Hi Direct approach: improving wind turbine drivetrain reliability.

Hi Direct approach: improving wind turbine drivetrain reliability.

Offshore wind turbines have been plagued by reliability issues that have driven up costs and damaged confidence in the technology. But could a new generation of drivetrain technologies change this?

For nearly a year, people gazing across Scotland’s Firth of Forth have been able to catch sight of an impressive feat of engineering: the world’s most powerful offshore wind turbine. The 7MW monster — the first of its kind — has blade tips that tower 196m above sea level, sweeping an area twice the size of the London Eye.

The majestic structure is part of a bigger plan to make use of the UK’s offshore wind capabilities. The total offshore generating capacity in UK waters provides around eight terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity each year, enough to power around two million homes. Industry estimates suggest that by 2020, offshore wind will supply between eight to 10 per cent of the UK’s electricity annually.

One way to overcome reliability issues is to take the direct-drive route. That is what Alstom has beenm attempting with its 6MW Haliade WTG wind turbine.

The technology is giving the UK a chance to conquer a growing global market. Offshore construction costs are high, but fairly predictable. Without the same size constraints, wind turbines at sea provide economies of scale. They also produce far more energy than their land-based equivalent, with offshore turbines reaching 3–8MW of capacity. These energy gains, however, come at a cost when it comes to maintenance.

A wind turbine’s drivetrain provides the biggest headache for engineers. ‘They are a classic issue in the wind industry,’ said Daniel Castel, offshore platform director at Alstom. ‘Lots of effort has been made to improve the reliability of the gearboxes but the truth is that there are still some issues that prevent the achievement of a lifetime solution. This is especially critical for offshore where the operating expense is so high.’

’Haliade WTG is a direct-drive solution featuring our pure torque layout that allows for sharp control of the loads that go through the power train. 

Daniel Castel, Alstom.

To avoid excessive damage, Ricardo has come up with a solution dubbed MultiLife, which involves rotating the fixed inner components so that wear take place throughout the full circumference of the bearing rather than just on a small section.

Historically, gearboxes have suffered from failures in both the planet bearings and the high-speed shaft bearings. The high-speed shaft bearings, which undergo huge forces, can often be replaced on site, but any planet bearing failure requires removal of the gearbox from the turbine for repair elsewhere. The downtime this creates means that close to 25 per cent of a wind farm’s maintenance costs are linked to gearbox failures.

‘Individual offshore turbines are now pushing well above 5MW capacity, so it is crucial to design and build in the highest standards of reliability from the outset,’ said Paul Jordan, Ricardo’s global head of clean energy and power generation. ‘We need to avoid the risk of high costs of failure and remedial replacement of major components such as gearboxes.’

Jordan’s team has been working on a gearbox and drivetrain design for the Samsung Heavy Industries 7MW offshore wind turbine being tested in Scotland. The mammoth structure is designed to gather energy in some of the world’s roughest oceans. It has a rotor diameter of 171.2m with a hub that stands around 110.6m above sea level. The rotor tip moves at 95m/sec, meaning the drivetrain has to handle torque of 6.9MNm.

‘The most challenging aspect was the six degree of freedom dynamic analysis of the full drivetrain,’ said Jordan. This analysis allowed the team to subject each piece of the gearbox to finite element (FE) analysis testing. ‘It was important for us to consider gravitational and assembly loads as well as those due to operation,’ added Ricardo’s chief engineer for the project, John Stanton.

The team’s simulation revealed wear on the inner bearing concentrated over a small arc of around 40˚. The team came up with a solution — dubbed MultiLife — which involves rotating the fixed inner components so that the wear would take place throughout the full circumference of the bearing. This, the team claims, extends the life of the bearing by up to five times and avoids the bearing damage reaching a critical condition.

But to achieve more gains in reliability, Ricardo claims new innovations are needed. ‘There are limits to the optimisation of drivetrains that can be achieved through intensive simulation,’ said Jordan. ‘However, there are further step-changes that can be achieved through the adoption of advanced technologies that we have developed from our experiences in other, more mature industrial sectors such as off-highway equipment, motorsport and 

road vehicles.’

Ricardo’s TorqLife technology is claimed to improve wind turbine architectures susceptible to damage from loads such as strong gusts or emergency stops.

One way to overcome the reliability issues is to take the direct-drive route. That’s what Alstom has been attempting with its 6MW wind turbine, dubbed Haliade WTG. ‘We do not have any gearbox in the drive train,’ said Castel. ‘It is a direct-drive solution featuring our pure torque layout that allows for sharp control of the loads that go through the power train.’ With no gearbox coupled to the generator, the turbine consists of fewer rotating parts, increasing reliability.

