlon and other big manufacturers are actively exploring
variable speed systems. Wind power technologies: stall and pitch control Controlling the power output from the turbines blades is a major issue in any wind turbine, and it can be accomplished by two main technologies. One, known as the pitch control technology, is based on the adjustment of the blades by a control system, intimately connected to the brake system. The other technology, the stall (or passive) control technology is purely based in the aerodynamic properties of the blade, without any control system or moving parts to adjust. It’s a technology based in the twist and thickness of the blade along its length. Wind Turbine Parts
Typical wind turbines involve a set (usually three) of rotor
blades rotating around a hub. The hub is connected to a gearbox
and a generator, located inside the nacelle, which houses the
electrical components. The nacelle sits atop the tower and contains the electrical components, namely the gearbox, the brake, the wind speed and director monitor, the yaw mechanism and the generator. Rotor blades The diameter of the blades is a crucial element in the turbine power: typically, the longer they are, the greater the energy produced. But their design and the materials incorporated by them are also key elements.
Blades are often made of fiberglass reinforced with polyester
or wood-epoxy. Vacuum resin infusion is a new material connected
to a technology
presented by large manufacturers as
Suzlon.
Most wind turbines use gearboxes, whose function is to increase the rotational speed required by the generators to produce electricity. Some new technologies are exploring direct drives generators in order to dispense the expensive gears. Brake The brake is a disk used to stop the rotor blades in emergencies and to ensure the safety of the turbine (in the case of very high damaging winds, for instance). Controller The controller is a set of electrical components. It controls the starting, the stopping and the turbine rotor blade speed. Typically the controller starts up the turbine at wind speeds around 8 to 14 miles per hour and stops the machine at around 55 miles per hour (to avoid the damages caused by turbulent high winds). Generator The generator is the device responsible for the production of 60-cycle AC electricity. The yaw mechanism of wind power generators
In more typical wind turbines, the yaw mechanism is connected to
sensors (anemometers…) that monitor wind direction, in order to
turn the tower head to line up the blades with the wind.
See, for details: Wind Turbines Towers
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