New Wind Turbine Design to Benefit the Industry

Most existing inland and offshore wind farms have accustomed us to a landscape where we see the tall and elongated, three-blade turbines spinning gently into the breeze. This design, coupled with the fact that the entire plant is built in an area prone to intense wind, ensures that the energy output is maximized. Now, experts at Nordic Windpower propose a new wind turbine design, one that has the ability to considerably boost power production, while minimizing costs by 20 to 25 percent.

According to Technology Review, the company actually has a chance of making the established, three-blade design of wind turbines obsolete. For the first time in over a decade, a new type of construction proves its worth. The project, which was funded through a $16-million loan guaranteed from the US Department of Energy, under the new economic stimulus plan, underwent serious testing, and proved it could handle large-scale use in the eyes of experts.

The best part about the new design is that its prototypes have been operating constantly and with good results for more than a decade. Before the DOE stepped in, the work was funded and backed by Goldman Sachs.

The Berkeley company plans to begin to sell its first commercial models later this year, and believes that critics to the two-bladed design will soon see the difference between this model and the previous one. The skeptics are right up to a certain point – early, two bladed designs failed miserably at providing efficiency, and were abandoned by the companies that created them in the first place. But, according to Nordic Windpower CEO Tom Carbone, the new design has the “teetered hub” to its advantage.

This instrument allows for a flexible link between the rotor and the generator driveshaft, which in turn helps boost the efficiency of the entire turbine. Also, it allows for the overall weight to be decreased, which is a very important objective for the wind turbine industry. “You're reducing the amount of material normally used to strengthen the structure against those loads,” Carbone says.

The hub also allows for excess forces that accumulate in the rotor to be dispersed safely, reducing the strain of the overall structure. The end-result is a construction that is 20 to 25 percent cheaper to make.