Ricardo has also developed a technology, named TorqLife, which it claims improves wind turbine drivetrain architectures susceptible to non-torque loads transmitted into the gearbox. The same potentially failure-inducing mechanism can also affect the generator for direct-drive architectures. This load can be created under certain operating conditions such as gusts or turbulent wind conditions and fault conditions such as grid loss and emergency stop.

TorqLife uses a dual-function coupling that avoids drivetrain overloads. It is based on an arrangement of hydraulic cylinders between the rotor shaft and gearbox, or direct-drive generator, which are able to isolate non-torque loads. Ricardo claims this innovation offers the prospect of enabling wind turbine drivetrains to survive in the harshest conditions for their full lifetime.

‘What makes our job really rewarding is that our endeavours will help ensure that a much greater proportion of renewable power is delivered to the grid, and at a much lower cost than would otherwise be the case,’ said Jordan. If the UK is to make the most of its offshore wind power potential, then technologies such as this will be vital to ensuring investors’ support for the industry. Addressing concerns over reliability could also help win over those who remain on the fence over renewable’

Hi Product brochure: Land Instruments' coal pile fire monitor — fixed thermal-imaging systems.

Hi Product brochure: Land Instruments' coal pile fire monitor — fixed thermal-imaging systems.

Coal pile fire monitor: fixed thermal-imaging systems brochure;

The storage of coal in large piles carries with it a risk of spontaneous combustion. Increased demand on coal reserves has led to alternative, more volatile, types of coal being used more frequently. There are many industry guidelines for safe storage of coal in piles, including recommendations for pile angles, compression and surface smoothing. Even strict adherence to these guidelines may, in some circumstances, not be enough. An early warning system to prevent the onset of fire remains the best and most reliable solution. In the case of large or remote storage areas, a continuous and fully automated monitoring system is the only option. A coal pile fire monitor located at a suitable viewing point can successfully provide an effective solution to these requirements.

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Hi Future Power Technology Magazine: Clean Energy Edition!.

Hi Future Power Technology Magazine: Clean Energy Edition!. 

April 2012!.

 Click Here Or Any Image To Download The Full Magazine Edition Or View & Save Below;

!!!THANK YOU FOR VIEWING & DOWNLOADING!!!

Hi A Dark Side of Solar Power!!!

Hi A Dark Side of Solar Power!!!

The harshest criticism for fossil fuels has always been the horrible effect they have on the environment. Not only does retrieving the resource (coal, petroleum, natural gas) do irreparable damage to landscapes and ecosystems, but transporting it can be quite dangerous. And once the fuel has been spent, harmful byproducts clog the atmosphere and have far-reaching effects that scientists have only recently begun to quantify.

You know this, and I know this. And I know that you know that we all know this. This isn't going to be a recital of facts we know, ya know? But what about the negative environmental impacts our cultural shift to renewable energies, namely solar power, produce? There is a side to solar (PV) power that's rarely considered and not well understood.

Energy Payback Time (EPBT):

EPBT is the amount of time it takes a solar panel to collect the same value of energy that was expended in the panel's creation. It used to be that panels virtually never recaptured the amount of energy which was needed to create them, but that belief faded in the 1990s as the technology improved.

A significant amount of energy is spent producing, processing, and purifying materials for PV panels, as well as for the manufacture, transportation, and installation of the panel. The mathematical formula (.pdf) for determining the EPBT looks like this:

Rather than break down figures for areas with my limited text space, I'll just spoil the conclusion: the effectiveness of solar panels is severely affected by material efficiency and the location of the panel. In most of the United States, it takes almost two years before the panels begin to reduce emissions. At what latitude do solar panels stop making sense?

Environmental Waste:

Not surprisingly, China has been the leading manufacturer of PV panels worldwide by nearly fourfold. Despite this robust production rate, they're only second in PV power production (18,400 mW compared to Germany's 36k mW). What gives?

Frankly, China doesn't care about its environment and has little oversight on how companies dispose of industrial waste. And in consideration of the profit the industry is making, what regulations do exist are overlooked. U.S.-based PV panel manufacturers have a hard time disposing of toxic materials used in the production process. Chinese companies don't have the same difficulty, choosing to bury chemicals or flush them in public waterways. The result is a panel which was cheaper to produce and ship abroad.

Really, we're just burying the problem someplace else, hoping that a super-solution from future geniuses materializes in the meantime.

Wildlife Impacts:

The Ivanpah solar plant in utilizes 174,000 heliostats to reflect sunlight onto a centralized solar tower. The tower collects the sunlight, transfers it to heat, and boils water to begin the electricity production process. The plant is located in the Mojave Desert, away from population centers.

