{"id":544200,"date":"2010-04-27T05:32:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-27T09:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9864176.post-4077315207991849084"},"modified":"2010-04-27T05:33:26","modified_gmt":"2010-04-27T09:33:26","slug":"wind-turbines-shed-their-gears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/544200","title":{"rendered":"Wind Turbines Shed Their Gears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Technology Review has an article on GE and Siemens adopting direct drive wind turbines &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/energy\/25188\/?nlid=2931&#038;a=f\">Wind Turbines Shed Their Gears<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Wind turbine manufacturers are turning away from the industry-standard gearboxes and generators in a bid to boost the reliability and reduce the cost of wind power.<\/p>\n<p>Siemens, the world&#8217;s largest turbine manufacturer by volume, has begun selling a three-megawatt turbine using a so-called direct-drive system that replaces the conventional high-speed generator with a low-speed generator that eliminates the need for a gearbox. And last month, General Electric announced an investment of 340 million euros in manufacturing facilities to build its own four-megawatt direct-drive turbines for offshore wind farms.<\/p>\n<p>Most observers say the industry&#8217;s shift to direct-drive is a response to highly publicized gearbox failures. But Henrik Stiesdal, chief technology officer of Siemens&#8217;s wind power unit, says that gearbox problems are overblown. He says Siemens is adopting direct-drive as a means of generating more energy at lower cost. &#8220;Turbines can be made more competitive through direct-drive,&#8221; says Stiesdal.<\/p>\n<p>Siemens&#8217;s plans hinge on a new design that reduces the weight of the system&#8217;s generator. In conventional wind turbines, the gearbox increases the speed of the wind-driven rotor several hundred fold, which radically reduces the size of the generator required. Direct-drive generators operate at the same speed as the turbine&#8217;s blades and must therefore be much bigger&#8211;over four meters in diameter for Siemens&#8217;s three-megawatt turbine. Yet Siemens claims that the turbine&#8217;s entire nacelle weighs just 73 metric tons&#8211;12 tons less than that on its less powerful, gear-driven 2.3-megawatt turbines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-2189376323632485\";\n\/* 728x90, created 5\/18\/08 *\/\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"3866831776\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 728;\ngoogle_ad_height = 90;\n\/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><img width='1' height='1' src='https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/9864176-4077315207991849084?l=peakenergy.blogspot.com' alt='' \/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/8uAtkY-vkjErJ-IobUF-l5-r4mE\/0\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/8uAtkY-vkjErJ-IobUF-l5-r4mE\/0\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap=\"true\"><\/img><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/8uAtkY-vkjErJ-IobUF-l5-r4mE\/1\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/8uAtkY-vkjErJ-IobUF-l5-r4mE\/1\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap=\"true\"><\/img><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technology Review has an article on GE and Siemens adopting direct drive wind turbines &#8211; Wind Turbines Shed Their Gears. Wind turbine manufacturers are turning away from the industry-standard gearboxes and generators in a bid to boost the reliability and reduce the cost of wind power. Siemens, the world&#8217;s largest turbine manufacturer by volume, has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":763,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-544200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}