drbubb Posted May 1, 2006 Report Share Posted May 1, 2006 I read this statement: "Europe's leadership has given it a major economic bonus: nine of the world's 10 leading wind turbine manufacturers are in three countries—Denmark, Germany, and Spain. These happen to be the three countries that have had the strongest and most stable market incentives. " And it got me thinking: Who are the Top 10 Wind Turbine Manufacturers? Are there some new up-and-coming technologies? = = = DENMARK is a leader: "Over the last ten years, Denmark has home grown three of the world's top five wind turbine manufacturers. The output power of a wind turbine has scaled from a few hundred kilowatts to approximately four megawatts. Today, Denmark generates 20 percent of its electrical energy from wind turbines. Collectives of investing groups have banded together to finance some of this generating capability" Of the top 10 wind turbine manufacturers, only one, GE Wind Energy is a US Company the leading wind turbine manufacturers - Vestas, Bonus/Siemens, GE, Gamesa, ... = = = = = LINKS: Global Wind Overview : http://www.sonnenseite.com/index.php?pageI...html&flash=true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drbubb Posted May 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2006 Turbine Manufacturers: List, Large Turbines... http://energy.sourceguides.com/./windturbine/./byName Siemens................... Bonus? (now Siemens?) GE............................ Gamesa Eolica........... http://www.gamesa.es/ NEG Micon................. http://www.neg-micon.com/cm90.asp?d=1 Vestas Wind Systems.. http://www.vestas.dk/ Nordex...................... http://www.nordex-online.com/ Nordtank.................... Secondhand (from USA) http://www.windturbinewarehouse.com/ Small scale mfrs........ http://www.windustry.com/resources/small-scale.htm Turnkey Constructors: AMEC......................... http://www.amec.com/services/services.asp?pageid=250 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drbubb Posted May 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2006 UK BASED ======= Clipper Windpower... - http://www.clipperwind.com/ Windpower in the UK - http://www.bwea.com/pdf/reviewsmall.pdf ? not yet operating/ Eurowind Developments Ltd & Eurowind Small Turbines Ltd Business type: Developers of modern vertical axis wind turbines Product types: wind turbines (large 1MW - 10MW planned), wind energy systems (small 1.3 kw - 30 kw), wind powered street lighting, hybrid wind power systems. . Service types: Turnkey design and installation of urban and remote systems Address: 38 Kings Avenue, Newhaven, East Sussex United Kingdom BN9 0NA Telephone: +44 (0) 1273 612383 FAX: + 44 (0) 1273 586069 website: http://www.eurowind-uk.net/page16.html 2/ Novera ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drbubb Posted May 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2006 Thinking Outside the Box The wind industry is currently looking at alternative configurations that could bring about a slow but significant change in direction. It would seem that wind farm developers and town planners alike are looking towards alternative and radical designs to fill the demand at either end of the size spectrum. A possible alternative design could be the vertical axis wind turbine. By Steven Peace, Eurowind Small Turbines Ltd, UK There are numerous small wind turbines available on the market ranging from a few hundred watts to a few hundred kilowatts, almost all of which are horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs). The smallest of these machines are really only meant to be used for charging batteries on caravans or boats, although some have been appearing on remote street lights, signs and telephone boxes that have a minimal power requirement. The 1 to 15kW range are designed mainly for use on remote, off-grid, individual properties or smallholdings, whereas those of 15kW upwards are aimed at small remote communities. None of the conventional HAWTs are really designed for use within the built environment. HAWTs are not well suited to the turbulent wind found in built-up areas and can be observed constantly hunting for the wind direction and rarely settling in one position for very long. This leads to inefficient power generation and excessive fluctuation in their power supply. Over the last year or so, there have been a number of real alternatives appearing on the market, generally in the under 3kW range, most based upon one or another of the vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) principles. Current large HAWTs are well developed, highly sophisticated machines. All the big manufacturers are trying desperately to further refine them and squeeze every little bit of extra power and efficiency out of them. However, the truth is that, apart from the odd tweak here and there, the HAWTs are rapidly reaching the limits of their viability. The blades are a particular problem. Modern turbine blades are largely handmade and can take anything up to 8 to 10 days each to produce. The logistics of moving and erecting a 61.5m blade in one piece are horrendous, and virtually impossible by road; therefore, the factories that produce these larger blades need to be located by the sea. Furthermore, as a wind turbine’s output is directly related to the swept area of its blades, if HAWTs are to grow any bigger even larger blades will be required. Using conventional materials (i.e. glass fibre) the blades have more or less reached their limits; larger blades can be built for HAWTs, but they will require more exotic materials such as carbon fibre, which, because of the nature of the materials and supply problems, will probably make the cost of these blades unviable. Added to the blade problems, the large machines require a relatively high degree of maintenance and there are issues with gearboxes, bearings and support towers, all of which are struggling to keep pace with the ever larger sizes, weights and stresses of these latest HAWTs. Currently, outside pressures on the industry by