Human population centers, at least. While the imagery of a desert solar plant probably conjures images of dust and tumbleweeds, the area where the plant lives is much more lush than you might expect. When the plant was first announced, it incited considerable backlash because it was building on habitat that belonged to the endangered desert tortoise. The plant's construction was ultimately changed to help curtail its effects.

Now that the plant is up and running, an unforeseen consequence has occurred: an excessive number of bird deaths. Birds are lured to the area by insects or migration patterns, but once in the vicinity of the plant they're almost assured a hellish death. Estimates of up to 28,000 bird deaths a year have been attributed to the concentrated solar arrays, which blind and even ignite birds midflight. Officials are considering how to proceed with a megawatt and mega-money facility that may drive the extinction of entire species on its own.

The point isn't that solar power is harming our environment. Without a doubt, nearly any energy harvest strategy will conclude with negative environmental effects. But it shows that a long, long road of development must be traveled before our technology creates the sustainable utopia we envision. For now, we should probably maximize the efficiencies of the energy sources we have.

Hi' Ah-ram Online Reader: Renewable energy is Egypt's raft out of crisis: Experts.

Hi' Ah-ram Online Reader: Renewable energy is Egypt's raft out of crisis: Experts.

Power-generating windmill turbines of The Zafarana project, Egypt (Photo: Al-ah-ram).

"The solutions are known, but the will to implement them is absent, say energy experts discussing Egypt's energy crisis";

Scarcity of financial resources and the lack of a solid plan are the main reasons behind the perpetuation of Egypt's energy crisis, according to experts who attended the Cairo Energy Conference.

"The energy problem is well known. Its solutions are also well known, but there is no will to solve it," says Mohamed Shoeb, former president of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company.

Shoeb and other experts, some of which are former officials, believe an advance can be achieved if the government thinks out of the box.

Many believe solar energy is a viable option for Egypt. "Some countries, like Germany, have a plan to generate all their electricity needs from renewable energy by 2050, and so should we," says Gala Othman, president of the Association of Wind Energy.

"Solar energy is no longer expensive. The cost of it has decreased by almost 90 percent during the last 10 years," says Shoeb.

Many experts say smart electricity meters that can reduce consumption in peak hours can help reduce electricity cuts. Instead of cutting off power, the government can reduce the consumption of households who have several air conditioners or power-hungry electrical devices in operation in peak hours.

Experts add that energy saving LED lightbulbs can reduce power consumption by 20 percent and would cost less to widely distribute than fuel imports.

"There are several ideas that can be studied and implemented, but we have been very slow," says Mohamed Moussa Omran, undersecretary of the Ministry of Electricity.

"We were the first in the region to start using solar energy, but were left behind. Countries like Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are introducing smart meters," he said.

"Transparency is missing, and that is a problem that needs to be solved. The government thinks the people are not capable of understanding the problem," says Shoeb.

Different parts of the government do not speak frankly to each other about the issue, he adds. 

"The discourse inside a governmental administration would most probably change if they interact with another one in a different ministry," he said.

Differences between the Ministry of Electricity and the Ministry of Petroleum over the issue have led to an exchange of accusations between previous ministers.

In a speech Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said that the production and distribution of electricity were not developed to catch up with consumption.

He estimated that Egypt needs 2,500 Megawatts annually for the upcoming five years to meet rising demand, at a cost of $2.5 billion a year.

In addition to funds needed to build power stations, El-Sisi said that fuel needs would amount to $700 million per station per year.

He invited private investors to develop power stations as well as the power grid.

Power cuts have become frequent since August 2008, but were generally confined to summer months when air conditioning use increases the demand for power. In winter 2012/13, blackouts became common.

Close to 80 percent of Egypt's electricity is generated by natural gas, the production of which has lagged behind in recent years as political unrest and mounting government debts have discouraged foreign energy firms from developing new gas fields.

Hi Energy! Wind Power in Canada series, focusing on the O&M of wind turbine blades, gearboxes and generators!.

Hi Energy! Wind Power in Canada series, focusing on the O&M of wind turbine blades, gearboxes and generators!.

Alternatively Click Link Here Or Flag Above To Download Document Above.

Hi Financial Incentives For Green Retrofits.!

Hi Financial Incentives For Green Retrofits.!

"Did you know a green roof not only helps you cut your facility’s cooling bills in the summer but it can also help you reduce your heating bills in the winter."

In fact, a green roof  can help you reduce your cooling bill by up to 75% compared to conventional roofing, and it can help you save between 5.63% and 5.95% – up to 61% for upper floors – on your heating costs.

A green roof is a “living roof.” It’s either fully or partially covered with vegetation and a growing medium, and it has a waterproofing membrane. 

Additionally it may contain drainage and irrigation systems.