governments committed to high targets of renewable energy production agreed at Kyoto are pushing the industry forward. Understandably though, the wind farm developers would also like to have larger machines to maximise profits and take advantage of the economies of scale. The technology of HAWTs is rapidly reaching a plateau and soon the manufacturers will not be able to keep up with demand. However, why should they worry when they can easily sell every machine they can build? It is the governments and wind farm developers who will inevitably suffer, not being able to meet their targets and having to pay more as the market forces of supply and demand gradually creep the prices up. There is an obvious solution: if the industry were to switch just a fraction of its research and development resources and funding to work on the relatively unexplored technology of VAWTs (when compared to HAWTs), then machines with outputs of 10 to 20MW or more could be in production in less than 5 years. Unless there is a shift in policy and the big players are prepared to think outside the box by embracing such innovations, the current industry might find it is ‘scoring an own goal’ and being left behind. @: http://www.windtech-international.com/content/view/190/72. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drbubb Posted May 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2006 Another Uk Company : Proven Engineering One of world's leading manufacturers of small wind systems, Proven Engineering is celebrating its 25 years in the business by securing a trio of innovative contracts with two of the major players in the oil and gas industry. Support from UK Steel Enterprise has enabled Proven to secure contracts with Shell and Saudi Aramco. A six-figure contract will see the Ayrshire-based company provide Shell with five 2.5 kW wind turbines which will be installed on a number of the oil giant's unmanned satellite gas platforms off the coast of England and Holland. The turbines will enable the platforms to operate all year round in extreme weather conditions and will generate power for the platforms' navigation lights and wellheads. In a similar contract, Proven has been appointed by Saudi Aramco to conduct a pilot scheme that will see the company install a 6 kW turbine on a telecom site situated in the middle of the Saudi desert. This will be the first step towards Saudi Aramco introducing a further 10 turbines over a three-year period at some of its other remote telecom sites. @: http://www.sonnenseite.com/index.php?pageI...html&flash=true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gscottd Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 Hi Dr. Bubb, Forum newbie here, but I have lurked extensively both here and on HPC and I am impressed with your prodigious contributory powers on both fora . I must state openly that I work in the housing industry for German prefab mfrs, but that's not why I am posting! Because many of my clients here in Scotland are keen to get as close as they can to carbon neutrality, I have spent a great deal of time researching various local green technologies. Relevant to this forum, I thought you might like to have a look at two small (but growing!) Scottish companies: www.windsave.com www.renewabledevices.com Cheers, SubT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drbubb Posted May 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 I have heard of them, but not looked deeply. The Pre-Fab area is very interesting, as a way of constructing cheaper housing. I hope we can get a good thread going on that subject Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gscottd Posted May 5, 2006 Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 I will be seeing the guys at RenewableDevices tomorrow (the HB&R show at the SECC in Glasgow). There is also a great renewables/green energy show happening at the end of this month in Aberdeen for anyone interested in renewables and able to make the journey: www.all-energy.co.uk Dr. Bubb, I have enjoyed your contributions (as well as those of Sledge) to the HPC formu on prefabs and would be happy to chat more about them here (as impartially as possible) on a dedicated thread. Not necesarily prefab, but also quite interesting for those interested in eco-sustainability, the Green Building press has a forum with some excellent information: http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/forum/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gscottd Posted May 5, 2006 Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 I would be pleased to participate in a thread on Prefabs as they are indeed fascinating both in terms of scope and diversity. I would caution, however, against suggesting that they would be cheaper as in most cases this is not true (unless you are willing to do a good deal of the second-fix work yourself!). What they can provide for the new-builder is a great deal of flexibility, superior quality, fast completion times, maximisation of space, excellent insulation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drbubb Posted May 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2006 ST, Here is the link to the new PreFab thread , maybe we can continue there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gscottd Posted May 6, 2006 Report Share Posted May 6, 2006 Great. Apologies for going off-topic. On-topic, the reason I initially liked the guys at Renewable Devices (and their Swift wind turbine) is that I read (can't find the article now, bummer) that when they were approached with big bucks from the US military who wanted to buy their vibration-dampening technology (the bit that distingusihes their wind turbines from other domestic wind turbines), they gave them the stiff finger, saying that the technology was developed to improve the plight of mankind, not to dampen vibrations in military aircraft for the purposes of espionage and war... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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