Green roofs can be installed on a range of commercial buildings. 

Thanks to some new financial incentives, green roofs may become increasingly affordable for more facilities.

Building.com

Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School turned its original rooftop (left) into a green roof (right) with help from a DEP grant.
PHOTO CREDIT: DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION.

" Green roofs serve several purposes, but first and foremost they offer shade and remove heat from the air through evapotranspiration – the movement of water to the atmosphere from places like the soil or vegetation. This reduces the temperature of the surface of the roof as well as of the surrounding air."

The "EPA" says these are the benefits of a green roof:

1. Reduces energy usage: Because green roofs absorb heat and insulate buildings, they reduce the energy needed for heating and cooling.
2. Reduces pollution and greenhouse gas emissions: When air conditioning demand is lessened, so is the production of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
3. Improves occupant health and comfort: Green roofs reduce heat transfer, lowering the heat stress usually experienced during heat waves and improving indoor comfort.
4. Better stormwater management and water quality: Greens roofs slow stormwater runoff and filter rain water pollutants.
5. Quality of life: Green roofs provide habitats for many species.

Download EPA .PDF Document.

Green Roofs Chapter (PDF) (29 pp, 4.2MB) from EPA’s Reducing Urban Heat Islands: Compendium of Strategies.

One example of a green roof financial incentive program is the Green Infrastructure Grants from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). 

The grants can cover the startup costs for commercial building owners to retrofit their facilities with green roofs.

Two projects serve as examples of what’s possible with the grant funding.

Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, a Catholic high school in Brooklyn, installed 13,300 square feet of vegetated mats on its building after receiving a $235,700 Green Infrastructure Grant. About 90% of the roof is covered in green material that will help the building handle the expected 435,000 gallons of stormwater that falls on the school’s roof every year.

The South Bronx nonprofit Osborne Association installed a green rooftop system to absorb rainwater and improve air quality. The system is expected to reduce runoff by 32% during a typical storm. The NYC DEP contributed $288,000 to the project via a Green Infrastructure Grant.

The upfront costs of a green roof retrofit are higher when compared to the installation of conventional materials, but facility owners can offset the costs over time through the savings achieved by using less energy and saving stormwater management costs.

Read more about..., "NYC’s Green Infrastructure Grant Program."

Consult your local government office for more information on what incentives may be available to facilities that invest in green roof retrofits.

NYC Green Infrastructure Video.

Hi Noise Reduction Innovation For Power Stations

Hi Aerodynamic noise control innovation technology;

New technology deployed at the largest US biomass power plant prevents creation of noise from fans while reducing power consumption.

The solution developed by the Industrial Noise and Vibration Center (INVC) from Berkshire, UK, relies on active noise reduction instead of suppressing the noise by silencers and acoustic enclosures.

“We have developed a way to prevent the noise being generated in the first place instead by designing aerodynamic inserts that fit inside the fan casing. You can think of these as akin to the aerodynamic features used on Formula 1 cars to control airflow,” said Peter Wilson, the INVC technical director.

The technology was installed at the 50 MW Schiller biomass power plant in New Hampshire - the largest biomass power plant in the US. The site had had problems due to the noise produced by the station’s ID fan. The installation itself only required 12 hours. According to a technical review evaluating the solution, not only noise reduction has been achieved but the plant  has also been consuming considerably less energy.

"We recorded a 10dB drop in noise, which is huge. We also recorded a reduction in the power used by the ID fan after Quiet Fan technology had been installed." said Jim Granger, the Senior Engineer at Schiller.

Conventional silencing technology to suppress the drone of large ID fans is rather costly and increases down-time of the installation. According to the evaluation data, the Quit Fan technology managed to achieve similar level of noise reduction costing about 80 per cent less.

How does the fan noise attenuating technology work?

A similar approach to that of the way that Formula 1 teams invest in the design of aerodynamic aids to control the airflow round their cars. As fan noise is the sum of the turbulence generated pressure fluctuations in the air shed by the blades, we have developed a range of aerodynamic inserts that are fitted inside the fan casing to smooth the flow. This reduces the pressure fluctuations – and hence the noise – at source without introducing the back-pressure often associated with silencers. This not only reduces the noise travelling down the intake and exhaust duct-work  but also that passing through the fan casing which may not only eliminate the need for silencers, but also the need for acoustic enclosures.

HVAC – Chiller – Condenser – Cooling Tower Noise Reduction:

Innovative new techniques developed to control the noise from HVAC and chiller / condenser systems without compromising efficiency. These typically provide around 10dB of additional attenuation compared with conventional noise reduction packages and silencers – and at a fraction of the cost.

Visit INVC Website for further information and to view case studies on noise reduction innovations.